Something Ought To Be Done

Waiting to hear from Harry Truman, Congress was alarmed and frustrated, not sure what ought to be done, but sure that something ought to be, and quickly. Korea, cried Texas' Lyndon Johnson, would go down in history "as a slaughterhouse for democracy or as a graveyard for aggression." He wanted to call out the National Guard and the Organized Reserves and to give the President powers to mobilize industry. Maine's Owen Brewster wanted to let MacArthur use the atom bomb at his discretion.

Spending & Saving. Besides making speeches, Congress worked hard. Without changing a word, the House Foreign Affairs Committee rushed through the Senate's bill authorizing $1,222,500,000 for second-year military assistance to foreign nations ("Woefully inadequate," declared Mississippi's Senator James O. Eastland with post-Korean wisdom), and called for a Pacific pact modeled on the North Atlantic pact. The Senate Finance Committee, after talking it over with Secretary of the Treasury John Snyder, regretfully shelved the bill to cut excise taxes. Thirty-five Senators (including five Democrats) backed a 10% cut in all non-defense appropriations, including ECA. Majority Leader Scott Lucas promptly objected to any such "meat-ax" cut.

All week, nerves jangled with the strain of uncertainty and bad news. Once, the Senate was startled when a grey, hooded figure rose in the gallery, intoning sepulchrally: "I am here to warn you." The lady, who said she was "the phantom of the past," was hustled off by Capitol guards, for mental observation.

Something for Senators. Bickering was fiercest over a $10 million appropriation to build the Senate a new office building with auditorium, movie projection rooms, swimming pool and garage. Roared Louisiana's Allen J. ("Little Bull") Ellender: "I say we ought to examine our consciences." New Mexico's Dennis Chavez argued plaintively that Senators' offices are overcrowded (they are), that they have no place to receive visitors. Cried Chavez: "Oh, we can vote billions of dollars without batting an eye. We can appropriate automobiles for third-class clerks in a department. But when it comes to doing something for the people of the United States, we are told that we must . . . not waste the people's money." After some hours of this, Florida's Spessard Holland suggested that the Senate vote down the building "quietly and quickly" and then "go on to more vital business of the nation." The Senate did, 42 to 35.

There was no longer any hope of adjournment. But Administration leaders were anxious to get at least a recess. "We've got to shut off those damn speeches," explained one. "Everybody wants to pop off for the folks back home."

Last week the Senate also:

P: Fell nine short of the 64 votes needed to impose cloture on FEPC, the only way to shut off a filibuster if the bill were brought up. Voting for cloture: 22 Democrats and 33 Republicans; against, 27 Democrats and 6 Republicans. Civil rights legislation was dead in the 81st Congress.

The House:

P: After a Presidential appeal, its Appropriations Committee reversed itself, restored the full $26,900,000 requested for the Point Four Program.

P: Killed one of the President's reorganization plans which would have created a Welfare Department and presumptively a Cabinet post for FSAdministrator Oscar Ewing, by 249 to 71.

P: Passed a bill permitting eleven Government agencies and departments (State, Defense, AEC, etc.) to fire employees as poor security risks.

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