Evening star., 1949-09-22
The Political Mill
6. 0. P. Would Be HELPED
By Affirmative Program
Democratic Chant Has Ringing Sound
But Party Has Failed on Promises
BY Gould Lincoln

By Gould Lincoln
The Democratic chant-"We have a pro-
gram and the Republicans have none"-has
ringing sound, but it doesn't mean much.
The Republicans, when they were in con.
troll of the 80th Congress-, definitely had q
program, and put it through, some of it
over the veto messages Of President Truman.
They reduced income taxes. They substi-
tuted the Taft-Hartley labor law for the
Wagner Labor Relations Act. They put
through the Hope-Aiken Agricultural Act.
They undertook to protect American indus
try and workers by inserting in the Recipro-
cal Trade Act the So-called peril point"
provision, requiring the Federal Trade Com
mission to report on the point to which
tariffs could be lowered without endangering
American producers and workers.
In fact their program was SO extensive
that the present Democratic 81st Congress
has spent most Of the last nine months try
ing to undo this Republican program.
Promises Unrealized.
The administration has signally failed,
however. to repeal the Hartley law and
return to the Wagner Act. as Mr.. Truman
promised it would do. 1t has not increased
income taxes, although Mr.. Truman urged
it to do so. It has not yet been able to
put through new farm price support law
and certainly is not going to put through
the administrations pet Brannan bill under
which production payments would be made
to farmers. It did succeed, however, in re-
pealing the peril point" provision Of the
Trade Agreements Act. With the devalua.
tion of the British pound and the curren-
cies Of other Western European nations,
this last action may be troublesome. Ad-
mitted that England and other Western
European nations must sell to America as
HryA1l h,1rr fr@ySN IAr sr r%tn fAA =
many American industries, like the woolen
manufacturers, may be hard hit-and their
employees, too-if and when British WOOL
ems start rolling in.
It is fact, however, that the Republicans
seem to have no affirmative program as Of
today. They are holding a farm confer
ence in Sioux City, Iowa. for which the Re-
publican National Committee made all the
arrangements, this week end. Certainly. if
they wished, the participants could write
a statement Of their views on what should
be done about farm price supports and agri-
culture generally. But the idea of the Re-
publican leaders seems to be that they
should soft pedal-that they should be
against" the Democratic Brannan plan and
let 1t go at that. They say that only a Re-
publican national convention is authorized
to draft any program for the COP. That
kind OF thing. however, is not likely to win
them any farm votes. The farmers of the
Midwest and the rest of the country want
some assurance, some idea of what would be
handed them if a Republican Congress
should be elected next year as it was in 1916.
Will Listen to Farmers"
The Republicans say they are going to
listen to farmers at the Sioux City confer
ence: that they expect the farmers to tell
them, and not vice versa. But once having
been told" the Republicans will show little
real initiative if they are unable to propose
some kind Of program.
Further, the Republican leadership has
turned away from projected New England
regional ,conference-on industry, finance
and mp1oyment-which was scheduled for
October in Hartford, Connecticut. The con-
ference has been cancelled-the excuse be-
ing that Congress would still be in session.
Here again, it looks as though the Repub-
licans proposed to sit tight and not mix In
with an affirmative program.
They did pretty well with a program when
they controlled the 80th Congress And be-
fore that Congress was elected, they wrote
declaration Of principles-a kind of pro-
gram-in which the Republican members of
the House and Senate concurred. Why can't
they do it again?