Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1946-08-23

Z Gdcn Dill, Wnen IL S lnLrOOuce
! to one of the committees for
processing. When the bill
comes back to be voted on,
it may be in the same shape in
which 1t went there; but it may
be completely rewritten. The
committee may substitute an
other bill, or it may forget the
whole thing and just let the bill
die.
OF course, the chairman of the
committee is its most important
member. With just little help
from some members of the com
mittee, he can often run the
show to please himself, and for
get the rest of the committee,
the administration, and the peo-
pie, too.
All the committee chairman
ships go TO the party that elects
the majority of members of the
House. Now, all committee
chairmen are Democrats; if the
people elect more Republican
Congressman tn an Democrats,
all the chsirmen of House COM
mittees will be Republicans. But
there is nothing in the set-up to
guarantee that the committee
chairmen will live up to the
party platforms that got them
into office. The chairmen don't
feel that they have to answer to
either the people or the Con-
gressmen, because actually nei-
ther of them have anything to
say about who the chairmen
shall be. There are no elections;
the appointments 60 almost au-
tomatically to the men who have
been in Congress longest, the
ones with the most seniority.
Power To The Tories
In other words, if the Repub-
licans elect majority of Con-
gressmen, the committee chair
men will all be Republicans. .
And the men who are the top
ranking Republicans on the COM
mittees, the Republicans who
have the most seniority in Con-
gress will become the men who
run the works.
That's why l decided to look
in the Congressional directory to
see who these top-ranking Re-
publicans are. That's why l
looked at their voting records,
and compared them with the
records of their opposite num-
bers the top-ranking Demo
Gratis, the men who are now the
chairmen of the committees in
the House of Representatives.
AS counted the votes, ! was
again impressed by the fact that
the record of the Democrats was
so bad. And yet, found that of
Is House Committees, in only
one case did the top Republican
have a better voting record than
the Democrat who has been head
of the committee.
Take the very important House
and Currency Commit
tee, for example. The chairman
is Brent Spence 3D., Ky). The
top Republican Is Wolcott, of
Spence hasn't always
done the vigorous fighting job
that labor has wanted him to do.
But on 10 issues, listed by the
New Republic magazine some
time ago, Spence has a perfect
record. Wolcott voted right on
only one.
Carter Manasco 3D., Ala.),
of the Expenditures
Committee, has only three votes
to his credit out of the 10 listed.
But the top Republican on that
committee is Clare Hoffman, of
Michigan, who has a perfect rec
ord of being against everything.
Welch of California is the Re-
publican head of the House La
Dor Committee; he has six votes
to his credit, and that's pretty
good. But the Democratic top
person is Mary Norton of New
Jersey, with eight, and that's
even better
If the Republicans took over
the House Military Affairs Com
nittee, Andrew Jackson May
would no longer be chairman.
Andrews of New York probably
would be. But Andrews scored
one out Of 10 in the count. May
got five out of the 10.
If the Democrats lost the
Rules Committee, the reaction
aries from both parties would
40 longer be bucking SABBATH of ;
Illinois, who gets eight out of j
he 10 (absent twice.. they'd {
probably get along fine with AL ]
=. Jehnston-
Quality Paints3and VarnisheS