To Knives & Forks, Loyal Men!

To Knives & Forks, Loyal Men

Democratic National Chairman Robert E. Hannegan got Administration heads in Congress together last week. They decided that it was high time to do something about the coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats that was hamstringing Harry Truman's legislative program. The something they decided on: a series of five "unity" dinners for Democratic Congressmen at Washington's plush Mayflower Hotel. The idea: to woo back into line Southerners and others who have strayed over to the opposition. Groups of 40 to 50 Congressmen were invited to each of the dinners, at which the salad will be mixed with solid talk about party solidarity in election year.

Perhaps it was already too late for mere talk about solidarity; some good solid political threats might be in order. The GOP-Dixie Democratic opposition appeared to have an unbreakable grip on the legislative reins. Last week the opposition had got together to the point of moving out into the open and organizing its own steering committee to shape its battle plans.

Man from Jersey. The Republocrats in the House chose a Republican chairman: New Jersey's red-haired Representative Fred Hartley, a veteran of nine terms marked chiefly by his frequent absences from the floor. But 43-year-old Fred Hartley is also distinguished as an inveterate foe of the Office of Price Administration--and the coalition is more interested in batting down OPA controls than in anything else.

When newsmen learned of the Republocrats' meeting, several southern Representatives rushed to register their avowals that they had riothing to do with such an alliance.* Disclaimed or not, the House coalition could usually count on a minimum of 26 of the Democrats' paper majority of 46 votes. If its organization carried through to formation of a solid bloc, the coalition could probably rewrite OPA legislation to suit itself--as it had the Administration's housing bill (TIME, March 18).

Last week the coalition in the Senate took its turn at shredding an Administration measure. The target: the so-called 65-c- Minimum Wage Bill, for which there is little love in Dixie. Southerners scrambled to load it down with riders the Administration could never accept. Examples: depowering of the OPA, curbs on labor unions, 20% increases in farm commodity prices. The strategy was clear: burden the bill with amendments and make the Administration compromise on a lower minimum wage figure.

*Among them: Mississippi's John Rankin, Virginia's Howard Smith, Georgia's Stephen Pace.

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