Evening star., 1948-08-14
What the Eiqhtieth Did

Whot the EIGHTEEN Did
In his latest attack on the Eightieth
Congress, which he has described as the
second worst in history, President Truman
has hit at the "do-nothing" character of
the special session. All signs indicate that
that will be the dominant note of his
campaign between now and November. In
effect, unless events dictate change in
his political strategy, he will be running
not so much against Governor Dewey as
against the record of the Republican,
controlled Senate and House.
Conceivably, especially if imitation gets
worse instead of better, such campaign
will be effective. At any rate as far as
the special session is concerned, Mr..
Truman can build a plausible though
greatly oversimplided case around the
theme of do-nothingism. For the truth is
that the sesson-convened in an atmos-
phere of intense election-year politics
actually accomplished very little beyond
authorizing the United Nations building
loan, adopting watered-down housing
bill and legislating a couple of weak checks
against the rising cost of living.
But if it is possible that the President
will be able to make political capital out
of what the special session failed to do, it
seems hardly probable that he will get far
with attempts to plaster the "do nothing"
label on the Eightieth Congress as a whole.
Nor is it likely that he will have much
success in any continued effort to sell the
American people the idea that that Con-
gresS deserves to be remembered as one
of the worst in our history. Hyperbole can
be overdone In this instance, If he keeps
on resorting to 1t, Mr.. Truman will find
the Republicans capable of reducing it to
an absurdity.
Thus as for doing nothing, the record
shows that the Eightieth Congress, as a
matter of fact did great deal-some OF
it good, some of it bad, and some of it
just plain Indifferent. but all adding up,
in any case, to decidedly impressive VOL
ume of legislation. In the domestic field,
for example. the measures enacted in
cluded the Taft-Hartley labor relations
law, sweeping tax reduction, unification
of the armed forces revival of selective
service, extension of price support for
farmers, huge appropriations, and liter
ally hundreds of other bills covering vet
Grams and miscellaneous and administra-
tive affairs. To be sure, much was left un-
done, and much, that was done was done
poorly or ought not to have been done at
all. Nevertheless, there was plenty of &C
ton on multitude of national problems
more than enough to undermine the
charge of do-nothingism.
Moreover-and this is where the Presi-
dents extreme criticism falls apart-the
Eightieth Congress, particularly the Sen
ate, distinguished itself in the field of
foreign policy. 1t adopted the far-reach-
ing Greek Turkish aid program. It rati
fed the Rio de Janeiro Inter-American
treaty and the peace treaties with Italy,
Hungary Romania and Bulgaria. It passed
displaced persons bill, though one with
questionable features and it extended the
life of reciprocal trade, though with dis
turbing limitations. Above all, in addition
to voting for large-scale interim relief
abroad, it approved the historic and un-
precedented European Recovery Program,
which the Senate further strengthened by
enacting the highly significant Vanden-
berg resolution to associate the United
States with such regional defensive alli-
ances as the union OF Britain, France
Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxem
bourg.
Indeed, by holding fast to the principle
OF abandoning politics at the waters edge
the Eightieth Congress achieved bipartisan
foreign policy accomplishments excelled
by few, if any, earlier peacetime Con-
crosses. Everything considered. its over
all record on both national and inter-
national issues certainly cannot accurately
be described as do-nothingism or as the
work of one of the worst National Legisla-
lures we have ever had. President Tru-
man may keep on arguing otherwise, but
the Republicans will not be at loss for
effective answers.