The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1938-06-30

spending. In its two regular SEES
sions and one short extra session il
appropriated more than 81 billion
dollars. Considerably less than half
of that amount will come out Of tax
revenues. The rest will have to be,
or already has been borrowed.
Political observers with long
memories are, recalling here the ia
NOUS remark of Thomas B. Reed,
Speaker of the House in 1905. In
one two-year period when the Con
gress had appropriated a billion dol
lars, Tom Reed replied to a critic of
such legislative extravaganza: "The
United States is a billion-dollar
country" It has now become, by
the same scale, twenty-billion- dol
lar country.
The second session of the 18th
Congress spent third more money
than did the first session. In 1897 it
appropriated $9,356, 000, 900; in 1888
its appropriations amounted to $12,-
SOC. 900, 900.
Many Major Enactments
OF this huge total slightly more
than 5 billion dollars were for the
general recovery-and-relief program
Of the Administration, one and
three-quarter billions for the Adj
ministration's farm program, almost
two billions for national defense and
more than ten billions for the regu-
lar departmental operatives Of the
Government.
The list of major enactments by
the session just ended included the
Farm Bill, tax revision, wage-stanS
dard legislation, naval expansion,
Federal highway aid, flood control,
civil aeronautics control, housing,
food and drug law revision, mer-
chant marine reform, Reconstruc-
ton Finance Corporation amend
ments to provide commercial and in
dustrial credits, and the relief and
recovery bill.
Bills not passed included execu-
tive reorganization, recommitted in
the House after a bitter fight; anti
lynching, killed by a Senate fill
buster; railroad financial aid, jetti-
soned in the last-hour adjournment
rush; and the Walsh-Healey gov
eminent contract bill amendments,
providing BLACK list" of alleged
violators of the National Labor Re
lations Act, which was killed by the
House leadership in the adjourn
ment rush.
This latest session of Congress
differed from most of its predeces-
scrs in that comparatively few of
its acts were the result of pressure
from sources outside the govern
ment.
The most barefaced attempt at
dictation to Congress by a pressure
block" failed. That was the attempt
of the G. I. o. leader, John L. Lewis,
to "turn the heat on members of
Congress to compel them to adopt
a law blacklisting corporations
which do not acceded to the rulings
Of the National Labor Relations
Board.
President Regains Lost Prestige
In the closing days of the session
Mr.. Lewis obtained from Speaker
Bankhead permission to use the
Speakers Office as a place in which
to interview members of Congress
That proceeding, and the bullying
attitude which Mr.. Lewis assumed
toward the members who respond
ed to his summons had precisely the
opposite effect from what he intend
ed. It created an antagonism toward
the c. I. o. and its leader which, in
the opinion Of many Congressman,
will be difficult to eradicate.
It is regarded as definite that the
influence Of that major branch Of
the Labor Lobby has been decided
ly weakened. The A. F. L., rather
than c. I. o., can take credit for
the final push which put over the
wage and-hours act; but the heavi-
est pressure for this, as for most of
the other acts of this Congress, came
from the White House.
Surveying the scene in the light
of all that occurred. it is felt here
that MIR. Roosevelt regained most of
his lost prestige before the session
ended. If the November elections
go in such a way that he can inter-
pref them as vote of renewed con-
fidence, there is little doubt that he
will press again in the next Con-
gress for his Government Reorgan-
ization program, and possibly for
the tax laws of the undistributed
profits tax, which was stricken out
oyer his protest.
New York Political Outlook
The outlook for the next Congress
is complicated by the sudden death
of Senator Copeland of New York
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