BEHIND THE SCENES: Stillbirth of a Lobby

An alert Department of Justice lawyer sniffed suspiciously when he heard about Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks’s plan to set up 20 or so advisory councils, each representing a particular industry. The lawyer asked the Commerce Department what the councils might recommend. Replied Weeks & Co.: in the field of taxation, the oil-industry council would probably advise continuation of the depletion allowance for oil producers.

That was enough for the lawyer. He hurried to Attorney General Herbert Brownell’s office, argued that the Weeks project would create a built-in business lobby, expose the Commerce Department and the Administration to accusations of undue influence by business.

Brownell got the point. On word from the White House, “Sinny” Weeks’s council plan was quietly killed.