Evening star., 1936-06-04

cratic Joint Policy Committee of the
House and Senate. He helped write
the national budget law and once
sponsored a bill combining the War
and Navy departments into a depart
ment of defense, explaining it would
save S1O0,00O,000 yearly.
The economic crash in the waning
months of the Hoover administration
and its resultant backlaSh in politics
served to thrust Byrns further into
the limelight as one of the key men"
in the recovery program Of President
Franklin Roosevelt.
II supported the President in all Of
his recovery measures without single
exception and, as majority leader, was
in charge of maneuvering those bills
on the floor of the House" he said
pridefully at the close of the Seventy
third Congress. His loyalty to the
White House led him to support the
Executives opposition to cash pay
ment of the bonus to World War
veterans and to warn the bipartisan
majority which voted for it. that they
were jeopardizing the whole recovery
program.
Strategy Saves Recovery Bills.
Defeat of an attempted Republican
f1libuSter in the closing days of the
busy 1884 session was regarded by
Byrns as one of his greatest single
featS. The maneuver would have
blocked action on several measures.
which the administration considered
essential.
ByrnS' tactics in this emergency
showed his talent as Strategist. He
quietly laid his plans with Democratic
members of the Rules Committee and
the Republicans discovered the situ-
alton only after all arrangements for
the Byrns coup had been perfected.
The plan was to amend the rules
so that ByrnS, as floor leader, could
move for a recess instead of an ad-
journment at the end Of each legis-
lative day. This would make the
record show each succeeding days
meeting as a continuation of the pre-
ceding days session, keeping the first
days program before the House.
Despite Republican pleas, this
amendment went through The Ten
nessean also was empowered to move
for a suspension of all rules by a
majority vote.
The Republicans called this dicta-
torial," said Byrns, but it choked
their filibuster to death and we got
all our bills through the house"
While he was floor leader Byrns
followed the policy of having ad-
miniStration bills introduced by the
chairman of the committee which
considered them. Consequently, his
name appeared as sponsor of only
one of the Roosevelt relief measures,
the bill setting up the Civilian Con-
servation Corps. He offered this one
because the chairman of the Labor
Committee chose not to introduce it..
Unanimous Choice For Speaker.
Byrns went before the House as
candidate for the speakership on
January 3, 1885, backed by the unani-
nous endorsement of the Democratic
caucus. The party held 322 seats, the
Republicans, 102; Farmer-Labor, g.;
ProgresSives, T. and there was one
vacancy. The formal ballot recorded
316 votes for Byrns. Addressing the
House the new Speaker said:
II subscribe to the platform and
principles of my party and shall
endeavor, so far as I properly can,
to assist in the enactment of legis-
lation in accordance with those
policies.
But have been in minority, too,
and understand its problems. While
shall help the majority to carry
out its plans, shall be equally in
sistent upon preserving the rights of
the minority to debate and record
its position on all public questions. :"
The first act of the House under
ByrnS' speakerShip was to rescind
a rule which the Democrats had
forced through in 1881 and which
provided that a committee could be
discharged from consideration Of a
bill upon petition of las members. BY
this action the House reverted to a
House law dating the Gar days of
Speaker Joe" Cannon, and requiring
that a majority of the entire body
must petition the Speaker to bring
a bill out of committee.
The change strengthened the hold
of the party upon what some observers
had predicted would be a top-heavy
and undiSciplined majority. The
presence of 109 new members and re-
ports of some legislation which they
had in mind, were the determining
factors in perSuading the Democratic
leadership to give up the more liberal
practice.