The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-06-24

In the past week, the House has
been in one of it's worst runaway
tantrum moods. On the same day
that approval was whammed
through for $27 billion for the Navy
and $72 billion for the Army, almost
without opposition, the House took
vicious socks at comparatively minor
appropriations for the Office of
Price Administration, Office of War
Information and the Presidents pet
National Resources Planning Board.
A few days before a House Commit
tee had cut funds for the War Man
power Commission, and week be-
fore had put curbs on the Presi-
dents use of his emergency funds.
BUTTONHOLING AHEAD
No mater how lousily these agen-
cies may be administered, it must
be admitted by even their most vo-
ciferous critics that they have a
job to do and they deserve better
than to be cut off with few mere
millions. Stopping their work isn't
going to get it done, either. And So
of telephoning and buttonholing in
the cloakrooms and corridors will be
done to get some of the cut appro-
priations put back in, and lot of
fixing will have to be done in the
Senate to right the mistakes of the
House.
An example of this fixing was the
recent action of the Senate in re-
storing funds to the Farm Security
Administration after the House had
previously wrecked its appropria-
ton
The question is, why all this lost
motion? Why all this unnecessary
confusion from the House in gum
ming things up in general, requir-
ing a lot of repair work to get things
back under control? Why don't
these crazy congressman settle down
and conduct their business in an
orderly fashion anyway?
Attend a normal session Of the
House and it's usually utter bedlam.
Nobody pays any attention, only
half of them are there, and the
whole thing seems run with the ut
ter nonchalance of combination
kindergarten class and cocktail
party Don't these guys know there's
a war on? Were these buns elected
just to upset the applicant in this
unorthodox, back-alley hoodlum
way?
It's easy to condemn the House
on these charges, but the answers
aren't as simple as that, by a long
shot. It's cinch to say this Is the
worst Congress the country ever
had, as some men in the admin
stration are wont to do, and let it
go at that. Any such blanket in
dictment, however, misses the truth
by mile.
SUNDAY IN THE PARK
The fact is that the runaway,
wild man House is one of the
healthiest manifestations in the
American system of democratic gov
eminent. The we'll of the House
floor is like soapbox in a public
park. Any congressman can get up
there and say what he pleases, the
first thing that pops into his head.
Many of them do just that. A typi-
ical session of the House is like an
average Sunday in the park. 1t will
develop a few fights, number of
squalling babies, maybe riot call,
and a lot of indifferent snoozing I'M
der newspapers.
But the men who mount the soap
box are the people speaking. This
is democracy at work. Yes, it's con-
fusion. But these congressman have
their ears close to the ground back
home in their beloved districts, and
they hear and they echo the pro-
tests of their noble constituents.
And when the congressman start
slapping OPA and Owl and WMPC
and NRPB and FSA around, it is
a yell from the angry mob which
an alert administration and bureau
cracy should do well to heed as a
danger signal. 1t is symptom that
there is something wrong with the
governmental machinery that needs
overhauling. 1t is an ache in the
belly of America that gripes for a
cure.
The House has gone on rampages
before, and many times 1t has come
contritely back next session to mod
ify its excuses. The House may have
gone to far in its most recent out
break of zoot suffer muggings on
appropriation bills. Behind it all,
however, is a fundamental protest
against muddling, inefficiency, con-
fusion and waste in the war
agencies and it can't be ignored. But
you have to put the House in its
proper perspective to appraise cor
rectly it's part in an otherwise silly
performance.