Evening star., 1946-11-10
Restraint Required
To Avert Discord
Truman's Plight Like Hoover's
Though Issues Differ
By Robert X. Walsh

Though Issues Differ
By Robert X. Walsh
Republicans captured Congress last
Tuesday with query: Had enough7"
Sixteen years ago Democrats took the
House with cry of Haven't enough"
The times and the issues and members
of the Seventy-second and the Eightieth
Congresses differ more deeply than that.
Yet, they have SUFFICIENT likenesses for
history to repeat itself in some ways and
means at the Capitol.
Control cf Congress went unsettled
for many months after November, 1880.
The new National Legislature had to
wait until December, 1881, to start work
Moreover, election night returns upset
but did not unseat the COP.
Senate counts showed 48 Republicans,
AZ Democrats and one Farmer-Laborite.
This margin stood, numerically at least,
during 1872. Republicans organized
the upper branch. That did not console
those who remembered their IS Sena-
tors of the previous years and who
feared correctly that the 1882 presi-
dental balloting would sweep their
party out of power. Nor could President
Hoover congratulate himself on nominal
possession of a Senate which grew in
creasingly unsympathetic.
In the House, according to first tallies.
Republicans had six votes to spare
despite loss of Al. They failed to
calculate on death and further disaster.
When Congress finally met they had
only 214 and the Democrats 200, with
one Farmer-Laborite. Democrats organ,
lied the House and elected John N.
Garner Of Texas as Speaker.
The seniority system gave committee
chairmanships generally to Southerners
who had outrun Republican landslides
of dozen or more years since the
World War. Similarly, the procedure
now benefits Northerners who weathered
Democratic electoral storms of the past
l6 years.
Weeks of delay and behind -the-scenes
battling hindered Democratic organiza-
tion of the House in 1881. To strengthen
sectional prospects for 1882, Representa-
tive McDuffie of Mississippi withdrew in
favor of Representative Rainey of
Illinois for majority floor leader. Com
mittee assignments indicated a degree
of party harmony or unity of purpose
to win the presidency and complete
domination of Congress.
The day after the 1890 congressional
elections no one asked President Hoover
to resign. That suggestion was to come
later early in 1888. There were, how
ever, demands that the President call
special session in March. 1881. Mr.
Hoover refused. In his message to the
new Congress the following December he
laid out an emergency relief program
and other recommendations for coping
with the ccmestic crisis.
Economic depression was the relent-
less problem of the Seventy y-second Con-
eress. AT the outset Congress offered
bipartisan support to most major legis-
lation sought by the administration to
deal with unemployment and business
stagnation. But few measures became
law in the exact form requested.
The President quickly obtained the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
Act. He signed an emergency relief and
construction bill in 1882, only after We
toing an earlier version because he
thought 1t vested too much power In
the RFC.
The House soon became openly hos
tile to the President. The Senate be-
came restive and critical. House and
Senate fought each other. Legislative
majorities in one or both branches,
sometimes cutting across party lines,
defeated many of the Presidents tax
and economy proposals, including
general manufacturers sales tax BY
the end OF the 1882 session House and
Senate were so far apart that they
could not agree on the 1884 District
supply bill. They left an unbalanced
Federal budget on final adjournment.
Vetoes, meanwhile, piled up and were
not always sustained. Mr.. Hoovers veto
OF the Philippine independence bill was
overridden in both branches. The Presi-
dent disapproved Veterans Admins
tration supply bill because of a $780,
600 600 increase he believed unjustified
He declined to sign bill to reduce 1888
cotton acreage
He vetoed Democratic bill for revi-
sion of Hawley-Smoot tariff provisions
and for international tariff bargaining,
forerunner of the reciprocal trade policy
House Democrats could not muster
enough extra votes to override the veto
Tie Senate and the President opposed
House bill for emergency road-build-
ing outlayS. The House retaliated by
blocking a Senate bill extending the
regular Federal aid highway program.
The House passed and the Senate killed
the Patman bonus bill.
Republicans accused Democrats OF
stalling suptil 1888 and of trying every
trick to embarrass the administration.
Democrats retorted that the admin
istration was doing nothing or doing
the right things at the wrong time.
Although legislative executive CO.
operation was pretty much out the win
dow, the record of the Seventy second
Congress was not wholly one of frustra-
tion and obstructionism. Important
enactments included the Norris-L La
Guardia Act limiting Federal court in
functions, the Federal Home Loan Bank
and the resolution for repeal of the
Eighteenth amendment-passed only
two weeks before final adjournment