Pork v. Beans

Rarer than a day in June is the day when the leaders of the House filibuster against an Administration bill. Yet so they did last week, for the House had gone rambunctious and was threatening to run away with the Relief bill. For a long time the House had been getting more impatient with Relief Administrator Hopkins.

As irate Joe Starnes of Guntersville, Ala. exclaimed last week upon the floor: "Two weeks ago he had the power to override one of the ablest members of the House of Representatives and his subcommittee--I refer to the gentleman from Virginia [Clifton Alexander Woodrum]. A week ago, according to the press, he came on the Hill and held a meeting in the office of the majority whip of the House, and yesterday he entered into the sanctum sanctorum, the office of the majority leader of this House, or the holy of holies. That is what the members of the House resent."

The trouble began originally when Representative Woodrum, head of the Appropriations' subcommittee, suggested cutting the President's proposed $1,500,000,000 WPA bill for 1938 to $1,000,000,000. Harry Hopkins, who felt that even the President's figure was too small, declared that 500,000 of WPA's 2,000,000 dolesters would have to be discharged as it was. So the full Appropriations Committee overrode Mr. Woodrum's economy plan.

Last week a new group rose to attack the bill on the floor of the House. Their plaint was not its size but its blanket appropriation of one and a half billions to be spent at the President's and Mr. Hopkins' pleasure. The rebels were led by Joe Starnes who demanded that $55,000,000 be earmarked for flood and drought control; Wilburn Cartwright of McAlester, Okla. who demanded $150,000,000 be earmarked for roads; Alfred Beiter of Williamsville, N. Y., who demanded $300,000,000 be earmarked for Public Works. They in turn had the backing of the lobbyists of the steel and cement industries and the American Association of General Contractors. What! cried the earmarking bloc. Billions for beans for the unemployed and not one cent for pork?

One afternoon they took the bill, in committee-of-the-whole, and attached their earmarking amendments to it. Two days later Leader Rayburn attempted to pull the Administration forces together and undo the damage. Representative Woodrum, bitter that $500,000,000 should be cut for pork but not for economy, assisted. But the earmarking bloc remained in the saddle. The Administration leaders had to resort to a filibuster to keep the earmarked bill from being rushed to passage. The temper of the House was made manifest when an amendment was adopted limiting any WPA salary to $10,000. No name needed to be mentioned: the amendment meant $2,000 off the pay of Harry Hopkins and no one else.*

Finally Leader Rayburn rose in desperation and announced that "within the hour" he had been in conversation with the President. He urged Democrats not to play into the hands of the Republican minority, got them to put off final action on the bill until this week, promised "everything humanly possible will be done to bring about an adjustment fair to every man, to every section, to every project. . . ."

*In passing the bill for a permanent CCC, Congress recently reduced Director Robert Fechner's salary from $12,000 to $10,000.

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