THE WEEK IN REVIEW
THE WEEK IN REVIEW THE United States Senate has more and more emerged in recent months as a potent guardian of progressive principles. Several months ago it prevented the Administration from...
...Tom Con-nally, Texas Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, O'Mahoney warned that the principle of a free economy under a free government is under attack and demanded that the Senate ascertain whether the reorganization of the State Department constituted an abandonment of that policy...
...Hall Murray Wheeler Johnson (Col...
...Clayton's name along with three other Administration choices for top-flight positions in the State Department, was submitted to the Senate for confirmation as Assistant Secretary...
...Nelson Rockefeller, member of one of the nation's richest families and Co-ordinator of Inter-American Affairs, as Assistant Secretary...
...Coming so soon after a national campaign in which the Administration had talked glowingly of a brave new world of liberalism, the reactionary nature of the appointments shocked liberals in Congress and throughout the country...
...Clayton's ideas that interests us...
...Robert M. La Follette, Jr., Wisconsin Progressive, vigorously demanded that background information on the nominees be presented...
...In a later statement, contained in a letter addressed to Sen...
...Under the terms of the Act the rate would have automatically risen to two per cent for both employers and employes by Jan...
...Francis Biddle answered charges of his recently ousted aide, Norman M. Littell, that Thomas G. Corcoran, former New Deal Brain Truster and now a powerful Washington lobbyist, had obtained special consideration for his clients because of his friendship with Biddle...
...Joseph C. O'Mahoney, Wyoming...
...It is a long stretch of the imagination for any one to think an Assistant Secretary of State will be anything more than an administrative officer...
...The 21st seat was empty, left open for Russia whose Government had boycotted the conference...
...He was bitterly assailed by liberals who insisted that he is responsible for the reactionary appointments...
...Declaring that peoples of other countries were putting their faith in the Atlantic Charter, Chandler cautioned them to be wary because the Charter might only be a "noble declaration of the President of the United States and of the Prime Minister of England...
...At the close of the turbulent debate, which was confined largely to an intra-party fight among Democrats and with support for Connally's position coming, understandably enough, from the Republican minority, the motion to postpone confirmation was carried 37-27...
...One other name figured prominently in the explosion: that of the President's right-hand adviser, Harry Hopkins...
...O'Mahoney Republicans—1S Aiken Ferguson Robertson Buck Holman Taft Bushfield Jenner Wherry Butler Johnson (Calif...
...Here is the roll call: FOR RECOMMITMENT Democrats—20 Bankhead Kilgore Overton Bilbo Maloney Russell Chandler Maybank Stewart Clark (Mo...
...Several months ago it prevented the Administration from placing complete control of surplus property disposal in the hands of Will Clayton, Texas Tory and multimillionaire cotton broker...
...There was no question but what Clayton, who has been exposed by the La Follette Civil Liberties Committee as a backer of the notorious Associated Farmers of California and who is known to have made large contributions to the reactionary American Liberty League, organized some years ago to fight progressive legislation, was the central target of the attack...
...I should like to know whether they think the Atlantic Charter is dead...
...Taking a leading part in the move to recommit the appointments were such Administration stalwarts as Sen...
...O'Mahoney made the motion to withhold approval until the Senate had the opportunity of questioning the appointees on their views...
...McFarland Wagner Guffey Mead Walsh (Mass...
...Sixteen Republicans and one Progressive joined with 20 Democrats to car-ry the motion...
...Byrnes said that demands for releases to fill vital posts in war industries are increasing while the requirements for physically fit soldiers has also increased due to "the large number of American divisions now in actual combat...
...Senators were particularly anxious to learn his views on international cartels, which he is said to favor...
...Biddle categorically denied that Corcoran had exerted "improper influence" with the Department of Justice and invited questions concerning the cases about which Corcoran had consulted him...
...War Mobilization Director James F. Byrnes issued a new directive last week to boost induction in the 26-through-37 age group to replace men released from the Army and Navy to man "critical war programs...
...Hearings Made Public Angrily attacking those who demanded more complete information, Sen...
...Later in the week President Roosevelt sent two more names to the Senate for confirmation as assistant Secretaries...
...Several weeks ago it fought off an effort to wreck the Federal Government's public power program...
...The overwhelming majorities by which the freeze bill was passed in both houses indicated that, with or without a Presidential veto, the present rates would stand...
...Center of the storm that broke in the Senate was the same Will Clayton against whom the upper chamber revolted in the surplus property fight...
...Reply...
...They are: James Dunn, career diplomat whose name has been prominently associated with the so-called "appeasement bloc" in the State Department, and Brig...
