The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-07-07


 up a hornets nest of contr Experienced parliamentary lead- CTS, such as Charley McNary and Bill Borah, are vigorously opposed to such tactics and have voiced their opposition tin no uncertain ters.
 The veterans contend that a filibuster is "kid stuff. To begin with, they point out, if a filibuster is, to be resorted to then the smart thing to do is to keep the enemy from knowing about 1t in advance by talking about it. Sec- ondly, a filibuster is conclusive of lack of strength for these tactics are only used to prevent 6 major ity from balloting.
 Filibuster Dampener
 A filibuster, the veterans argue, will react against the opposition and play into the Presidents hands.
 They favor a brief and vigorous floor fight and then a motion to recommit the issue to committee. This maneuver, they believe, would win support from a number of democrats who don't want to vote against the President and yet don't want to vote for a court change. The motion would give them a chance to claim they were merely sending the issue back to committee for further considera- ton.
 Actually, of course, this would be tantamount to killing the legis- lation, for 1t would never again emerge from the committee dur ing the lifetime of this Congress. Personal Element
 There is also a personal element in the difference of opinion among the oppositionists.
 The veterans feel that the clam orers for a filibuster are interested primarily in grabbing the lime light for themselvc1 rather than In defeating the legislation. Van- denberg and Clark are known presidential aspirants and Burke loves.to grandstand.
 Furthermore, neither Vanden- berg nor Clark is popular among the rank and file on either aisle of the chamber, and their put ting on an act of mock heroicS won't win tn, opposltion any votes. In fact, it will lose votes by antagonixing some of the fence-sitters.
 vandenberg's participation in a filibuster also will play into the Administrations hand by enabling 1t to raise the party issue. The Administration has been trying desperately to raise this cry since the start of the controversy. That 1t has so far been unable to do So is due entirely to the willy strategy laid down by McNary, who insist ed from the beginning that the republicans keep in the back ground and let the dissident democrats play the leadership roles.
 Finish Fight
 The White House is prepared to fight the fllibuster to a finish. The President Is convinced that If the filibusterers are forced to talk con- tinuously for a week, the public reaction against them will be so severe that they will have to abandon their tactics and lose prestige and votes. as a result.
 The President is counting strongly on the first-termers to carry the brunt of the fighting in such a struggle, It was these Senators who took the wind out of the late Huey Long when he at- tempted to tie up the legislative wheels by filibustering. They sat the Kingflsh down hard after the party leaders had run for cover, Easy Ordeal
 Norman Thomas, head of the Socialist party, called on the President to tell about his recent trip through war-rent Spain. The two men, who are old personal friends, greeted one another warmly.
 You are certainly looking well, Norman" Roosevelt said.
 "And you are too, Mir. Pres- ident," replied Thomas; fin fact, remarkably so after the ordeal Jefferson Island) you went through last weekend"
 "Oh, 1t wasn't so bad, Nor man." Roosevelt laughed; "I didn't start repeating my jokes until the third day"
 Public Works Gets the Works
 The experts refused to be pinned down. They met the quer- les with the statement that the reorganization plan was merely a general outline, and that it was impossible to say at the moment where each bureau would fit into the new setup.
 This sounded ominous to the engineers. Quietly and deftly they put the finger" on the Public Works Department.
 OFF THE RECORD