Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1944-02-11
WNU Service, Union Trust Building,

WNU Service, Union trust bulluihs,
Washington, D. c.
This is the season of surprises-1
won't mention at this moment the
big one which will cause your eye
brows to go up at an early date (lt
they haven't already.
I'll mention two others-on the la
Dor front-since they represent two
of the neatest problems with which
congress still has to deal and which
are particularly full of dynamite be-
cause of the coming elections. And
elections are bound to color the acts
of every public man from now until
the ides of November.
We are used to it now because it
happened some time ago, and the
effects were not visible to the naked
eye-but one big surprise that shook
Washington as the year ended was
the sudden announcement on a
balmy Monday evening in Decem-
Der which ordered the army to take
over the railroads.
All over Washington the day be-
fore, that day too, as matter of
fact, you could have collected fine
odds against such a thing happen
ing. Not that people were betting
on that subject itself; what they
were betting on, those who ought to
have been (and I still believe were)
in the know, was that there would
be no railroad strike.
The second big surprise is still
having its sharp repercussions al
though it happened not so much
more recently than the other event
to which it was closely linked.
National Service Act
The first, I discussed in a recent
column in connection with the seiz-
ure of the railroads. Then the Sec
ond, the Presidents demand for a
national service act as a part of his
legislative program outlined in that
annual message, came tumbling aft
er, and we haven't gotten over Ell
Their yet.
One astute and neutral observer
Of affairs in Washington-an old
timer, who sees parties come and
60 without loss Of sleep over his
job, said something to me after the
roads had been seized that I have
had occasion to ponder upon often
since.
He is one of the men who was
ready to give odds that there would
be no strike and he knows all Of the
people who participated in the con-
ferences, employers, union heads,
officials, by their first names-ex-
cept the President, Of course, whom
nobody but his mother as far as
know, perhaps his wife when she is
here, first names. One just doesn't
frst-name Presidents.
Anyhow, this friend of mine,
aghast at the suddenness of the seiz-
ure of the roads, remarked:
"Do you realize this? Overnight,
instead of being the object of all at
tacks for babying labor, the Presi-
dent suddenly is in the position now
Of defending the people against la
bor?"
That was the quick reaction of
technical man to whom politics is
only an interesting sideline.
When the Presidents message
was droned out by the reading clerk
in congress and the President came
to point five in his five-point legisla-
tive program, there was sharp in
take of breaths. You recall the first
reaction. Hardly anything but a
frigid reception for the suggestion
for what was Immediately called
"the labor draft"
Cynics' Reactions
Then came the cynical observa-
ton of the administration poll
ticians. It sounded little like the
comment of my first-quoted observ-
er except that it was favored more
heavily with party tabasco.
"Pure politics" they sneered. "He
had no labor program. He knew it.
So now he losses the hottest con-
troversial question on the boards
labor draft-into congress. He prob
ably hopes we won't pass it. If we
don't, he'll say: See, I give them
labor program and they turn me
DOWN."
Well, there are the two surprises
which are scheduled to breed others
in their trail, and you and every
body else will interpret them in
terms of your or their prejudices,
sharpened to knife-edge of devo-
ton or hatred in this year of the
ballot.
What is really behind these two
sharp and unexpected moves? 1t is