The Inquisitors

Congress used to be called "Government by Committee." The Senate's Committee on Committees, invented in 1912, was a staple for the political japes of a generation not yet extinct. But now the system has been perfected into "Government by Inquiry." Whenever a "crying need" or "shameful scandal" is discovered, the nation's legislators (especially in the Senate) go through motions which notify the coun- try that (though the matter may be handled by one of the 79 committees which Congress keeps standing for all purposes) the treatment will not be mere routine efficiency but something extra-special and significant indeed. Sometimes, if a sufficiently potent Inquisitor insists, an extra-special committee is appointed.

The causes and effects of Congressional inquisitions vary. Inquisitor-Senator Walsh of Montana drowned the "Harding Gang" most deftly in their bottomless oil conspiracy. Inquisitor-Senator Reed of Missouri has enjoyed less easy and less definite success in drowning the Senators-suspect of Illinois and Pennsylvania in their campaign slush funds. The other Inquisitor-Senator Reed, from Pennsylvania, swiftly exculpated four of his colleagues who, Publisher Hearst had insinuated, were to have been bribed by Mexico. But there that inquiry stopped. Publisher Hearst could scarcely be punished since he had broken no law except the unwritten one of common decency and the moribund one of respect for the U. S. Senate. Publisher Hearst, moreover, was booming Inquisitor Reed's patron and fellow Pennsylvanian, Secretary Mellon, for the Presidency.

But other Inquiries are afoot. Some have arrived. Some are approaching. The status of various inquiries was as follows last week:

Utilities. Inquisitor Walsh of Montana wants to investigate public utility corporations to discover the relation between their rates and their security prices and earnings. Opposition, stiffened by the presence in Washington of a potent public utilities lobby* headed by onetime (1918-27) Senator Irvine Luther Lenroot of Wisconsin, obliged Inquisitor Walsh to concentrate his proposed activities only upon power and light companies owned or operating in more than one State.+- "Not that I don't believe the telephone and telegraph and radio industries should be investi-gated," said Senator Walsh to the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee. The Committee's hearings on the proposed Walsh inquiry were largely perfunctory, since a vote of the whole Senate would ultimately decide the matter. But the Committee haggled, lobbyists thronged, the Power Probe pended.

Coal. The chairman of the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee is Senator Watson of Indiana. A stout Republican, it is his duty to block, if possible, both the Power Probe and another Senate investigation which his Committee has been asked to authorize. The United Mine Workers of America have suggested that some Inquisitors might look into the bituminous coal industry in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wrest Virginia. The miners charge that mine operators have conspired with railroads, power companies, banks and manufacturers to keep down the price of coal, and, hence, the scale of mine wages; that operators have committed "atrocities" by thuggery, injunction, eviction; that operators are trying to exterminate the miners' union. The operators deny "con- spiring" and contend there are simply more miners on hand than the coal market now needs. . . . The Coal Quiz, if any, did not seem likely to be authorized for some weeks.

Submarines. President Coolidge hav- ing asked (at Secretary Wilbur's request) for authority to appoint experts to investigate the 8-4 disaster and submarines generally, the House having voted such authority, Senate Democrats balked at letting the President appoint the experts. Senator Swanson of Virginia doggedly insisted that the inquisitors be Congressmen. Last week, the Senate voted 51 to 32 that the President's experts--three civilians and two retired Navy officers--might investigate submarine safety devices, but not the 8-4. On that, three Senators and three Representatives would be the Navy's actual Inquisitors. This plan was sent back to the House for confirmation.

Again, Oil. At the insistence of Senator Norris of Nebraska, the Oil Scandals were reopened and last week another chapter was written, by the Senate Committee on Public Lands (see CORRUPTION).

Vare Case No. 2. The renowned election of Senator-suspect Vare of Pennsylvania came up for Senate action not only through the labors of Inquisitor Reed of Missouri, but, also through the protest of William Bauchop Wilson, the Democrat whom Mr. Vare's votes defeated. Mr. Wilson, onetime (1913-21) Secretary of Labor, charged Mr. Vare & friends with corruption and false returns. Mr. Wilson laid his case before the Senate's regular Committee on Privileges & Elections and requested a recount of the Vare-Wilson votes. Last week, dividing on strictly party lines, the Committee voted 8 to 6 to dismiss Mr. Wilson's request. Up stood Inquisitor Reed in the Senate and repri- manded the Elections Committee so fearsomely that its chairman, tall Senator Shortridge of California, and his seven fellow Republicans, soon recanted their decision and agreed to let a subcommittee re-examine Vare-Wilson ballots cast two years ago in six counties, including Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Nicaragua. If the U. S. is prosecuting a "war" and not a "police expedition" in Nicaragua, Congress did not declare the "war." Yet Congress alone may make war. Democrats and irregular Republicans have been introducing resolutions, backed by literal arguments, to bring the "war" question to a vote. Chairman Borah of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee threw his weight in with Administration Senators to keep the question in abeyance, at least until President Coolidge returned from the Pan-American Congress. Then, last fortnight, Senator Borah said he favored an Inquiry into the whole Nicaraguan affair and a complete reformulation of U, S. policy in Latin America. At this juncture, Democrats fell into dispute among themselves as to whether the U. S. Marines were fighting for Wall Street or Justice. Administration men seized the chance to urge further shelving of Nica- ragua. But the Foreign Relations Committee began its hearings. Senator La Follette introduced a sweeping resolution of the kind favored by Senator Borah. A Nicaraguan Inquiry loomed.

*Interests represented at hearings on the Walsh resolution were estimated to total 17 billions of dollars.

+-According to a survey lately published at Harvard University, only 9.06% of the total kilowatt hours of power generated in 1926, was transmitted across State lines. But Inquisitor Walsh would investigate intrastate companies owned by interstate holding companies.