Comptroller McCarl's Job
Sirs:
In your issue of Nov. 21, at p. 8, col. 3, you state:
"The only high executive official who is legally safe in his job after March 4 is John Raymond McCarl. Comptroller General of the U. S., appointed in 1921 for a 15-year term and removable by impeachment."
Having some degree of familiarity with the office of Comptroller General and the decision of the Courts regarding it, permit me to opine that the forgoing statements that Mr. McCarl's job is "legally safe" and that he may be "removable by impeachment," are erroneous.
In 1921 Congress created the office of Comptroller General and attempted to place the incumbent thereof beyond presidential removal. In this regard Congress failed. Mr. McCarl is not "legally safe" in his job and may be removed by the President at pleasure.
In support of my statements, I offer you the following:
In January 1920 one Frank S. Myers was serving as postmaster at Portland, Ore. For some reason (not set forth in the reported case) the First Assistant Postmaster General requested Myers to resign his office. This he refused to do.
In February 1920 the Postmaster General wired Myers stating that an order had been issued by direction of the President removing him from his office as postmaster and directing him to have nothing further to do with the office.
Myers wired the Postmaster General that he had not resigned, would not do so and that the attempted removal was illegal.
Myers relied upon an Act of Congress of July 12, 1876, which provided that: "Postmasters of the first, second and third class shall be appointed and may be removed by the President, by and with advice and consent of the Senate * * * " and as the Senate had not given its advice and consent, his attempted removal by the President was void.
An Inspector of the Post Office Department ousted Myers, who, at the expiration of the term for which he was appointed, brought suit in the U. S. Court of Claims for the salary of the office.
In Myers v. The United States, 58 C. Cls. 199, the Court held (April 2, 1923) that the President alone had no power to remove the plaintiff but inasmuch as Myers had been guilty of delay (laches) in asserting his rights he was not entitled to recover. The case was then taken to the Supreme Court of the U. S.
The Supreme Court, realizing the importance of the question, invited counsel from the Senate to appear and present its views. In accordance with this request the Senate designated Senator George Wharton Pepper in its behalf. The Government was ably represented by Solicitor General James M. Beck.
I was present at the argument before the Supreme Court. Both Mr. Beck and Senator Pepper agreed that though the case at bar related to a postmaster, the real question involved the power of the President to remove the Comptroller General, who stood entrenched behind an Act of Congress which, in effect, was not unlike the Act relied upon by Postmaster Myers.
The arguments of both Mr. Beck and Senator Pepper were masterpieces of forensic debating and quite in keeping with the importance of the question. . . .
The Supreme Court held the case for a year and a half before rendering a decision. In October of 1927 the Court decided in favor of the Government, the opinion (Chief Justice Taft) holding that though an officer be appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, Congress is without power to make any law which would prevent the President from exercising his right of summary removal. In other words, Congress cannot thus tie the hands of the Executive Department of the Government.
Justices Holmes, Brandeis and McReynolds dissented. . . .
From the forgoing statements it is apparent--and settled law--that if Mr. Roosevelt chooses to remove Mr. McCarl from office he may do so; that Mr. McCarl's job is not "legally safe'' and that it is not necessary to impeach him should the President--any President--not desire his services. ...
CORNELIUS H. BULL
Attorney and Counsellor at Law
Washington, D. C.
Though the Myers decision might well serve as an important precedent, the Supreme Court has never passed directly on the question of the Comptroller General's removal. The law: "There shall be a Comptroller General . . . who shall be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. . . . [he] shall hold office for 15 years . . . [and] shall not be eligible for reappointment. The Comptroller General may be removed at any time by joint resolution of Congress [for incapacitation, inefficiency, neglect of duty, malfeasance, commission of a felony or moral turpitude] and for no other cause and in no other manner except by impeachment."--ED.
Field, Glore & Atlas
Sirs:
Parts of the TIME story (Nov. 28) regarding Continental Chicago--Chicago Investors might be inferentially misleading and therefore subject to misconstruction by uninformed readers. Its implication was that control of Chicago Investors has been wrested away from Atlas by belligerent Chicagoans.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. There has always been complete harmony between Field, Glore & Co. and Atlas Corp. in regard to investment trusts in Chicago; both have believed that a joint discussion of policies and practices of investment trusts should be mutually beneficial. To this end Atlas had acquired in the open market, with the help of Field, Glore & Co., a stock interest in the Continental Chicago Corp. more than a year ago.
Field, Glore & Co. had cooperated with Atlas in its acquisition of working control of Chicago Investors. There has been complete accord between Field, Glore & Co. and Atlas Corp. and the Board of Directors of the Chicago Investors Corp. on the consolidation of Continental Chicago and Chicago Investors. Atlas is exchanging its stock in Chicago Investors under the merger plan for Continental Chicago stock, thereby becoming a substantial stockholder in Continental Chicago.
Field, Glore & Co. hold the Atlas management in the highest esteem and Field, Glore partners are substantial stockholders in Atlas.
TIME figures as to the asset shrinkage in Continental Chicago and Chicago Investors were also conducive to misunderstanding, as TIME fails to make allowance for the retirement by the two corporations of approximately $48,000,000 paid in value of their preferred stocks.
C. F. GLORE
Field, Glore & Co.
