The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-02-29

Republican Con- gresS election result would offer is of course one of continual strife be- tween the White House and Capitol. From 1945 to 1s49 is admittedly go- ing to be one of those things the editorial writers call "the most crit ical period in American history" The pitfalls of this period of re- conversion and readjustment after World War II will be broader and deeper than were those after World War I, after any of the great panic years of the 1800's, or in the terrible times of reconstruction after the civil war between the states.
 BIG QUESTION RAISED
 Faced by this tough outlook, the need for cooperation between legis- lative and executive departments would appear to be greater than 1t ever was before, and it raises the embarrassing prediction question of whether the country would not be better off with a President and a Congressional majority of the same political party, than 1t would be with President and Congress of opposing political parties - even though that might mean swapping hoSses in the middle of the well- known crick by retiring from office a Chief Executive and Commander in-Chief under whose leadership 6 foreign war is being fought to 8 victorious end.
 Naming a name, would Roosevelt with Republican Congress be worse for the country than four years more of Roosevelt with a Democratic Congress? Following the Barkley affair, it might appear that four years more of Rooselevt with Democratic Congress couldn't be worse than anything.
 Cooperation between President and Congress has perhaps never been at a lower ebb. On every im- portant domestic issue today-taxes, the soldier vote, food subsidies, talk ing the excess profits out of war through renegotiation of contracts, the stabilization program of price and wage control, all labor policies, extension of social security-Con- gress seems determined not to give the President what he recommends and the President seems unwilling to accept what Congress gives him. Even where they do see eye-to-eye, they look daggers. And while the American system of government is based on the principle of free speech and full argument on every contro- versial question of public interest, it is hard for a sideline rooter in Washington to see how this present capital turmoil helps win the war or solve the perplexities of peace.
 BARUCH RECOMMENDATIONS
 In the Baruch report on War and Postwar Adjustment Policies there are three short sentences that today might well be poStered on the walls of every executive office, printed in headletter type on the cover of the Congressional Record every day, billboarded in boxcar letters along the malls and on the lawns at both ends of Pennsylvania avenue, where public servants might look out of their broad windows to read:
 "We recommend unifying the Government forces dealing with the human problems of demobilization on two fronts-the Executive and Congress.
 "Everything being done by the Executive branch of the government should be brought together under 8 single, unforgetful mind; the Con- gress to merge the activities of its many committees into a single com- mittee in the Senate and in the House, or if it can be effected, into a joint committee of both houses.
 "The unified Executive and Con gressional groups should then work together on combined program if legislation and operations that will carry out the objectives that all of us share.'
 Sure. Why the hell not!