A Well-Botched Job

"You damned fools are going to fix it so that you'll never even be able to beat Ave Harriman," snorted Virginia's Democratic Senator Harry Byrd to his good friend, Republican Treasury Secretary George Humphrey.

Byrd was talking about what he regards as the Administration's general political ineptness, and with special reference to its ten-year, $39 billion highway construction program. Last week ineptness led to the defeat of the Administration road bill in the Senate, which scrapped it in favor of a fiveyear, $18 billion highway program offered by Tennessee's Democratic Senator Albert Gore.

Sponsored by an advisory commission headed by retired General Lucius Clay (now board chairman of the Continental Can Co.), the Republican bill was so written as to render it obnoxious to almost any legislator. It called for financing the highway program by special bond issues (thereby giving rise to the old wolf cry of "Wall Street") instead of under the politically tested system of federal-state matching funds, with the federal share coming from regular appropriations. The program would have been placed outside the annual appropriations control of Congress, a surrender of power unlikely to appeal to Congressmen. Also, at George Humphrey's insistence, the road-building costs would not have been figured in the national debt. ("The end of honest bookkeeping," snapped Byrd.)

Flounder. Having made the bill's defeat a probability by the way they wrote it, the Republicans proceeded to make defeat a certainty by the way they handled it. Sorely stung by the sorry past performances of Senate G.O.P. leaders, the Administration this time largely ignored them, banking heavily on an intensive public-relations campaign, e.g., full-page newspaper ads. Result: the Senate Republicans were even more ineffective than usual. G.O.P. Leader Bill Knowland uttered hardly a word during the debate. Pennsylvania's aging (75) G.O.P. Senator Ed Martin, nominally in charge of the bill as ranking Republican on the Public Works Committee, proved a perfect target for Democratic hecklers. When asked if U.S. taxpayers would not have to meet the high interest charges against the highway bonds, Martin replied: "It is unnecessary to worry about that . . ." Connecticut's Republican Senator Prescott Bush, standing almost alone in full support of the Administration, was swarmed over by Democrats while other Republicans watched complacently.

While the Republicans floundered about, the Democrats moved briskly along under the skilled leadership of Texas' Lyndon Johnson, assisted by Tennessee's Gore. At one point, Georgia's Democratic Senator Walter George, who receives home-state support from the Coca-Cola company, objected violently to a clause in Gore's substitute bill that would have given the Government power to bar advertising signboards within 500 feet of the highways built under the program. The provision had been inserted at the request of Oregon's nature-loving Democratic Senator Richard Neuberger, who likes an unblemished view of Mount Hood. As between George's support and Neuberger's pleasure, Johnson and Gore had an easy choice: the view of Mount Hood would remain blemished. They came to an agreement with George at a meeting in Johnson's office; later, after a pro forma floor debate, they dropped the signboard ban.

Flub. Although the Administration's bill was beyond all hope, the Republicans did have a perfect opportunity to knock off the Democratic program. The Gore measure included a provision that applied to the highway program the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, which set up fair-pay stand ards for workers on federal construction projects. The Davis-Bacon Act is anathema to many Southern Democrats, who would have voted against the Gore bill if the clause had remained. Realizing this, Democrats Johnson and Gore offered to drop the Davis-Bacon proviso. If the G.O.P. leadership had been alert, the Republicans could have joined with North ern liberals in voting that the Davis-Bacon requirement stay in, then joined with the Southerners to defeat the Gore bill as a whole. They would have been acting on party principle, since the Davis-Bacon Act was a pro-labor measure originally passed under Republican auspices. But the Republicans flubbed their chance, sat silent in their chairs while Johnson and Gore got the clause out of the bill.

In turning down the Administration's bill, 60 to 31, 13 Republicans joined the Democrats. Only one Democrat (Massachusetts' John Kennedy) failed to go along with the party leaders. Then came the key vote to send the Gore bill back to committee. This time the Democrats were unanimous for the bill, and four Republicans voted with them. The count was 50 to 39 against recommitting the bill. Final passage of the Gore bill did not require a roll-call vote; the Senate whooped it through and sent it to the House.

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