Indian-Giving

Last week for the first time the 73rd Congress turned Indian-giver on President Roosevelt. Last year, in the first flush of the New Deal, it had delegated to him enormous executive power to purge the veterans' pension roll and readjust government wages as a means of balancing the ordinary budget. Last week, under the lash of two of the most potent lobbies in Washington, it snatched back that power from the White House and returned pension reform to the pork barrel.

The issue stemmed directly from the Economy Act which the new Congress passed in March 1933--on the President's say-so and almost with its eyes closed. That measure, often acclaimed as the Administration's longest single step forward toward governmental reform, authorized the President to reduce the pay of government employes by 15%, to cut veterans' pensions and weed out those who were drawing compensation for injuries not even remotely connected with the War. Budget savings of $625,000,000 were important but more important was the principle of administrative instead of legislative control of pensions and wages.

Ever since then veterans and government employe lobbies have been busy trying to induce Congress to turn back the new leaf. Little by little, the President gave ground to forestall Congressional revolts. His regulations were liberalized and more & more veterans were permitted to remain on the pension rolls with the result that the first paper savings of $460,000,000 shrank to $300,000,000. But the President managed to preserve the principle of the Economy Act--to keep off pensions those veterans whose injuries & illnesses were "presumed" by old statutes to have been acquired in service if they had developed within six years after the War.

In January under a "gag rule" the House passed the Independent Offices Appropriation bill providing money for pensions and government salaries in the form the Administration wanted it. But the Senate, where no gag rule prevails, upset everything by voting back the Federal pay cuts and practically all the pension cuts. The House on a second go-round restored two-thirds of the Federal pay cut, and 75% of their former pensions to "presumptives." The bill as passed did not quite wipe out the savings of the 1933 Economy Act, but it did wipe out the principle of executive control of pensions and salaries.

Before he started south, the President vetoed the bill and his veto was instantly overridden (310-to-72) by the House (TIME, April 2). Last week was the Senate's turn to be an Indian-giver. In a reasonable, sweet-tempered veto message the President had promised still further restorations of pensions to veterans for the sake of preserving his New Deal principle. Said he: "What you and I are seeking is justice and fairness. . . . It goes without saying that I shall not hesitate to make further changes if the principles of justice demand them. . . . My disapproval of this bill is not based solely on the consideration of dollars and cents. . . . You and I are concerned with the principles herein enunciated. . . ."

But the Senate was not concerned with "principles." Thirty-two of its members were concerned with their own reelection this autumn. Its Republican members were concerned with the chance of handing the President his first major defeat. And all of its members were concerned with the horde of telegrams and petitioning visitors that descended upon their office. Lobbyists Luther Steward of the government employes union and John Thomas Taylor of the American Legion bustled up and down the corridors buttonholing Senators, repeating the familiar argument that the Administration was spending so many billions for relief that a few hundreds of millions more for veterans and government employes would not make any real difference. The galleries were packed to the doors with Legionaries. Rice W. Means, head of the Spanish War veterans' lobby, utilized his privilege as onetime Senator from Colorado to stalk about the Senate floor openly corralling votes.

The debate was brief--as Senate debates go--but bitter. When it opened Democratic Leader Robinson thought he could count on enough votes to sustain the veto and two or three to spare. Nevada's Senator Pat McCarran, good friend of the veterans, was off in Bangor, Me., making a speech. The Democrats who spoke--Robinson of Arkansas, Bailey of North Carolina, Tydings of Maryland --supported the President's veto. The pro-veterans speeches came mostly from Republicans. Bitterest of all was Indiana's hard-eyed Arthur R. Robinson who cried out against Franklin Roosevelt: "Coming from the palatial Astor yacht last spring, he robbed the veterans with his infamous Economy Act. And now, with his veto safely behind him, the President returns to the palatial Astor yacht, happily confident that he has again kept the veterans from their just dues! Beware, beware, how far you go in making the veteran the despised man!"

These words struck fire from Mississippi's Harrison: "As bad as have been the Senator's speeches hitherto in arousing prejudice and dethroning reason, this is the worst he has done."

It was 7 p. m. before the Senate was ready to vote and as the hours wore on the Legionaries in the gallery and the lobbyists in the cloak rooms overawed the Senators who wavered. Norbeck of South Dakota, so ill that he had not been on the floor in weeks, appeared with a bandage around his throat, and McCarra,. travel-stained after an airplane ride back to the Capitol, turned up to vote.

Seven of the 32 Senators up for re-election had the courage to support the veto--Byrd, Connally, King, O'Mahoney, Stephens, Thompson, Trammell. But that was not enough and the veto was overridden, 63-to-27--three votes to spare.

It was a complete victory for the lobbyists. They had won a majority of the Democrats in both House and Senate. They had won every Republican vote in the Senate and all but two in the House. Crowed Legion Lobbyist Taylor:

"This was the most tremendous victory for right that I ever witnessed. I never felt that the Legion was so strong."

Enactment of the Independent Offices Appropriation bill added some $228,000,000--$125,000,000 for raising government salaries including those of the President who vetoed it and of the Congressmen who voted it; $103,000,000 for additional veterans' pensions. But that was of minor importance compared to the fact that Congress, tasting blood for the first time, had defeated President Roosevelt on a New Deal principle.

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