Veracity

During August President Coolidge's somewhat threadbare affection for the Shipping Board frayed into open annoyance at assertions by its members that the Coolidge economy plan would force the permanent dry-docking of the Leviathan and other unwelcome marine curtailments. With the coming of September the Chief Executive's resentment crystalized and ripped into the open with the following telegram to B. E. Haney, a member of the Board:

"It having come to my attention that you are proposing to remove Admiral Palmer [Chief of the Emergency Fleet Corporation], contrary to the understanding I had with you when I reappointed you, your resignation from the U. S. Shipping Board is requested."

(Signed) CALVIN COOLIDGE.

There followed rumpus, ruction and defiance. Mr. Haney refused to resign. While he was marshaling his explanations for so refusing, observers harked far back into the tangled muddle of Government shipping affairs.

They recalled that Bert E. Haney, Oregon Democrat, was first appointed a Shipping Board Commissioner by President Harding in June, 1923, and that President Coolidge reappointed him last June for another two years on a "recess appointment," which will lapse if not confirmed by the Senate, when it meets in December. They recalled that the U. S. Shipping Board had been created in 1916 as a semi-judicial and regulative body. With our entrance into the War it was supplemented by a sort of get-down-to-business department--the Emergency Fleet Corporation, which was to have the direct administration of the Government Merchant Marine but remain subservient to the parent Board.

By law (Merchant Marine Act 1920) the Emergency Fleet Corporation is still responsible to the Shipping Board. But as a matter of fact, ever since President Coolidge appointed Admiral Leigh C. Palmer, U. S. N., to be Chairman of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (TIME, Jan. 14, 1924), the latter has operated the fleet without little reference to the Shipping Board, its legal superior And Admiral Palmer, "dictator", has commended himself to the President by harkening to the voice of economy. (He has, for example, cut down the fleet from 386 to 251).

It was this phase of the situation which gave Mr. Haney a pretext to bandy words with the President, in his refusal to resign, as few would have dared. Mr. Haney's refusal, in part:

"The board, when once appointed by the President, in conformity with the statute, is an independent agency of the United States Government, and it is vested by the statute with large and important discretionary powers which the members thereof are compelled to exercise independently of any other Governmental agency so long as the law is in force, and, with the exception of the power of removal for causes specified in the act, the members of the board are responsible only to the legislative body."

Thereby he practically attempted to administer a snub to the President; all but openly defied Mr. Coolidge to remove him "for cause," which as defined by the law includes "malfeasance, incompetence and neglect"--difficult charges to establish.

Mr. Haney, however, did not stop at snubs or defiance. He flatly contradicted the President. In recalling to Mr. Coolidge their discussion on the eve of his reappointment to the Board by the President (he had formerly been appointed by President Harding) Mr. Haney's letter continued:

"There certainly was no express understanding [ i. e. arrived at between the President and Mr. Haney] concerning the continuance in office or the removal of President Palmer. . . I myself had definitely advised you that I could not accept a reappointment if any conditions whatever attached to that reappointment. . . I did not intend to lead you, directly or indirectly, Mr. President, to understand that I would be a party to continuing Mr. Palmer as President of the Fleet Corporation. . . .

"His policy of necessity fails to carry out the purposes of the Merchant Marine act because such policy not only is failing to establish a merchant marine sufficient to carry a major portion of our commerce, but, on the contrary, our merchant marine is carrying less and less each year.

"Again, the purpose of the act to establish a military and naval auxiliary is being disregarded in that the number of vessels in use and available for such purpose is being steadily reduced, and, last but not least, under his Administration we are losing American commerce to foreign shipowners, one of the very things the act in question intended should not occur.

"Under these circumstances, Mr. President, for me to comply with your request that I resign would carry an implication which I cannot permit."

Said the Washington Post in commenting on this sharp questioning of veracity in high places: "Whether Mr. Haney is right or wrong in his attitude toward Admiral Palmer, he is palpably and indefensibly wrong in adopting a recalcitrant attitude toward President Coolidge. He should tender his resignation forthwith, and leave the responsibility for directing both the Shipping Board and the Emergency Fleet Corporation to the President. If there is one principle that is thoroughly established in this government, it is the principle of the President's responsibility for the conduct of executive affairs."