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Show i Bruckart's Washington Digest Advocates of Public Ownership ; Make Real Bid for Their Plaij Croup of Government Officials ami Oilier Interest Jd Individuals Mix 'Movement' Into National Affairs and Polities. Dy WILLIAM CRUCKAKT U'.NU Service, National Press Bltlg., Washington, U. C. WASHINGTON. Behind the thick veil of official secrecy, a thoroughly-active thoroughly-active group of individuals is developing de-veloping a broad plan of public ownership. own-ership. It is using the established machinery of government and it is mixing into national politics to an amazing extent. We, here in Washington, have heard recurring and increasing rumors ru-mors of late that a new public ownership own-ership drive was contemplated by I the extreme radicals nesting in the New Deal henhouse. It was a situation, situ-ation, however, where few details were obtainable. The leaders were making use of the veil of official secrecy that always is available for use by those supposed to be servants of the public. Suddenly, however, the magnitude of the movement became be-came discernible. Its scope is astounding. It strikes me that it is a situation that contains elements of greater danger than did the in-famous1 in-famous1 plan to pack the Supreme court of the United States. Exposure of the group's intense effort came largely through stupidity stupid-ity of some of its members. Proof of the underlying motives came in the form of a sudden and slimy attack at-tack on John W. Hanes, former ! ' I I I - ' - ' 1 Vn r I a r 1 i : they did succeed in getting the gravy of trustee fees for rhen of their own choosing Thorp, Driscoll and Pollak. Dr. Thorp'si beliefs were so contrary to sound views that only a few years ago the senate refused to confirm his nomination as assistant secretary of , -commerce. Mr. Driscoll's affiliations in Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania show how -he has been linked consistently with nearly every wild-oytd proposal that had New Deal ownership. He was licked foi re-election to congress a term or two ago and became a lame duck appointee to the Pennsylvania commission by the then Governor George H. Earle. So, while it is accepted that the gravy is important, impor-tant, it was much more important that the trustees should think right, according to radical lights. J Third Term for President Was in Political Strategy Such is the picture of 'how the public ownership crowd operates. That picture fails, however, to disclose dis-close what is going on beneath the surface. Here is that story: The strategy to be used, politically, political-ly, contemplates that support of the payrollers, who seek to nominate President Roosevelt for a third term, shall be had for the public ownership theories in return for support of the third term program. A good political horsetrade. It is good because the public ownership segment figures that an apparent national political party endorsement will be available, or folks will be induced to believe there is such an endorsement. My information is that the public ownership crowd is counting on a repetition of conditions condi-tions in 1932, when, it will be recalled, re-called, Mr. Roosevelt's political wings covered 57 varieties of political polit-ical thought and theory. Important members of the Washington Wash-ington group that heads up the public pub-lic ownership group are placed in nearly every department of the government. gov-ernment. They are in key positions. posi-tions. Whether they are influencing influenc-ing national policies is a question I cannot answer, but I can say they are in a position to use such influence in-fluence very effectively. A decision here and a ruling there could be of vast help to such a program without there being any visible connections. Then, as to rumors, again. We hear a great deal of gossip about some members of the Supreme court serving as advisers to less experienced ex-perienced agitators in the executive branch of the government. I repeat that I do not know whether these stories are true. There have been many signs indicating that frequent conferences take place, and no one denies that close ties of friendship exist between several of newer Supreme Su-preme court justices and their proteges pro-teges in Washington's downtown section. The rumors, therefore, are very disturbing to those of us with the old fashioned idea that the Supreme Su-preme court should be an agency to serve the people in a judicial capacity and that its members should confine their activities to that field. Public Ownership Advocates Are on Government Payroll The general situation becomes all the more threatening, in my opinion, opin-ion, when it is known that there have been numerous advocates of wholesale government management of private industry operating on the government payroll. Some of them have taken the position that the way to obtain government ownership of private industry is to get industry so far into debt that the federal government would have to assume control. That is to say, only the federal government would have sufficient suf-ficient credit and borrowing power to pay off the debt. As I said earlier, many details of the snakelike operations of this gang remain in deepest secrecy. Some facts have leaked out, however, how-ever, that cause shivers to run up and down my spine. The thing that none of us here know about, definitely, is whether Mr. Roosevelt has been persuaded to adopt the program. Some of my informants assure me that it does not matter whether Mr. Roosevelt even knows about the plan, because its tentacles extend like those of a jellyfish into many hidden places. In other words, a few of the cocky leaders believe the movement has grown so large that it is beyond the President's control. I recall that, in 1934, the public ownership group was determined to take over the nation's railroads. They had a bill drawn by which the rail lines would be bought for S13.400,000.000ti that being the amount of the 'outstanding bonds of the companies. At that time, there was talk also of nationalizing the coal mines and the oil wells. But Mr. Roosevelt put his foot down on the idea. He did yield numerous concessions vi the direction of cutting decpe gashes into private management, but stayed away from the fata step. JOHN W. HANES undersecretary of the treasury. Mr. Hanes was slated to become trustee of the gigantic, but bankrupt bank-rupt octopus, the Associated Gas and Electric company. Mr. Hanes has not been named as trustee, although his official record has not a blemish on it so far as has been found. Instead, In-stead, Dr. Willard Thorp, economic adviser to Secretary Hopkins, of the department of commerce; Denis J. Driscoll, chairman of the Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania Public Utilities commission; and Walter H. Pollak, New York lawyer, were named. Billion-Dollar U tility Property Was to Be 'Proving Ground' The public ownership group wanted want-ed to swing the trusteeship for this billion-dollar utility into the hands of the Securities and Exchange commission, com-mission, as might be done under the SEC law. They proposed to use this great property, so badly mussed up, as proving ground for their public ownership ideals. It was contemplated that the Associated Associat-ed properties eventually would be welded into TVA, and a great norlh-and-south system under government ownership would have become a fact. To accomplish this program, however, how-ever, it was necessary to dispose of Mr. Hanes, w;ho favors private ownership own-ership in industry and who wants to see America retain its fundamental fun-damental traditions. In due course, we were treated to publication of the views of Senator Norris of Nebraska, Ne-braska, who was the father of TVA. I doubt very much that the aged Nebraskan knew that he' was being used in ihe fashion that was the case. But the scheme worked and the Norri:; criticism that Mr. Hanes had been a stock broker smeared the former treasury official who had done more to prevent New Deal financial mistakes than most of the others. The attack on Mr. Hanes, however, how-ever, failod to get the trusteeship into the hands of the Securities and Exchange commission. The schemers schem-ers failed to cover up their tracks. But, while they failed on one track, |