Evening star., 1951-05-03
Home Rule FiIibusfer
Blocks Vote for Open
Hearing Of Macarthur
By Don S. Warren

Washington home rule was de-
bated last night in the Senate as
the subject Unexpectedly was
showed into the spotlight in Bit
ter fight over public or closed
hearings for Gen. Macarthur.
AS a result, the petition of Dis
trict Committee Chairman Nicely
to force a Senate vote on the
Kefauver- Taft home rule bill -
now blocked in the District Com
Imittee-inched it's way from the
Senate Presidents desk to the
Senate calendar.
But apparently, aside from such
|technicalities, a Senate vote on
| the bill itself Is as far away as
!. lit was before.
StiIl in Committee.
The bill still is held in the Dis
Itrict Committee, where 1t encoun-
tered q tie vote of 6 to 6. And it
will require at some later date a
majority vote of the Senate to
bring it up for consideration
there.
This would have to come after
the Senate votes to discharge its
District Committee from further
action on the bill. A determined
contest or even a fllibuster may
develop over the committee dis
charge petition.
The home rule question came
to the fore late yesterday when
Republicans forced an adjourn
ment" of the Senate and a recon-
vening within an hour as a
manuever to get action on a res
olution to break open the closed
hearings planned for Gen. Mac
Arthur.
Under that procedure, the first
business to come up was the Nicely
discharge petition-this having
been offered we'll ahead of mo-
tions to open the Macarthur hear
ings.
Seek Quick Disposition.
Republicans Immediately began
driving for a quick disposition of
the home rule petition so they
would have q chance to vote on
1.-THE Macarthur open hearing mo-
tions. Under parliamentary rules
this had to come up last night
before 7 o'clock.
Caught in this situation, Sen
ator Nicely, a staunch administra-
ton supporter, found it necessary
to f1libuSter against immediate ac-
ton on his own petition-so as
to prevent chance of action
on the Republican move for Mac
Arthur open hearings.
With Republicans urging him to
get his business done, the fiery
West Virginian finally cut loose
with the philippe: I'm not going
ito yield the floor to help make a
Roman holiday for any man as a
reward for his defiance, disobedi-
ence and rebellion against con-
IStitutional authority"
He carried out his promise. He
was in command Of the floor from
S pm. to 8 pm. He started his
delaying tactics by demanding a
full reading of the journal of the
earlier and adjourned meeting of
yesterdays session of the Senate.
That took about half an hour.
Then there were quorum calls and
considerable time devoted to
Questions from other Democrats
also interested in forestalling any
Immediate vote on Republican
motions regarding the Macarthur
hearings.
Extended Debate on Issue.
But during all this there was
extended debate over the home
rule issue. Notably this came from
questions propounded by Demo-
cratic Senators Douglas of Illinois
and Holland Of Florida.
! Senator Douglas brought out
that the District had elected
forms Of government from 1902
to 1871 and that the District was
an island Of disfranchized people
although its citizens pay about
500 million in taxes to its city
government.
Senator Holland made a special
point that In the National Capital
its citizens have no say over the
control Of its schools. And on
this point Senator Nicely said
there was no place like 1t outside
Iof Russia"
BY z pm. Senator Neely had
won his battle to keep the Repub-
lican Macarthur resolutions from
coming up for action last night
but he held the floor for another
hour. Most of this time was given
over to reading from testimony by
witnesses at his recent home rule
hearings.