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Show Tax Bill Is Rabbit Stew To Congressman Doughton By BAUKHAGE Sews Analyst and Commentator. WASHINGTON, D. C Another rabbit stew has been served up to Rep. Robert L. Doughton of North Carolina, and he's all ready I for it. Representative Doughton, I might suggest if you don't know j It, is not only the oldest member of the house of representatives ; (85 ) but likewise the oldest hand at handling tax measures. j He had to step down from the chairmanship of the ways and means ' committee for the brief Republican interlude. Now he' back at the old Itand, sharpening the butcher knife again. But to get back to rabbit stew. Last season when President Truman Tru-man vetoed the second Knutson U Ml S ,.-. ,n,n,,,r.,f tax-cutting bill and and fired it back at congress, a reporter asked Doughton how he felt about It. He leaned back and told a story, for he's fond of answering in parables. A Tarheel housewife, house-wife, It seems, served her husband rabbit stew every night for a week. When the second Saturday night came t BAUKHAGE around and the same old dish ith It, the husband bowed his hoad as usual, but Instead of sayicg grace he was heard to mutter: "Rabbit's rougK Rabbit's tough. Oh, Lord, I've had rabbit rab-bit enough" That, opined Mr. Doughton, was the way ha felt about the tax bills. But he has to help meet the biggest big-gest peacetime budget ever submitted sub-mitted to a congress and he's ready lor It. In the 38 years that he has represented rep-resented the state of North Carolina In the congress, the habits of the dean of the octogenarian's club in the lower house have changed very little since the last time. I explored them In some detail more than a score of years ago. He has earned a tremendous re-pect re-pect from the men who work on fiscal matters in the house of representatives rep-resentatives where the money bills have to originate. And because he has a theory of his own about collecting col-lecting and spending the people's money, no bill comes out of bis for an act've interest In his community com-munity wl ich is deep in the Carolina Caro-lina hills. Laurel Spring, N. C, Is still his hi.me. He was born on his! parent's farm near there. His father, wounded in the war between j the statei, died when he was a ' grown bry. His mother was keenly active Vi her last hours, interested , in the day's mail and the daily newspaper to the last. Inheriting some land from his! fatrer, the boy started off for htm-se'f, htm-se'f, gradually acquiring more until h! became a livestock raiser and armer. Then he entered business, finally becoming president of a ; bank. He has described himself as a horse trader. There are many tales that have grown up about his astuteness that, If embellished by repetition, are not doubted by those who have watched his steady advancement in congress. He entered under a Republican regime President Taft's accepted minor committee appointments, but rose rapidly to the position he holds today chairman of the powerful power-ful ways and means committee. One of the horse-trader stories he tells Is this: after disposing of some animals he had meant to sell, he was made a very attractive offer for the horse he was riding his own saddle horse. Done, he took the money, turned over the bridle, put the saddle under his arm and walked back home, 70 miles, says tradition, under his own pt.wer. There doesn't seem to have been any deep-laid plan for a political career in the farmer boy's mind when he began life among the oxcarts ox-carts and hand looms of those early days in the South following the war. Nor yet when he had acquired his own acres and entered into the business life of the community. He was chosen a member of the state board of agriculture and served on the prison board. Then one day it was decided to run him for the state senate. He was elected and served for a term. Congress was next, but there was a sort of unwritten law in his district dis-trict that one term was all a man could expect, for Republicans and Democrats had always swapped terms. But Doughton changed all that. Or at least his constituents con-stituents did. When he had served his term In the 62nd congress. con-gress. Instead of retiring him, as had been the custom, the voters sent him right back again, and they have been doing It ever since. There isn't any question that Robert L. Doughton likes his job In Washington. But it's equally true that when the session is over, he likes to hie himself back to his Carolina hills and enjoy life there. Around the capital he has the reputation as being as good a judge of men as he is of horses. This year President Truman's request for six billion dollars more in taxes, including some social security withholding levies, will get very careful scrutiny before it becomes law. Meanwhile, Dough-ton's Dough-ton's committee has to take care of the bill to extend reciprocal trade treaties. Also, studies will begin on the subject of extending social security benefits. There is in addition the matter of certain revisions in the basic tax code. But Representative Doughton is used to rabbit stew. "Ob, Lord. Vv bad rabbit tnougb." committee looking very different than he wants it to look, though it may not always suit all the other members. Doughton doesn't go so far as to say that fiscal legislation hould bt non-partisan, but he does lay it ought to be as non-provincial and as pro-national as possible. His experience in collecting money mon-ey that ought to be collected goes back a long way. One story involves a man he went to see about a horse two horses, to be exact. This man had bought a team from Doughton (the congressman congress-man is still a farmer in his own right, though he has to spend more time away from home than he used to). Later on the man wrote that he didn't think the span was worth the $800 he had agreed to pay and wouldn't pay it. The deal had been negotiated at a distance and the principals had never met. So one day Doughton dropped in at the I : - - I '. ' . . farm and said he wanted to look over a good team. The man showed several, but none seemed to suit Mr. Doughton. "All right," said the man, "I'll show yon the best pair you ever saw In you life." He brought out the horses recently re-cently acquired from Mr. Doughton, but still unpaid for. And what might they be worth? Well considerably over SS00. Mr. Doughton Introduced himself him-self and didn't have much trouble trou-ble in collecting. Thfre is another reason why Doughton is a good man to have on the collecting end of a bargain If you aren't the debtor. He's a farmer, true, but he is also a banker, bank-er, and he works at both when he Isn't in Washington. He doesn't keep banker's hours, however. He goes to his office at 6:30 a.m., works throughout the day, and he's often back in the office after dinner. din-ner. He lives right across the plaza from the Capital. For the first 45 years or so of his life, Mr. Doughton held no elective office, but he managed to find Umi The biggest peacetime budget ever submitted to a congress ($43,858,000,000) bas Its opponents, oppon-ents, too. Rep. Charles Halleck (R., Ind.), former GOP majority major-ity leader, and Rep. John Taber (R., N. Y.), former chairman of the house appropriations committee, com-mittee, look grimly at the voluminous volu-minous budget, promise a fierce fight to slash all spending proposals. |