...He declared that Littell was fired because of "personal disloyalty" by circulating "remarks of the most vicious kind about me...
...Archibald MacLeish, poet and librarian of the Library of Congress, as Assistant Secretary...
...Albert B. Chandler, Kentucky...
...Robert F. Wagner, New York, and James E. Murray, Montana, all Democrats...
...It is not what we know, but what the Secretary of State apparently does not know about Mr...
...In an effort to show that the Department had acted adversely to the former Brain Truster's interests in each instance in which Biddle had been consulted, he detailed the history and outcome of the cases...
...Short, the House of Representatives voted last week to extend time limit on the trials another six months...
...Lewis B. Hershey ordered draft boards to reclassify occupation-ally deferred registrants who leave essential jobs "into a class immediately available for service...
...Julius Holmes, now deputy chief of staff for civil affairs on the staff of Gen...
...Here ar« the other appointments : Joseph C. Grew, former ambassador to Japan and presently a special assistant in the State Department, as Under Secretary of State...
...Under a new reorganization scheme, Clayton, as Under Secretary, would control the affairs of the powerful Foreign Economic Administration, now headed by Leo Crowley...
...The International Aviation Conference wound up its activities at Chicago last week by naming a 21 member interim council, composed of representatives of different nations...
...Wind-up...
...O'Mahoney Raises Cartel Issue Arguing in support of his motion, O'Mahoney declared that he did not question Clayton's ability...
...See the article by G. L. Curtis, Page 5) "I should like to know their position with respect to India," Chandler declared...
...I do not know his views," O'Mahoney said, "but I do know that we are in this war because of international cartels, because control of economics has been in the hands of a few leaders...
...To accomplish this he is said to be willing to sacrifice any secondary interest...
...Some persons around him are complaining that he is deluded in thinking that he has to pitch all the passengers into the ocean to get the boat safely to port...
...Extension...
...They were also scheduled to appear before the Foreign Relations Committee for questioning...
...Congress voted for the fourth time last week to freeze Social Security tax rates at their present level of 1 per cent...
...Revolt In The Senate When the appointments reached the Senate floor they were met with a thundering revolt, the most violent since the explosion touched off by the President's veto of the tax bill last Spring...
...Chandler caustically attacked the Wall Street color of the appointees in his objection to the effort to obtain Senate approval without providing information about the appointees...
...With members protesting against the secrecy surounding the facts of the Pearl Harbor disaster and expressing blunt criticism of the War and Navy Departments' refusal to court martial Admiral Kimmel and Gen...
...Only MacLeish, who is known as an ineffective liberal and whose appointment was seen as a salve to take the sting out of the others, did not have connections that could be traced to some of the most powerful financial interests in the nation...
...Names And Notes In The News New Order...
...But PM, the New York tabloid whose editors have found it most difficult in the past to criticize the President for his Tory trend, had this to say: "What is the President's aim in following this line ? He is said to have only one interest in the world— to get the United States in an international organization...
...Connally fought vainly to defeat the motion to withhold approval...
...Last week the Senate reared up again, this time to block, at least temporarily, President Roosevelt's attempt to deliver the revamped State Department over to a virtually 100 per cent Tory clique...
...Pleading with the Senate, he declared, "Every Senator who knows the President knows that he is going to dominate the foreign policy of this Government...
...Dwight Eisenhower...
...The vote split both parties...
...Willis Cordon Langer Danaher Milliken Progressive— La Follette AGAINST RECOMMITTING—27 Democrats—16 Bailey Green O'Daniel Caraway Hatch Radcliffe Connally Hill Thomas (Okla Eastland Lucas Tydings Ellender McClellan Gerry McKellar Republicans—11 Austin Davis Vandenberg Ball Gurney Weeks Burton Hawkes White Capper Revercomb Liberal forces won another round in the fight when, over Connally's opposition, the Foreign Relations Committee, voted to make the hearings public...
...Warning that State Department officials hold vital power, Chandler continued: "American boys are fighting and dying all over the world for democracy, the second time in a generation, and if all they are to accomplish is the securing of possessions all over the world for imperialistic powers, and returning the people in some countries to slavery when the war is over, they have not accomplished anything...
...Freeze...
...Appearing before the Senate Immigration Committee last week, Atty...
...Joseph Guffey, Pennsylvania...
...Following out the directive, Selective Service Director Maj...
...1, unless Congress acted to prevent it...
...In a most unusual action and with some of the Administration's strongest supporters taking the lead, the Senate sent the appointments back to the Foreign Relations Committee with a demand that the appointees be questioned as to their qualifications...
Vol. 8 • December 1944 • No. 51
