The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1943-09-14
Congress Has Big Job


When gavels fall in the two branches of
Congress today, matters of vital importance
will be presented in quick succession. They
will affect both domestic economy and foreign
policy.
The Congress will be in better position
to deal with both after the summer recess
during which senators a n d representatives
have been mingling with their constituencies
and obtaining a clearer view OF the attitude
of the people than they had for many months
prior to adjournment If in addition to this
knowledge they have also found for them
selves a safe course, they will avoid ex-
tremes either to the right or the left this
session will GO down as among the most con-
structive in Congressional history.
Congress reassenbles under trying circum-
stances. There is encouragement on the war
front, both in Europe and the Orient, but
the tide of battle has not turned against the
Axis so sharply that postwar legislation can
crowd actual war measures into second place.
On the contrary, the crisis is so great that
immediate consideration would seem of ne
cessity to center chiefly upon ways for as
surfing victory.
Implicit in this is the question Of manpoWer,
both for the fighting forces and on the home
front Shall the armed forces be built up to
so large total that additions, including pre-
Pearl Harbor fathers cannot be trained and
sent to war in time to participate in the Axis
overthrow, and leave the industrial and agri-
cultural fronts shorthanded? Or shall t h
armed forces be restricted to totals which
can be placed in combat before the end,- and
utilize the available manpoWer in excess OF
this for making the tools and raising the food
essential to military success and civilian re-
quirements, without dsrupting the home life
of thousands of families? No graver problem
than this of manpower utilization and distrl-
button confronts Congress as it reassembles.
Rationing is not far behind manpower Here
tofore Congress has had little authority. if
any, over this wartime institution. 1t has
been controlled by bureaus without Consti-
tutional authority, for the most part by men
fitted neither by training or talent for the job.
Congress will but do its manifest duty If, in
this as in all matters affecting the welfare of
the people, it demands that all rationing pro-
posals have its approval before being launch
ed and that thorough investig cation of the
entire rationing set-up be conducted with
view to stopping the prosecutions and blum
dering that have been outstanding features OF
the program in the past.
bo cf1,l1, o111Ho Cd
without further tax legislation. A tax
bill will have to be framed. But before it is
drawn up it would seem that Congress should
first make painstaking examination of fed
eral spending, discover sources Of waste and
extravaganza, and bring halt TO both The
unnecessary costs in the prosecution of the
war.
These are major domestic problems f or
which Congress must find the solution. The
chief problem of foreign policy appears to
be our national position in the postwar world,
whether we shall again try to build fence
around our frontiers and live to and for our
selves, or take our proper place a major
power in world affairs
The task confronting the Congress is in
two sections, and the strong probability is
that both will have to be undertaken stimuli
taneously. 1t is not possible to plan for ending
the war without at the same time charting
course in the peace to follow. Members of
both houses turning their steps toward Capitol
Hill today will have need of cool heads and
great common sense to do the lob ahead as
it must be done if this country is to play its
part well in the battles to come and in the
years when the battles are past