Men of Destiny

With the world watching them, half a thousand U.S. citizens took their seats last week on Capitol Hill. They were the puzzled, troubled and individualistic members of the 82nd Congress. In a hushed Senate chamber, Chaplain Frederick Brown Harris concluded: "May there ascend from every member . . . the solemn prayer: 'So help me, God!''

The hush did not last long. The 82nd had come in on the heels of the turbulent 81st, which had quit only the day before. In a final burst of legislative speed, the 81st had passed the $20 billion supplementary military appropriation, the $3.1 billion civilian-defense bill, and the excess-profits tax designed to add $3.3 billion to the Government's revenue. In spending for defense, the 82nd would no doubt continue to follow in the Sist's large footsteps.

But after that, quiet cooperation would stop abruptly. The Republican minority was stronger than ever, and flushed with election victory. One of the results of victory was that Senator Joe McCarthy, whose Red charges had helped to knock off a number of Democratic candidates in November, was likely to have more influence in the 82nd Congress than he had had in the 81st. On domestic matters, a conservative coalition of Southern Democrats and Republicans would dominate the show. Such Truman dreamboats as the Brannan Plan, the Ewing Plan, the civil rights bill, would not be launched. On foreign policy, the 82nd would be filled with shifting, unpredictable coalitions.

Attack in the Senate. Even before the Senate met, Southern Democrats showed their muscle. In the caucus to elect a new majority leader, they rejected Wyoming's Joseph O'Mahoney, who was backed by outnumbered and plaintive Fair Dealers; the caucus elected Arizona's Ernest McFarland, an amiable, inconspicuous second-termer who consistently breaks with the Fair Deal on civil rights. For the job of whip the caucus picked Texas' Lyndon Johnson, chairman of the Armed Services Preparedness subcommittee, who defies the Administration just as regularly on civil rights, labor, tidelands oil.

Minutes after the 82nd convened, Ohio's Taft was on his feet attacking the Administration, flourishing the Republicans' notice of impending battle. Dressed in the morning coat and striped trousers which he customarily dons for the swearing-in ceremony, he rose to ask peremptorily why the President wasn't ready with his State of the Union message; two days later, he rose again, flipping the pages of his text, to deliver his foreign-policy speech (see The Nation).

Rebellion in the House. In the House, the Administration fared even worse. Texas' solid, bald-domed Sam Rayburn, starting his soth term in Congress, was re-elected Speaker of the House.* A respected and fair-minded presiding officer, he took the chair amidst sounds of good will and harmony. But almost immediately, rebellion broke out.

A coalition of Southerners and Republicans attacked the 21-day rule passed by the 81st Congress and designed to pry bills out of the autocratic Rules Committee. Under the rule, the chairman of a legislative committee could call up a bill 21 days after it had been reported. Eight times during the 81st, bills were thus wrenched from the Rules Committee and passed by the House./-

But many Congressmen preferred the system of killing bills by smothering them in the Rules Committee rather than having to vote on them. Said Republican Charles Halleck solemnly: the Rules

Committee should be "a roadblock to unwise, ill-timed, spendthrift, socialistic measures." In the vote, 152 Republicans, 92 Democrats restored the Rules Committee to its old authority; 44 of the Republicans were freshmen--a fair indication of the freshening winds of conservatism.

Everybody for the U.S. Before this noisy, argumentative, but earnest body, Harry Truman appeared this week. Two days before he faced them, he cautiously met with a delegation of leaders to brief them on his State of the Union speech. Despite the heavy weather rolling plainly over the horizon, Leader McFarland came away from the conference with a hopeful statement: "On both sides of the aisle, members of Congress are working for the nation as a whole."

* For his tenth year. On Jan. 30 he will pass the record for service as Speaker held since 1825 by Henry Clay.

/- Major ones: Alaska and Hawaii statehood, anti-poll tax, FEPC--all later beaten in the Senate.

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