Final Fling

With notable lack of enthusiasm, the lame-duck 81st Congress limped back into Washington this week for one final fling at the legislative process. Only about 250 House members showed up, and a full 25 Senators were absent from the first roll call.

Alben Barkley, with a stuffy nose and a racking cough, presided over the Senate in the old Supreme Court chamber* where there is barely room to swing a cat. Occasionally, he tapped for order with the tiny blob of ivory that serves as his gavel.

On hand were many familiar faces, some soon to be seen around the halls of Congress no more. Big, bronzed lame-duck Scott Lucas, after a visit to the White House, went through the motions of majority leader. His gear was all packed. He will be at home in Havana, Ill. after Jan. 3, practicing law. Pennsylvania's Francis J. Myers, the majority whip, was equally relaxed: he will soon be a Philadelphia lawyer again.

In the House, bald, urbane Speaker Sam Rayburn called his charges to order promptly at noon in the Ways & Means Committee room. The clerk droned through the roll in a rising crescendo of bedlam and backslapping. The House knew, even though the Senate might not admit it, that what remains of the 81st Congress would be full of sound & fury, signifying nothing. The principal task of the lame-duck session, triumphant Bob Taft had said, was to "adjourn!"

Into this atmosphere of Democratic torpor and Republican cockiness, Harry Truman insinuated his legislative program. On the hardheaded advice of his staff he abandoned plans to appear personally before a joint session. But he sent word by his leaders that he wanted: statehood for Alaska and Hawaii; $14 billion more for defense, for a total this year of $43 billion; a $4 billion tax bill with a 75% bite on excess profits (see BUSINESS); $250 million more for the H-bomb; extension of rent control, which expires on Dec. 31, unless Congress acts; and up to $75 million to feed Tito (see above). It was a program to keep even a regular session at work for months.

Gamely, Lucas announced that the first order of business would be statehood for Alaska. Nebraska's Kenneth Wherry, the Republican minority leader, set the tone for the opposition when he said his first order of business would be the ouster of Secretary of State Dean Acheson.

-When the new 82nd Congress convenes Jan. 3, the Senate and House will be back in their old chambers now undergoing a $5,000,000 beauty treatment.

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