of Fisheries) has notified Kent
Robinson, U. S. Commissioner at
Cordova, that starting next year
the Bureau will NOT PERMIT
ITS CASES TO GO INTO TH3
COMMISSIONER’S COURT, as
misdemeanors, but would seize
boats and gear and hold all vio
lations for the district cour t.”
Thus the ordinary citizen, ar
rested and branded as guilty by
any representative of a federal
bureau, may be denied the right
to a preliminary hearing.
We are not surprised at the
boldness of the Bureau of Fish
eries. Alaska, in spite of her so
called “hundred percenters” is a
land of slaves, of whom Henry
O’Malley is a fitting slave mas
ter.
Citizens are not yet aware
that O’Malley (and Justin W.
Harding) can yet “crack the
whip”—an “anti-syndicalist” law
that still remains on the books
of Alaska’s laws—of this we will
write later.
DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE
FAVORED IN BIG POLE
-x
The first straw in the wind of
the 1932 campaign as revealed by
the nation-wide presidential poll
of the San Francisco Examiner
in co-operation with all Hearst
morning, evening and Sunday
papers in the United States, are
blowing in the direction ct
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
With scattered returns on
hand and canvassed from all the
48 States the Democratic nomi
nee starts off with a 63 per cent
to 37 per cent advantage over
his Republican opponent.
Later returns show a Hoover
trend with the electoral ballet
standing 138—Hoover; 382—
Roosevelt.
-x
If he has begun to think he
looks distinguished, he is a little
past 40, .
Growing Power of the Bureaus
The sum by which the econ
omy law, signed by President
Hoover with an expression of
disappointment, will reduce the
cost of government is so much
smaller than that named as the
goal when the bill was introduc
ed that it simply illustrates the
practical impossibility of dis
lodging a bureau or an official
from the public payroll. In an
article in The Nation’s Business,
Representative Louis Ludlow of
Indiana admits that congress is
powerless against bureaucracy
without strong pressure from
public opinion; That statement is
proved by the comparatively
small results of the mighty ef
fort of congress to economize.
This is a matter of vital inter
est to every citizen, for not only
is his money wasted but the bu
resins are gradually taking away
his rights and liberties. During
his thirty years in Washington
Mr. Ludlow has seen “a trend
toward increasing centralization
of power in Washington, toward
bureaucracy and paternalism.”
This trend “involves a ceaseless
and ever-widening invasion of
corporate and individual rights.”
He continues:
An inevitable accompaniment
of bureaucracy is a lust for in
quisitorial powers, and the re •
suit is already visible in the
swarms of agents, inspectors
and other functionaries, who
prowl our land, worrying, bluff
ing and exasperating individuals
and corporations alike.
He recalls that in 1907 Senat
or Foraker grew indignant at
the growth in ten years of a
‘ little band of 167 special de
puties ,agents and inspectors”
to “an army of more than 3000,”
but this army has grown to one
of more than 20.000, and is put
ting innumerable letters upon
business, fetters which are al
ready beginning to bind and
hurt.” Though hiding benind
the cloak of benevolence, bu
reaucracy is no less dangerous,
for it is “the entering wedge of
tyranny” and “unless checked
becomes more and more domi
neering as its powers increase
and its position becomes en
trenched.” As an example, he
cites the growth of the bureau
of markets in the department
cf agriculture. It started in 1913
with $50,000 and has grown from
year to year until in 1931-32 its
appropriation was $5,731,330.
Cnee established, a bureau is
perpetual. The national screw
thread commission was estab
lished in 1918 with a life limit
ed to six months. Its life has
been extended several times un
til congress finally mode it a
continuing commission—to go
on forever. There are now more
than forty commissions, boards,
bureaus and independent estab
lishment', which “have reach
ed out in all directions, usurped
governmental functions and
spend a billion dollars annually.”
Waste is seen in wrecking of
the postoffice building, erected
in 1889 at a cost of $3,241,328,
to be replaced by a building
costing $10,300,000 in accord
snee with plans to make Wash
ington the City Beautiful re
gardless of expense. In the
hbrary of congress is a display
.t f incunabula, for the purchase
of which congress appropriated
•c 1.500,000. Few members knew
what “incunabula” meant until
1 hey looked in the dictionary
£ nd found the meaning to be
“works of an early epoch, espe
c lolly books printed before A. D.
1500.” Then there are tons of
superfluous copies of depart
ment and bureau reports on