National Affairs: Up Garner

In organizing the Senate the Administration might have had trouble this year for in the new Senate "moderate" (economy-minded) Democrats outnumber New Dealers. For this reason Mississippi's Pat Harrison might have ousted Kentucky's Barkley, the Majority Leader who beat him out by one vote in 1937 with Franklin Roosevelt's aid. Instead, Senator Harrison chose last week not to run for Leader this year: he did not want the job of spokesman for the Administration. "Dear Alben" was re-elected by acclamation and Illinois' elegant, whiskery old James Hamilton ("J. Ham") Lewis was persuaded to continue as Whip instead of withdrawing, as he had threatened to do, to introduce legislation of his own.

But of all presession maneuverings, none was so important as those that went on in the office of the Senate's president, John Nance ("Cactus Jack") Garner. As Vice President of the U. S., Mr. Garner regularly attends Cabinet meetings by special invitation of President Roosevelt. He attended a meeting last week and, though the walls of the Cabinet room are thoroughly soundproof, newsgatherers soon learned that there had been hot discussion, that Cactus Jack had taken an adamant position for economy.

John Garner, who served 15 terms, 30 years in the House before he was elected Vice President, is Congress-hearted and Congress-minded. The inroads of executive power upon the powers of Congress have irked him sorely. He has fast friends and respectful admirers in both Houses. Since the Republican swing last fall, which weakened the Democratic party in local affairs* and made the Administration's majorities in Congress vulnerable to future coalitions of conservative Democrats and Republicans, John Garner is anxious not to have orders from the White House split the Democratic majorities in Congress. To avoid this, Democrats in Congress will have to provide their own leadership. If they need a leader, John Garner stood ready to lead.

As though to prove the old Texan's new power, Capitol Hill last week beheld an unusual spectacle. Soon after the hot Cabinet session, two Cabinet members called on the Senate's president in one day, hat in hand. One was Secretary Wallace of Agriculture, of whose acreage restrictions and proposed revival of processing taxes Mr. Garner disapproves. The other was Harry Hopkins, whose WPA performance will be mercilessly reviewed before the Senate confirms him as Secretary of Commerce.

Jack Garner was reported perfectly willing to see Harry Hopkins confirmed, but determined to see WPA's next appropriations chopped far down in the interest of economy, and to see Relief removed from politics. In this determination he was joined by Senators Byrnes and Adams, in charge of Relief appropriation bills, and by Representative Woodrum of Virginia, chairman of the House subcommittee on Relief.

So formidable did the Garner economy bloc appear last week that alert little David Lasser, president of the Workers Alliance (reliefers' union) sounded an alarm, called for "the angry voice of the people" to halt "the reckless plans of Garner and his clique."