The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1941-04-01

Henry Wallace tive majority's
required to pass
legislation. In case Of a senate tie,
however, the vice presidents en-
titled to a vote. At that time
Charles C. Dawes held the job
and as he was a good pro-admin.
istrationist. If he'd been present tc
cast his ballot, Cal would have
scored victory.
But 1t so happened that Charley
wasn't on hand to break the dead
lock. Instead, he was sleeping late
in his bedroom at the Willard no.
tel about a mile away from the
Capitol building. BY the time
messenger could get to him anc
wake him up. and he could get his
face washed and into his clothes
and back to the Capitol, the Incl.
dent was closed. Cal was defeated
and never did get what he wanted
But nobody intimated that
Charley had slumbered so far or
into the day with the deliberate in.
tention Of avoiding putting himself
on record.
But Vice President Henry A
Wallace?
Intentional Maybes
Capitol Hills more than wonder.
ing if he didn't purposely dodge a
tie-breaking vote on the Argen.
tine beef question.
Our present law strictly prohibits
the purchase, for our navy's use, OF
amy article Of food not grown OF
produced in the United States OF
its possessions" There are some
foods that we don't produce at all
or in insufficient quantity. They're
excepted. We produce enough meat,
though, to feed all our blue1ackets
and marines aplenty,
Well. we're trying desperately &c
scoop the whole of Latin America
into our Yankee orbit, under our
Good Neighbor policy. The one New
World republic that we find the
most difficulty in attracting to us
is Argentina. The reason is that
the Argentine's mostly agricultur-
al and pastoral. Its production Is
practically the same as our own.
Therefore we and the Argentinos
can't conveniently swap products
We both have SURPRISES Of the
same thing.
But Of late the Argentine has
been suggesting that maybe it can
sell US some Of its meat to our own
advantage. For one thing, it offers
to underbid our cattlemen. Further
more. it contends that its canned
beef mice stuff for naval consump-
tom is better than ours-better
because the Argentinos can their
tip-top cuts, whereas we sell the
best Of ours as roasts and steaks,
and can only inferior qualities.
This struck our Good Neiehborly
administration as a bright idea. It
was recognized that such Argen-
tine meat as our navy might re-
quire probably wouldn't be very
large item. but lifting the ban
would be friendly gesture, any,
way So President Roosevelt was
strongly in favor Of lifting it, and
the plan was put up 10 congress.
It was a notion though, that
didn't take with our cattle inter-
ests
Now. Henry Wallace, as vice
president, naturally was quite
aware what F D. considered desir-
able. AS a farm newspaper editor,
he also knew how the cattlemen
felt And, as a Latin-American
specialist, the Argentinos' angle
was perfectly obvious to him.
Just as the senates presiding Of
fcer, II was none Of his funeral
how the upper congressional cham
Der voted on the scheme. But, as he
began to sense the fact that the d.
vision was going to be exceedingly
close and that he might have to be
a tie-breaker. maybe it occurred to
him that such a vote would make
him violently conspicuous - that
he'd put himself frightfully in bad
with one or the other Of two nearly
$3.50 groups whichever way he
voted.
Possibly it was only a coinci-
dence that he wasn't present at the
critical juncture. He wasn't Sleep
ing, away far off from the Capitol,
however He was no farther away
from the senate chamber than a
two-minute run down one flight Of
stairs, eating lunch in the senate
restaurant.
One Ballot Missed
To be sure. the tie that Henry
might have broken didn't remain a
tie for very long Originally It
looked like a 1882 alignment. A
couple Of days later, however, Sen.
ator Richard 2 Russell Of Georgia.
who had voted for Argentine meat