A Place in History

The "worst Congress" churned determinedly toward adjournment. Harry Truman to the contrary, the 80th, far from being the worst, had clearly won an honorable spot in U.S. legislative history.

In foreign policy its record was distinguished: its decisions marked the end of 152 years of U.S. peacetime isolation. Though the Administration, using its constitutional prerogative, initiated policy, the Both Congress, led by Senator Arthur Vandenberg, forged the imposing tools by which the bipartisan foreign policy was put into effect.

It approved aid to Greece and Turkey, authorized ECA by overwhelming majorities. It took the major inconsistencies out of the Truman Doctrine and placed it within the framework of U.N. It insisted that China should receive at least a small share of anti-Communist aid. Both Senate and House members took their responsibilities seriously; over 200 of them abandoned vacations to trudge over Europe on their own investigations.

Pledges & Publicity. On the domestic front, the 80th wrote the first major labor law in twelve years, and redressed the balance between labor and management. It found an equitable formula to reduce taxes. It passed a wise presidential-succession bill (proposed by the President), authorized unification of the services, and showed determination and foresight in overwhelmingly approving a 70-group Air Force in the face of Navy-minded opposition by the Administration. Its unwillingness to control prices reflected its G.O.P. majority's faith in a free economy, its distaste for peacetime controls.

Like other Congresses, the 80th had been petty on occasion, had politicked often. It had jammed through the wool bill, a piece of old-line protectionism which the President properly vetoed. The Senate's bitter fight over confirmation of AEC Chairman David Lilienthal had been no credit to the 80th Congress. The House had dragged its feet on foreign aid, twice had almost upset the applecart (with its vote to include Spain in ECA, its slash in ECA appropriations). No one was proud of the 15% "voluntary" rent-control bill. Action on housing and admission of D.P.s was long overdue. Congress' investigations had yielded more publicity than malefactors, had sometimes seemed to be planned that way.

Sulks & Snarls. But taken in the round, the record was the full answer to Harry Truman's irresponsible blurt. Congress did not need the replies in kind that some of its members delivered. Majority Leader Charley Halleck said: "There are a lot of people who think Mr. Truman is the poorest President since George Washington." On the floor of the House, Ohio's Cliff Clevenger rapped: "Might well be there will be some Congress-tanned Missouri jackass hide on the Christmas market--come November." The Rev. Peter Marshall, the Senate's chaplain, spoke the final word: "You don't overcome evil by evil. Let the record speak for itself."

Last week the Senate also: P: After three days of intermittent debate, passed a law which provided authority to draft 225,000 single nonveterans between 19 and 25 for two years, permit 161,000 18-year-olds to volunteer for one year's training.

P: Approved and sent to conference the Vandenberg-Millikin compromise on reciprocal trade, which removed the House-approved congressional veto on tariff agreements. P: Tabled oleo tax repeal.

The House:

P: Passed the Fellows bill to admit 202,000 D.P.s over the next two years, a more generous formula than the Senate's discriminatory Wiley-Revercomb bill. P: Passed a farm-price support bill to continue present support policy until 1950. P: Received the Andrews draft bill from its Rules Committee, where it had been bottled up for five weeks.

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