Evening star., 1947-02-28

$4,500, 900. 900, which, with Demo-
cratic aid, they put through.
What happens now? Why, the
whole business goes into conference,
where a compromise between the
House demand for a $1,000 ,000, 900
cut and the Senate insistence on
$4,500, 100000 will be effected-and
that compromise will be accepted
by both branches. Now, the more
acute observers Of the congress
sional scene are pretty well united
in the conviction that this compro-
mise will hbe closer to the Houses
six billion than the Senate's four
and a half. For this belief they
have what seems to be two very
sound reasons.
House More Determined.
First, there is the fact that the
unanimity of the Republicans in
the House logically should make
the House conferees very much
more determined in the conference
committee than the Republican
Senators, more of whom would like
to have been for the $4,000 00O, 900
cut but were either convinced that
this could not be made without seri-
ously crippling the national defense
or were frightened off by the shrill
cries and violent assault of the op-
position. 1t is notable that this
assault did not scare the House Re-
publicans in the least. On the
contrary, 1t appeared to have the
opposite effect.
Mostly this was due to the rather
transparent fact that the noise and
the charges largely come from the
left-wing elements of the country,
including former New Deal radio
commentators, journalists, press
agents and labor politicians In ad-
dition, of course, there are the
Army-Navy officials and others sin
cerely convinced that the $6,000,-
100000 cut will make it impossible
adequately to fulfill our foreign
commitments and whose testimony
cannot lightly be disregarded. The
second reason for feeling that to
some extent House views will pre-
vail over the Senate in conference
committee, is the feeling that the
House Republicans, all of whom
come up for reelection in 1948 and
who generally are in closer per-
sonal touch with their constituents
than the Senators, more correctly
interpret the popular sentiment be-
hind the returns in the November
election which gave Republicans
control and responsibility in this
Congress. Firmly believing this to
be true, the House Republicans
naturally will put UP a harder fight
for a cut above s5,000,000,000.
Situation Likely to Continue.
Though the test will not come on
labor legislation for some weeks,
there are good grounds for believing
the same arguments apply as in the
case of the budget cuts. The per-
sonnel Of the Senate Labor Com
mittee and the attitude of the
Senate leaders makes it fairly cer-
tain that the bill that body eventu-
ally passes will be too mild for the
House, the Republican members of
which are convinced their constitu-
ents will be keenly disappointed if
they do not get a really restrictive
law. Hence, the forecast is that the
House will amend the Senate bill by
inserting more and sharper teeth in
it and will fight more determinedly
to keep them in.
In their attitude toward labor
as is their attitude toward the
budget, House Republicans will be
sustained, first, by their fixed belief
that they reflect the overwhelming
sentiment of the people; second, by
knowledge that the opposition large
ly comes from elements and indi-
viduals who have not supported any
Republican candidate in Is years
and who certainly will not support
the Republican candidates in 194S
no matter what Republicans do in
this Congress. There is one other
thing to be noted-in the House
there are extremely few liberal"
Republicans, almost no insurgents
so few that they are unable by COM
bining with the Democrats ever to
block the will Of the majority.
In brief, the House Republicans
on practically every issue will solidly
support their leaders. On the Sen
ate side this Is not the case. There
are at least four left-wing Repub-
lican Senators who do not follow the