Evening star., 1938-04-19
THE POLITICAL
BY C. GOULD LINCOLN.

W eOyAA6 Will CIlc lucd GlldU GQc ".
o. P. would make political capital if
the Republican members of the Rules
Committee should support special rule
for consideration Of the wage-hour bill,
and later in the House. the Republicans
should vote for the bill itself. Those
who believe in that kind Of strategy say
that the Republicans would be able to
tell the country-and particularly labor
they were responsible for the final
passage of this legislation
Those who believe in that kind OF
strategy are not considering what will
actually happen-that President Roose-
velt will go to the country and to labor
and say in effect: II originated this bill
for the benefit Of labor, fought for it,
and the New Deal Democrats in the
House and Senate put it through"
Who will then believe that Minority
Leader Smell and his Republican fol-
lowers were really responsible for this
legislation's passage through the House?
The President and party in power al
ways get the creditor the blame-for
legislation enacted. 1t looks like poor
strategy on the part of Republicans.
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On the other hand, II the Republicans
really believe in this Wage-hour bill and
from conviction vote for it, their action
may be applauded-but it will get them
no particular political favors
There are fourteen members Of the
House Rules Committee, ten Democrats
and four Republicans 1t takes eight,
or majority OF the committee, to report
out special rule for the consideration
OF the wage-hour bill. Without a special
rule. the bill could come up on the call
OF the calendar-at some distant time
or petition could be signed by a ma
Jority OF the House taking the bill away
from the Rules Committee and bringing
1t before the House. The latter was the
course followed in the special session
last December-and then the House, by
majority vote sent the measure back
to the committee on labor where it orig
mated
The four Republican members of the
Rules Committee, Martin of Massachu-
setts. Mapes Of Michigan, Taylor OF
Tennessee, and Mclean OF New Jersey,
were opposed to the granting of special
rule for the wagehour bill last winter.
The new bill, recently reported to the
House by the Labor Committee after
being particularly urged by the Presi-
dent, has now the support Of the Ameri-
can Federation of Labor-although Will
liam Green continues to insist that it
could be improved Last winter Green
and other representatives of the fedora
tion fought the wage-hour bill.
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Republicans in the House are told that
If they continue to oppose the wage-hour
bill-with Green and John L. Lewis now
both supporting the measure-they will
lose caste with labor. They are told also
that II this new Wage-hour bill. which
has no dlfterentials favoring the South
goes through. the split in the Demo-
cratic party will become all the more
pronounced. The answer is. of course
that the G. o. P. lost all the labor votes
possible at the 1896 elections and it
could not lose any more in all probability.
and that If the Southern Democrats do
become more disgruntled, they certainly
will not look with any more favor toward
the Republicans who let them down. It
was these same Southern Democrats
who stood with the Republicans to defeat
the Presidents court packing bill last
year and his reorganization bill this
year. Now the strategists are suggesting
that the Republicans can help to defeat
the Roosevelt administration by kicking
these Southern Democrats in the face.
Rumor has 1t that at least one Re-
publican member OF the Rules Com
mlttee. joe Martin of Massachusetts,
is likely to slip over and vote with the
administration Democrats for a special
rule to consider the wage-hour bill.
Since the new bill provides no differen-
tials in favor of the Southern industrial
lists, it is held that the North, particularly
the New England States. would benefit
thereby. But canny members of the
House point out that if the new wage
hour bill passes the House as it now
stands. without these differentials, it
has still to go to conference with the
Senate-which has passed a bill pro-
vldlng for such advantages for the South.
Nobody knows what will be done in con-
ference exactly. But even the President
has suggested that it might not be ad-
vlsable to have similar wage-hour scales
set up in all parts of the country at once.
MI. Martin and other northerners might
find they had not accomplished what
they set out to do, after the conferees
made their report
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Representative Martin is chairman OF
the Republican Congressional Committee
and also a member of the Republican
National Committee. He is credited in
some quarters with having an ambition
to become Governor of his State-and
possibly to seek the nomination this
year. If he slips over to the New Deal
Democrats In the contest in the Rules
Committee over the wage-hour bill.
doubtless he will influence other Re-
publicans in the House. There is one
thing certain. the Republicans are taking
anxious counsel with each other about
this matter of supporting or not SUD-
porting the wage-hour bill.
\
Chairman John O'Connor of the Rules
Committee has gone away for a few
days. But before he went he wrote all
members of the Rules Committee urging
that something be done to get the wage
hour bill before the House with a spe-
cial rule for its consideration. There
will be no meeting of the Rules Com
mittee, it is expected, until next week.
when Mr.. O'Connor gets back. Perhaps
by that time the Republicans and some
OF the Democratic members of the COM
mittee will have made up their minds
what to do. Representative Dies of
Texas and Lewis of Colorado are said
like MI. Martin, to be slipping over to
the supporters of the bill.
The other Democratic members of the
committee are SABBATH Of Illinois, Green
wood Of Indiana, Cox of Georgia, Driver
OF Arkansas, Smith of Virginia, Clark of
North Carolina and Harlan of Ohio.