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Then came the revolt, the harvest of the new Congress' education. In four short weeks, Congress rained blow after blow on Franklin Roosevelt, overriding his veto, lopping off pet agencies, forcing his hand on domestic issues. If there had been any one issue dominant in the 1942 Congressional election, it was that the people wanted better management on the home front. After five months, the new Congress had seen only worse management.
Unanswered Questions. In throwing off the shackles of a decade of dominance by the Executive, Congress sometimes spoke the will of the people, sometimes struck out wildly on its own. In the next two months back home, Congressmen will find out how closely they have echoed the people's desires.
But Congress left some big questions unanswered. The biggest unanswered question was the Congress' failure to come to grips with taxation. For this the blame is not solely Congress'. The Administration, although asking for $16 billion (later reduced to $12 billion) in added taxes, did not present any plan of its own; in fact, had none.
Consequently, the problem most central to home front stability, the job most necessary to stem inflation, faces Congress on its return to Washington in September. And the brunt of this job will fall on Walter George, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Though the House is constitutionally supposed to initiate tax legislation, of late years it is the Senate's bill that is most likely to become law. One substantial reason for this procedure is Senator George himself.
Old Independent. To the few rampant New Dealers left in Washington, Walter Franklin George is a black reactionary. He would never let an anti-lynching or anti-poll-tax bill come to a vote in the Senate; his influence has, on at least one occasion, spared the Coca-Cola Co., whose head quarters are in his home State, additional heavy taxes.
His record, viewed objectively, is that of an independent. New Dealers have called him the tool of Georgia Power Co., yet he voted for TVA anathema to all Southern utility companies. He was with the New Deal on NRA, AAA, invalidation of the gold clause, Wagner Act, SEC, and the Social Security Act; against it in opposing the Guffey Coal Act, Wages & Hours Act, the Supreme Court packing plan and the 1938 Reorganization Bill.
Walter George, 65, is a thin-lipped, medium-sized man without a paunch. His grey hair, turning white, is neatly combed except in rare moments of oratorical passion. Deliberate, serious and hardworking, dignified in dress and austere in habits, he is the kind of man who does not make up his mind until he has studied the facts. Urbane, he lacks humor. When a wide-eyed press agent informed him some years ago that he had been made honorary president of the Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters George, the Senator replied: "Why not just call them by their right name?"