ARMY OF SLEUTHS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 50, 28 February 1935, Page 17

ARMY OF SLEUTHS.

IN NEW DEAL EMPLOY. NEED FOR WATCHFULNESS. AMERICA'S SCOTLAND YARD. (By PAUL MALLON.) WASHINGTON, January 24. The New Deal sees all, knows all. It really makes a business of keeping track of what is going on inside it-? own organisation and elsewhere to a far greater extent than any previous administration. Little is heard of the subject, except occasionally when Mr. Loui.> (!lnvis. head of the Interior Department intelligence unit, involuntarily breaks into p: int. yet an efficient general intelligence system has be.;Ti quietly perfected during the course of the past two years.

You will not find out about it in the Budget message listing Government expenditures, because intelligence activities are not grouped. But a fair estimate of the situation, privately made, indicates there arc now about 22,500 persons on the Government payroll who could bo classed as sleuths. Not all of them can Iw directly attributed to the New Deal. Probably a majority of the sleuthing jobs were instituted under other deals, but certainly a substantial number of the jobs are new. The unofficial tabulation of those who keep tab on people for the New Deal indicates that Treasury-Secretary Morgenthau lias at least three times as many as anyone else. In the Treasury there are 11.751 employees who might be classified in the sleuthing category. Checking Up Code Violators. 'J he chief reason for the increase in snoopers is that Uncle Sam is now lending and giving away more money than ever before. That process calls for considerable watchfulness. .Also, the New Peal exercises more supervision over business through the N.R.A., etc.

The cliief increases after eliminating the alcohol fax unit (because it merely replaced the old prohibition bureau) are in the P.W.A., N.R.A.. F.C.A., and A.A.A. The P.W.A. staff, though only 300, has been 'active against oil code violators, racketeering contractors, dishonest officials, etc. The N.R.A. field staff investigates complaints of code violations, but it is not particularly efficient. Many complaints are referred to code authorities, made up of the business men complained against. The Fa.rm Credit Administration investigators look into land values on which loans are sought. R.F.C. examiners check the standing of firms seeking loans. The A.A.A. field men watch to see that farmers do not chisel on the crop curtailment programme. Many farmers are used on a part-time basis for this work, and their number changes with the seasons. They are not included in the official total.

U.S. Scotland Yard. There has been considerable talk about the Justice Department establishing an American Scotland Yard. The truth is it already has more of a Scotland Yard than England has. The staff of J. Edgar Hoover, chief of the Bureau of Investigation, has been quietly increased by 20(5 agents and clerks in the past year (December to December). It now numbers 745 field men, agents, and clerks.

The New Dealers also obtain copies in one way or another of certain confidential material which is sent out by Washington news agencies. Recently, at a private conference of top-notch New Dealers, a warm discussion arose over a new confidential letter being sent out by a national weekly magazine. The New Dealers decided that the confidential letter misrepresented the then current misunderstanding between Interior Secretary Ickcs and Houser Moffett. They suggested a correction should be made, which astonished the editors, who do not yet know how the New Dealers happened to get a copy of the letter in the first place. All legislative proposals from New Dealers are being routed through Co-ordinatur Kieliberg. Thics saves the President from reading a mass of minor legislative proposals. Mr. Richberg cannot change the bills, but merely reports conflicts. The New Deal publicity men usually make the best possible presentation of their lignies. For instance, a year-end statement from P.W.A. says the P.W.A. has provided 3,00.3,904,059 man-hours of work, or "gainful employment" to 2,000,000 persons. It sounds big, but the Labour Department furnishes the plainer truth that only 47r>,000 persons were employed 011 P.W.A. projects at the last tabulation in November.

A representative is supposed to speak to a senator with great deference, but the other day a New Democratic representative called Senator Wagner's office and said: "I understand Wagner has a bill to extend tlip H.0.1..C. Tell him I have a similar bill, and if he cares to drop over to see me, I think wc can probably reconcile our views."