Insulation

Congress last week gave up all idea of going home for the summer. Instead, it decided to take brief recesses during the weeks when the political conventions met in Philadelphia and Chicago.

There was little talk, pro or con, about help for the Allies. There weren't Allies any more, there was only Britain, and Congressmen gradually awoke to the fact that to intervene or not to intervene? was not a realistic question. They began to have a feeling in the pits of their stomachs that by the time the U. S. was called upon to fight, there weren't likely to be any Allies for it to fight beside. Passed by both houses was a resolution denying the right of any European state to transfer its territory in the Western Hemisphere to any other non-American power (see p. 12).

To double the patrols along the Canadian and Mexican borders, Congress appropriated $1,600,000. Scared of everything to do with war, several Congressmen denounced Mr. Roosevelt's approval of the sale of new Navy "mosquito boats" to Great Britain, his Cabinet appointments of Stimson and Knox, both known to be somewhat more than pro-Ally (see p. 11).

They passed a bill blocking the Navy sale.

Senator Gerald P. Nye, crying that Mr.

Roosevelt was steering the U. S. into war, called upon him to resign, let Jack Garner run the country.

In Congress' anxiety to forget about the destruction of democracy in Europe, one tenuous connection was allowed to continue. At sea was the Red Cross "mercy ship" McKeesport, which had started out for Bordeaux, heading straight into a combat zone without the necessary guarantee of safe conduct from belligerents. Before Congress was an Administration proposal to exempt Red Cross vessels from the Neutrality Act; otherwise the McKeesport might have to be ordered back. Cried West Virginia's lame-duck Senator Rush Holt: "This resolution of authority might be the spark. ..." Nevertheless, the resolution passed.

For the rest. Congress did its scared best to bolster U. S. national defense. A bill appropriating $1,770,000,000 for the Army & Navy, which would have been denounced as warmongering six months ago, was passed like a shot. The bill boosted defense spending and authorizations for this session to well above $5,000,000,000. The House passed a bill authorizing a 70% expansion of the Navy (see p. 12), sent it to the Senate, where it was sure to pass.

To help pay for its colossal war insurance, Congress passed a tax bill to add another billion dollars to the five-and-a-half-billion-dollar tax load of the U. S., to make 2,000,000 more U. S. citizens pay income taxes.

By recess time. Congress had not yet faced the question of conscription. But the question was very definitely up. A bill, introduced in the Senate by Nebraska's Burke, looked like a whopping big block of raw material for Congress to work on. Its provisions: 1) to register some 40,000,000 males in the U. S. from 18 to 65; 2) those between 21 and 45, selected as needed, to be given eight months' training and kept as a reservoir from which to fill the ranks of a gigantic Army; 3) saved for home defense would be youths from 18 to 21, oldsters from 45 to 65. A similar bill was introduced in the House by New York's Representative James W. Wadsworth. Chairman May of the House Military Affairs Committee announced that his committee would start hearings on the Wadsworth Bill in about two weeks.

Still aware of economic emergencies in the U. S. during its closing sessions before recess, Congress passed and sent to the President the $1,160,000,000 Relief Bill and the billion dollar Labor-Federal Security Agency appropriation.

If the sky seemed in danger of falling on Congress' head last week, so did the roof.

Last winter engineers had warned Congressmen that the Capitol roof badly needed repairs. Month ago, during a rainstorm while the House was in session, water pattered down on Speaker Bankhead's desk. To a deficiency bill, also passed at week's end in the closing session, the House added $585,000--to insulate itself against the weather.

Conscious of fifth-column activities (see cut, p. 18), both branches passed the Smith Bill to register and fingerprint all aliens in the U. S. Meanwhile in Manhattan, alleged fifth columnists, members of the Christian Front, put on trial with great fanfare (TIME, Jan. 29) on charges of conspiring against the Government, were acquitted by a jury.

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