"He Told Us"

President Truman had made up his mind. He was helped to it by the attitude of many Congressmen who, having visited ravaged Europe, now saw the necessity of immediate action. One morning last week, the President met his Cabinet. He told them that there had to be a special session of Congress, that he had decided to call it for Nov. 17.* France and Italy could not wait until January for U.S. aid.

That afternoon, he gave congressional leaders the news. He did not ask how they felt about it. "He told us," Speaker Joe Martin said. The following night, Harry Truman went on the radio.

But to almost everyone's surprise, he spoke first not about foreign aid but about U.S. inflation. "Our domestic prosperity is endangered by the threat of inflation," he said. "The peace of the world is endangered by hunger and cold in other lands."

Under the pressure of rising prices, real prosperity could not last. But, said Mr. Truman hopefully: "We can prevent further loss, and can even go on to new gains, if we use our economic strength wisely. . . ." Then he asked for $642 million in emergency funds for France and Italy.

The Facts of Life. The nation generally applauded Harry Truman's action in calling Congress. But Truman, like Janus, had faced two ways.

In the case of foreign aid, he had faced realities. His whole foreign program (the stopgap aid and the long-term Marshall Plan which would inevitably be discussed at the same time) involved calculable risks. All U.S. funds to Europe might be a dead loss. Mr. Truman had accepted the calculable risk.

But in the case of the domestic economy, he faced away from reality. However he stated it, foreign aid did and would put a pressure on prices. The two problems were two horns of a U.S. dilemma. The fact of economic life which Harry Truman refused to face is that there is not enough of everything in the world to go around.

He did not say what his "program for dealing with inflation" would be. One measure being discussed is allocation of critical materials; e.g., halting the use of steel for beer cans. Over that measure hangs the threat of a black market. Another idea is to give the Government the authority to step into the nation's farms and set aside grain for overseas shipment. That expedient will not control grain prices unless the Government also fixes the price at which the producers must sell.

This week, the President called in leaders of labor, business and agriculture to suggest other ways and means.

"We'll Admit It." Any one of those measures would run into varying Republican opposition. The reaction of Republican Congressmen to the special session call was mixed. Only a few hours before the call, Minnesota's Harold Knutson, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, had declared that Congress would limit aid to Europe even under the Marshall Plan to $1 billion next year. Contemplated in the Marshall Plan: some $6 to $7 billion the first year. Said Knutson: "Give them a paddle and then tell 'em--'Go paddle your own canoe.' "

Other Republicans were more sympathetic to the foreign-aid program, but they reacted with resentment and suspicion to the priority which the President gave the price phase of his program. Any discussion of what to do about prices would inevitably stir up the old argument over who was to blame for the present high level of prices. Republicans said that businessmen would oppose any new controls. Said Michigan's Jesse Wolcott: "If he can lower prices without putting controls back on, he's a genius and we'll admit it."

Because the President had injected what was certainly a political issue and because he had called the session without a by-your-leave, Republicans felt free to declare the session wide open. One of the first issues many of them wanted to take up was tax reduction, which the President had twice vetoed. Said House Majority Leader Charles Halleck: "Tax reduction ... is urgently needed if we are to have increased production."

As Senator Taft pointed out, the President had merely advanced the opening of the second session of the 80th Congress by about six weeks. And Congress, in an election year, would almost certainly be stormy.

* The 26th special session in U.S. history and the first since September 1939, when Roosevelt called one to revise the Neutrality Act.

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