School's Out

Who killed the school bill?

"Not I," said the Democrat. "Fifty-seven percent of us voted for it."

"Not I," said the Republican. "It was a combination of things."

"Not I," said the President. "I'm greatly disappointed."

No stronger plank was nailed into the Republican platform last fall than a G.O.P. resolution to provide more classrooms for overcrowded U.S. schools. Faced by a 159,000-room shortage last year--and more to come--the Administration proposed to provide the states with $1.3 billion during the next four years in grants distributed on the basis of need. Against strong opposition from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and economy-minded Old Guard Republicans, President Eisenhower himself took charge of the battle to see the measure through Congress.

Equally aware of the crisis, equally committed by platform to overcoming it, Democrats also set out to provide aid. Their larger solution: $3.6 billion to be distributed over six years, but on the basis of school-age population. Last week a compromise measure ($1.5 billion over five years on the combined basis of need and school-age population) reached the House floor for action. But it was already clear that enthusiasm for the bill in both parties had gone limp. One reason: most states found themselves able to finance their own expanded school-building programs, neither needed nor wanted federal aid (TIME, May 13).

Kiss of Death. Health. Education and Welfare Secretary Marion Folsom tried to revive interest by calling a special press conference to report the President was still behind the bill. Then he went off to the White House to discover that the President was not about to issue any ringing endorsements. Next day Ike's position became clearer. Leaving a White House conference, House Minority Leader Joe Martin reported the President "not entirely satisfied" with the compromise. But, said Martin: "I think that in all probability the Administration will accept it as a starter if passed by Congress."

Congress, for many reasons, was not about to take such initiative. Republican Leo Allen of Illinois voiced one sentiment: "My chief reason for being opposed to the bill is that it will cost about $2.4 billion."' Another sentiment: the integration-suspicious feelings of North Carolina Democrat Graham Barden: "There must be something influencing this drastic bill other than the construction of school buildings.'' New York Republican Stuyvesant Wainwright (who eventually voted against the bill) insisted on adding the kiss of death, i.e., a rider (the Powell amendment of last session) withholding federal funds from segregated schools, thereby gave Northern Congressmen an opportunity to make a liberal record by backing him. When all others had finished their say, Virginia's wily Howard Smith moved to strike the bill's enacting clause. Democrat Smith's motion carried by a vote of 208 (111 Republicans, 97 Democrats) to 203 (77 Republicans, 126 Democrats), with such Administration bellwethers as Indiana's Charles Halleck and Illinois' Leslie Arends voting to kill the bill.

Who really killed it? Majority Leader John McCormack took pains to point out that 57% of the Democrats had backed the measure. Republicans said the ax came from Howard Smith and Southern Democrats. The White House professed "great disappointment that the House did not see its way clear to pass a measure to meet this critical shortage of schools." The only one who said nothing was Marion Folsom. He, apparently, had said too much before the voting began.

In other congressional action last week:

P: The House Interior Committee voted down, by a narrow 16 to 14, Idaho Congresswoman Gracie Pfost's bill to build a federal high dam in Hells Canyon. The Senate had already approved such a dam on the same Snake River stretch where the Idaho Power Co. is building the first of three privately financed low dams. The House committee demolished the high dam after reading a letter in which President Eisenhower said: "It is inconceivable to me that serious consideration is being given in some quarters to stopping this development, depriving the Northwest of power which is badly needed now, and throwing an additional burden on the already heavily burdened taxpayers of the nation."

P: The House voted overwhelming approval (379 to 38) of a $300 million-a-year pay boost to the nation's 525,000 postal workers, showed that it has enough votes to override a potential presidential veto. Waiting in the wings: other bills already approved by both Senate and House committees to raise the pay of approximately 1,000,000 civil servants in other branches of the Federal Government.

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