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Vagabond Editorials

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And another great selection-or so it seems thus early in the game-is that of Lewis Schwellenbach, of the State of Washington, for the Labor cabinet post. Of course, anyone would have looked good succeeding well-intentioned, but hopelessly incompetent, Ma Perkins. She was probably the worst appointment in American official history. Almost the entire nation has been demanding her withdrawal for many years. But Schwellenbach displays a type of intelligence and good political sense that marks him as a real "find" for that very difEcult job. To appreciate this new official, just read the following remarks he made in a general order to his fellow-workers in the Labor Department:

"I must insist that in tii" l.J.r,*.n. there is given full recognition to the fact that it is the function of this department to execute the laws. The duty of an ofBcer in this department is to accept the laws as Congress has written them. The fact that he may think the Congress should have interpreted a law differently in no case justifies him in ignoring or trying to circumvent the law." And then he added to the newspaper men present: "You gentlemen know that in the past Congress has passed a law and after a department gets through interpreting it, you would not recognize it even if you met it on the street."

If that statement had been made publicly by a cabinet mernber six months ago it would have caused a political earthquake. But Schwellenbach calmly recognizes a condition that has caused most thinking Americans to sweat and fume for the past many years; the fact that when the Bureaus got through interpreting a piece of Legislation, they had changed it beyond possible recognition, and to suit their own ends. The Wagner Labor Relations Act is a good sample. The administration of that Act under the interpretations of its administrators has changed the meaning of the law in many vital ways. Things Congress never dreamed of in passing the Act, became the enforced law of the land. And so it was with rnost Bureaucratic Legislation. Congress passed a law that said one thing, and the Bureaucrats wrote interpretations that meant whatever they wanted it to mean. And now we have a most important cabinet member denouncing the practice. A bright ray of sunshine in official Washington.

And what a ihance .h"ir.; ,i..orne, General Clark has to make a name for himself, following in the footsteps of poor little old Francis Biddle. Clark is a splendid lawyer, and will get other splendid lawyers to assist him. Look for great improvement there. I like Vinson to succeed Morgenthau. But I have no critical thoughts or words for the retiring Secretary of the Treasury. ff ever a man had a tough job, Henry had one. And while I don'.t consider him any financial genius, he kept his chin up, his mouth shut, and won the respect of this nation. Henry Morgenthau, can take it. He HAS taken it, as a matter of fact. Vinson will probably be a better man for the job, but there are no flies on Henry. ***

And if there remains in your mind the slightest doubt that this nation has become very broad-minded of late, consider the appointment of Jimmy Byrnes to the State Department leadership. Seventeen years ago the Ameri'can nation went to the polls and snowed under a candidate for President whom it loved and respected. Why? Because he was a Catholic. Yet when Truman appointed Catholic Jimmy Byrnes to be next man in line for the Presidency, it never caused a ripple. As these lines are being written, here is the situation: If Truman should die on this European trip, we would have Catholic Jimmy Byrnes for President. And if both of them had died before Vinson was sworn in as Secretary of the Treasury, we would have had Henry Morgenthau, a Jewish gentlernan, for Chief Magistrate. We ARE broadening out.

I can never resist the **a"i"" to tell an appropriate story. I think the smartest short political story in my collection is the one they told on Al Smith after the election of 1928 when lloover defeated him. They said that the day after the election when the landslide of votes was pretty well in, Al Smith sent a cable to the Pope of Rome, the cable consisting of just one word: "UNPACK.' ***

Yep. I think Truman has good quiet courage along with his simple, native intelligence, and that he has already won a firm place in the hearts of this nation. He has left in his cabinet just Ickes and Wallace. Report has it that Ickes will go soon. Ickes, the rough talking "hatchet man" of the New Deal, is now like Old Man River-"He don't say nuthin'." And lo and behold Henry Wallace! Not much space is being given Henry in the newspapers of late, but rve understand that his callers find him loudly proclaiming his love of our system of free enterprise and of private business. Maybe Henry has followed the doctrine of the New Testament, and has been "born again." He could stand a lot of re-borning, Henry could. ***

I'll be glad when Mr. Truman can get around to tossing the useless bureaus overboard, and cutting down that huge and unnecessary expense. There are plenty of them -expensive ones-that could be terminated on ten minutes' notice, and not a mite of harm come to our government or our domestic economy. The President has already demanded that all unnecessary expense be cut off in the government. But, of course, the myriads of useless bureaucrats fervently proclaim their usefulness, and deny the opposite. They will never quit. They must be throrrn out'***

And President Truman has great self control. He showed it at the beginning of the Big Three Conference at Potsdam" No, no, he didn't start singing that old one about the "Potsdam Dutch and all the other damn Dutch." That wasn't it. It was when Marshall Stalin failed to show up the day set for

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