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WASHINGTON WEEK
Ncwi front iialiun't capital of \|>ocial iiiti-ri-st to adincn 9 December IJMH
if-^ Regulatory agency heads gathered in the Wh i t e House last week to hear President Johnson praise , exhort and warn them about their 'great
powor" to advance or impede the American economy.
Each of the 16 regulatory chiefs addressed will have to be his own
interpreter of the Johnson preachment. On the whole, the tenor seemed to
be heavier on warning than on praise.
•^-^ Broadcast and advertising industries will have reason to interpret
the President ' s stand as leaning toward laissez-faire — except in his clear warning to agencies to resist pressures from the self-seeking.
Johnson said he would follow the former president's policy of insistence that agencies encourage "natural growth" of the economy. This means refraining from raising "luinecessary obstacles" or from administrative incompetence that produces the same impediment to progress.
He reminded agency heads that John F. Kennedy called for a re-assessment of the regulatory function as one of the most urgent areas of "unfinished business" before the government today. The former president was concerned — and Lyndon Johnson is concerned — over the regulatory effect on "almost every activity of national life."
"You hold a great power, he told the gathering.
^^ "President Kennedy expressed the weariness Americans feel for ^ ^ ^
the battle against substitution of government 's interest for the public interest. "
This phrase from Johnson's remarks may become one of the most quoted in the industry. More, the President said the pubic finds "distracting and irritating and ultimately intolerable the heavy hand of complacent and static regulation."
Also: "He (Kennedy) wanted the people to have from the government a standard of excellence which would inspire their confidnce, instead of evoking their fear."
The President said that he did not mean to be critical of the agencies, but to challenge them. He urged them to consider "new areas of cooperation before we concern ourselves with new areas of control." He exhorted them to "re-examine and re-evaluate" their regulatory role — something that Senate and House Commerce committee members have also urged at various times in the past.
■^^ President Johnson said the White House would keep its eye on this "very special group" and "stand with you to the last , when you are right. " When the executive parents of the agencies feel the commissions are
in the wrong, "you will know from us first and directly. "
The President kindly assured them that he understood the tremendous
burdens they are now carrying, and how often they must "sail unchartered
seas. ■
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