The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1932-04-28
NEA Service Writer

washington - IL seems LOO Ddu
that the House Ways and Means
Committee should have to bear
the brunt of SO much that happens
in this session of congress.
There are many who would say
that nothing is too bad for the
committee, which produced the
Hawley -Smoot tariff bill, but the
committee this year is under DEM
ocratic control, which lessons the
force of that argument.
Just little while ago the Ways
and Means boys were being ground
down by the pressure of hundreds
of lobbyists as they wrote a tax
bill, showed in and under by
storms of letters and kilograms of
protest. Then they were kicked
all over the house floor when they
brought in the bill. saw their meas
ure wrecked and were made to
work out a new one.
A Grim Struggle
Now they must wrestle grimly
with the bill to cash the soldiers
bonus. They must decide whether
that proposal, advanced by Con-
gresham Wright Patman OF
Texas who blithely urges the print
of $2,4O0, 100000 in currency to
pay off "the boys" would benefit
the country, as Patman says, or
ruin it completely, as many others
say.
That means more responsibility.
worry, pressure and unpopularity.
OF course the Senate Finance Com,
mittee has these tariff, tax and
bonus bills, too, but Wages and
eMans gets the worst of 1t because
all fiscal measures must originate
in the house. The hard grind
takes its toll.
Chairman Collier of Mississippi
collapsed early in the session and
is not yet back on the job.
Majority Leader .Rainey of Iili-
nois, who was large factor in the
tax bill fight and supervises the
opposition to the pro-bonus cashing
witnesses before the committee,
has grown thin and his face Is
more pathetically puckered each
day.
Crisp Died Well and Often
| Y Acting Chairman Crisp of Geor-
gia. who fathered the sales tax,
became SO distracted that for
weeks he barred and beat his
breast, tore his hair and died for
his country almost daily in one or
the most sustained demonstrations
of the sort yet seen.
Last year Chairman Hawley OF
| Oregon, now ranking republican
member, became so affected by
THE growing bonus agitation that
he simply disappeared and didn't
come out of hiding to call a COM
mittee meeting until veteran
groups threatened to offer $1O,-
900 reward for his capture.
About the only consolation the
members get must lie in the fact
that the committee sits on an eie-
waited, semi-circular dais, like SO
many judges, with a huge, high,
gilt-trimmed red plush curtain
behind them to cover the. door
through which they emerge and
leave.
The only other congressional
committee with such, set-up is
the House Judiciary. The rest
Just strew themselves around long
tables.
Stage Manager Patman
Mr. Patman sits down below
during bonus hearings, stage mas
ter for his various witnesses. He
is beatific and chubby, with chin
bullying out over a high, long
pointed stiff collar and after the
fashion traditionally popular with
motormen.
The big room is full of men VINO
are obviously ex-service. Many
Of them wear buttons to show 1t.
Most Of them are roughly dressed
and quite few are not shaved. :,
I dropped in a few minutes ana
heard a congressman make the ia
miliar argument that the govern
ment should pay off "the boys"
because it had "given' the banks
and railroads SO much money.
Rainey choked off that by making