THE CONGRESS: Roll Out the Barrel

On Capitol Hill the echoless chambers of Congress slumbered in the hush of recess. But in the garish ballroom of New Orleans’ Hotel Roosevelt last week a rump session of 34 disgruntled Senators and Representatives chorused a rebel yell.

An economy slash by Harry Truman had made the ralliers taste blood. In addition to $202 million left over from wartime grants, a generous 79th Congress had dumped $309 million more into a Federal kitty for the improvement of rivers, harbors and flood control. The President, during his thrifty August mood, had daringly told the Treasury not to pay out more than $185 million during this election year.

Answering the roll call of last week’s extraordinary caucus were such practiced pork-barrelers as Tennessee’s cob-nosed Kenneth McKellar, Mississippi’s Bilbo and Rankin, Louisiana’s paunchy John Overton. Bilbo, still convalescing from inflammation of the mouth (see PEOPLE), apologized for his inability to orate. Overton, running two degrees of fever, left early. But others jumped up to accuse Harry Truman of defying the will of Congress.

Little time was wasted in extolling the public benefits of any of the curtailed projects. The meeting nearly broke up in the stamping, hurrahs and whistles which greeted Rankin’s joyous reading of the news flash that Henry Wallace had been fired from the Cabinet (see cut). When the Roosevelt’s mirrored walls had ceased to shake, the session resolved to reappropriate the whole caboodle when Congress meets again.