Show no no A no TO U L L washington to have a clear un ferstanding der standing of the discussion that is to follow I 1 think I 1 the TI I 1 he IVA TVA must first find a controversy definition of the t h e word con costuma turna cy it ought to be properly and officially defined because it is going to be a very important word in this country so I 1 read from the die dic here on my desk the follow ing definition CONTUMACY contemptuous dis regard of authority insolent dis regard of authority incorrigible ob next it should be set down that there are rather there were two men with the surname of morgan as officials of the tennessee valley authority before president roose velt removed one of them from of fice for contumacy the fact that there were two morgans must be remembered because each one fig ures prominently in a continuing controversy and for the reason that neither one of the morgans is con necked with the house of morgan I 1 to which so many demagogues refer when they talk about economic roy alises in the third place we should know something about david E lilien thai thal who like the two morgans also was a director of the TVA mr lilienthal continues to be a director as does harcourt morgan the mor gan who no longer has official con lection with TVA according to president roosevelt is dr arthur E morgan founder of the famous antioch college at yellow springs ohio arthur morgan was removed as chairman of the TVA because the president said he was guilty of contumacy and harcourt mor gan was made chairman the removal took place by execl tive order after mr roosevelt had personally held three hearings for the purpose he said of determining who was wrong in an old fashioned cat and dog fight that has been go ing for months among the three di rectors of TVA arthur morgan had made accusations against the other two directors charges of a libelous nature charges of dishonesty in short charges that the other two directors were guilty of enough things to cause their removal from office arthur morgan had openly urged a congressional investigation of the TVA as well and when mr roosevelt made his own in tion and arthur morgan refused to offer one iota of evidence to sup port his previous charges he was guilty of contumacy and the chief executive removed or just plain fired him and so we come to another phase in urging a congressional investigation arthur morgan fol lowed what he thought was the prop er course he held that the TVA was a creature of congress which placed in its law its legal charter that none of the directors could be removed unless on charges that they had bad played political favorites in TVA appointments he thought that the white house investigation was a means of checking a congressional investigation which had been so vig porously opposed by senator norris of nebraska father of the TVA and roosevelt supporter that is to say chairman morgan didn dian t believe president roosevelt had any author ity to call in the three directors and there in the presence of all compel the chairman to subs tanti ate his charges so he stood pat but mr roosevelt believed he did have authority and he used it he removed arthur morgan and pro harcourt morgan to the TVA chairmanship well there had been a lot of hemming and hawing around the senate over the general TVA in vesti gation proposed by the fighting young styles bridges of new hamp shire who was joined in the battle by sen william H king of utah senator norris succeeded in stalling the investigation for quite awhile but after the white house in tion which senator bridges con referred to as a comic opera trial things began to happen in the house of representatives as well as in the senate and so now there is scheduled an investigation in which house and senate will join an inquiry that will go into every phase of TVA to see what makes it tick there can be no doubt at all that instead of satisfying the country especially congress as to the merits of the TVA row the white house investigation had the effect of bring ing about a far reaching in tion in congress many bitter words have been uttered about the white house course in firing arthur mor gan observations that mr roose velt had railroaded the chairman out of the TVA job ob assertions that it constituted an american version of the famed french dreyfus case assertions that contumacy is a crime only where dictators op erate etc try as they may now the public ownership advocates so cia lists and others who believe in the state owning everything are due to have the varnish removed from TVA the country at last is going to have a look at the real wood they will get some facts that hither to have been concealed or hushed up that is these things will come out for an airing unless the dennial lash whips enough commit beemen into line to develop a white wash a a aside from the tragedy of having arthur morgan s name smeared the TVA row and good for the white house the country investigation ably will be good for the country anybody who knows arthur morgan s record must agree that it is one of which any man could be proud it is too bad there fore that he has to be the goat in the case but I 1 repeat that the af fair will result in considerable good if the whole TVA record can be brought into the open and the go ings on of public ownership advocates can be exposed for once in as TVA is concerned there is however something much more significant much deep er in this situation than just justice or injustice to one man in this I 1 refer to the use of authority by the president to make an independent official do the bidding of the chief executive it is a case comparable in many respects to the removal of the late william E humphreys as a member of the federal tr trade ade corn com mission that was done president roosevelt said at the time because mr humphreys failed to see eye to eye with the chief executive it is to be remembered too that the supreme court of the united states held unanimously that mr roose velt did not have the power to re move mr humphreys thus there is again a legal question whether the president had the power al though homer S cummings the at torney general advised mr roose velt that such power was vested in him as president undoubtedly arthur morgan will try out the mat ter in court the disturbing thing is however that it president roosevelt has that much authority now how much more authority will he have to do that sort of thing and many many others if given authority to beor the government agencies as he sought in the original govern ment reorganization bill of course much of his demanded authority has been shorn from the bill but I 1 be lieve there is ground for alarm at what remains whether mr roose velt continues to be president in definitely or whether some other man is president I 1 think congress has no right to give away such power but to get back to the case of arthur morgan and his costuma cy the meaning of the word is clear arthur morgan according to people who know him hirn intimately was trying to do the best job he knew how to do he read the law one way the president read it an other I 1 see no legitimate reason for removal of the man on the grounds of contumacy that is no crime discipline mr morgan yes if the president wanted to do so suspend him until the facts have been brought to light by a congles dional inquiry a mode of procedure which congress reserved to itself but removal seems to be rather foolish and the action certainly has reacted adversely to the president among his own partisans a the white house inquiry failed to adduce any story about the opera eions of I 1 harcourt blames morgan and mr r liar lilienthal lilienthal I 1 hear in many quarters that mr lilienthal is the man who really started the trouble in the be ginning he is the same man who was connected with the wisconsin utilities commission and wrote an order directing a reduction in tele phone rates before holding a hear ing to give interested parties a chance to have their day in court if current reports be true mr lili anthal actually signed the order re rates several days before the so called public hearing was held the court called his action arbitrary and delivered itself of quite a tongue lashing about such unwarranted and despotic action that opinion was rendered late in february whether mr lilienthal has been guilty of the same kind of despotism in TVA I 1 have no means of knowing but this much surely can be said if he attempted any thing of the kind arthur morgan would be the first to object mr lilienthal s operations in TVA as far as they are visible from washington have the appearance and the results naturally to be ex pecked of an extremist arthur mor gan is self willed too but the rec of the two men as far as they are known publicly assuredly shows him to understand human nature mr roosevelt having elected to fire mr morgan for contumacy and thereby having placed himself on the side of mr lil anthal cov must face the 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