NEW YORK: Pilot Plant

In the glare of the public spotlight, theRepublicans of the 80th Congress had moved into Washington like a lustyconstruction gang bent on rebuilding the town. But as yet they hadneither torn down nor raised one house. Last week, above the clashingand grinding of the legislative machinery in Washington, a sharp-earedlistener could hear a steady hum. It came from Albany. Governor ThomasE. Dewey was purring along like a pilot plant.

In a short eleven weeks, Tom Dewey’s slick team had firmly guided everyone of the Governor’s major proposals through the Republican-dominatedlegislature. It was a program that contrasted with the record ofCongress GOPsters thus far.

While Republicans in Washington quarreled over “blind” budget cuts, TomDewey won approval for a record $671,900,000 in expenditures, highestin the state’s history. Recognizing the need for higher salaries forteachers, he adopted a new scale which was the highest in the nation(but still somewhat less than the teachers had asked). He approved areferendum on a veterans’ bonus which would cost the state $400million, plus interest.

No Magic. But Tom Dewey, who had no patience with reckless promises of20% tax cuts, knew that these things would have to be paid for. Saidhe: “There is no magic to the production of government revenues. Theyarise only by being extracted from the pockets of the taxpayer.” Norwas he beguiled by arguments for concealed, less painful taxes. “Thereis easy demagogy in the indirect tax.”

His proposal: raise an additional $111 million in revenue (to cover theteachers’ increase and other rising educational costs) by grantinglocal communities added taxing powers—on sales, vehicles, liquorlicenses, admissions, meals and vending machines.

For payment of the bonus, Dewey had an equally Spartan prescription. Hewanted it paid off in ten years by means of an additional 1¢ tax oncigarets, a 20% increase in present income taxes. Democrats, who wantedbusiness to pay the tab, wailed that veterans would be paying for theirown bonus. Tom Dewey didn’t say they wouldn’t. But if the people wantedto vote a bonus, Dewey meant to see that they knew what it would cost.

The Stakes. Most controversial measure in the Dewey program was a billdesigned to outlaw strikes by public employees. Under the bill, whichat week’s end was awaiting the Governor’s signature, any publicemployee who stayed out on strike would be summarily dismissed; ifrehired—on his claim, for instance, that pickets had kept him awayfrom work—he could get no pay increase for three years.

Every labor organization in the state let out a howl, charging that thebill’s provisions made employees guilty until they were provedinnocent. But Tom Dewey let it be known that he was willing to stakehis political future on the bill.

Votes & Delegates. To cap his performance, Tom Dewey then turned a neatpolitical handspring. New York’s Democrats had belabored him for hisrefusal to give New York City additional aid out of state funds, andfor his unwillingness to allot more money for public housing. Last weekthe Governor made a deal with New York’s Mayor William O’Dwyer. Inexchange for O’Dwyer’s promise to get along without extra money fromthe state, Dewey agreed to recommend a $135 million bond issue forlow-cost housing. Of this, $1 20 million would be earmarked for NewYork City.

Thus in a busy fortnight and with an apparently reckless disregard forvotes, Tom Dewey had roughed up organized labor, the American Legion,cigaret smokers, motorists, public employees, taxpayers, and even localG.O.P. politicians who did not relish having to impose the new localtaxes. Cynical observers had an explanation: “He’s not looking forvotes this year—he’s looking for delegates.”

Whether delegates were impressed or not, it was a record that would lookgood to many a responsible voter. Just how good, 1948 would tell.