Evening star., 1951-07-15

In the administration trenches.
went into action. King Canute
himself, had he been present and
duly recorded, could not have
stopped the tide. The sight Of
Southern Democrats and farm State
members streaming up the center
aisle to be counted with the Re-
publicans must haunt the weekend
dreams of those inclined to believe
that the administration eventually
will wind up with the sort of con-
trolls authority it wants.
In fine display of pertinency,
the coalition put across an amend
ment barring until June 80. 1858,
foreign imports of fats, oils, butter,
cheese and dairy products, and pea
nuts and rice where such imports
would compete unduly with domes-
tic production. 1t also pushed
through an amendment banning
restrictions on the quantity of live
stock that may be slaughtered.
On Wednesday the coalition was
obviously licking its uncontrolled
chops, and the blow seemed ready
to fall at any moment. But sud-
denly the debate swung to a Sec
tional issue, arousing another form
of coalition. Republicans and
Northern Democrats beat down a
proposal to give the President (who
hadn't asked for it) permission to
disperSe new Government financed
defense plants in non-industrial
areas.
Waiting for the Worst
Administration Democrats, still
remembering Tuesdays pounding,
hung on for dear life awaiting the
worst. A mo compromise" decree
came from Representative Cooley,
Democratic chairman of the Agri-
culture Committee and a main
promoter of the thumbs down policy
on rollbacks on farm products in
particular and other commodities
in general.
On Thursday the roof almost fell
in again on the administration.
The only visible relief was that the
price-ceiling amendments had not
yet been ntroduced-and that votes
limiting the Presidents authority
were by somewhat narrower mar
gins than the one that had banned
livestock slaughtering quotas. Those
amendments would take away the
authority of the President to
acquire and operate defense plants
and to pay subsidies on farm
products.
Friday the 18th was as unlucky
as ever for administration hopes.
Banking Committee Chairman
Spence, venerable Democratic Ken
lucky lawyer. who looks like a
banker, and Representative Multer,
New York Democrat, whose round
up efforts for beef price rollbacks
earned him the nickname Brooklyn
Cowboy" lost again. The House
adopted an amendment to deny the
President authority to create new
Government corporations.
The fog lifted long enough to
disclose that the House has almost
reached the bills price stabilization
sections. That could open the way
for action beginning tomorrow on
proposed crucial changes to ban
rollbacks on food and farm prices.
nullify previous rollback orders and
prohibit future rollbacks on indus
trial prices.
Speaker Rayburn forecast a final
vote by late Wednesday. He didn't
say positively"
President Truman said he'd done
all he could to get real controls
bill through; that Congress would
have to take the responsibility from
here on in. Representative Taber
of New York, G. o. P. fiscal spokes-
man, retorted: "Until the President
realizes he has responsibilities,
there will be no controls bill"
So it went. Meanwhile, with voters
watching on the sidelineS, both
sides clearly are mindful of the
risks they are running.
The Republicans and their allies
risk scuttling the controls bill and
then having the economic situation
grow worse. Because of their
strength, their risk seems at the
moment to be the greater of the
two. But the Democratic faithfuls
run their own risk-that of pushing
for controls against possibly an
tagonistic public opinion which, in
1852, might side with "do-nothing"
82d Congress, instead of with
whistle-stopping President.
They key man, as always, was the
imponderable voter, John Q.-for
Questionmark-himself. What did
he want? He might know. But he
wasn't talking loud enough for the
men on the Hill to hear.