Evening star., 1939-07-15
D. 6. Fiscal
Continued From First Page)

tions in the United States" he de-
clared. Even the text book writer's
don't agree on its meaning"
While the Government Printing
Office worked all last night to get
the $480O2,347 appropriation bill
printed in shape for the Congress
sional and White House sigma
lures, employees in the bookkeep-
ing and warrants section of the
Treasury Department came to work
at the crack of dawn to prepare
the way for issuance of checks to
the l1,000 District employees as soon
as the bill became law. An official
was summoned from the General
Accounting Office to stand by 10
countersign the warrants as soon
as the presidential signature ap-
piled.
S6,00O,0O0 Lump Sum.
Speaker Bankhead of the House
affixed his signature to the measure,
which was rushed through both
Houses late yesterday carrying a
$6,000,000 compromise Federal pay
ment to the District. at 1926 am.
in the presence of Majority Leader
Rayburn and Lewis Deschler, House
parllamentarian. It was then sped
to the Senate for the signature of
the Vice President and continued on
its journey to the Executive Man
sion. where the President signed it
at 11:15 am.
Passage of the supply bill ended
the crisis that has confronted the
local government since July /, as it
continued to operate without au-
thorized funds. But District off,
cials said there was no chance of
distributing todays pay roll to
1,500 city employees before Monday
and Tuesday.
Once the House and Senate con-
ferees on the appropriation bill had
ended the long deadlock over the
national payment by agreeing to
S6000,0 900, it went through both
houses in less than hours. Repre-
sentative Collins of Mississippi
steered it through the House, and
Senator Overton obtained quick
Senate approval.
For weeks the House had been
holding out for continuation of
the s5,O0O,0OO payment made an
nually for the past three years,
while the Senate contended tor a
temporary increase this year to ST.
100000.
First Check in Decline
The compromise obtained yester-
day by Senator Overton in negotia-
tion with Mr. Collins and other
conferees, marked the first Senate
victory in recent years in its effort
to check the downward trend of
Federal participation in the ex-
penses of the National Capital.
Over the seven-year period since
1882, the Federal lump sum had
been whitfield down from $500, 900
to $5,00O,00O.
The final break in the deadlock
on the appropriation bill, which
ended the citys financial emerg-
ency yesterday, came a few hours
after President Roosevelt had writ
ten to both Senator Overton and
Representative Collins, urging i'm
mediate passage of a joint resolu-
ton to give the city temporary
operating expenses.
Even before the letter arrived,
however, informal negotiations were
under way at the Capitol which pro-
duced the agreement on the bill,
rendering the temporary resolution
unnecessary.
The House acted swiftly on the
conference report. Fifteen minutes
after Chairman Collins of the sub
committee on appropriations had
called it up, the report had been
adopted by a standing 135-to-13
vote, and was on its way to the
Seate for concurrence.
Only the intercession of House
leaders, however, precluded a delay.
Immediately after the vote was an
nounced, Representative Moser,
Democrat, of Pennsylvania objected
on the ground a quorum was not
present-a move designed to force
a roll call of the House membership.
Finally Withdraws Motion.
There were cries of mo, no." from
both the Democratic and Repub-
lican sides of the chamber. Ma
jority Leader Rayburn hastened to
the front row where Mr.. Moser was
standing and appealed to him to
withdraw the motion. So did Chair
man Randolph of the District Com
mittee. Before Speaker Bankhead
had completed count to determine
whether quorum was present, Mr.
Moser withdrew the motion.
But as he did, Representative
Rlcn, Republican, of Pennsylvania
mace the same motion. Minority
Leader Martin rushed to his side
for brief conference and the Penn
sylVanian withdrew the motion as
an uproar of laughter spread
through the House chamber. Thus
the 135-to-13 vote stood as the final
action of the House.
Representative Collins explained
to the House its conferees had &C.
cepted the 5000, 900 lump sum pay
ment as compromise In an effort
to break the prolonged deadlock on