Evening star., 1938-04-11

Roosevelt has David Lawrence,
been permanent
ly formed in the House of Represent
atives. 1t does not mean that con-
servatives are now in control.
In short. it is important that the
defeat of the President be accurately
Interpreted and not grossly misinter-
preted lest the friends of conStitu-
tional democracy be caught mapping
dents bill to pack the Supreme Court
was beaten. At that time the oppo-
nents of the President gloated over
the victory, thought it was all over
with the New Deal, and took such a
passive interest in what was going on
later that it took intensive organiza-
ton and lots of hard work on the
part Of a small band of militant citi-
zens to arouse the country to the is
sues raised in this session of Con-
gress by the reorganization bill
1t is easy enough too, to say the
vote in the House last week was an
expression of a lack of confidence in
sense, he lost his majority Unques-
tionably this factor entered into it.
There can be no doubt about it be-
cause Majority Leader Rayburn. in
pleading for support for the bill said
a vote against the measure would be
interpreted as a lack of confidence in
the President.
Actually, however. several elements
influenced the voting Any one who
knows the personnel of the House can
glance over the list of 104 Democrats
who voted against the reorganization
bill and he will see there many who
have received patronage favors from
the White House or directly owe their
election victories of 1886 to Mr.. Roose-
velt's help. Why, then, did they de-
sert him? Did these men want to ex-
press lack of confidence in him? Not
at ALL Then what was the reason?
The truth is there was a backfire built
under them in their respective dis
trtcts which scared them into think
ing they might be defeated in next
autumn's elections and that the Roose-
Welt mantle would not be as helpful
as it was before because the President
has failed thus far to alleviate the ills
OF the new economic depression.
Frightened U. S. Employees.
Another factor in the voting was
something that had nothing to do
with being pro or anti-Roosevelt. It
was the powerful influence of clerks
and Government employees generally
WHO were frightened by the reorgani-
cation bill. believing it meant a gen.
eral reshufling of jobs. These Gov
ernment employees sometimes are DO
litlcally very helpful in Congress-
mans organization back home or else
they are in a position to do favors for
Congressman and Senators, and now
sought their help in killing the bill.
This was not substantial factor but
an incidental one in the lining up of
votes against the reorganization
measure.
There were other angles in the sit
uation, such as fear that removal OF
particular bureau might affect a
Congressman's interests adversely in
this or that fashion, as for instance
the fear that the Department of We'll
fare might in some peculiar way
affect parochial schools through con-
troll OF the Bureau of Education. Eff |
1orts to amend the bill to remove
these objections were made by the |
administration, but to no avail.
fhprp ,1,cto
group who believed the time had come
to show the country that Congress
could be independent of the Execu-
tive and that America could resist |
any kind of a dictator, successful. un- |
successful, young or full grown. In |
the same group were those who be- |
lieved 1t was time to tell the Nation |
that recovery measures would come |
firm and reform second. Also there
were members even among the DEM
ocrats, who felt that a rebuke to Mr..
Roosevelt was needed as a sort of re- |
freshing example of the power of the |
people to demand less experimental
tion with and more Cooperation with |
the existing business system.
Passage of the tax bill in the Sen
ate, however, is a far better indica-
tion of the latter point of view. In
deed, there is far more reason for
qualification and announcement on
the part of business men, far more
stimulus to recovery and economic |
progress in the action taken by the
Senate on the tax bill than by the
House on the reorganization bill.
Split in Party.
What the country needs to notice.
on the other hand, is that there is
split in the Democratic party and
that on these two measures last week
the administration was defeated by
a combination of independent Demo-
cratic and Republican votes. Without
the solid vote of the Republicans
neither the tax bill nor the reorgan-
ization bill fight could have been
won. The Importance of keeping a
minority party alive and maintaining
cohesion in its ranks was never better
illustrated than when Minority Leader
Bert Smell was able to bring virtually
every Republican vote in the House
to bear against the reorganization
bill.
To whom should the whole victory
over the reorganization bill be as
cribed? Only to the people back
home, who took real interest In
what was happening here. Were mil
lions of voters active? The telegraph
companies report about $4,000 tele-