Imperial Valley Press

Committee Calls Wallace, Jones in RFC Divorce Hearings on Nomination and Possible Separation of Lending Agencies From Commerce Department

WASHINGTON. Jan. 23. (UP)—The senate commerce committee decided today to call former Vice President Henry A. Wallace and Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones before it tomorrow.

The committee is considering both President Roosevelt's nomination of Wallace to succeed Jones and a bill by Senator Walter George (D.) Georgia, to divorce the government's multi-billion-dollar lending agencies from the commerce department.

The bill was prompted by Wallace's nomination. George, one of the most influential members of the senate, and many other congressmen have expressed the belief that Wallace lacks the necessary financial experience to handle successfully such agencies as the Reconstruction Finance Corp.

FACE HEARING

Chairman Josiah W. Bailey (D.) North Carolina, of the commerce committee said Jones and Wallace, bitter enemies, will meet face to face in a hearing open to the public.

Bailey said the hearing would be held at 2:30 p.m.

He made the announcement after a 21½-hour closed meeting. He said the committee agreed to consider the George bill—to reestablish the federal loan agency as an independent agency—first and then take up the Wallace nomination.

COMMITTEE DEBATE

Bailey disclosed that it was Senator Ralph O. Brewster (R.) Maine, who offered the motion to consider the George bill first. Senator John H. Overton (D.) Louisiana, offered as a substitute a motion to proceed first with the Wallace nomination, but the committee voted down the substitute. 10 to 2.

Bailey said George, chairman of the senate finance and postwar planning committees, "argued for his bill on its merits."

"And he made a powerful argument, too," Bailey observed.

Bailey described the bill as "an action for a divorce where we had a premature and hasty matrimonial event." He was referring to the

(Continued on Page 6, Col. 5)
Committee Calls Wallace, Jones

(Continued from Page One)

transfer in 1942 of the RFC and its subsidiaries to the commerce department.

WALLACE ATTACKED

Meanwhile, house Republicans attacked the Wallace nomination. Representative Carl T. Curtis (R.) Nebraska, charged that Wallace's theories "are part and parcel of the system of state socialism, known as the New Deal."

Representative Clare Hoffman (R.) Michigan, called attention to the law forbidding a political candidate to promise to use his influence to get employment for a person in return for support during a campaign.

Hoffman said he wanted Attorney General Francis Biddle to investigate to find out if President Roosevelt made such a promise of employment to Wallace.