Evening star., 1949-03-20


All Pledges Blocked
His pledge to put through civil
rights legislation has been blocked
at least temporarily. His prom
Use to rush through repeal OF
the Taft-Hartley labor law has
not materialized, although the
Congress has been in session Tor
about two months and a nall.
His demand that rent control -
by the Federal Government-oe
extended for another two years
and strengthened, has been turned
down by the House and probably
will meet a similar fate in the
Senate. The final rent control
extension, if and when it comes,
will be a considerably watered-
down variety.
Another demand by Mr.. Tru-
man was for a price and wage
control law. 1t has gotten exactly
nowhere, and it's prospects are so
dim as to be negligible. Nor has
anything yet been done about
public housing or socialized medi-
cine. If and when anything is
done in regard to the latter two,
they will not be the administra-
tons proposals.
The President also asked Con-
gress for an increase of $4,000
100000 in taxes. The Democratic
committees of the House and Sen
ate have sidetracked this request
until more is learned about the
spending program-the appropria:
tions that Congress makes-and
about economic conditions in the
country. The Republicans, on the
other hand, have rallied behind a
bill to further reduce taxes-thls
time the excise taxes, which are
really sales taxes on q large num-
ber of goods and services.
Party Out of Control
1t may we'll be asked-whats
Mr.. Truman's trouble? And an
other question-dces MI. Truman
or the Congress represent a ma
jority OF the people?
In the 10th Congress, when Mr.
Truman entered the White House
in 1945, the political makeup Of
the two houses was as follows
Senate, SIS Democrats, 40 Repub-
licans, Progressive; House. 241
Democrats, 100 Republicans, ]
Progressive, l American-Labor. z
vacancies. Take a look at the
81st Congress as it was in Jan
uary: Senate, 81 Democrats, AZ
Republicans; House, 263 Demo
Gratis, I'll Republicans, l Amerl-
can-Labor. The Democratic con-
troll of both houses was certain IN
both the 10th and 8lst Congresses
If the Democrats stuck together
But Mr.. Truman has not been
able to keep the Democrats TO-
gether-for the program which
he is demanding, a program
which, by the way, is dictated by
promises made to many individual
minority groups. Too many OF
the Democrats in Congress have
been opposed to his civil rights
program, to his proposal to turn
back the clock on labor manage
ment legislation, and to his pro-
posal to tax the people more and
spend more money for New Deal
projects.
What has happened in the 81st
Congress-as it did in the 10th
Congress-has been the cementing
of a coalition of Republican and
conservative Democrats. Most OF
the conservative Democrats are
from the South-but not all.
One of Mr.. Truman's troubles
has arisen from the failure on his
part and that of his advisers tc
estimate correctly economic
trends in the country. Immedi-
ately after hostilities ceased in the
last war, they figured there would
be huge unemployment. Nothing
of the kind happened and Con-
gress turned down Mr.. Truman's
request for hundreds of millions
of dollars additional for unem-
ployment insurance. They figured
too, that wages could be increased
without an increase in prices
and that turned out to be a mis-
take. Mr.. Truman and his ex-
perts thought, also, that tax re-
ceipts would be less than they
turned out to be-by a wide mar
gin.
Predictions Proved Wrong
Mr.. Truman during the cam
paign insisted that unless he were
elected, there would be a down.
ward trend in business, prices to
the farmers. other prices and en-
ployment. Well, he was elected,
and his prediction that there
would not be such trends has
proved wrong.
Another criticism leveled at Mr..