Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1947-06-06
Me1Ao>,se
%uu
. in WASHINGTON
BY Waller Sheod
WNU Correspondent
WNU Washington Bureau
1916 Eye ST., N. W.


1916 Eye ST.. N. W.
Lobbies Have Spent Million
Dollars on soth Congress
DURING the first quarter of 1e47
some l24 organizations spent almost
a million dollars lobbying the 8Oth
congress on one issue or another.
Almost half of this amount was
spent by 10 organizations. Paradox
1cal as it may seem, in view of the
TACT that we are supposed to oper-
ate our government under the con-
stitution, the Committee for Con-
stitutional Government spent the
largest amount, $137, $40, to ward
off Communism and collectivism,"
to urge passage of a 20 per cent
tax reduction bill and to seek pas
sage of bill to break 'the strangle
hold of labor monopolies." The
committee expects to raise S720,00C
to pay for its 1947 program. While
1858 was spent by Rural Elec.
trio Cooperative association to urge
further development of public pow
er, National Association of Elec-
trio Companies was spending $65,081
looking after the interests of the
private power companies.
Many expenditures come under
the head Of lobbying. For instance,
National Association of Real Estate
Boards, which has been fighting all
housing controls, includes an expen-
diture Of S612.50 for initiation fees
and dues into Congressional Coun-
try club for one of its lobbyists, C.
K. Snyder.
National Home and Property
Owners foundation, which reported
an expenditure of $4,443, is part of
the active lobby of real estate and
building interests seeking to end all
rent and building controls. With Ma
tional Association of Real Estate
Boards and Producers council, an
organization of building supply man.
ufacturers, it supported the Wolcott
bill, which already has passed the
house and which would, if finally
enacted, remove nearly all building
controls and seriously impair con-
tinued rent controls.
Labor Bill Squeeze Play
THE COP labor bill likely will go
to the President sometime in late
June. And on June 80, the govern
ment is expected to turn back the
coal mines to the private opera
tors. Two questions arise. Will
President Truman veto the tough la
Dor bill and will John L. Lewis call
a coal strike and shut down indus
try? If the President vetoes the la
Dor bill it means that the nation will
have no new labor Legislation out of
this congress, and this is pre-
cisely what the COP leadership is
banking on. They are putting the
old squeeze play on the President
in an attempt to force him to sign
the labor bill although it goes far
beyond a labor reform bill and has
become In many respects a punt
tive labor bill. There's politics
spread thickly on both sides of the
bread.
THE mematorphosis of Sen. Jo-
seph E. Ball of Minnesota is a con-
tinual subject of discussion here.
The tall, lank, broad-shouldered
Minnesotan came down to Washing
ton disciple of then Gov. Harold
Stassen who first appointed him to
fill the unexpired term of the late
Sen. Ernest Lundeen. Senator Ball
was political writer for a St. Paul
newspaper, considered as a liberal
and acted it. But in 1912 he was
elected to six year term on his
own. He began to turn more and
more toward the conservative fac
ton Of the party and has fostered
the toughest and most punitive Sec
ton of the senate labor bill. He,
with Senators Taft of Ohio and Dom
nell of Missouri, likely will be the
senate conferees on the final labor
bill draft.
The gossips have it that Mrs. Ball,
the former Elisabeth Robbins of
Minneapolis, is highly influential in
guiding her husbands thinking.
Party Regularity
SENATORS Morse of Oregon and
Taft of Ohio have different ideas on
party regularity. Senator Taft child
ed the Oregonian on his votes
against the majority of Republicans
in the senate labor committee and
his stand in seeking to break up
the omnibus labor bill into four sep
arate measures. Said Senator
Morse:
"After all, should not the test of
party regularity be decided accord
ing to what is best for the party in
terms of what is best for the coun-
try, rather than in terms of wheth-
err or not the leaders of the party in
the senate, by an appeal TO party
regularity, can carry enough votes
in their pockets to play politics with
an issue as vital as this one."
THE house vote on the Wolcott
rent control bill was one of the clos
est of the session, 2O2 to 1872. In a
vote to recOmmit (Which mipht