| Show 0 0 mh pW wi ax washington overshadowing all ew else in the national capital at this pritim writing Is the contro need curb versy that la is boiling on inquiries 1 and I surging around the lend head of ala bemas democratic senator clack black who la is the chairman of the senates lobby investigating committee As nn an oft off of tills this controversy the federal communications commission Is in water much too hot for bathing and it begins to appear that when the steam blows oft off the communications commission Is likely to be a thoroughly discredited federal agency because of the part it played in senator D blacks la clis unprecedented seizure of private telegrams from the western union and postal telegraph aph companies speaking generally it has been seldom that a united states senator lias has ever attempted to assert the authority that senator mack black ins has used and it Is equally unprecedented that a federal agency has gone to the extremes that characterized the action of the communications commission in connection with tile the seizure of tile the messa messages e D cut ut some good may come from the police court prosecution tactics employed by senator r clack lack and some good may come from the accusations leveled at the communications commission because that body helped senator clack black carry out his plans the countrywide country wide andl indignation tia tion that has arisen from senator blacks usurpation of power has brought to the front a qu question estion that needs public attention and needs deeds it badly I 1 refer in tills this connection to the steadily expanding efforts of cong congressional res dional investigators especially senatorial investigators to take over as their own powers that always have been regarded as reserved exclusively to the courts the consensus among washington observers certainly Is that the legislative inquiries have developed to a point where the most humble requirements of justice have been and are being completely ignored whether they are so intended these inquiries and this includes Invest investigations ig a conducted by committees not only of congress but of state le legislators isla and even city councils are approaching pro aching the point where they are almost tyrannical it goes without saving then that the time has arrived for citizens ans to assert themselves these inquiries will not proceed when the elected legislators state or riat national ionnI learn that the people do not approve of such highhanded tactics in order to have an understanding of the latest of these escapades it Is necessary to review blacks black s briefly n what hat has hap activities bened in tile the case of the senate lobby investigating vesti gating tiD committee almost a year ago the committee sought bought the aid of the federal communications commission which had the color of authority in law for investigating the business of the telegraph companies senator black issued a broad subpoena directing the telegraph compan companies les to make available any and all ines messages sages ills his committee desired communications commission a agents eats then went into the telegraph company files read everything thin they could find and made copies of all of the messages which those agents under gul guidance dance of black investigators vesti gators thought would be helpful to the black committee in exposing operations of private individuals the purpose of tills this as outlined by senator black was to locate clues to the machinations of business interests who were seeking passage or defeat for legislation pending in congress the alabama senator wanted coshow to show UP cp hobbyists lobbyists ile he contended and has consistently that these malefactors of great wealth could not accomplish any influence in congress unless it were done secretly and in the dark in ID other words senator black persuaded members of the communications commission to help him in his fishing expedition ile he persuaded that organization that it should become a party to nn an unprecedented effort designed as a dragnet a movement to smear anybody and everybody who had used telegraphic service the black plan was carried out in secret senders and receivers of ines mages agea which those fl agents ants copied knew nothing thIng about it the operation was just as much in the dark as any of the lobbying about which senator black complained even more so it was wag only by accident that tile the facts facia became knain hut but when th they e y d did I 1 d become known tile the lid ild was promptly blown off the end Is not yet nor Is it even in eight one fell erill jud judge e hns has issued a restraining order against buell tactics and a halt dozen other applications for similar orders are pending un doubled ly the questions lons wh whatever ateer the rulings ruling ii ciny be will find their way wai eventually to tile the supreme court ol of the united stales the senate imbi lf Is looking into the th situation it hns has by resolution asker asked the federal fedt ral communications slon to make a report suiting slating tile the facts and by what authority it acted so there Is much hubbub about the th whole tiling thing and it if one may judge front frons the line of conversation generally heard beard around washington senator black Is on the hot spot and the spot thus far lias hils shown no indications of entering a cooling san stage ge senate investigations long have been considered by many people as a modus operandi operand that creal creah charge with unfairness un unfairness biased observers frequently have criticized them because of the methods em aloyed it seems absolutely necess necessary nry that the senate sh should have lieve power to call 11 witnesses it nesses to ask legitimate and proper questions and to forea fore answers if it Is going to enact legislation to correct ells eils it must be equipped with such powers rut but the point la Is that in seeking such information tile the senate has consistently permitted its committees to act in a fashion that can be described by no other word than outrageous I 1 hilve have watched them over a period of nearly twenty soars and seldom if ever has there been nil an important invest investigation ign don that did not degenerate sooner or later into a condition that savored of pollee police court practices respectable citizens have been sub have gone before the commit tees becs willing to tell their complete story anxious to operate cooperate co and have round found themselves treated as outlaws and criminals this situation has be come so prevalent in senate Invest investigations ign that when any citizen Is sub to appear before a senate investigation vesti gation these days his neighbors and friends begin to ask each other what crookedness Is involved in other words the psychology of the senate investigation vesti gation gatlon as it lias has developed through the last fifteen or twenty years has become one that reverses the constitutional right of an individual that lie Is innocent until he be Is proved guilty for several years there has bas been a bill pending in congress designed t to prevent or at least reduce lynch ings the theory back of it Is that ninny many times innocent persons have bare been lynched and that every one has a right to a it bilal in by jury in a properly conti buted court over across the atlantic ocean dictators have operated and have employed the blood pur purge ge the summary death sentence or the execution without granting the accused the rl right of defense undoubtedly some persons guilty of murder or rape have been lynched undoubtedly the blood purge by the nazi rulers des destroyed troed some bad characters and undoubtedly the summary executions by the soviet or the fascists of italy have provided death for individuals who were festering sores to humanity but there CID call be no doubt that in the case of the th or in the case of the blood purge or the summary executions many innocent persons have had theli lives snuffed out so it Is with senate investigations undoubtedly they have uncovered dirty crooked dealings undoubted they have brou brought lit to public lot activities and conditions that ought tc it have been exposed yet the fact re mains that hearty bearly all of our people art arc decent people law abiding and self respecting and when senate investigations go beyond proper limits thea the approach if they do not wholly be come tryanna tr yanny in defense of senator tor clacks blacks action in the lobby investigation I 1 think ii 11 can fairly be said not wholly that lie he is not holla to blame to blame if I 1 he has gone further that any other in the program of inquiry and prosecution upon which he launched little by little bit by hit bit the senate has arrogated to itself nil dhority hitherto not used by it little by little it has encroached upon what many bellee believe to be tile the jurisdiction ni n the courts and in a lahe manner it hin has taken unto itself powers hitherto sup suf posed to have been hely r re served to the executive department ol 01 government it would seem then that if other senate committees lind had established UK tile precedent senator black could p rop prop erly use the same mel hoda the iron ble in his case Is that he did tint not stor sio at limits previously set as those limits were but went beye beyond brid them to repeat there Is every indication that some good will comp come out of tills hit circumstance important wen men and bril ilant lawyers lawers and nd great org animations like the Clin Cli amler niber of orm nerce of jhc thc united states the national of manufacturers und and the american 11 liberty herty league have taken note or of alj steadily expanding power claimed by bj the senate this means that file lie cups eions involved will get into the courts it Is to be hoped that they will lie hf ti presented resented to the lie courts in such a trall man tier ner that the questions WAY may be and lastingly till sered that tile powers of tile the legislators way luay be delimited und and that a dennite expression may inay come from the judiciary that will de cle termine whether members of the housa and tile the senate can call serve at once us legislators judges arid and prosecutor 0 western balo |
