Montana labor news., 1935-09-19
Wheeler Outstanding
National Statesman
Review Of Accomplishments By
Eastern Writer Reveals
Amazing Power.
By RODNEY BUTCHER
NEA Staff Correspondent


= = =
WASHINGTON, Sept. 2,-When
congress reconvenes next January, the
senate probably will turn to two of its
most distinguished members and ask
well, boys, what neXt2'
The gentlemen addressed will be
Burton K. Wheeler Of Montana and
Robert F. Wagner of New York,
whose legislative achievements,
when you count up the score, stand
out above all others in this second
congress of the New Deal.
Wheeler, a radical from the far
west, reached a position OF power as
chairman OF the interstate commerce
committee and used it for all it was
worth, pounding through more than
hall a dozen important measures.
Wagner, the former immigrant boy
and Tammany judge, fathered the
economic security act, the labor dis
putes act. and railroad pensions.
Other leaders, including those prac-
I.tical politicians officially charged
with carrying the White House bod, al
most dwindle into insignificance beside
them.
GO Take a Dive"
In nearly every other session,
Wheeler has collapsed physically.
This year he was far too busy. Eight
months g some OF his best friends
were telling him he shouldn't take the
interstate Craftsmanship. He was too
temperamental and high-strung, not
very rugged, and probably incapable Of
standing the pace.
He didn't know how to work hard
and hadn't he better take the chair
manship of Indian affairs instead?
Wheeler told them to go take a dive.
Wheeler got so much publicity from
the Wheeler Rayburn public utilities
holding company bill that his other
achievements are largely overlooked.
His generalship is acknowledged by adj
ministration leaders as the most I'M
portant congressional factor in the vic
tory on that, but you must also give
him major credit-as fruits of many
long days in his hot, sitting, smoky
committee room-for:
Other Accomplishments.
l.. Investigation Of the American
Telephone q TeiegI dph Company, the
worlds largest corporation, by the fed
eral communications commission at a
cost Of $750,OOO.
2. Investigation Of railroad financ-
ing and reorganization. Bankers and
arrangements who shepherded SIS roads
(of $4,000 miles) into current bank
ruptcies and %receiverships and now
seek to profit from reorganization at
investor expense will feel the heat OF
this one.
3. Railroad reorganization legisla-
ton broadening court authority to in
sure fairness, placing bonholder com
mittees under L. &C. c. inspection and
providing Independent trustees PRO
tect investors from Wall Street rack
%eteers.
4. Forthcoming $15O,OOO investiga-
ton of food distribution, to find out
how much packers, Gamers, millers,
and other middlemen have been prof
iting at expense Of consumers and
farmers.
5. Bus and truck regulation-pro-
viding the first regulation Of CONNER
cial interstate motor traffic, rates, fares
and practices.
His Spare Time.
In spare time, Wheeler has taken on
such odd pobs as pushing the Guffey
coal bill through his committee and
blocking the money-sucking Bland
copeland merchant marine subsidy bill.
Wagner shared honors with others
on the economic security bill, though
no man was more instrumental in get
ting it passed in satisfactory form.
But the law creating a national labor
relations board with definite powers to
enforce collective bargaining is his very
own baby.
Its passage was due primarily to
Wagner's constant lobbying in congress
for it and his persistent banging at the
White House door.-From the Havre
Daily News.