Evening star., 1939-10-29
House Stage Sci
For Quick Action
On Neutrality
Administration Plans
Call for Passage by
Friday or Saturday
By G. GOULD LINCOLN,


Administration forces set the
stage yesterday for prompt, favor
able action in the House this week
| on the neutrality bill passed by
the Senate Friday, repeating the
arms embargo and providing cash
and-carry' sales terms. The par
liamentary strategy is to send the
bill to conference under a special
rule. and with no amendments to
be offered in the House
II the program works out as
planned. final action on the bill
by next Friday or Saturday will be
had, followed by speedy ad-
journment of the special session
of Congress.
Last night Representative Fish
of New York, ranking minority
member of the House Foreign Al
fairs Committee, who will lead the
fight against embargo repeal, is
sued a radio appeal to voters all
over the country to send word to
their Representatives to oppose the
bill as it came from the Senate.
Would Ban Lethal Arms.
Representative Fish made it clear
that the main effort of the House
opponents of Tepeal will be to save
the Vorys amendment to the bill
as it passed the House. This would
prohibit the sale of 'lethal" arms
and munitions to belligerent ma
lions.
speaker Bankhead and Major
ity Leader Rayburn predicted there
would be a majority of the House
when the showdown came to carry
through President Roosevelt's re-
, quest for embargo repeal as con-
tanned in the Senate bill Neither
would estimate the majority. How
ever. Chairman Bloom of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee said the
margin of victory for the admins
tration would be at least 80 votes
Other Democratic leaders who have
been following the contest closely
estimated the majority for repeal
would run as high as 40 or even so.
The program for House considera-
ton of the bill, as announced by
Speaker Bankhead. provides for
sending the bill to conference. The
Conference Committees of the House
and Senate then are expected to
rach a speedy agreement on the
basis of the Senate bill. The Sen
ate will act first on the conference
report and finally the House.
Special Rule Necessary.
The Speaker said he did not
believe it would be possible to OBJ
tain unanimous consent to take the
bill from the Speakers table and
move to send it to conference.
Therefore, it is planned to have the
House Rules Committee meet to-
morrow afternoon and bring in a
special rule for this procedure
Representative Rayburn said there
was no disposition to interfere with
adequate debate in the House and
indicated he would not object to
allowing two days for discussion of
the bill.
When the special rule is pre-
sented to the House, it will be sub
ject to an hours debate. If and
when it is adopted, the Speaker
said he would recognize a member
of the House to move to instruct the
conferences. This would, he said, be
privileged motion. and could be
made before the House conferees
are appointed. Presumably the mo-
ton would be to instruct the con-
ferees to stand by the Vorys amend
ment
When questioned as to whether
this were not an unusual procedure.
the Speaker replied that it had
been done often in the past, and
in that he was supported by Ma
jority Leader Rayburn. Represen-
tative Martin of Massachusetts, the
minority leader, also said later that
such procedure had been followed
on many occasions. Representative
Martin added that it was a pro-
,edure which would make the admin
istration's course with the bill
easier.
Wants Longer Debate.
Representative Fish said he and
the other opponents of the embargo
repeal might make their first fight
against the special rule itself.
Il believe that at least three days,
or "a hours of debate. should be
allowed in the House." he said. If
cannot get an agreement to that
effect, We will fight the rule. Also,
believe that we should be given
an opportunity to offer amendments
to the bill"
Mr.. Fish ridiculed the claims of
administration leaders that the
(see NEUTRALITY, Page A-3)