Show f k democratic veino cratic leaders fear surplus property scandals by news analyst and service 1616 eye street NW NAV IV washington a sh ington D 0 washington D C there Is a an n old political axiom attributed to various national figures ot of the past which runs something like this never argue g u e a about b 0 u t charges of the opposition party eith either er admit them frankly and fully or deny them with every tissue ot of your oratory mistakes of the ins are the Bauk liage c hief chief gr grist st ot of the mill tor for the outs in an election year there Is a small but very earnest body of democrats in was washington hington today which believes that unless certain mistakes of the administration are freely and frankly admitted and given give n a thorough airing they will come back to haunt the democrats even unto the third and fourth generation these mistakes they say are the ones which have been made by th the war assets administration there I 1 Is a segment of the administration i on the other hand including so some me of the white house chief counsellors coun who dont approve of this theory they think that the best thing to do Is to get rid of the surplus property as quickly as possible and forget oil all about the whole mess but the whole mess is not going to be forgotten in fact it is quite safe to predict some riotous headlines shortly after election which will make the rather limited revelations of the mead committee on war contracts look like very pale and limpid prose the headlines are likely to concern that matter which already has emitted some rather noxious odors but which when exhumed will 11 cau cause e a still stron stronger ger stench in the public 1 c nostrils this Is the disposal of sur 0 ar Seri senator alor murray plus steel equipment and facilities connected with the geneva plant in via utah h a layout that cost the government some million dollars it was sold to the united states steel corporation for to in may of this year over the bid of the colorado fuel and iron corporation the dominant figure in manufacturing fac turing and distribution of steel products west of the congressman chenoweth of colorado questioned this WAA disposal the small business committee und under er the chairmanship of senator murray has made a long and careful study of 0 the distribution of some plants and facilities to date it intends to have a report on this subject early in november the committee likewise intends to air the assembled material and other testimony in hearings thereafter with emphasis on certain industries steel for instance because of its anany ramifications the chemical industry for similar reasons and the makers of farm tools and other implements because of the crying need for such commodities s and rid the many veteran users interested members of the small business committee believe that the pattern of the distribution so tar far has been haphazard and not in accordance with that provision of the law which plainly states that war material may not be sold to buyers in a manner that will encourage mo monopoly but tuat that instead will stimulate tree free competition members believe that the faults ol of the past must be studied carefully in order negatively to prevent further encouragement of monopoly and positively to establish a pattern which will stand as a s a standard ol of operations for or the future f u disposal of aluminum plants planta sets pattern they point out the distribution of facilities for or the manufacture of the light metals especially 1 alami I i num it was feared that the aluminum company of america might i benefit to the exclusion of competition or potential competition but 1 as a result of the co operation cooperation of stuart symington when he was sur plus property administrator there are now three lusty competitors in i I 1 the field all apparently having benefited from rom a fair distribution of the war enterprises made available to them on equal terms however other pharaohs Phara came to egypt haste and other incentives are said to have destroyed the pattern present WAA officials deny this but the small business corn com mitte emen expect to prove their charges in open court the first step which the small B business us iness boys would like to see taken is the appointment of an administrator on whom they agree they feel the official should be a civilian rather than an army man the incumbent at this writing ma maj gen robert littlejohn Is said to have expressed the desire to be relieved of WAA responsibilities but no successor has been indicated the next step desired after the hearings is a thorough reorganization of methods and it necessary an overhauling of the whole setup set up of the agency this proponents of the idea claim will not only be in the good of the veteran the business man and the national economy but in the good of the party as well smart politicos bollt acos outsmart themselves when senator la follette raised a memorial to his senatorial career in the form of one of the most progressive gres sive pieces of legislation affecting the internal affairs of the con gr giess ess the reorganization act something it ng 0 occurred which the liberal iberal eting I 1 ng of f the democratic party realize was being done and which has caused them no liitle little concern ever since its practical application dawned upon them what happened was not senator la Fol lettes fault but the result of that ancient evil seniority which the original reorganization measure would have eliminated congress accept that r radical departure and seniority still operates under this procedure a senator automatically mati cally becomes chairman of 0 f any committee to which he is app appointed oln t ed if he has been a member of the senate longer than any other member of the majority party on the committee this system has long been recognized as an evil just having been around longer than anybody else is frequently less than a recommendation unfortunately there are too many cases where a stuffed shirt and an empty head although they can win votes from a constituency provide a contribution trib ution which contributes less than nothing to the highly I important por function of running a committee and chairmen have become even more important now that there are fewer of them administration democrats might have acted otherwise had they realized what they were doing because of the seniority rule only two northern democrats W will ill retain their chairmanships when the new and modernized congress organizes next january they are walsh of massachusetts and wagner of new york provided ot of course they are reelected elected re and the democrats hold their place as majority party the rest of the chairmanships go to the south and since some southern senators persist in voting against the more liberal measures of the administration and joining with the republicans on others just to show their independence it leaves the liberal democrats in n a somewhat precarious position there is another factor which sit too well with a number of northern democrats either under the new setup set up the chairman of a committee will be more influential than ever for he now is provided with a large and efficient staff the work of his committee will be ba more important than formerly because committee work wont be spread as thin as it was since the circle of chairmen Is more exclusive and since a members perquisites and contacts will be greatly increased a chairmanship Is a juicier plum than th a n ever |