Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-08-14

That threat. warning or promise
was very largely face-saving ges-
ture. 1t was we'll calculated to ACT
as a restraint on manufacturers
and merchants with tendency tC
raise prices unreaSonably in the
absence OF ceilings and it empha :
sized the Presidents reluctance tc
approve so stupid bill. But he did
not really mean it. Moreover. every
member of Congress understands
he didn't. Not one of them is in the
least degree worried about being
called back-certainly not before
election day In November. If they
thought there was any chance OF
that they would, indeed, be mad as
hatters.
Absence Proves Smoother.
All of them, except the 81 Sen
ators whose terms do not expire
next year have either primary OF
a general election contest on then
handsome of them both. Under
such conditions, to be brought back
TO Washington before November
would border on brutality-or so 1t
would seem to them.
And Mr.. Truman wants them
back just as little as they want tC
come back. Every President is re-
Ieyed not to have Congress in SEES
sion. Life at the White House 4,
always smoother when it is absent
The situation today in that respect
Is no different than it always has
been. The idea that. as a result OF
his veto, first of the Case bill and
then OF the original OPA bill to-
gether with his strong and pointed
messages in Which he upbraided
Congress both for action and for
inaction, relations between the
President and Congress are bad, is
not well founded.
For example. it has been con-
tended that Senator Barley, OF
Kentucky, the Senate majority
leader feels aggrieved at the course
Of the President and that the House
leaders likewise are disposed to con
slider that he had treated them
and Congress as a whole-rathel
harshly. Perhaps, there were some
who did feel that way sometime
back, though they gave no outward
evidence thereof. But, when they
left Washington after adjournment
certainly they exhibited, neither
publicly nor privately, any trace OF
bitterness or bad feeling.
Pretty opular on Hill.
Actually, though Congress failed
TO do some Of the things Mr.. Tru-
man wanted and did quite few he
did not Want-and will do both
again-personally, he is pretty popu-
lar in both branches.
No one in either party appears &c
hate him personalIy-unless it IS
Representative Slaughter, whose re-
nomination in Missouri he opposed
and whose defeat somewhat en-
HANGED his prestige. This is in great
contrast with the feeling toWarc
his predecessor. In the Roosevelt
days Congress was full of members
many of them Democrats-whc
personally disliked, distrusted anc
despised Mr. Roosevelt personally
supported him only because of per.
sonal and party necessity It is
fair and it is accurate to say thai
not only are Mr. Humans persona.
relations with Congress better thar
Mr.. Roosevelt's but his influence is
no less potent than was Mr.. Roose-
velt's after 1910.
It Is also extremely likely that il
Mr.. Truman had the vast patronage
and unlimited money to distribute
which Mr., Roosevelt had in his first
two terms, he would have Just as
much control over Congress now a.
Mr.. Roosevelt had then. In other
words, though Mr.. Truman has nc
great personal following such as Mr.
Roosevelt had and lacks, too, that
gentleman talent for persona.
dramatization and showmanship. il
is a mistake TO regard him as a
flop in Congress or a nonentity in
the White House, albeit that is the
picture which the so-called liberal
journalists and the left-wing labor
press agencies persistently present
Off on Wrong Foot.
As matter. of fact, Mr.. Truman
has more stuff on the ball and is
considerably more Of man than he
is generally credited with-has much
better qualities than one woulc
suspect from all OF his critics-anc
some Of his friends. He is not bill
liant and he is not a great man
and does not pretend to be. either
But he has decent instincts, plenty
of common sense and real persona,
courage.
He is off on the wrong foot with
these domestic Roosevelt policies,
which are largely responsible fol