THE CONGRESS: Ex-Precedent

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When he departed, the Senate filed out. A few minutes later, Speaker Byrns put the question: Should the Bonus Bill be re-passed, the President's objections thereto to the contrary notwithstanding? President Roosevelt had hardly got back to the White House before the Speaker announced the result: 98 to sustain the veto, 322 to override. Net effect of the President's speech on the House—six votes switched against the Bonus.

Thirty-six Senatorial votes—three more than necessary—had long since been counted to sustain the veto and the margin of error in this calculation was conceded to be very small. Nevertheless, up to the Capitol, day after the House vote, marched Postmaster General Farley to lunch with Majority Leader Robinson, help hold the Administration lines. With him went ex-Representative Charles F. West, now Presidential contact-man, and in the cloak rooms of the Senate they and Whip Harrison proceeded to buttonhole doubtful members. Only one clear victory did they gain: New Mexico's Dennis Chavez, successor to the late Bronson Cutting, whose vote bonuseers had counted on, listened obediently to Boss Farley's words.

54-to-40. The final Senate debate, like the President's veto message, was a theatrical fiction to appease the audience. After a dozen Senators had spoken for five hours, the Senate finally put its members to the test in the three-cornered inner battle between their economic theories, their social consciences and their understanding of political expediency. Result: 54 votes to override the veto; 40 to sustain. Veto No. 675 had been made to stick.