New York City
TIME & London Times
Sirs:
Long since a reader of TIME, U. S. A. and the Times, England, I am well posted on American and English news. Can you explain to me how it is that I incessantly notice that as TIME stresses (80%) unhappy English news and soft-pedals (20%) cheerier English news, so the Times stresses (80%) unhappy American news and soft pedals (20%) the cheerier American news? Is Envy, Hatred, Malice and All Uncharitableness the cause of this? Or is it because one can only read the whole truth in its right proportions as about U. S. A. in an English paper, so about England in a U. S. A. paper?
J. H. HARVEY
Devon, England
Just as "no news is good news," so is good news often no news. Especially in the past three years have TIMEworthy and TIMEsworthy events in Britain and the U. S. been on the sorry side.--ED.
Hospital Christ
Sirs:
There is a mighty statue of Jesus Christ within the main entrance of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Md., notwithstanding the Rev. John Joseph Preston and TIME, Nov. 21.
My first and lasting impression of this overpowering figure in stone with the awful words "Come unto me ye who travail and are heavy laden and I will give you rest," carved on its base, came to me when as a youth I was entering Johns Hopkins Hospital as a patient. My immediate reaction to the words was death. The cold stone and gigantic proportions awed me. I never again entered the hospital through the main door.
Perhaps an outside figure would not be so awful.
CHARLES EDWARD THOMAS
Indianapolis, Ind.
The Johns Hopkins Christ, carved in white Cararra marble by a Professor Stein of Denmark's Royal Academy of Free Arts after an original in Copenhagen dated 1820, is only 10 1/2 ft. high. Rev. John Joseph Preston, who is collecting $500,000 in pennies for a national Christ statue to be erected possibly in the Rocky Mountains, has in mind a figure some 150 ft. high-- ED.
Trenton's Roeblings
Sirs:
Several people--showing that TIME has some readers hereabouts--have suggested that I write a communication attempting to correct errors that crept into your Roebling piece (p. 37, of the Nov. 21 issue). I am quite sufficiently occupied trying to keep slips out of my own newspapers, without too much success.
However, the Roeblings do maintain in Trenton the largest single-family-controlled industry in the country and, while they have some eccentric folks among them, they are, by & large, our most generous contributors to every community enterprise, as well as our largest employers of labor.
Now as to the errors: The cut used was not of Ferdinand W. Roebling, present head of the concern, but his brother Karl G. Roebling, who, as your piece says, died as a result of the enormous tasks he undertook, both for the Government and his company during the World War period. Col. Washington A. Roebling never was "blind in one eye," nor was he ever regarded either at the mill or among his friends as "a bitter, hard man." Like all Roeblings, he was exceedingly reticent. But he had a fine sense of humor and was the most amazingly patient and uncomplaining old chap I ever heard of. He did contract caisson fever while building the Brooklyn Bridge, and was an invalid for upwards of 50 years. In the last 18 years of his life he had the companionship of a most devoted wife (his second). I knew him rather well and never heard that he "ate upside down." He had a flair for writing about the family, much of what he had to say being incorporated in a book on the Roeblings published two years ago by the University Press of Princeton, Hamilton Schuyler, author. His brother, Ferdinand, was never president of the Roebling Co., but treasurer, and was the smartest of all in a business way, although he had his full share of weaknesses, one of which was to quarrel with me frequently. However, in the 37 years I have been at the newspaper bench nearly everybody in Trenton has quarrelled with me at some time. As to Ferdinand W. Roebling Jr., now at the head of the company, he is not only the biggest giver, both publicly and privately to worthwhile things, but he invariably wears a dinner jacket when the Roeblings entertain small parties and I don't recall ever seeing him in "white tie and tails," but I suppose he has 'em. Many of the important devices for which the Roeblings hold patents are the work of his brain and Washington Roebling once told me "Young Ferd is the best engineer the family ever turned out." He is reputed to be a sort of financial wizard. He has two promising sons, one already in the mill and the other a senior at Princeton. They have carried on pretty well for four generations. . . .
JAMES KERNEY
Editor
Trenton Times Trenton, N. J.
Sitting Colonel
Sirs:
Through the kindly generosity of an American lady, Mrs. Arthur Hall Smith of Pittsburgh, Pa., TIME is sent to me every week.
When I have read it, my copy goes into the Mess anteroom where it is read and enjoyed by the Officers of the Regiment from the colonel, who is notorious for "sitting on it," down to the newest subaltern. After that it goes either to my brother, a tea planter in Assam, or to a brother-in-law serving, at present, on the N. W. Frontier of India, or perhaps to a friend in England, so that it is never wasted. . . .
CAPTAIN R. L. O'CONNOR
1st Royal Battalion
9th Jat Regiment (Indian Army)
Mymensing (Bengal) India
$10,000 for $1
Sirs:
Question: Does TIME's free advertising pay?
Answer: In issue Nov. 7, p. 42, with reference to Minneapolis Junior Association of Commerce campaign to raise the needed sum for Symphony you mentioned A. K. Johnson of Wayzata, Minn, driving miles to add his $1 contribution. As I had the opportunity to contact Mr. Johnson recently I asked him if he had seen mention of it.
His reply was "Yes, I got more free advertising from that mention of the $1 contribution than could be bought for $10,000."
Q. E. D.
J. W. SMITH
Minneapolis, Minn.
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