SPECIAL SESSION OF CONGRESS

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25549, 17 July 1948, Page 7

SPECIAL SESSION OF CONGRESS

OPINION DIVIDED ON WISDOM OF STEP I WASHINGTON COMMENT ! (Rec. 8 p.m.) WASHINGTON, July 15. Veteran political observers jn Washingtop are divided on the wisdom of President Truman’s decision to call a special session of Congress, and even ! within the Democratic Party's ranks I there is no certainty that he has 'done the right thing. For instance. Senator John McClellan, an anti-Truman Democrat, asked: “If the President thinks he has the Republicans in a hole, why call them back to fill it up?” The majority of the Democrats, 1 however, regard President Truman’s j decision as smart strategy. They are j counting on the Republicans being un-; able tn get together on many of the i issues on which the President will 1 ask them to act. There is little doubt I that rich political dividends could be 1 paid for the President if, during the i forthcoming campaign, he could point | to legislation which he could claim; had been passed only under his pres- j sure.

Perhaps the greatest danger is that in raising controversial issues cf his eight-point civil rights programme and in the repeal of the Taft-Hartley labour law. the President might widen the schism within his own Party.

Republican reaction was summed up by one Congressman, who said: “If we do as Mr Truman asks, he will claim all the credit in the election campaign. If we do not, he will attempt to throw the blame on us fcr blocking his efforts.” Senator Arthur Vandenberg (Republican). president of the Senate and chairman of its Foreign Affairs Committee. denounced Mr Truman s move as “the last hysterical gasp of an expiring Administration.”