Washington and the Nation
Washington and the Nation Congress Seeks to Kill the FBPC The ploue hope with which Senate Majority Leader Alben V. Berkley of Kentucky wound up hia dramatic exchange with hia chief, that there...
...I have no way of knowing, of course, how quickly the rest of the country caught on to the real inner meaning of the Barkley incident...
...Par too many saw the explanation of Senator Bark-ley's defiance of Roosevelt in terms of personal irritations, trigger tempers and that sort of nonsense...
...Or a third party ticket may be entered to split the Democratic vote...
...Big business men have sent out to friends, gratis, copies of two books: One Man—Wendell Willkie, by C. Nelson Sparkes, and As We Go Marching, by John T. Flynn...
...So it has been clear from the start—as the srticles in this space have been pointing out for a long time—-that the Battle of 1944 must be directed at ousting the present tory Congress and replacing it with a liberal Congress...
...When labor protested, Roosevelt replied: Why doesn't labor elect the kind of Congress thst will support its complaints instead of coming to me with them...
...Without the right kind of support on Capitol Hill I've got to turn to Big Business for help in getting the tsnks, guns snd plsnes we need lo win the wsr...
...An "American Democratic National Committee" has been selected...
...There is no road back...
...The immediate reaction in Congress since the Bark-ley incident has been to intensify its tory position sad to reaffirm its intention to hamstring and cripple the Administration in every way possible...
...It was the kind of answer thst angered labor, but left it with hope...
...that he deliberately bided his time to throw down the gage of battle to the resctionsry Congress which has been in the saddle since 1942, and that his decision whether to try for s fourth term now depends on whether he thinks he will be sble to carry a liberal Congress in with him this time...
...And Senator Berkley's wish for a new era of friendship between Congress snd the President was understood for whst it really was: A reiterated warning to Roosevelt not to pull any sure New Dealish gestures again...
...For it immediately became clear to the initiated that here was an important crossroad, and that Roosevelt's decision would be a fateful one for the immediate future of America...
...Its reel importance becomes the fact that it provided the touch of drama which now has made the real issue vivid to the nation...
...And to the surprise of many . -. . there was...
...At that juncture Senator Barkley, who previously had always been a faithful party man (and never a New Dealer), flashed the red light In Roosevelt's face, and a stop sign which read: "Stop...
...His contribution towards crippling the President was an amendment to the Independent Offices Appropriation Bill which would kill all of the executive agencies set up by the President to help carry on the war effort under the terms of the Wartime Powers Act The amendment cots off the appropriations for these agencies sad forces the latter to come to Congress to ask for funds for continued functioning...
...But some men on Capitol Hill hate Roosevelt far more than they have ever h»ted Hitler or Hirohito...
...And the reason is that he is going to make the tory Congress of the past two yeara the Big Issue of the 1944 campaign...
...Congress had good ground for getting sore at Roosevelt's veto message...
...One school .of thought is convinced that Roosevelt will heed the warning from Capitol Hill and will make no further New Dealish gestures if that is whst's necessary to secure him a fourth term in the White House...
...Instesd, he chose to veto it and uae fighting words...
...And, of course, for those who saw it that way it seemed a natural conclusion to believe that after blowing off steam, the hot-tempered gentlemen should feel duly sissies' of such schoolboyish attitudes, ahake hands slid be the best of friends again...
...a ceiling on wages snd none on prices, wsr profiteering unchecked, inflation...
...He seeks to unite anti-Roosevelt forces of both parties, particularly in the South and Southwest, and may get tha nomination of a third party if it is launched...
...And Roosevelt's famous line about the Tax Bill being a "Tax Relief Bill—relief not for the needy, but for the greedy...
...Powerful financial interests sre behind this maneuver...
...That's as far as the record goes...
...And kicking Hitler out of Berlin is a more distant project for them than that of kicking Roosevelt out of the White House...
...And that, come the right time, he would swing back on the right track again...
...Informed inner circles, 24 hours later, talked little of Barkley's personal position...
...They hare been two bad years for labor...
...The gist of what they hsve to ssy is that the President will ignore Barkley's stop sign...
...Favorite-son" candidates are encouraged—especially Senator W. Lee (Poppy) (>'Daniel in Texas, Senator Harry F. Byrd in Virginia, and former Governor Joseph Ely in Massachusetts...
...In that event Byrd is the most probable candidate...
...Guilty Consciences On the Tax Bill In the past few days I hsve gone over the President's veto message on the Tax Bill line for line with well-informed Administration insiders...
