Power Men Scrutinized

Misfortune has dogged President Hoover's North Carolina appointments. When he tried to reward that State for its 1928 vote by elevating Circuit Judge John Johnston Parker of Charlotte to the U. S. Supreme Court, the Senate tore his nominee to bits, raised unwelcome racial and labor issues, refused confirmation (TIME, March 31 et seq.). Last week it seemed likely that the outcome of the President's second attempt to do the Old North State a political favor would be much the same. Observers began to wonder who was responsible for the White House's political advice on North Carolina.

President Hoover had no sooner appointed Frank R. McNinch, onetime mayor of Charlotte, to the reorganized Federal Power Commission as a Democrat,sbthan Democrats began to protest that Mr. McNinch was no good party man (TIME, Dec. 15). Appointee McNinch in 1928 had proclaimed that Alfred Emanuel Smith "procured his nomination at Houston by stealth and fraud." He had headed the State's Anti-Smith Democratic Committee, raised and spent $30,906 to turn North Carolina Republican. Last week Mr. McNinch was summoned before the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee to explain his politics, his qualifications.

A majority of this committee chairmanned by Michigan's Senator Couzens is predisposed toward stricter U. S. regulation of water power. Its dissatisfaction with the present policy was chiefly responsible for recent legislation reorganizing and jacking up the Federal Power Commission. All power witnesses before it are suspected at the outset and the inquisitorial questions of such Senators as Nebraska's Howell, Iowa's Brookhart, Washington's Dill, Montana's Wheeler, New York's Wagner and Kentucky's Barkley seem designed to elicit testimony to discredit the present system of utility regulation. Despite the fact that service with a power company might well constitute good training for a power regulator, no such connection ever seems too small or old or indirect for the Couzens committee to dig up and magnify into a sinister link with the "power trust."

Taking a defiant stand before the committee, Mr. McNinch admitted his 1928 Hoover vote, added that last month he voted for the Republican Congressional nominee in his district, refused to vote for the Democratic senatorial nominee (Senator-elect Josiah Bailey). He insisted he was an "independent Democrat" whom the President had offered a Federal job as long as two years ago. Only as "a public duty" in the last fortnight had he consented to take one. As for his anti-Smith expenditures, he said he had not made a full report on them because he did not know whence they all came. To the rumor that he was close to large public utility interests, he retorted: "There's no man freer from water power interests than I am. I've had no personal nor professional relationships. ... I have a deep and abiding interest, though not much information, about the subject."

With the North Carolina House delegation and many a potent State officer against Appointee McNinch, Democratic Senate Leader Robinson lined up his party to fight his confirmation in a rough & tumble floor debate, unless the President withdrew the name.

The Senate Committee quizzed other Power Commission nominees and, without pronouncing judgment, gave out the impression that it rated none of them highly. Republican George Otis Smith, Commission chairman, admitted he had worked privately with the Insull interests for the export of power from his native Maine but could not well explain why the electric rate at Bangor should be 9-c- per kilowatt hour. He favored moderate Federal regulation, opposed public operation. Democrat Marcel Garsaud was opposed by Alfred Danziger, an agent of Louisiana's loud little Governor and Senator-elect Huey Parham Long, who charged Mr. Garsaud was unfit for the job because of business obligations to New Orleans Public Service, an Electric Bond & Share subsidiary. Republican Claude Draper, for twelve years a Wyoming Public Utilities Commissioner, made the Senate Committee snicker when he justified a 10-c- per kilowatt hour rate at Casper on the ground that the public was willing to pay for "adequate service."

What conservative Republican Senators feared most was that the Senate, debating these nominations, would open a general attack upon President Hoover and his Administration's mild attitude toward water power regulation. The make-up of the new Commission became an all-important issue because its membership would determine long-range policies for dealing with the hydroelectric industry. Chief target of attack by insurgent Senators on the old Power Commission has been Frank C. Bonner, its executive secretary. He was accused of "inefficiency," of favoring license-seeking private power companies. Last week Montana's Senator Wheeler unsuccessfully tried to get the new commissioners to promise to dismiss Secretary Bonner. Stung by what he called these "slanderous statements" and "unwarranted attacks," Secretary Bonner informed the Senate Committee that he would request a civil service transfer to another governmental bureau. The insurgent Senators cheerfully sped him on his way.

-By law three Commissioners must belong to the majority party, two to the minority.

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