Evening star., 1947-07-06
President Held Hammered
By Sloppy Stoff Work

w w n
Erroneous Budget Bureau An,,v,;.
Used as Basis for Vetoins Labor B;u
By Gerard d. Reilly
Efforts made in the early part O, III.
to preserve some degree of common nurnos. a.
the relations between President Tr1,nan -, u,
the leaders of Congress seem IN han. nu
been abandoned by both sides as the sass,a.-
nears its close Because of the division - ..
sponsibility between the two major narti.s :.
was inevitable that the President and concr,..
should find themselves at loggerheads m -
matters.
With the new Congress prematurev dao;c.+oa
to a program OF cutting expenditures snd w.
ducing taxes, the clash over the revsnns h,r
Is an example of an issue that could M, y,
avoided, The President having ALREADY nr.-
pared a budget estimate for the executiv.
branch which was not unreasonable in ~.
light of world conditions. could hardly b.,.
been expected to approve legislation which nr.~
cuded the possibility of retiring any substantial
portion of the national debt
Despite the spirit of partisanship which nra-
walls In some segments of the House hovevsr
a great deal of the seeming futility of the ad.
ministration has been due to faulty aison work
on the part of the Presidents advisers Had
the Bureau of the Budget maintained closer
relationship with the Senate, for instance III.
veto message on the Taft-Hartley labor bill
which made the President SO vulnerable. need
never have been written, and the broad out
lines for the Presidents first two reorganization
plans might have succeeded.
Greater alertness on the part Of the Budget
Bureau could have saved the President from
the disastrous course taken with respect to the
labor bill. 1t Is of the routine duties of tn.
budget when an enrolled bill comes TO the
White House to collect analyses Of 1t from tn,
various departments, and on this basis to pre-
pare a memorandum for the President in tn,
To-day period before the bill must be vetoed
or approved. During the considerable portion
of the period in which the Taft-Hartley bill
was at the White House the President was away
from Washington on his Ottawa and Princeton
visits. When the conference report was pre-
sented to the House. the C1O circulated legal
memorandum" which grossly distorted and mis-
represented the contents OF the legislation.
The debate on the report began the next day in
the Senate.
Some OF the Senators committed against
the bill asked the Labor Board legal star
for ammunition and were furnished an analysis
containing most Of the same objections which
the cIo had invented. All these points were
raised in debate and were authoritatively dealt
with and refuted bv Senator Taft and the
other managers of the conference.
Against the advice of Labor Board Mem
ber James J. Reynolds, however, who did not
regard the new measure as unworkable. the
general counsers ONCE Of the board was per
NIT to oielo luvie 10 %hs
Bureau Of the Budget. Copies of 1T were circu-
lated to some of the cabinet officers 1t was
not regarded as convincing by Secretary of
Commerce Hartman, Secretary Of the Navy
Forrestal or Attorney General Clark. Adrian
Fisher, solicitor of Commerce, wrote an opln-
ion exposing its inaccuracies The Depart
ment Of Justice also submitted an objective
account OF what the legislation contained
Five days prior to the veto the Senate and
House committees obtained a copy of the Labor
Board memorandum Chairman Paul Herzog
Of the Labor Board then notified the Budget
Bureau that many Of the statements in the
board memorandum did not conform to the
legislative history of the bill, giving the cita =
tions in the Congressional Record to the
debate and the statements inserted by the
conference managers. When the President
decided to veto the bill, however, the bureau
permitted the uncorrected Labor Board memo
randum to be used as the basis of his message
Much TO the amazement Of the Senators who
had followed the three day debate the preced :
ing week, the Presidents comments repeated
many of the criticisms in the board memoran-
dunn, which by that time were known TO be
completely untenable.
To be sure, the course that the President
would have pursued with respect to the bill,
even had so distorted picture of its contents
not been presented to him, Is speculative But
In view of the deliberate attempts on the
part Of certain union officials to arouse the
resentment of rank and file members, the care
less staff work which created the atmosphere
for the veto will make the task Of enforcing
the new law doubly difficult.
AS to the reorganization plans. 1t was ap-
parent from the Senate proceedings that the
proposal for strengthening the Department
OF Labor would not have been rejected II
there had been prior consultation with the
Senators on the Labor Committee. This was
the plan which placed the United States En-
ployment Service in the Department of Labor
and transferred the functions OF the wage
hour administrator to the Secretary OF Labor.
In the House this plan was defeated largely
owing to the efforts of the State unemployment
free to run the State employment ofices with
out any supervision from the United States
Department Of Labor.
When the matter was heard by Senator Balls
subcommittee, however, this lobby was com
pletely discredited after questions by Senators
Ellender and Murray confirmed the shocking
fact that this group was using Federal money
allotted to the States to influence Congress
against the Presidents plan. 1t was also
brought out however. that James e. Webb,
the new director Of the budget, had disrs-
garded Secretary schwellenbach's recon-
mendation that the Unemployment Compsnsa-
ton Division of the Federal Security Agency
also be transferred to the Labor Department.
This would have made 1t possible for the
Secretary Of Labor to have co-ordinated the
payment OF unemployment compensation