THE CONGRESS: Work Done, May 27, 1935

The Senate suddenly responded to President Roosevelt’s call for action, dismayed him by taking the bit in its mouth, speeding hell bent on its own course. Ignoring Administration “must” bills, it:

¶ Passed the Wagner Labor Relations bill, 63-to-12 (see p. 19).

¶ Adopted the Clark resolution extending NRA until April 1, 1936 (see p. 16).

¶ Joined the House in sending the Patman Bonus bill to the President for a certain veto (see p. 13).

¶ Heard Huey Pierce Long shrill for action on his demand that it investigate James Aloysius Farley, gave him a stinging quietus: 62-to-20.

¶ Revived hopes for the Copeland Pure Food & Drugs bill when North Carolina’s Bailey and Missouri’s Clark, who led the fight which drove it from the Senate floor last month, announced that they and Senator Copeland were now substantially agreed, that passage of the bill this session seemed assured.

¶ 56-to-19, Senator Norris’ amendments to the Tennessee Valley Authority Act. To overcome the ruling of Alabama’s Judge William Irwin Grubb, who held that TVA had exceeded its authority in marketing more than a reasonable surplus of its power (TIME, March 4), one amendment authorized TVA to generate power at all dams, transmit and market such power. Other amendments permitted the Authority to up its capitalization from $50,000,000 to $100,000,000, annex the Cumberland River & basin to its domain.

¶ Swore in Dennis Chavez as Senator from New Mexico, succeeding the late Bronson Cutting who was killed while returning from New Mexico on a trip concerned with the election contest filed against him by Democrat Chavez. Fellow Progressives in the Senate, devoted to Senator Cutting, hotly resented the Administration’s efforts to displace him through the Chavez candidacy and subsequent contest (TIME, May 20). This week, as Senator-Designate Chavez reached Vice President Garner’s desk, after marching down the aisle to take his oath, the only Progressives present—Senators La Follette. Norris, Johnson, Nye and Shipstead—ostentatiously rose, stalked out of the chamber, returned when the ceremony was over.