Evening star., 1940-12-17

Naturally. when David Lawrence.
at the White House, his time isn't
his own Officials of executive agen-
cies, each with an idea that he must
see the President on a matter that
appears urgent. are bound to be
given time, and so are members of
Congress, who. if not granted inter-
views, are apt sometimes to think
they are being sighted.
When Mr.. Roosevelt left here for
his vacation and inspection trip, he
carried away analyses on some
rather important problems. What
to do about defense production and
what to do about the organization
of the defense commission was one
of the major questions placed before
him by trusted advisers Now the
time for decision has arrived, This
work should see an important evo-
luton of national policy.
Congress. of course, is merely
marking time waiting on the Presi-
dent The veto of the Logan Walter
bill will be up for action by both
Houses some time this week and
when it is disposed of the chances
are nothing more will be done by
the present Congress and a fresh
start will be made by the new Con-
eress which comes into Office on
January 3.
Slate to be Wiped Clean.
All the LEGISLATION which has gone
through committees or has been
passed by one or even both Houses
legislation which has not reached
the President for final action-has
10 be dropped and will have to be
acted on from the beginning. A
tremendous lot Of time is wasted
this way by our national legislative
body as we'll as the time of the many
citizens who have participated in
the hearings or in the committee
conferences drafting the legislation
In many instances, delay is in
Itself device to kill legislation.
The administration has for two
years maneuvered its forces so as
to kill off the Logan-Walter bill.
Delay after delay and finally the
measure was gotten through the
Senate, only to have the President
exhaust almost all of the 10 days
available to him for consideration,
so that now Congress has only a
few days-and these at the Christ
mas holiday period when many
members are absent - for further
consideration.
There are other measures, such as
the amendments passed by two-to-
one vote of the House, seeking to
correct abuses in the operation of
the Wagner labor relations law.
These, too, will be discarded for the
present and the amendments will
have to run the gauntlet of COM
mittee delays to get over to the
Senate again.
Significant Struggle.
The effort to check bureaucracy,
with its extremes, is being carried
on by bipartisan group of men,
bers of Congress. 1t is a significant
struggle. The majority party in
the Senate, working in close collab-
grafton with the bureaucrats in
Government, is preventing the re-
lease of any of the power previously
delegated by Congress.
1t will be an interesting refutation
of the oft heard cry that in America
dictatorship is impossible because
the Congress can at any time take
back the powers it delegates. A
more accurate statement of it is that
1t takes a tWo-thirds vote of both
Houses and not mere majority to
get back powers abandoned by the
legislative body 1t is a relatively
simple thing for the administration
to control one-third of the Senate
these days. Hence the chances of
correction of abuses whereby the
majority party in Government rides
rough shod over minority rights,
and especially rights that go to the
heart of fair procedure and fair
hearing, are rather slim even under
a so-called republican form of gov
ernment. The power is vested in a
political oligarchy and remains there
until public opinion is sufficiently
aroused to elect an overwhelming
number of opposition candidates to
Congress.
A Recurring Bill.
The Logan-Walter bill will bob up
again at the next session and it
will be pressed again and again, for,
like all liberal movements which
have back of them the compelling
force of fair play in a democracy,
this movement will eventually sue
ceed and new legislation curbing the
bureaucrats in their exercise of ar
bitrary power will be enacted.
Meanwhile, the eyes of the
National Capital are on the White
House as a veto message is trans
mitted to Congress on this funda-
mental question and as decisions are
awaited concerning the all-impor-
tant problem of getting America
into production of war weapons with
which TO aid Britain. For the rest
of this month, the Presidents time
will be filled with conferences with
Government officials and with the
final preparation of three important
documents which were on his mind
when he left here-the annual ad-
dress to Congress, to be submitted
the first week in January, along
with the message outlining the new
budget and, third, the inaugural
message of January 20, which is to
proclaim his ideas concerning the
Z fon,