Kerlin, Malcolm, administrative assistant to the Secretary of Com- merce_ 303 Peacock, James Craig, Director of the Shipping Board Bureau 236 194, 224 Trimble, South, Jr., Solicitor for the Department of Commerce_ 273 Vidal, Eugene L., Director Bureau of Air Commerce.. 297 Inspection____ Weaver, Joseph B., Director Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat 277 McCarl, J. R., Comptroller General of the United States- Peacock, James Craig, Director of the Shipping Board Bureau.... ALLEGED IRREGULARITIES IN THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 1935 UNITED STATES SENATE, The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a. m., in the caucus room, Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C., Senator Royal S. Copeland presiding. Present: Senators Copeland (chairman), Fletcher, Bailey, Clark, Murphy, Bachman, Bilbo, Guffey, McNary, Vandenberg, White, Gibson, Overton, Donahey, Maloney, and Radcliffe. Also present: Senators McCarran and Long. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will be in order. Yesterday the Committee on Commerce voted unanimously, and it was decided to ask Mr. Mitchell to come before the committee and make any statement that he cares to make. We have read the statements in the newspapers; but it is the conception of the committee that it is this committee which parallels the activities of the Department of Commerce, and therefore that this committee should be fully informed if there are irregularitiesif there are any defects in the operation of the Department, that we should be the first to be advised. Mr. Mitchell accepted a subpena from the committee, and I will ask if he will stand and be sworn. STATEMENT OF EWING Y. MITCHELL (The witness was duly sworn by the chairman.) The CHAIRMAN. Now, Mr. Mitchell, if you will proceed in your own way. We will ask the photographers if they will be good enough to complete taking the pictures they want to and retire. Mr. MITCHELL. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, the Department of Commerce is one of the largest and most important departments of the Government. It is made up of the Bureaus of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Lighthouses, Census, Navigation and Steamboat Inspection, Fisheries, Patents, Standards, Air Commerce, Coast and Geodetic Survey, and Shipping Board. The activities of the Department encircle the world and are of vast importance to the people. It would take several weeks for a Senate committee to intelligently investigate its activities for the purpose of determining whether they are now being conducted in the interest of the people of the country, or to a large extent, for the benefit of the favored few, and whether waste, extravagance, general inefficiency, graft, and corruption are to be found therein. 1 1 |