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Show i Bruckart's W ashlngton Digest ' U. S. Bureaus Subject to Cheek Under Logan-Walter Legislation Passed by House, Bill Would Allow Courts to Review Decisions and Findings of Nation's 'Little Dictators.' I validity of political acts of the administration." ad-ministration." The quotation struck me as being especially important to this discussion discus-sion because of remarks made on the floor of the house, during the debate of the Logan-Walter bill, by Hatton W. Sumners, the Texas Democrat. Dem-ocrat. Judge Sumners is chairman of the important committee on the judiciary. In the course of his support sup-port of the bill, Judge Sumners said: "Operating the machinery of government gov-ernment are nearly a million people. Of that million, there is only one who has been elected by the people, and that is the President. The President Presi-dent cannot know who these million mil-lion people are. He cannot know what they are doing with the gov- I By WILLIAM BRL'CKART WXU Service, National Press BIdg., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON. I sat in the gallery gal-lery of the house of representatives one afternoon recently. There was as much confusion as ever on the floor of the house. Members were engaged in debate, and there was a great hubbub. Finally, the voice of the speaker of the house came clearly clear-ly through the loud speaker system. It said: "The question is, shall the bill pass?" There was more commotion, com-motion, but above the din someone was heard to say: "I demand the yeas and nays." A roll call was ordered. It brought 279 yeas and 97 I nays. So the bill was passed by the house. In relating those details, I merely wanted to set the stage to tell the story of a most important vote and the passage of a most important bill in the house of representatives. The bill bears the number of H. R. 6324. I doubt that many of the several AS" ' f H mousand gallery occupants that afternoon aft-ernoon recognized the importance of the scene then taking place. For on that occasion, the house was taking tak-ing a long step toward restoration of democratic processes in government. govern-ment. The bill under consideration and which was passed that day had come to be known as the Logan-Walter bill. As briefly as may be, we can describe it as a bill to allow the courts to examine the decisions, determinations, de-terminations, rulings or opinions of men and women in places of official offi-cial responsibility from whom hitherto hith-erto there has been no appeal. Moreover, More-over, the bill would allow private citizens the right of appeal for consideration con-sideration of the facts, as well as the law, involved in any matter that had come to any one of these hundreds hun-dreds of little dictators otherwise known as bureaucrats in the course of their administrative job. Ideals of Woodrow Wilson Contained in This Legislation In short, I must recall the famous statement of the late President Woodrow Wilson respecting some phases of government administration administra-tion when he said "The individual . . . should find justice against the : government, itself." It is applicable 1 HATTON W. SUMNERS "The private citizen . . . has no power to resist.' I ernmental powers entrusted to them. They make the rules that have the force of law; they construe con-strue the rules; they enforce the rules. "When one of these people goes to an ordinary private citizen, he goes possessed of all the powers that a king ever had. This private citizen citi-zen may be 2,000 miles away from Washington. He has no power to resist, practically speaking, the mandate of an agent of these bu- to what H. R. 6324 is designed to do enable the private citizens to protect pro-tect themselves by seeking redress in the courts if they believe they have been wronged by some agency of the federal government which has acted as prosecutor, judge and jury. As the number of federal agencies have grown up bureaus, boards, commissions, a veritable alphabet soup in recent years the abuses sought to be reached by the Logan-Walter Logan-Walter bill have multiplied many fold. Now, the reason that I called attention at-tention to the scene in the house and the vote favoring the bill was because I have seldom seen so many government lobbyists scurrying around the Capitol. I believe the days when President Roosevelt was attempting to pack the Supreme court with six additional judges was the only period in the last few years when more government bureaucrats were to be found around the halls of the Capitol building. Why? It is clear that the bulk of those men did not want the bill to pass for the simple reason that it reaus. We have got to make it possible pos-sible for a citizen to resort to the only place under Anglo-Saxon systems sys-tems of government that an aggrieved ag-grieved person can come to, and that is the courts." Judge Sumners' Statement Outlines General Situation Judge Sumners put his finger on the spot He told exactly what the situation is. But the judge did not go quite far enough, in my opinion. When it was popular to pass "must" bills that were drawn by braintrust-ers, braintrust-ers, professors and theorists, a few years ago, congress passed those bills. Congress added to, expanded and exaggerated the powers of the bureaucrats. It has created such things as the National Labor Rela- ' tions board, the Federal Trade commission, com-mission, the Agricultural Adjustment Adjust-ment administration, the wage-hour division of the department of labor the Securities and Exchange coml mission and scores of others. Indeed, In-deed, it willingly handed over to all manner of persons the powers to do the very things that Judge Sum- -- uut hiiouia never be done under democratic processes. I wish there were more space available that I could give samples of how some of these agencies have used the powers given them by a formerly subservient congress They can be summarized only in this space by showing that, for example a citizen is accused of having failed to comply with a certain regulation which is just like a law. The bu reau or board having charge of administering ad-ministering that law calls the citizen citi-zen to account. The federal investigator investi-gator inquires into the situation, makes a report of the "facts" as he sees them. The board may or may not accept those "facts." If it ae cepts them, as it usually does it makes them its own findings. Under many present laws, no court can review those facts 1 th.nheCT tte casets whether the board has applied the law properly prop-erly or not. But the finding of "facts" must remain forever ta They are accepted as true, regard less of how crooked, how stupfd or how wreaking with injustice they may be. The bill passed by the moV ct'he CUrtS - away some oi tneir power. Under Un-der its terms, they can make their unwise or biased rulings to their heart's content, but the citizen who gets it in the neck can turn to the courts for justice. That is, the citizen citi-zen can turn to the courts if the senate approves the bilL Nation's 'Little Dictators' Dislike Tone of Bill The house vote of 279 to 97 is not to be taken lightly. The house actually ac-tually voted its convictions. It broke away from the sneers and the threats and personal pressure even over the stated objection of President Presi-dent Roosevelt and it passed a bill that was as distasteful as quinine to the hundred little dictators. If amendments are needed, if changes will improve it, they ought to be made, but the public as a whole ought to push the senate into action before adjournment After the house action on the bill the political columnist, Mark Sullivan, Sulli-van, printed a decision by a court in Germany. It read, in part: 'Today's constitution is dominated dominat-ed by the principle of political leadership. lead-ership. The courts have, therefore no right to decide upon the legai bir S6nate wiU Pass the bill is, as I have said, a matter of ome conjecture. The senate ough to pass ,t There probably is need or some amendments. The bill is far from perfect It has some grea gaping holes in it. But the prSe ne of great importance Ta, persons who believe that the court were established to insure jusUc nacfed3 T 00 to b LOGAN-WALTER BILL I Passed recently by the house of representatives and pending before be-fore the senate, the Logan-Walter bill, which allows the courts to examine the decisions of various governmental bureaus, is vital legislation, according to William Bruckart If the bill is passed by the senate and signed by the President agencies like the National Na-tional Labor Relations board will have their findings subject to review re-view by regular U. S. courts |