TAXATION: Bullneck & Buzzard

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Congress, Congress, don't tax me,

Tax that fellow behind the tree.

—Congressional Record.

Last week the House of Representatives, hunting "that fellow behind the tree." took its orders from a tall, lanky North Carolina farmer, bald as a buzzard and a short, chunky New York lawyer with a mop of shiny black hair. The first was Robert Lee Doughton, a Democrat who has served 20 years in the House and is a member of the Ways & Means Committee. The second was Fiorello ("Little Flower") Henry La Guardia, an insurgent Republican in the House since the War. Poles apart on politics and personality they were united last week in a great and vehement opposition to the 2¼% Sales Tax on manufactures in the budget-balancing revenue bill. Together they were able to muster a majority of the House in a successful revolt against the combined authority of both Democratic and Republican leaders.

Team. Of the two men, bullnecked Congressman La Guardia was the more vital and forceful insurrectionist. Bora in Manhattan 49 years ago, the son of an Italian musician, he spent most of his early life at Whipple Barracks, Prescott, Ariz., where his father was Army bandmaster. Graduated from New York University in 1910, he turned to politics, was first elected to Congress in 1916. Instead of warming his seat during the War he became a major in the Army, was sent to Italy in command of U. S. aviation forces, flew bombing planes over the Austrian lines. Later he returned to the U. S. and to Congress where he has been a centre of constant legislative turmoil. In 1929 he ran for Mayor of New York City as a Republican, charged Tammany Hall with most of the things which have been subsequently disclosed by legislative investigation, was defeated by James John ("Jimmy") Walker. A widower, he married his secretary three years ago. He likes to cook Italian dishes for his friends. Personally "the Major," as they call him, is pleasant, affable, amusing.

As a House rebel Congressman La Guardia is a dynamo of hostile energy. Alert and quick-witted, he is always on the job. His oratory is loud, passionate, almost physical as his 170-lb. body crouches and bends and his chunky arms thrash the air. He is one of the best parliamentarians in the House. Representing a poor upper-East-Side district of Manhattan, he has developed a political philosophy which is definitely radical. He distrusts wealth, individual or corporate, believes it should somehow be redistributed for the good of all. Yet he does not sponsor crack-brained ideas for easy hand-outs to abolish poverty. He is sincere, earnest, hard-hitting, but even his legislative foes do not call him unfair. His chief weakness is that he has no responsibility except to himself and his own conscience.