Evening star., 1948-06-11
Bitter Truman Attack
On Worst Congress
Falls on Deaf Ears
Uniustified outbursts
Do Not Enhance Dignity
Of Presidential Office
Br David La,orence

Br DNCfd Laurence
President Truman's bitter criti-
cisms of Congress while speaking
in the West have fallen on deaf
ears largely because of the intem-
perate nature of his outbursts and
his failure to discuss on a high
plane of craftsmanship the vital
issues of the day. Also, his place is
in Washington in these final days
of lawmaking, when his influence
for constructive legislat ton can still
be exerted.
There will be many who will agree
that Congress has not done every
thing it might have done this ses-
sion But there will be many who
will disagree that this Congress has
earned the epithet worst in his
tory" Nor is it just to say that Mr..
Truman is the worst President in
history" When the record is ex-
amined dispassionately, it will COM
pare favorably with the work of
both the Democratic and Republican
Congresses which endeavored to
deal with reconstruction problems
Immediately after the close of World
War I.
Mr.. Truman has a right to argue
that Congress should have passed
certain legislation on housing and
Federal aid to education and he has
some justification for his argument
that Congress has by-passed his
recommendations on several sub
Jects.
Failed in Promise.
But the duty of President Is to
work out mutually satisfactory COM
promises with Congress. All legis-
lation is the result of adjustment of
conflicting viewpoints. Mr.. Tru-
man, however, has not even worked
out compromises with his own poll
tical party. On both taxation and
the labor or-management relations law
his vetoes were overridden by two
thirds vote of both houses and his
own Democratic Party made posi-
BILE the overriding in both cases.
Under parliamentary system of
government, such an overwhelming
vote on two major issues would have
meant vote of no confidence"
and the head of a parliamentary
government abroad would have
found it necessary to resign. Mr..
Truman has failed signally in his
relations with Congress. When the
country. in November 1946 voted
for a Republican majority in both
houses, Mr.. Truman promised CO.
operation and implied that he would
discard partisanship. He has failed
to keep that promise.
Unfortunately, too, the sweeping
condemnation of Congress which
came from the lips of Mr.. Truman
could not possibly apply to the most
important acts Of the present Con-
eress-co-operation with the other
nations of the world on the Mar
shall Plan and other measures in
the international field.
Had Mr.. Truman taken occasion
to laud the efforts of Senator VAN
denberg, Republican chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Com
mittee, who has just saved the Eu-
ropean Recovery Program from
being Scuttled. there would have
been many observers who would
have listened more readily to
criticisms of certain members of
Congress rather than the majority
Remarks IH-Advised.
The carrying on of the bi-parti-
san foreign policy in Congress in
the midst of a presidential cam
paign year Is remarkable achieve
ment. Plainly, with the whole
world looking upon American in
ternational policy as the biggest
single act of the American Con-
gress, 1t was ill-advised for the
President to condemn the present
Congress.
Mr.. Truman does not enhance
the dignity of the presidential office
by his remarks on the stump. Be-
fore he left Washington it was not
believed he could make his own
situation in the country and in his
own party worse than it has been
But the newspaper reports of the
speeches and the reaction here
among members of Congress tend
to give the impression that Mr.
Truman has perhaps made his own
situation much worse and rendered
difficult any future campaign if
he is nominated.
On the whole. II there were any
doubt that Mr. Truman ought not
to be given the nomination. the
western trip tends to remove it.
Many people here feel that there
should be an immediate return to
carefully prepared speeches and
that the impromptu remarks and
sweeping comments should be
promptly eliminated if the Truman
administration is to enter the Demo-
cratic National Convention with
any prestige at all.
Mr.. Roosevelt, as a campaigner
was quite capable of making parti-
san addresses but he never dropped
to the kind of performance on the
stump which has been reported in
the dispatches from the west.
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