72nd's Last

What may be the last "lame duck" session of Congress in U. S. history opened a three-month sitting last week.* Under a bright December sun the Capitol gleamed whiter than usual after a bath by the local fire department. When Speaker Garner called the 72nd House to order to take up the nation's business, on its rolls were still 144 members whom the People had rejected as law-makers on Nov. 8. Lame ducks in the Senate numbered 14. Prime job of the session: enactment of eleven bills appropriating more than four billion dollars for next year's operation of the Government. Unless it also passes another Budget-balancing tax bill, more farm relief and beer-for-revenue legislation, a special session of the heavily Democratic 73rd Congress soon after March 4 is considered inevitable.

Reds. Two years ago 500 Communists demonstrating before the Capitol stole the headlines from Congress on its opening day. Last December 1,600 Red hunger-marchers demanding relief were the centre of interest. This year Senators and Representatives managed to hold the spotlight only because Superintendent of Police Ernest W. Brown cooped up a tatterdemalion army of 3,000 Red demonstrators in the suburbs two miles from the Capitol.

For weeks the Red march on Congress had been in the making. Herbert Benjamin, its Washington advance agent, had vainly sought parade permits from Vice President Curtis and Speaker Garner. His attempts to rent local quarters for his followers had been equally unsuccessful. But his failures did not halt the marchers. From Boston, Providence, New York, Albany, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis. New Orleans, Birmingham and Philadelphia streamed a black-&-White horde of Reds, traveling in rented trucks and wheezy old cars. Their demand: $50 for every jobless citizen. One city cold-shouldered the motorcades along to the next. At Wilmington, Del., 24 were arrested for disorder.

When the converging marchers reached the District of Columbia line. Superintendent Brown's men appeared as a reception committee. "We'll hang Herbert Hoover to a sour apple tree!" cried the Reds. The business-like police conducted them to a new street, not yet opened to traffic, between a high bank and a railroad yard. There, inside a police cordon, the marchers were told to make themselves at home in their trucks. There was a food shortage. It was cold. The marchers jeered the police, waved their Red banners. Across the city they could see their objective--the Capitol's dome.

Washington, its nerves still raw from the B. E. F., was in no welcoming mood. The march's leaders postponed their demonstration a day. hurried to court in an attempt to break the police line bottling up their followers. At the Capitol special guards were posted and even ordinary sightseers were turned away. Vice President Curtis consented to receive three demonstrators and their petitions--but no more. Most Senators and Representatives felt that they were fighting a foe as intangible as the widespread misery the Red marchers claimed to represent.

No Repeal. Fortnight ago Speaker Garner announced that he would put to an immediate House vote a resolution to repeal the 18th Amendment, with ratification by State conventions. As both parties had declared Wet, he favored quick disposal of the question. About the Capitol for a week there was much scurrying and nose-counting. Would the resolution muster the necessary two-thirds vote? Majority Leader Rainey thought so. Others were less certain. Die-hard Drys fumed at the State convention method of ratification, succeeded in inducing the Judiciary Committee to reject (13-to-6) the Garner resolution.

On opening day after a prayer for God "to smile upon our beloved country" the following occurred:

Leader Rainey: Mr. Speaker, I move that the House suspend the rules for the present consideration of House Joint Resolution 408 to repeal the 18th Amendment.

Speaker Garner: Is a second demanded? Georgia's Dry Tarver: I demand a second.

By a teller vote of 245-40-121 the House ordered a second to the Rainey motion.

Followed 40 minutes of rapid-fire debate, no man talking more than a minute or two. Some Republicans objected to the Speaker's "steamroller methods." Finally the momentous roll-call began, droning through 435 names. His face flushed with disappointment, Speaker Garner huskily announced the result: 272 for Repeal; 144 against. The resolution had failed by six votes to muster a two-thirds majority, was lost. The Drys cheered feebly, the House adjourned.

For Repeal: 168 Democrats, 103 Republicans, 1 Farmer-Laborite. Against Repeal: 43 Democrats; 101 Republicans. Sixty-two lame ducks voted Dry. Since the last session Wets had run their strength up from 187 to 272. Speaker Garner indicated that the House would not get another chance to vote on Repeal this session.

19 Minutes. The Senate's first-day session lasted 19 minutes. Lame ducks were loudly joshed back & forth across the aisle. No business was done. From Denver, Democrat Walter Walker flew to Washington, was sworn in as Colorado's Senator pending the arrival of the official election certificate of Republican Karl Schuyler. Two other new Senators: North Carolina's Robert Reynolds and Washington's Elyot Grammer. Absent was Pennsylvania's Senator Davis, whose right to sit has been questioned since his indictment in connection with the Moose lottery (TIME, Aug. 29; Oct. 10). His wife explained that he had gone to Battle Creek, Mich, for a minor nasal operation.

* The proposed 20th Amendment to the Constitution abolishing short sessions of Congress following elections, has so far been ratified by 17 States, rejected by none.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.