The Wilmington morning star., 1941-01-19
Bruce Cations
In Washington
Star-News Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON - The so-cal1ed 'liberal'
bloc of the House of Representatives, which
hasn't been heard of much since Maury Ma.
verick disappeared from the capital scene, is
trying to stage a comeback in this new Con.
gress under the leadership of stocky, comba.
tive Representative John Coffee of Washington
state.
It isn't organized as a formidable bloc, yet.
It's merely an informal, almost impromptu
grouping Of somewhere between Is and 50
House members. It has just enough Of an or.
ganization to have a chairman, who is Coffee.
It's members meet once a week during ses-
sions, usually in the Dodge Hotel. There's gen.
orally a speaker-sometimes a congressman,
sometimes a New Deal functionary, some
times an outsider-whose talk is followed by
a chat on pending legislation and a discussion
of current issues.
This group had more importance earlier in
the New Deal than it has had since Maverick
unintentionally brought it low in his final term.
He was chairman, and was forever being re-
ferred to in print under that title. The average
congressman, liberal or otherwise, is pretty
jealous, so a lot of bloc members began to
figure they weren't doing anything much be-
sides getting Maverick a lot of publicity, and
attendance at the meetings dropped. Coffee is
keeping pretty much in the background, nurs-
ing the bloc back to vigor with due regard
for everyone's sensitivity.
LIBERAL TRADITION
IN COFFEE FAMILY
Coffee himself is an unusual sort. Son of a
Well-to-do Tacoma business man who was once
president of the Tacoma Chamber of Com
merce, he was reared in better-than-average
comfort and given an expensive education at
the University of Washington and at Yale.
There was a strong liberal tradition in the
family. however William Jennings Bryan
used to visit the home when Coffee was a
great admirer Of the elder Bob La Toilette
and as soon as John Coffee got to Washington
in 1886 he began to establish a reputation as
a two-fisted left-winger.
But as chairman of the new House liberal
bloc, Coffee isn't just another congressman
%spouting. He speaks for a group which some
times holds the balance of power in the House
when the Democrats get more than usually
split and which often runs interference for
the administration on measures and ideas the
administration can't 60 to the front for.
This group, says Coffee, is going to be un-
usually vigilant this winter to protect do
nestle reforms and see that monopoly doesn't
tense program"
CUNNING FOR WAGNER
ACT AMENDMENTS
Congressman Howard Smith of Virginia has
re-introduced his Wagner Act amendments,
which failed Of passage in the last session,
and stands ready to bring in a bill restricting
labor's right to strike in defense industries.
It's such measures that the House liberals
are cunning for.
There reactionaries are going to take strikes
in defense industries as examples of hamper
ing our patriotic effort says Coffee, 'but
they say nothing about the way some in
dustrialists are demanding their pound of
flesh. If they put any such laws through you
can bet labor will start hollering to have the
government do some communicating of fac
tories.
"Of course, what's happening is that a few
extremists on both sides are guilty. They've
all got to see that the public interest comes
first in this emergency" 3