Voice of Voltaire

The only Republican firm to have made any political profit during the last three years of the New Deal Congress has been the North Dakota concern of Frazier & Lemke. Senior member is big, bald Lynn J. Frazier of Hoople, who sits in the Senate. Junior partner is freckle-faced William Lemke of Fargo, who does business for the firm in the House. Representative Lemke, despite his wrinkled clothes and his frequent need of a shave, has a good command of English, a well-schooled mind, an amiable disposition, a law degree from Yale, a conscientious ability far above the Congressional average. He also fancies Chihuahuas and gladioli.

Last week as he appeared on the floor of the House, William Lemke was at one of the high points of his career. Up for final action was the third of the famed bills to bear the familiar trademark of Frazier-Lemke.

One Frazier-Lemke Bill, passed by Congress in 1934, permitted bankrupt farmers to operate their farms for six years after foreclosure and buy them back from the mortgagees "at a fair and reasonable value." A second Frazier-Lemke Bill, passed last year after the first had been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, permitted farmers to retain their farms for three years after foreclosure, paying the mortgagees "a reasonable rent." But Frazier-Lemke Bill No. 3 the Democratic leaders of the House were determined should never get out of the legislative factory. Only by petition of 218 members and the rebellious vote of the House had it been brought up for consideration (TIME, May 18).

The Bill's chief provisions were simple and direct: The U. S. Government would supply all the cash necessary for farmers to pay off their mortgages or to buy back their farms from which they have been dispossessed. In return the Government would take from the farmers new mortgages bearing 1 1/2% interest amortized over 47 years. These new mortgages would be used as security for a Federal bond issue bearing 1 1/2% interest. The bonds would be offered to the public but since the public would probably not buy them, the Federal Reserve would be ordered to take them and issue $3,000,000,000 of printing press money for the farmers.

Speaker Byrns, Rules Chairman O'Connor, House Leader Bankhead and Whip Boland made every preparation to put the North Dakota firm out of business this time. Representative Boland announced that the Bill would be beaten by at least 50 votes, and Speaker Byrns pooh-poohed self-confidently. On the morning debate began, every Representative received a memorandum from the Farm Credit Administration ripping the Bill from stem to stern. That helped some but House leaders appealed to an even greater political authority. While the Bill was under consideration in Committee of the Whole, Speaker Byrns rose on, the floor and solemnly read a letter "expressing the wishes and hopes of some 50,000,000 people":

"Hon. Joseph W. Byrns:

". . . We know quite well that when inflation of the kind and character embodied in the Frazier-Lemke Act is adopted, commodity prices rise but wages stand still. We cannot subscribe to this sort of eco-nomic philosophy. Labor would suffer reduction in living standards, reduced buying power, and the problem of unemployment would become more acute. . . .

"Very sincerely yours, "W. Green "President, American Federation of Labor."

Thus the great voice of the Farm found itself opposed by the equally great voice of Labor. When the Lemke bloc had had time to recover, Representative William Doddridge McFarlane took the floor.

"I believe," cried this Texan, "the membership of this House is entitled to know where Mr. Green and his committee gets authority to express themselves as representing the A. F. of L. against the Frazier-Lemke bill."

"I have voted for labor consistently for years," chimed in Representative John Rankin of Mississippi, "but I, for one, re-sent the impudence of this man Green in sending a letter to Congress to tell us how to vote on farm legislation."

Up jumped New York's Representative Edward Curley. "I am reminded," said he, "of the story told of that famous French philosopher and statesman, Voltaire, who in his dying days, during one of his sicknesses, said to his physician with respect to this bill: 'You are trying to convey drugs about which you know little into a body about which you know less to cure a disease about which you know nothing at all.' "

New York's Representative Vito Marcantonio bawled: "Mr. Chairman, I knew that quite a number of distinguished gentlemen in this House were opposed to this bill. I also learned today that the Speaker is opposed to the bill. . . . But never did I realize that Mr. Voltaire is opposed to this bill."

New York's Representative Hamilton Fish: "As long as our old friend Voltaire has been brought into Congress and interjected into the debate, I am reminded of what he said, not about this bill but about all bills. He said: 'I do not agree with a word you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.' That is the position I take about Mr. Green and I happen to agree with what he said."

For six hours the debate grew more & more bitter as it grew more & more certain that the Frazier-Lemke bill was doomed. Near the end Minnesota's Farmer-Laborite Richard Thompson Buckler turned violently on the bill's opponents: "You big shots will get credit for killing the bill. But you little fellows will just get hell. You will find someone else warming your seats here next year, while you run around begging a ticket to get in.

"I would not like to say anything here that would hurt your feelings, but I doubt if you have any feelings to hurt. . . . Some of you Congressmen who are opposing this bill were born with a gold spoon in your mouth, and you are still feeding out of it. . . . Some of you others, before you came here to Congress, were as poor as church mice, and perhaps would have been in the soup line by this time except you grabbed hold of the public teat and have been milking $10,000 a year out of the taxpayers. You would really be worth more to the nation if you were cleaning up the waste behind a good herd of cows."

With the liveliest debate of the session off their chests, Representatives finally voted down the Frazier-Lemke bill. 235-10-142. Imperturbably Representative Lemke announced: "We won-because there will be eliminations in the November contests." Next day he reintroduced his defeated bill, "to attempt to clear up misrepresentations of the bill which have been spread throughout the country."

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