"Agricultural Rehabilitation"

The Drought Relief fight in Congress reached such a pitch last week that a Senator stalked over into the House looking for a fight with a Representative. Down the centre aisle, shoulders hunched, hands deep in pockets (his usual carriage, but now more sour than ever) stalked Senator Thaddeus H. Caraway of hungry Arkansas. At a table sat baggy-faced Representative Louis C. Cramton, lame duck of Michigan, busy with papers. Beside him was big Representative Schafer of Wisconsin. Mr. Schafer poked Mr. Kramdens ribs, tried to call his attention to the Senatorial intruder. Mr. Cramton got busier than ever with his papers. Chip still on shoulder, Senator Caraway turned, strolled out.

Their hostility started when Representative Cramton helped block the $25,000,000 food appropriation for Drought sufferers. Senator Caraway accused him of trying to get a Federal job for himself after he leaves Congress. Representative Cramton called the Senator "a plain unadulterated liar." The following telephone conversation occurred:

Caraway: I'm ready to meet you any place, any time, anywhere and have you repeat to my face what you said.

Cramton: I said what I had to say on the House floor.

Caraway: You're a coward and a liar!

Mr. Cramton banged down the receiver. There was no fight.

In somewhat different manner the bigger and more serious legislative fight over Drought Relief was compromised last week by Senator Caraway's colleague. Senator Robinson of Arkansas. The day after Senator's Borah's thunderous speech last fortnight for food relief, President Hoover intimated that he might favor some sort of public aid if private charity failed (see p. 11). Shuttling back and forth for 48 hours between the White House and the Capitol went portly Senator Watson of Indiana, the Republican leader, trying to find a means of silencing Senator Borah, whom he fears, by pleasing Senator Robinson, the Democratic leader, who is determined but reasonable. At length Senator Watson evolved a masterful polysyllabic weasel. It was:

Eliminate the word "food" from Senator Robinson's proposal. Reduce the appropriation to $20,000,000. Provide that this sum be loaned on proper security to Drought area farmers for "further agricultural rehabilitation."

Exactly what "agricultural rehabilitation" meant nobody knew for sure. Democrats were sure it covered food loans. Republicans did not specifically deny this, though the Administration was emphatically on record against the "dole" principle which is what it said feeding U. S. citizens would amount to. Declared Senator Watson: "You can't rehabilitate farms with dead farmers." Speaker Longworth held the money could be used "for anything." House Leader Tilson kept obstinately repeating: "It's not a dole. Remember, it's not a dole."

President Hoover accepted the Watson compromise because it did not specifically provide for food loans. Senator Robinson accepted it because it did not specifically bar them. President Hoover wrote Senator Robinson that the additional sum, which would run the Drought fund up to $65,000,000, would be used for "real aid," be administered "fairly and sympathetically." Both sides claimed a moral victory.

The only Senators disgruntled with the Watson compromise were the Republican Insurgents. They denounced it as a "cheap evasion" of the Relief principle which Senator Borah had so thunderously proclaimed. They argued that farmers without security would not benefit at all. They predicted that Secretary of Agriculture Hyde, archfoe of the "food-dole," would never sanction the use of any of this fund for food for hungry men.

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