Show Bruc karts washington Washing fon digest pressure groups already are worrying Aj members embers of congress new deal A agencies b enches seekers after justice and promoters of various movements active as usual al old age 0 pensions unemployment insurance not neglected by WILLIAM BRUCKART service national press washington D C washington about the time congress reconvenes each year the national capital is deluged with what have come to be known as pressure groups it is a poor description I 1 believe most of them can be called selfish groups for the reason that the self righteous individuals divi duals who lead or promote movements or causes or daman demands ds for justice usually have jobs of their own at stake they want wani to keep their followers happy especially the saps who c contribute on hard earned dimes or d dollars ol 01 so that their representative or their delegation may put up a go good od front inthe in the city of washington any way it ls is tie tte open season for them again they are busier than a hive of bees they are engaged in the annual invasion upon senators and representatives IV s and among the numerous new deal agencies seeking justice urging help for those whose liberties aye are being trampled into the mud appealing for this and that and the other there are the usual spokes spokesmen men for corporations and groups of corporations po rations they too are seekers after justice they are no more selfish than them the lesser rackele racketeers ers those fellows however have a different kind of stake in the results the seekers after individual justice PRESSURE GROUPS BUSY BUST harass harass members of congress with various causes may be tuning up for the coming campaign many movements will not get very far union labor and the american legion active bruckart belleve believe it is possible so many new injustices could have arisen few are able to analyze the situation those who urge maintenance of civil liberties etc usually are concer concerned rid with keeping themselves in their jobs while the seekers after justice for the corporations and bustness business interests are trying to preserve their own material fortunes may be just tuning up for the election campaigns there is however something disturbing about this years invasion it seems to be utterly impossible le that so many new injustices could have arisen within the last year there always has been a considerable amount of this low form of high pressure around washington but the increased number of seekers after justice this year would seem to prove that the whole country has gone to pieces it may be of course that they are tuning up tor for the election campaigns seriously however few persons have been able to analyze the situation some suggest that the current trek of seekers after justice results from the fact that the national government has become the focal point for relief from everything since the depression fell upon us in 1930 others feel that a sense of futility about life itself has crept into this country from the lands where dictators hold a human life to be nothing more than a chattel if either of these answers is correct we have a dangerous condition on our hands it is the defeatist attitude it represents a decaying civilization and national leaders had better wake up ud to what it means now lest someone charge me with having changed my tune from several years ago I 1 want to recall that I 1 once feebly attempted to pin a senat senators or s ears back for seeking legislation to make everyone register who visited a senator or a representative in behalf of legislation he wanted to brand each one as a lob huo hugo black baist that senator was hugo black who now writes binding legal opinions as a member of the supreme court of the united states instead of blabbing for hours on the floor of the senate I 1 maintain that everyone has the right of petition to any government agency what I 1 am trying to do here however is to show that there are so many more petitioners petition ers now than heretofore and to find the reason for it many seekers after justice in washington of course most of these movements will not get very far they will not get as far in fact as when I 1 used to crawl under the corncrib for eggs out on the farm but there are enough dissatisfied and discouraged folks throughout the country to pay the freight and the hotel bills tor for an extraordinarily large number of seekers after justice in washington it is astonishing to see the lengths to which some of them will go for example there is one great church organization that sought to force the census bureau to include in the forthcoming census certain questions that would have given that church a powerful leverage in n the future administration of government affairs according to well authentic bated reports the church representative senta tive tried for weeks to high pressure the census officials into inclusion of three questions he made some threats about the consequences of their refusal the government attorney to whom the census officials submitted the question had the guts to say no and that was the census bureau answer the old age pension movement and the unemployment compensation movement and the other welfare movements are represented in full force other groups are working for gifts from government there are half a dozen other groups around town working for one thing or another in the shape of gifts from the government nearly all of them have found something wrong with the present social security law but they do not agree on what is wrong with it the whole circumstance rather convinces me that maybe the law ought to be tossed overboard I 1 doubt that the federal government can ever administer such law there probably is little possibility that any such law ever can be made workable on a national basis some of the dreamy new dealers who conceived it have faded out of washington officialdom already and have left their baby for somebody else to nurse to maturity the one service they performed was to the new deal finances because the original program has brought six or seven hundred million dollars into the federal treasury which has been spent organized labor has its representatives on the scene in a big way both the congress of industrial organizations izat ions which is headed by john L lewis an and d the american federation of labor which is headed by william green have national headquarters here what mat is a poor politician going todo to do however john L llewis lewis when lewis and green are fighting each other and s seldom eldom if ever agree upon what v hat changes must be made inthe in the national labor relations act the labor row may get more than just an ordinary airing during the session of con congress gresi now under way I 1 have written heretofore about the special house committee investigation of the national labor relations board exposures by that committee already have brought demands for the ousting of commissioner smith and chairman madden american legion can really put on high pressure there is an offshoot of organized labors setup here known as labors nonpartisan non partisan league I 1 dont know what it is supposed to accomplish but it has a press agent and a staff of executives the american legion is getting active again it wants more government money for the ex soldiers and make no mistake about it I 1 scratched the surface in naming the pressure groups that are to be found here for the current session of congress there are at least 50 business organizations and trade associations the purposes of all are the same namely advantages for them the advantages may be in the form of cash such as the pension petitioners petition ers and the legion seek or advantages that can be turned into cash after the methods of business |