Browning chief., 1947-06-13
M.eAa.,ee
%un
In WASHINGTON
~ By Waller Sheod
81 WNU Correspondent
Beauty Of Spring Contrasts
With UgIiness Of Politics
WNU Washington Bureau
1916 Eye ST., N. W.

VIII OSssueSS " EVsltsSS
WASHINGTON has been de-
w scribed as city within a for
est. Certainly to your home town
reporter, springtime is the most
beautiful time of the year in this
most beautiful of all cities. From
the first warm days when the cherry
blossoms burst into triumphant love-
liness, on through the spring, sum-
mer and into late autumn, the city
is riot of color from the flowers
and blooming trees, and its streets
and parks are oases and wide ave-
nues of welcome shade.
This particular day is a lazy,
balmy day and out in Lafayette
park the power lawnnowers whirr
over the smooth lawns. Across
Pennsylvania avenue, the slowly
whirling sprinklers make the close
ly clipped White House lawns deep
er pools of greenness beneath the
towering, age-old elms.
As I stand in the shade at the
west end Of the White House await
ing the call to a Presidential press
conference and drink in the lowell
ness of the White House grounds,
gardeners working amid the flower
beds, traffic sounds muffied, the
heated debate and bombastic ora
tory on Capitol Hill seem indeed far
removed and somehow apart.
But it is there, the pulling and
hauling, stresses and pressures {.
labor, taxes, appropriations, politics,
1948 an election year with Democrat
ic national headquarters in the May
flower hotel pulling the strings one
way and Republican national head
quarters, with its old red brick Geor-
gian mansion at 1887 Connecticut
avenue, pulling the other.
Business Lobbyists
Speaking of pressures, the fight on
the house and senate labor bills
brought into conflict the most pow
erful group of lobbyists and the
greatest nationwide and local CAM
paigns for and against the bills
probably in the legislative history of
the country.
Business lobbyists have been
campaigning for months, some Of
them since 1898, for changes in la
Dor legislation, and they likely won
out from sheer weight of numbers
il for no other reason, for there were
304 business and industrial lobbyists
registered and 134 labor lobbyists, a
total of 43S registered lobbyists to
work on the 531 senator's and rep
resentatives in congress.
On the business and industrial
side, National Association of Manu-
facturers planned and conducted its
campaign on a nationwide basis
from Washington and New York.
The United States chamber of COM
merce, with 2,7l3 member organi-
cations and with representatives in
every one Of the 435 congressional
districts in the country, organized at
the grassroots to bring pressure to
bear on congress. Chief of the c. of
c. campaign was gray-haired, $15,-
000-a-year Clarence Miles, who has
been with the organization since
1929. For NAM, Walter Chamblin
Jr., 28,000-a-year vice president,
directed the fight to pass the labor
bills. He is an ex-newspaper man
and has been with NAM since 1898.
These two organizations bore the
brunt of the fight to pass the labor
bills.
A Ph. D. in CIO Camp
For American Federation of La
bor, white-haired, 64-year-old Will
liam C. flushing led the fight against
the labor bills. He has been work
ing on Legislation in Washington for
80 years and is a $7,28O-a-year man.
He is former pattern-maker from
Litchfield, Ill.
For the CIO only one lobbyist is
credited to the national organiza.
ton, Nathan Cowan, director of the
legislative department at $4,28O a
year. Probably the top-flight man
on the CIO side is young, good-look.
ing Robert K. Lamb of the United
Steelworkers, who draws $4,000 q
year, has three degrees from Har.
ward, ABB, AM. and a Phi. D. in
Economics, and has served the CIC
in Washington for almost four
years. He is a member of Amer.
lean Federation of Teachers, Har.
ward local.
The AFL conducted its campaign
on a nationwide basis while the CLIO
like the Chamber Of Commerce, op
Grated on the local level by personal
contact and mail from the states tt
congress. The CLIO opened its cam
paign by bringing state delegations
to Washington to work on theil
individual congressman and sena
tors the week Of April ~.
The labor group didn't really ge
started nationally until along ir
April when the Hartley bill passed
the house. The cards were some
what stacked against them for they
had no control of the 20 southern
senators or southerners in the house
who voted against them, and ther
they had the opposition of Ec
O'Neal, mild-mannered but tough
As president Of American Farm Blu