Jobholders' Meeting

(See front cover)

A cheerful throng of $10,000-per-year men was converging last week upon Washington. After all had arrived safely they would take their 531 seats and answer to their 531 names as members of the 71st Congress, third session, sitting Dec. 1.

Because the law governing sessions of Congress has not been changed since election returns and Congressmen traveled from far states by horsepower over muddy roads, 70 of the $10,000-per-year men will sit in Washington until March 4 without really having any business there. They are the "lame ducks"--12 Senators, 58 Representatives--who lost their offices in last month's election. Their newly chosen successors will not be given a chance to do their people's business until a year from next week, unless a special session of the 72nd Congress is called.

"I think that many members of Congress will prefer a special session of Congress to joining the army of unemployed,'' grunted Insurgent Senator Borah last week. He was being facetious, but he was touching upon the precise reason why Congressmen have refused five times in the past decade to pass the resolution of Senator Norris to abolish "lame duck" sessions. Congressmen are, more tenaciously than almost any other class of professional men, jobholders. That is why those whose states are losing seats fought so bitterly, and may fight again, the already long-delayed Reapportionment of the House (see col. 3). And that is why the most immediate, uncontroversial issue before the Congress should (but not necessarily will) receive generous, sympathetic attention. That issue is, of course,

Unemployment. Blocky, crude-spoken Senator Wagner from New York City was having a grand time last week reminding people that "way back before the present crisis arose, I offered legislation to prevent it." And true it was that the Senate last spring passed the Wagner bills to create: 1) a National Employment Service; 2) a Stabilization Board on Public Works; 3) a Bureau of Employment Statistics. The House "emasculated" these bills (in Senator Wagner's view). They then died as unfinished business.

With Unemployment now at a pitch where the President of the U. S. has had to appoint a special commissioner (Col. Arthur Woods) to work on it, with Democrats full of fresh vim and courage after their party's November victory, it was certain that Democrat Wagner's would figure early and large in the legislative maneuvering.

Secretary into Senator. The congressional program of the Administration as outlined last week was simple: to put the Government's necessary Supply bills ahead of all other business, postponing as long as possible all controversial subjects like Prohibition, Muscle Shoals, Power Commission, Lame Duck Session, Immigration, Farm Problem. Unemployment would be touched on in the Supply bills--extra appropriation to enlarge Federal building of roads, offices, ships, dams, dikes, barracks. But Chairman Bert Snell of the House Rules Committee, one of the Republican Big Three,* was acknowledging the likelihood and trying to soften the impact of Democratic-insurgent opposition when he said last week:

"The country wants to vote on a lot of things and as far as I am concerned I am not going to keep them from it."

That was a diplomatic statement, for in the House the Administration program (except perhaps for Muscle Shoals) can be fairly easily steered through. In the Senate, however, anything may happen. Here President Hoover may well give thanks, especially when the attack comes on Unemployment, for the presence there of a new, strong friend, his Secretary of Labor, who the day the Senate sits will do what no man ever did before, resign from the Cabinet, go up to the Capitol and take oath as Senator from Pennsylvania.

Being Secretary of Labor does not automatically make one an expert on Unemployment. James John Davis, after nine years as the Cabinet's end-man,/- still admits that the Labor Department's machinery for gauging and remedying joblessness is inadequate, unscientific. But being a onetime iron puddler, a leading Moose and an executive noted for industry and energy, makes one a figure popular with workingmen and extremely useful in any Senate debate about jobs for the poor and hungry. When Secretary Davis took office in 1921 there were 6,000,000 men out of work. His slogan then was: "The way back to prosperity is to work your way back." He went hither & yon preaching it, bolstering confidence--about all a Secretary of Labor can do besides gathering data for Congress. His word was heard partly because he could also say: "I grew into manhood with muscled arms as big as bookkeepers' legs." Another thing he says, which reminds people of their busy-beaverish President, is: "Some men are by nature beavers; some are rats. The beaver is a builder, the rat is a destroyer. . . . I boast of beaver blood in my veins!"

Other New Faces. Besides Mr. Davis, other new figures in the Senate on Monday will be New Jersey's little baggy-trousered Dwight Whitney Morrow and Wyoming's Robert Carey, Republicans; Ohio's bulky, small-voiced Robert Johns Bulkley, George McGill of Kansas, Ben Williamson of Kentucky, Democrats. Republican Senator Hastings of Delaware and Democratic Senator Brock of Chattanooga will take the oath to succeed themselves.

The new House faces will be those of:

(Republicans)

E. W. Goss of Connecticut,

Burnett N. Chiperfield of Illinois,

Robert F. Rich and

Edmund F. Erk of Pennsylvania,

Frederick C. Loofbourow of Utah,

Robert L. Hogg of West Virginia.

(Democrats)

Mrs. Effie Gene Locke Wingo of Arkansas,

Claude V. Parsons of Illinois,

John L. Dorsey Jr. of Kentucky,

Frank Hancock and

Hinton James of North Carolina,

Francis B. Condon of Rhode Island,

Michael K. Reilly of Wisconsin.

*The others: Speaker Longworth, Floorleader Tilson.

/-Founded in 1913, last of all, the Department of Labor ranks "lowest" in the Cabinet. Only other Secretary of Labor was also a Pennsylvanian, William Bauchop Wilson of Blossburg. He too ran for the Senate, was beaten by Boss William Vare of Philadelphia, whom the Senate rejected (1930).

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