...With a whole month ahead in which millions of Americans were going to be wrestling with the most unpopular income tax returns on record, Roosevelt had plainly put the spotlight and his finger on Congress and yelled out loud for everybody to hear: "Here's the gay that did It...
...It left the feeling- that the Father of the New Deal had not willingly abandoned his Brain Child...
...What they talked about was: What's Roosevelt going to do now...
...Will he ignore it...
...The point the insiders make is that Roosevelt could have just vetoed the bill without saying anything . . , or he could have vetoed it without the strong language he used...
...Washington and the Nation Congress Seeks to Kill the FBPC The ploue hope with which Senate Majority Leader Alben V. Berkley of Kentucky wound up hia dramatic exchange with hia chief, that there would now ensue a sew era of friendahip and amity between Congress tad the President, seems to have been misinterpreted by (Mar...
...Here's what they point out . . . and you're entitled to know this...
...The rest remains for the future...
...Roosevelt plainly 'warned Congress that they were going to hear more about the Ruml Plan when the campaign got going—and every Congressman who voted for it is open to the charge that he personally pocketed $1,500 as a result of his vote...
...On such terms, of rimru, aud only on such terms could there be a new era of friendship between Roosevelt and a tory Congress...
...For two years Roosevelt kept swinging to the impetus of the reactionary comeback in Congress...
...I spent several days making a thorough survey after Senator Barkley's defiance of his chief, and it was remarkable that nearly all opinions in their essence boiled down into just two categories...
...There has not been a single sign of any conciliatory attitude on the part of Congress towards the President since Berkley's pious plea for his kind of unity...
...An attempt will be made to elect anti-Roosevelt delegates to the Democratic national, convention from every state where there is time to do so...
...But in Washington it waa apparent the next day...
...And the whole point of the amendment is to atrip the President of every possible power—including those which are necessarily his for the purpose of carrying the war to a victorious finish...
...You will pass this bill over the veto, Barkley stormed in the well of the Senate . . . "if there is any self-respect left in this Congress...
...And with income taxea being the kind of subject they are, Roosevelt also reminded Congress of something thst every Congressman who voted for It would now like to forget—the Russl Tax Plan with its forgiveness of billions of dollars to the Fat Boys...
...Although Woodrlng evaded the question, there is evidence that James A. Farley is part of the anti-Roosevelt plot...
...They understood very well that Roosevelt had gone out of his way to deliberately kick Congress in the teeth...
...Among other things, it means the end of the FKPC...
...v Senator Robert Reynolds has also been organizing a nation-wide political machine—the "American Nationalist Committee of Independent Voters...
...Most of them are backers of Dewey...
...They constitute a swing to the left...
...It has been the hope—plus the rather practical fact that so far nothing has developed concretely to give labor any place else to go—thst still keeps a large part of labor pro-Roosevelt Without that hope, it is safe to say, nothing would remain of Roosevelt's onetime unanimous labor support...
...The more realistic view, from the moment the first run was fired, never considered thst peace between them was possible again...
...Will Roosevelt be guided by that stop sign...
...For instance, Senator Russell of Georgia, a member ef the President's party and a supporter of his Majority Leader, went to bat against the President this week with a new hamstringing device...
...Smith ( onnally Acts, Big Business in control of the war effort, etc...
...Roosevelt of the Political Crossroads The drama of that afternoon when the President's 'kief lieutenant in the Senate betrayed him hss resulted in two schools of thought in Washington...
...The other school of thought is equally convinced that Roosevelt is ss much interested in regaining a progressive Congress ss he is in a fourth term...
...Roosevelt, they Insist, doesn't do things like that without a reason...
...It is seen clearly now that Roosevelt has picked the Soldiers' Vote Bill and the Tax Bill to open that battle...
...For this group hates Willkie almost as much as they hate Roosevelt If both men are candidates, the third party hopes to get enough votes to throw the election into the House of Representatives...
...That registered, too, with all the guilty consciences who have been working overtime on Capitol Hill for the greedy War Profiteers...
...Putting it this way makes Barkley's action dwindle in importance...
...If Roosevelt is nominated in spite of their efforts, the Woodring group will switch to the Republicsn csndidstes if they are "satisfactory," i.e., reactionaries...
...Reactionaries Organize Stop-Roosevelt Group Harry H. Wood ring announced that organisations are being set up in every state to oppose a fourth term for Roosevelt, with a fund that has already reached $1,500,000...
...It was the gage of battle...
...And Barkley, the conservative who out of party loyalty has uncomfortably worn a liberal coat so long, decided to take his stand with his own kind...
Vol. 27 • March 1944 • No. 10
