“We’re going to have a short, harmonious and constructive session.” predicted white-crested Speaker of the House Rainey last week as he led 432 Representatives back to the Capitol for work and the one regular session of the 73rd Congress. “It will be a very important session but there will be no dramatic instances to write about. It will be a working session—pass supply bills, tax bills and liquor bills and adjourn early in May. There will be no attempt to overthrow anything the last session of Congress enacted and there will be no attempt to oppose the President. The Republicans had better not snipe. Anybody who snipes will be left at home.”
Democrats as well as Republicans knew precisely what Speaker Rainey meant by “left at home.” The Hundred Day special session of Congress which ended last June was a rubber-stamp affair which made a stirring record for President Roosevelt but added little glory to individual Representatives. The coming session was the one that most voters would have firmly in mind when they march to the polls next November to choose the 74th Congress. Last week each & every Representative was determined to make a Capitol record before summer which, by hook or crook, would return him to his present seat one year hence.
The Speaker of the House, by tradition, is above party but the leader of the majority is not. Upon Tennessee’s long, lean, hollow-eyed Joseph Byrns fell the job of running the Democratic steamroller smoothly and successfully through to adjournment. He, too, predicted “harmony” at the outset of the session. But, just to make sure, Leader Byrns went to work on a change in the House rules which now makes it possible for 145 disgruntled members to get together and upset the best laid plans of the majority.
With a 199 majority in the House against them, Republican Representatives were still in no mood to give battle to the President. “Watchful waiting” was the legislative slogan of Minority Leader Bertrand Snell of New York who declared: “It would be foolish for the minority to criticize until we are acquainted with the President’s program.”
No Old Guardsman has stood patter in the House through the years than Bert Snell. Yet even he, last week, seemed infected with a new political spirit. Said he: “The whole country, the whole world is leaning more & more toward Liberalism. It is the popular acclaim. Political parties will yield to it for support. We, who want to continue the form of government that was established here 160 years ago, realize the drift. But we do not want this country swept into outright Socialism. We do not want our present institutions wiped out!” Preparations for the House session began weeks ago in committee. Chairman Doughton had started his Ways & Means to work on a new revenue bill and on legislation to up liquor taxes. Last week it was reported that this North Carolinian, who has grown bald as a buzzard during his 22 years in the House, would be rewarded with a soft roost on the Tariff Commission just as soon as he finished putting the necessary tax legislation through the House.
An able Texan, Chairman Buchanan of the Appropriations Committee, had already laid the ground work for handling the first Roosevelt budget which may set a peacetime record. Other Committee chairmen — Steagall of Banking & Currency, Jones of Agriculture, Sumners of Judiciary, Sam Rayburn of Interstate & Foreign Commerce — were last week all as busy as beavers putting together legislative ideas out of which President Roosevelt will take his pick on money, farm relief, liquor, transportation.
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