Midway in the roll call on the $5.7 billion tax bill, the House chamber began to buzz with excitement. It was clear that the bill (TIME, Oct. 22) was going down to defeat. The big surprise was that 64 Democrats, some of them swayed by a last-minute letter from the C.I.O. urging rejection, jumped, the traces to join the Republicans in voting no.
Before the roll call was finished, House Speaker Sam Rayburn was busy scribbling messages summoning his lieutenants to a conference. There he hammered one point: this isn't a question of a good tax bill or a bad tax bill;...
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