Nipper-Snapping

To harass a Cabinet officer by nipping and snapping at his ankles is the legislative pastime of not a few Senators and Congressmen. Such a nipper-snapper is Tennessee's rubicund Senator McKellar who, at the Senate's brief special session last month, raised the question of Andrew William Mellon's eligibility to serve President Hoover as Secretary of the Treasury. Always antagonistic to Secretary Mellon, Senator McKellar, by resolution, asked:

1) Could Mr. Mellon continue his Treasury services without the submission of his nomination to the Senate for confirmation?

2) Did his service in that post violate an ancient statute saying: "No . . . Secretary of the Treasury . . . shall directly or indirectly be concerned or interested in the business of trade or commerce or be owner in whole or in part of any sea vessel. . . ."?

Last week the Senate Judiciary Committee set aside the McKellar complaint against President Hoover's failure to submit Mr. Mellon's nomination to the Senate, as mere legal piffling. Some 200 precedents were available to show that appointments did not require reconfirmation.

Point No. 2 against Mr. Mellon was as old as his service in the Treasury. Nevertheless, to clear it up once and for all Mr. Mellon sent to the committee, through

Pennsylvania's Senator Reed, a succinct statement of his business affairs, the abandonment of which before 1921 qualified him for his post. Said Mr. Mellon:

"Before I took office ... in 1921 . . . I resigned every office I then held in any corporation and resigned all my directorates. ... I sold every share of stock I owned in every national bank, trust company or other banking institution. I then owned and I now own a substantial amount of stock in the Gulf Oil Corp., the Aluminum Co. of America, Standard Steel Car Co. and other business corporations, but in every case my holding is very much less than a majority of the voting stock of such corporations. . . . My active connection with them was severed in 1921 as completely as if I had died at that time. . . ."

Secretary Mellon's statement so impressed the Judiciary Committee that without formal action it agreed not to question him further. Senator McKellar, however, 'thought he saw a last opportunity for nipper-snapping in the fact that Gulf Oil operates 29 "sea vessels," that as a stockholder in Gulf Oil Mr. Mellon is an "owner ... in part" of these vessels.