Evening star., 1947-01-23
6. O. P. Solidarity Test
Seen in Senate Vote

Seen IN Senute Vote j.
War Investigating Committee
Vote Followed Party Lines
By David Laurence
Considering the narrow majority by
which the Republicans control the
Senate, the roll call by which the
Truman-Mead war investigating COM :
mittee was continued was q significant Z
test of Republican solidarity on both /
sides of the aisle. :
With the detection Of Senators Morse Z
Of Oregon, Aiken of Vermont, Tobey
OF New Hampshire and Cooper OF
Kentucky on the first test vote, the
Republicans nevertheless kept the re-,
mainder of their number in line, while
the Democrats held tightly their party :
following with only one exception
Senator O'Daniel of Texas Later, or
the flnal vote, only Republican Senators
Tobey and LANCER voted against their
party.
To the outside world it may be sur :,
prising to find all the Democrats but =
one voting against an investigation of !,
what happened to war contracts and
war funds, and the Republicans, with
only few exceptions, voting to con-
tinue the inquiry. But the truth is
that both sides. despite what was said
in the debate, felt it was party matter.
The vote puts the Democrats in the
position of wanting to conceal and the.
2 Republicans in the position of wanting
to expose. Politically. the Democrats
maneuvered themselves into very un-
fortunate position. Usually, even politi->
cal minorities hesitate to vote against
Investigations of broad public interest.
Repercussions Likely.
Under the circumstances, it is never
theless far more disquieting to the
Republicans to find their ma jority not
too secure, whereas the minority party
will be encouraged that such harmony,
prevailed =
The incident may have reaching
repercussions. II the Republicans in
the Senate are unable to inquire into
what the New Deal did with public
money and the Democratic minority is
able to squelch any inquiries by getting
aid from insurgent Republicans, the
job will naturally fall to the House of
Representatives, where the Republicans
have better control and perhaps better
party discipline.
1t is true the War Investigating Com
mittee will be continued for only a
year and will have to ask the Senate for
further authority year hence but If
the revelations in the next twelve
months produce public opinion which
demands continuance of the inquiry
there will be less opposition next time
than there was this week.
The Democrats, of course, had good
alibi in their vote against continuing the
special investigating committee. They
argued that they were not against the
investigation itself, but wanted 1t done,
by the regular committee on armed
services or else by the regular committee
on expenditures.
1t SO happens that the Republican
Senators who are most intimate with the
| work of the Truman-Mead committee
miliarized themselves with the thread of
| the testimony would not head up either
| of the regular committees to which the
| Democrats wanted the investigation as
signed.
Consequence of Episode.
Regular committees are much too busy
with routine work. Had the special COM
mittee in this instance been voted down,
1t seems likely that little more would
have been heard of the many followed
clues which the special committee has
had in mind pursuing.
When tens of billions of dollars of the
public money are spent in war contracts
and when large discretionary funds are
at the disposal of public officials, 1t is
disheartening to see members of the
Senate trying by indirection to sidetrack
such an inquiry. Many of the Demo-
Gratis sincerely believed, of course. that
no wrongdoing would be uncovered any
way. but they voted against continuance
OF the special committee just the same.
The episode will have this conse-
| quence: Senate investigations will here
after be voted on first by the regular
committees, and if a majority of the
regular committees record themselves as
believing that the job could best be done
by special committee, that recon-
mendation will be made to the entire
Senate and the regular committee will
support the proposal
This procedure, which has been pro-
posed by Senator Taft for future cases,
will soon be voted on by the Senate and
it will afford another opportunity to see
whether the forces of concealment or
exposure are to emerge triumphant.
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