The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-10-20
Republican Floor Leader Blocks
Lobor's Scot In Press Galleries

Washington UPA) - L b r
Press Associations fight for mem
bership in the Congressional Press
Galleries was seriously jeopardized
this week, just as it approached
final victory, when Sen. Kenneth
Wherry OR. Neb.) blocked action
in the Senate Rules Committee at
the request of small group OF
dissident press gallery members.
Wherrys action came as COM
plete surprise to members of the
I Standing Committee of Cores
pondents, which governs the press
galleries and which had recon-
mended a new rule under which
LPA would gain membership in
the galleries. Wherry's move was
particularly serious because it
blocked action at the last schedul-
ed meeting of the Rules Commit
tee this session.
LPA Immediately appealed to
Chairman Carl Hayden Cd, Ariz.)
! to call another meeting of the
committee before adjournment to
prevent a gross injustice. 1t point
| ed out to Hayden that if the press
gallery minority could overrule
the recommendation of the Stand
ing Committee, then any action of
the elected governing body of the
gallery could be vetoed by single
member of the gallery with a
friend on the Rules Committee.
The Standing Committee also
indicated it would fight for another
meeting of the committee and
friends of labor throughout Wash
ington and the country were rally
ing to the fight. Members of the
| Committee to whom they are par
ticularly directing their appeals
were: Democratic Senators Carl
Hayden (Ariz.), Theodore F.
Green Or. ~, Francis j. Myers
(Pa.), John C. Stennis (Miss.),
Guy M. Gillette Qowa), Glen H.
Taylor Qdaho), Garrett Withers
(Ky.), and Republicans Kenneth S.
Wherry (Nebr), VIM. F. Knowland
! (Calif.), Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
(Mass.), VIM. f. Jenner Qnd),
Irving M. Ives IN. W, Hendrick-
son On. J.) and Andrew Schoeppel
(Kan.).
When the Rules Committee met
i Wednesday it had been expected to
approve the new rule routinely.
There had been no notice of op-
position to the rule since it was
modified by the Standing Commit
tee to meet objections from within
the gallery. But Wherry, to every
ones surprise, asked for delay,
saving he understood there was
opposition. The Committee agreed
to authorize Hayden to approve
the new rule providing Wherry's
friends were satisfied.
Members of the Standing Com
mittee Immediately met with the
dissident group which Wherry had
been representing, but found they
could get nowhere. The minority
group, chiefly southern members
of the gallery, seemed determined
to block the Standing Committee
and openly boasted it could beat
the Standing Committee in a
showdown.
{ Chairman William S. White, of
the Standing Committee, served
notice he did not intend to back
down. He prepared to rally the
committee and its friends for
fight in the Rules Committee. To
White and the LPA, the maneuver
(, of the Southerners looked like a
flibuster, similar to those conduct
ed by southern members of the
! Senate against civil rights legisla-
tion.
! LPA, in a letter to Hayden said:
"We applied for membership in
the galleries last spring. The COM
mittee finally recommended new
rule because it felt it would be un-
just to keep us out under the old
rule. We feel in view of what
has happened it would be gross
Injustice to us if Congress should
adjourn without acting on that
rule, just because of the objections
of a small minority of the MEM
bership of the press gallery who
represent no one but themselves
and have not even seen the evid-
ence we presented justifying our
application for membership"