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Show EDITORIAL: Presidential Anger It was an angry rather than a politically conscious Harry S. Truman who summoned the 80th Congress back into session this week. Even though the President exercised his constitutional right in the boggy atmosphere of party politics, certainly he knew that the Congress he was about to call to task could not be molded to fit his program. There is no "denying that the charge of "cheap politics" which followed Mr. Truman's Philadelphia Philadel-phia announcement of what he intended to do with Congress has some foundation. But so has the fact that the President is mad clear through over the legislative legisla-tive mauling he received at the hands of the 80th Congress. President Truman is calling this same rough and tumble outfit out-fit back into session and he's going go-ing to' pilch the same program at them that they knocked all over the lot during the regular session. It follows, therefore, that the Truman summons is highly flavored with politics because be-cause it was sounded during his acceptance of the Democratic nomination at Philadelphia three weeks ago. Even then it would have carried car-ried less of the campaign glow had Mr. Truman criticized back sliding Congressmen from his own party who helped scramble his program, instead of banging away at the 80th Congress and its failure to enact the 1948 Republican Re-publican platform. That Congress did adjourn without a clean slate is true, but there appears to be only two items it-ems of unfinished business out of the nine listed by President Truman as requiring immediate attention. These are rising prices and the housing crisis. The tense Berlin situation' may work into . the current session of Congress, but it is not now included in President Truman's lineup. Politically, the calling of Congress Con-gress back into session is a serious ser-ious business for Mr. Truman. The southern' states are in revolt. Their Congressmen want none of the Truman program as long as it is harnessed to a civil rights issue and there is plenty of rea son to believe that they will filibuster the special session out of existence if the civil rights proposal comes before it. Under the Truman listing, although no one knows exactly why, the matter mat-ter of civil rights requires immediate im-mediate attention. But Harry Truman is convinced convin-ced that he is right, that his program pro-gram is a good one and that the opposition will only injure itself by blocking it. If Mr. Truman were not sincere in these beliefs certainly he would have hesitated hesi-tated before calling the 80th Congress back. For the President received no consideration from . Congress during its regular session ses-sion and there is little chance of his receiving any now. Roscoe Drummohd, Chief of the Washington News Bureau for the Christian Science Monitor sizes the whole situation up in these words: 'The President has gained an opening advantage by seizing the initiative. But what will really count is not who has taken the initiative but who uses the inia-tive inia-tive better after it has been taken. "In other words, it is entirely within the grasp of the Republicans Republi-cans to take the special session into its own hands, use it constructively con-structively regardless of why Mr. Truman called it, and go to the country with a solid record of promises turned into' performance. perfor-mance. 'There is some evidence already al-ready that the cooler heads in the Republican party have this in mind. Governor Dewey is aware that just screaming "politics" "poli-tics" is no effective answer to politics, and the fact that the Republican presidential nominee is calmly silent suggests that he is looking for ways by which the GOP Congress cart meet the -President's challenge other than by epithets. "The special session doesn't put Mr. Truman in the saddle it doesn't put Mr. Dewey in the saddle. It puts the voters in the saddle. Here is one presidential campaign in which the voters can see that Congress redeems its promises or is dealt with accordingly' |