Leland Olds hearing
The Leland Olds hearing in 1949 was the unsuccessful re-nomination of the head of the Federal Power Commission which has been cited as a precursor to McCarthyism.
Background
[edit]The Federal Power Commission was a five-member regulatory body appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.[1] One of the FPC's strongest leaders was Leland Olds who by 1949 had served two terms. Olds' insistence on enforcing the Natural Gas Act of 1938 raised the ire of the oil industry in Texas.
Olds was an economist who in the 1920s, before he was appointed by Roosevelt as chairman of the commission, had been the Industrial editor for the Federated Press[2] a left wing news agency which served Trade Union newspapers but had an ambiguous relationship with the American Communist Party.[3]
Hearings
[edit]Robert Caro's book Master of the Senate alleges that Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Leland's re-appointment by orchestrating a proto McCarthyite smear campaign.[4] The tactics involved having the staff of the House Un-American Activities Committee dig up old writings for the Federated Press, which were then taken out of context to falsely paint Olds as a communist.
In 1948 in the debate over the deregulating Kerr Bill, Olds together with another Commissioner Claude L. Draper published a study that forcefully argued that the Federal Power Commission had both the authority and the duty to regulate the prices that Natural Gas was sold to wholesalers. This was opposed not just by other members of the FPC but also Senators from the gas-producing Southwest, including Robert Kerr of Oklahoma and Lyndon Johnson of Texas.[2]
Robert Caro's book Master of the Senate describes how Lyndon B. Johnson, whose campaign in the 1948 United States Senate election in Texas received extensive funding from Texas oilmen, defeated Olds' re-appointment by orchestrating a smear campaign to accuse Olds of Communist sympathies.[4]
This involved utilizing the staff of the House Un-American Activities Committee to dig up old writings which were then taken out of context to falsely paint Olds as a communist or communist sympathizer. The subcommittee in charge of reappointment was stacked against Olds,[5] and anti-Olds witnesses appearing before the committee were coached by Johnson.[4]
The subcommittee in charge of reappointment was stacked against Leland and coached by Johnson. Despite support from Eleanor Roosevelt[6] he was denied renomination.
At the end of the nomination fight Johnson came up to Olds and said “Lee, I hope you understand there’s nothing personal in this. We’re still friends, aren’t we? It’s only politics, you know.”[7]
Aftermath
[edit]Following such episodes, the FPC was reluctant to impose price regulation on the producers with many regulations being reversed after he left.[8]
The Olds hearings were seen by many as a template for later McCarthyite purges.[7]
The lack of action by the FPC after Olds left was seen as the cause of the Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Wisconsin lawsuit.
References
[edit]- ^ 16 U.S.C. § 792.
- ^ a b "Leland Olds, 1890-1960" (PDF). Gale Group. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ https://spectator.org/fierce-anti-feminist-and-in-your-face/
- ^ a b c Robert A. Caro (2002). Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson. ch. 10-12. ISBN 0-394-52836-0.
- ^ "The Senatorial Rejection of Leland Olds: A Case Study" Joseph P. Harris American Political Science Review Vol. 45, No. 3 (Sep., 1951), pp. 674-692
- ^ https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydocedits.cfm?_y=1949&_f=md001404
- ^ a b Hayward, Steven. "The Making of LBJ". Claremont Review of Books.
- ^ https://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/5/18/211452/