Work Undone

When the 75th Congress met last January, it looked like one of the most efficient legislative machines assembled in U. S. history. A huge Democratic majority had returned the President to office. A huge Democratic majority in both Houses was apparently waiting to do his bidding.

Last week, when after 229 days the 75th Congress finally adjourned, it had indeed proved efficient but in ways that no one had anticipated. Far from churning out a record quantity of important legislation, it had turned out almost none. Far from advancing the President's program, it had all but stopped it in its tracks. But if the 75th Congress' positive achievements were somewhat negative, its negative achievements were sensationally positive. Last week, casting up the balance, political observers unanimously agreed that whatever Congress had done in 1937, what it had not done was infinitely more important, so important that some believed the President would call a special session in the fall.

Besides the bills rushed through last week (see below), the session's chief accomplishments were the passage of a quasi-Neutrality Act, extending and amending the temporary acts of 1935 and 1936; an act to allow Supreme Court Justices to retire on full pay; a modified Court Bill, which was the ghost of the President's plan to enlarge the Supreme Court; a sugar-quota act which the President had promised to veto; and appropriations totaling $9,389,488,983, including $1,500,000,000 for relief. What Congress had not done was another story. Major Congressional Work Undone:

P: A bill to limit crop production, produce an "ever-normal granary." In return for a promise to grant loans to Southern cotton growers, both House and Senate promised to make this the first item of business in their next session.

P: A bill to regulate wages and hours in U. S. industry and ban interstate shipment of goods produced by child labor. Passed by the Senate, the bill was reported favorably by the House Labor Committee but kept off the floor by a clique of Southern members of the Rules Committee. As chairman of Labor's Non-Partisan League, John L. Lewis of C. I. O. denounced the House Committee Wages & Hours tie-up, threatened to form a new party to effect social legislation if the Democratic Party failed to do so. William Green of A. F. of L., no real enthusiast for the bill, also made some deprecating remarks.

P: A bill to reorganize the administrative branch of the Government, create two new Cabinet departments, give the President six special assistants. The House passed separate bills, authorizing part of the program. The special Senate Committee reported favorably a somewhat different bill, but action was postponed till next session.

P: A regional conservation bill (parceling out the U. S. among "seven TVAs"). Sponsored by Nebraska's George W. Norris, it was dropped when he fell ill.

If the major achievements of the 75th Congress lay clearly under Work Undone, what it had undone most thoroughly was exactly what had made it look so capable of other things when it convened last winter. Prospect when it adjourned last week was for a second session whose major sign of promise is that it will have none of the advantages of the first.

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