Evening star., 1936-05-10
NEW HOPE IS SEEN
FOR HOUSE ACTION
.ON rider" REPEAL
Byrns Announces Readiness
to Allow Special Dis
trict Day.
SISSON BILL IMPERILED
BY CONTINUED DELAYS
Loses Chance Tomorrow Under
Plan for Action on Frazier.
Lemke Measure.
BY JAMES E. CHINN.

The. Sisson bill, providing for out
right repeal of the red rider" to the
1886 District appropriation act. Gud-
denly took a new lease on life yes
terday as a result of an announce
ment by Speaker Byrns that he would
not stand in the way of any move to
give the District a special day in the
House for showdown on the measure.
The District will lose its regular day
IN the House tomorrow-the date
on which Chairman Norton of the
District Committee had planned to
call up the Sisson bill-because of de-
velopments that. will force considera-
ton of the controversial Frazier
Lemke farm mortgage bill. The next
regular District day is May Is.
Supporters of the "red rider" re-
pealer fear that if House consideration
is delayed until that time, it will be
too late to get final action before ad-
journment of Congress. tentatively
set for the first week in June.
Byrns, who has been unusually
sympathetic to the District, said 1t
might be possible to make up the lost
day before May 25, and that he would
not offer any objection to such a
plan. A request for the day, however,
has not been made by the District
Committee.
The Speaker also pointed out the
Sisson bill could be called up under a
special rule. He expressed the belief,
however, that Representative Blanton,
Democrat, Of Texas. arch foe of the
Sisson bill, might prevent it from
being brought up under unanimous
consent agreement.
Next Week Earliest Date.
It is unlikely that the lost District
day can be made up until the week OF
May ls, Byrns said. because of the
determination of House leaders to
dispose of the Frazier-Lemke bill and
pending conference reports this week.
Although Byrns has not indicated
his attitude toward the Sisson bill,
he has become aroused over newspaper
editorials and letters and kilograms
from various sections of the couu-
try blaming him for the loss of Dis
trict day in the House tomorrow, which
has forced the delay in consideration
of the measure. He said that under
House rules he could not prevent the
Frazier-Lemke bill being given the
right of way.
At the same time. Byrns blamed the
delay of House consideration OF the
bill on the District Committee. He
pointed out that the bill could have
been reported a month or more ago
and taken on one of the three Dis
trict days that were devoted. to the
Ellnbogen rent control bill. The
committee however, he declared, did
not actually report the bill until last
Thursday, about 10 days after 1t had
decided to make favorable report to
the House.
Cites Rules Of House.
"I cannot be blamed for that de-
lay" said Byrns. Neither can I be
blamed for the loss of the District
day in the House tomorrow. People
who make such charges do not under
stand the rules q the House"
In the meantime, the Education
Subcommittee of the District Com
mittee, which conducted hearings on
the bill, filed its longawaited report
with the House.
The report contained a fiat denial
that Communism had made any in
roads into the District public schools,
and completely vindicated Supt.
of Schools Frank w. Ballou and
the Board of Education of charges
that they had permitted school
children to be indoctrinated with
the factual history of red Rus
sia. In addition, the report gave a
clean bill of health to the text books
used in the schools, pointing out that
the subcommittee investigation failed
to show that any of the literature
''had even the remotest connection
with the question of advocacy of COM
munism"