Show Bruc Brit karts charts washington agton digest wisdom of constitution Is seen in revolt of house on spending not politics alone involved revolved in congress opposition to presidents spending policy response e to will of people at last reflected in members Alein bers action by WILLIAM BRUCKART service national press washington Vas hington D 0 washington the constitution of the unit united ed states that document that has s served us so well notwithstanding stan dind the ratzing razzing ra zwing given it by enlightened thinkers of recent years says in article 1 that all bills tor for raising revenue shall originate in the house ot of representatives it further says with an emphasis that no moneys shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law there Is of course nothing atau at all new in the above paragraph it is important however to remember those provisions of the basic law of our nation for in them again we see wisdom and a rather clear understanding stan dink of what happened just before congress adjourned Us its first session it is as though the authors of the Cons constitution titu tion were laying a prophecy when one considers the recent revolt of the house of representatives senta tives against president roose belts spending lending program and by the way during the debates on this program it became known as the lending sp program among those terrible people who opposed it I 1 assume that throughout the land jand there was much talk about the revolt against the presidents policies for current spending as being purely politics I 1 have heard beard from many i sections of the country a and n d the story was the same politics that is only partly true obviously the house members had their weather eye on the political aftermath of what they were doing when they refused c even en to give consideration to mr Roosevel ts spending lending plan that thai originally involved more than they considered politics too when they refused to debate the merits of the housing bill although I 1 believe they should have debated that thing in order that the country could know that it would have cost several billion dollars of taxpayers money before it is finally wound up 60 years hence not politics alone moved house to oppose president the refu refusal akl ot of de house members to do the bidding of the chief executive iest must be examined in something more mor e chah just a political light however beca because tise of the two provisions of the constitution that I 1 quoted it must be recalled that the authors of the constitution C contrived strived 0 to build a national ja I 1 legislative body with a dual purpose 1 to represent the ahe union of states which Is accomplished through the senate and 2 to represent the individual L citizens which is accomplished through the house of representatives the ho house tise therefore 6 Js is held fw to be the body more responsive to individual thinking among the people and toreacy to react more quickly to changes in public sentiment that matter of having taxation originate in the house therefore Is seer seen to be hn an attempt to reflect Jn in the legislative acts arte rte the willingness or unwillingness atthe people to stand for tax taxes cs ce house members must stand for election each two years again when the constitution said that appropriations had to be enacted as law before money is paid out of tle the treasury there was a patent curb on wild and profligate spending the house being closer to the people first felt the call of the people for government spending and responded since the senators too are elected by direct vote of the people they also heard the siren call and v voted out money with the greatest of ease but the house led the way lately however ithe 4 there e has been a change 4 in that individual thinking the 1 majority of the people have be begun degunto gunto t to wonder where all of this spending was gong going to end the they y began to wonder how the nations national debt now well above would ever efe be paid They smelled fresh taxes the senate heard but tailed failed to heed this new call senators chisell and nibbled at curtail i 1 ment but they did not put their thal r mind to the business of cutting expenditures tures it was the house that led shewa tag again aln and aj isard earlier they acted definite ly re fusing evea even to debate the two cord cornerstone ner stone bills the spending lending bill and the housing bill action of house reflects I 1 will of people on spending dink it is made io appear therefore that the concept of the constitutions authors was correct they felt that the house would hear from home as we say these days and the house has heard politics alone alane kasnot was not responsible except ansof insofar ar as politics represents the shifts in position that statesmen roust must take to met the changes in public sentiment the bulk of the people it seems have suddenly awakened to the fact that something must be done about the continued spree upon n which the federal government has been engaged tu fu the last five or six years the refusal of the house to act cannot be catalogued cataloguer catalo gued otherwise thanas reflecting the will of the people tor for the politician who knows his onions seldom is seen going in the wron w wrong ron 9 direction it if the votes of his constituents are aide conc concerned arned whether the economy wave that swept through the house in the last few weeks meeks of a session that is destined to be historically important will be maintained in the next session of the seventy sixth congress of course isa matter of conjecture it is to be noted that primaries lor for nominations come along early next spring and summer following rol lowing those primaries in natural sequence are the november elections if the members of the house and senate who have balked at running the federal government further into debt take the same position in the session starting next january then I 1 am inclined to the opinion that our nation will be on the way out of its troubles I 1 always hedge statements about congress however because politicians will sometimes place party above principle they might deem it necessary to buy a few votes with taxpayers money in advance of the primaries next year whether the representatives and senators have such ideas in mind or not I 1 wish the voters would put every one of them on the spot by demanding to know whether they are going to let this nation go any further into debt the debt now is so large that each of us is going to pay and pay and pay in taxes and of after ter we have passed on our children and theirs will pay congress failed to see that money was properly spent I 1 always have opposed c congressional action that delegates p power e settled on anthe the congress by the constitution ution in these columns there has never been any deviation from that conviction since 1933 there has been a constant trend in the wrong direction new powers have been given the president time after time particularly has this been true in the matter of 0 handling money Con congress gresi obey edthe d t h e dictates of the constitution by appropriating the money but it did not do that which there certainly is a duty to do namely see that the money is spent properly jn in an examination of the latest spending lending scheme put forward by the president and rudely shattered by the house therefore it strikes me that another anoche r device to get more power powe r away from congress was being proposed in the first place there was little if f any ho hope petha that t recovery could come out 0 of the piotr program m behave we have seen only slightly different schemes flop annually for several years further these plans that are tempora temporarily Til y out of the window appeared to me to be aa tricky to evade the law in that thai the financing was to be done without consideration of the national budget and ad finances none of these new debts would show in the budget the program resembled a road rood that is cut around the edge of a town to avoid the business sect section fon a bypass I 1 I 1 respecting the merit of the spend ing lending bill itself there Is little in my opinion to warrant its adoption in plain language the proposal would have socialized credit in the united states and I 1 can not believe that the united states is ready to io take up tip state socialism after the manner of mussolini or hitler presidents hinis alnis sound like Adt atkission At mission hission of 0 failure the he smas smashing hing of the administrations scheme of oi course did have its political repercussions aud and mr roosevelt feeling the toe ofa of a stiff boot as he obviously did feel such a political blow will be bd carrying his case to the people soon he ha said in a press conference one day that the people were entitled entitle d to know who was responsible meaning the congress congre ss he hd also suggested that the people ought to know in advance why there would be more unemployment and why there would be new taxes to p pay ay lor for relief all of which sounds rather mathei like an admission 9 a of failure fallar that is to say these schemes of spending of pump priming of creating new and greater debt all have failed in returning ning I 1 the countr country YAO to anything like a normal condition we have nothing to show for something like so expended excepting the bonds of the united states government that are outstanding new dealers however are still batt battling lini I 1 noted one efthem said the other day that an exira extra session of congress in Novem november berof of this year was was surely a necessity that proposal will bear watching I 1 have h talked with many many leaders in congress men of long experience and understanding and none of them believes an extra session to be necessary I 1 released by western newspaper Newt paper union |