Fateful Calendar

The 80th Congress returned to Washington this week to face its fateful calendar.

Some of the big political issues for 1948 had already been raised; the main battle lines were drawn. For a while, it would be Harry Truman's prerogative to keep the Republican congressional majority on the defensive. In rapid succession, the President would deliver three messages: on the state of the union, on economic conditions, on the federal budget. But, aside from counseling the Congress against immediate tax reductions, he was expected to do little more than renew his pleas for a European Recovery Program and for compulsory anti-inflation controls.

Premature Blame? ERP, by far the most important single measure before Congress, was certain to get long, serious and, at times, vitriolic debate. The opposition would be led by Senator Taft, who had approved interim aid to Europe with reluctance. In St. Louis last week, Bob Taft said: "If the Administration insists upon the Marshall Plan in its present form, it can never blame anybody else for the steady increase of prices in the U.S."

Even Arthur Vandenberg, staunchest champion of a bipartisan foreign policy, was not committed to ERP in its entirety. This week the President agreed to one Vandenberg suggestion: the Administration bill would be modified by eliminating the $17 billion, four-year target figure. Instead it would simply have a clause approving the four-year program in principle, and authorize a $6.8 billion appropriation for the first 15 months only. The way things looked now, the Administration would be lucky to get an authorization for as much as $5 billion. And it could not expect to get final congressional approval of ERP until mid-May, at the earliest. Hearings on the bill would start immediately, but the list of witnesses was half a mile long.

Embarrassing Present. The prime Republican business of the new year would be to get swift passage of a tax-reduction bill. Last week House Speaker Joe Martin predicted that Congress would "send the White House a tax present some time in January." The present he had in mind was the bill introduced in December by Minnesota's persistent Harold Knutson, whose two previous bills were vetoed by Harry Truman. The new bill would cut taxes some $5.6 billion, by reducing rates and increasing personal exemptions.

Other measures high on the Republican agenda were an anti-lynching bill and a bill to extend rent control (with the 15% "voluntary" increase), which expires in February. Universal military training was also due to come up, but its chances of passage looked slim. Even slimmer were the chances that Republican leaders would take any steps to add more economic controls. Vermont's Senator Ralph Flanders said he would introduce a standby meat-rationing bill. Senator Taft is on record for a meat-rationing bill--if needed--but only a severe meat shortage would bring about sufficient support for such a measure. The G.O.P., in the words of House Majority Leader Charles Halleck, would stand for and advocate "the American voluntary way of life."

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