Evening star., 1942-07-21

spicu cuous ex-
ample of the ef-
feet of congress DAVID Lawrence
sional elections on the mind OF leg
tslators was given yesterday IN the
House. Although Chairman Dough-
ton of the Ways and Means Com
mittee. a Democrat who has con-
sistently supported the major pol
icies of the New Deal, pleaded with
members to support the commit
tees proposal for the alteration OF
the corporation tax schedule the
House, by a vote Of 180 to 1e0, de-
iiberately rejected the advice and in
serted an even worse provision from
the standpoint Of business than was
originally written into the measure
Little If any thought was given by
the majority to the fact that small
businesses, debt ridden and weak,
struggling to get foothold to COM
pete against the larger and we'll
financed units, were to be penalized.
Little thought was given to any ar
sument except one-"soak the cor
porations."
Phrase Rescnts Challenge.
Somehow the words corporation
taxes" have challenge in them that
few members Of Congress IN an
election year venture to disregard.
How, 1t is reasoned, can Represen-
tative 20 back home and admit he
voted for anything that even re-
motely helped the "corporations2"
It doesn't seem to occur to them
that the whole system Of free en-
terprise and competition depends on
the chance given to the weaker COM
pany to compete with the larger one
and that q tax bill which penalties
the weak and doesn't really hurt the
strong is the very opposite Of what
the constituent voters would ap-
prove If they knew all the facts.
But the assumption is that the
voters either will not learn or will
not understand the facts. Harry
Hopkins is credited with the guiding
slogan Of modern politics, namely
that "the people are too damn dumb
to understand" The truth is, of
course, just the opposite. The peo-
pie understand only too well but the
system OF campaigning which pre-
vents single issue from being
voted on, as is the case with the
parliamentary method Of govern
ment, blends lot Of issues into ono
campaign and the public does not
have an opportunity to elect or re-
ject members Of Congress on specific
issues, as they 80 often do in Britain
and in Canada.
Members of Congress recently have
been wondering why the critics have
been 50 severe with them. They
have wondered why all the hula
baloo was raised about ''x" cards
in gasoline. What they fail to per-
ceive Is that the confidence Of the
intelligent people Of America In the
capacity Of the majority Of the
members Of Congress to stand up
for the right, irrespective of the
effect on their own political fortunes,
has been gradually diminishing over
the years and that many people
think Of members Of Congress as
Just q selfish and ambitious group
OF politicians.
Dominated by Politics.
Certainly in the midst OF the
greatest peril to the Nation the
handling of the labor issues and the
farm subsidy problem has not re-
fiected credit on the national leg
tlature. Certainly also the indul-
sence in political log-rolling in
handling the biggest tax bill in his
tory has brought encouragement to
many who would like to be able to
defend Congress against the many
attacks, such as the "X-card" con-
troversy, that are visited on our
legislators.
Individually they are hard work.
ing group, but the system of politics
dominates them. That is why this
correspondent had hoped that the
two major parties could agree on
candidates this summer so as to
make unnecessary bitter campaign
and so that the elections, which, of
course, will be held next November
would freeze" the status of major
ity and minority membership and
spare the Nation in wartime the
agony of political rough-house.
The suggestion was most severly
condemned by the conservatives who
perhaps believed that this year the
political complexion of Congress
might change, and that the status
quo should not be maintained.
Even the New Dealers, who are not
averse to freezing the majority
status in every trade union in the
country so that the workers in the
minority must accept the rules laid
down by the majority, could not see
the wisdom of simple agreement
between the parties such as Is often
made in England or Canada.
Instead, America must go through
political jockeying these next few
months as some ill-considerea leg
islative proposals are passed which
cannot but injure the American
economic system to such an extent
that remedial measures may not be
Of much help next year or the year
after. The members OF the House
may argue that the Senate will fix
up the bill and remedy its defects.
But one-third Of the Senate is up
for reelection this year and an
other one-third comes up two years
hence. The Senate NAV in the end