Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-12-27

Not that the Lowell meliett.
man who is now President was ar
irresponsible sort of person wher
he was member of the Senate. H,
is remembered instead as Senator
who took his duties very seriously
indeed, but the responsibilities o
the Senate and the House are no
the same as the responsibilities o
the White House. Members of TIT
Legislature can always pass tn,
buck to one another and finally Il
the President. The President cannot
pass the buck to anybody. Wher
he sees his duty, he has to do ii
Has to Be Himself.
He can't make childish excuse
to himself for behaving badly; h,
can't go into tantrum; he can't d.
what he knows he shouldn't dc
just because he is angry abou
something that has nothing to d.
with the case; he can't, in short
conduct himself like Congress.
man; he has to be himself.
These observations result from the
situation confronting the country
in connection with the United States
Employment Service.
1t hasn't been so long since the
well-known welkin was ringing day
and night with the angry demands
of Congressman for greater speed
in getting the boys home from Eu-
rope and the Pacific. Bring them
home, they shouted Bring them
home to what? Why, to jobs, OF
course.
Jobs Were Scarce.
The jobs were beginning to grow
scarce with war work winding UP
and reconversion to peace work re-
quiring time A lot of people would
have to 60 idle for a while. Some
experts estimated as many as
100000, none estimated less than
100000. To ease the situation
somewhat, there was available the
United States Employment Service
with Offices in each of the States
whose duty 1t was to list all the
jobs it could discover and help
place workers in them. 1t was not
expected to help millions. But il
was expected to help some hun
dreds of thousands. And 1t has
been fulfilling this expectation.
The Federal Government meet.
the cost of the service and during
the war has carried it on as a single
unified operation. State admins.
trations and State political organ
izations got the idea that it woule
be better from their standpoint II
the USES was broken up into sepa-
rate State organizations, leaving the
Federal Government nothing to dc
but meet the bill 1t wasn't hard
to sell this idea to members OF
Congress, since they could expect
to share in the political benefits
back home The political benefits
consisted of the $4,000 political jobs
of. the men and women on the staff
of USES scattered among the States.
Truman Veto Assured.
The President argued that this
would wreck the efficiency of the
employment service, but since the
States we're so determined to get
their hands on that local patronage
he asked only that they wait until
the worst period of unemployment
had passed, say until the summer Of
1947, before making the change. He
made it pretty clear that he wa!
determined on this, that, in fact, he
would veto any bill designed tt
break up the Federal service imme.
diately.
So the boys in Congress resortec
to an old and long discredited trick
They attached their bill to another
bill, which they thought the Presi.
dent would not dare to veto. 1t wa
very nice bill, indeed, one tina
would have wiped out some Ssh,
000,000,000 of appropriations mad
unnecessary by the ending of tn,
war
But the President fooled his for.
mer playmates. He discovered tina
he could carry out the purposes O.
the appropriation bill without an.
legislation, and so he vetoed thu