Congress Says "No"

Jimmy Byrnes was desperate. In a radio fight talk he cajoled, warned, reproved, threatened and begged the U.S. to hold the line against inflation. Finally, in peroration, the Assistant President got off the year's most inept quotation. Picturing labor groups which threaten to strike if they don't get more pay as holding a political pistol to the nation's head, he cried: "The Government must say to any such group: 'Lay that pistol down!' "

Congress, in scornful and recalcitrant mood (see p. 13), gave the Assistant President an immediate response. Within 48 hours: 1) the Senate battered a great new breach in the crumbling line of the Little Steel Formula by voting to a million non-operating railroad employes the 8-c--per-hour wage raise which Stabilization Boss Fred M. Vinson had denied them; 2) the Senate Finance Committee pared $217 million out of the piddling $2,140,000,000 tax bill voted by the House.

Treasury officials feverishly pursued their campaign of statements, speeches and planted newspaper articles designed to convince the people and Congress that the war is not almost over, that inflation danger is real. Food Boss Marvin Jones, too considerate to call in his publicity staff but too worried to wait, went to his empty office on Sunday, typed out an appeal for quick Congressional action on subsidies so that farmers can make their planting plans, personally distributed the carbon copies to press offices.

But unless President Roosevelt could pull off a political miracle, it now seemed certain that Congress will definitely not vote the high taxes which the Administration demands. The best that the Administration can hope for on subsidies, due to expire Dec. 31, is a 60-day postponement of the battle, followed by a compromise which would retain some subsidies, kill others off cold.

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