Noble Experiment No. 2

Zero hour came at 3:59 p.m. on the second day of the debate. A buzz of nervous conversation swept through the galleries, over the floor, died. The House was still with the dead silence of excitement, for the Representatives did not know what outcome to expect: the vote might overturn the Administration's foreign policy.

Sam Rayburn of Texas left the microphone in the well of the House where he had been speaking, picked his way hurriedly back up to the marble dais and the gavel of his authority. The Speaker's face was strained, but he had the composure of a gambler whose bet is down. Tennessee's Jere Cooper, Speaker pro tempore, spoke the ritual words: "The time of the gentleman from Texas has expired--all time has expired."

The world watched. Only 27 days before, the House had passed a bill, 259-to-138, empowering the President to arm merchant ships. The Senate had added two amendments, which would empower the President to send U.S. ships into any port in the world. The question before the House: Should it concur in the Senate amendments? If it did, the Neutrality Act would be gutted like a caught trout, the U.S. would return to its historic principle--abandoned for the last four years--of freedom of the seas. If the House did not concur? Hardly a man dared guess at the consequences. But the immediate effect would plainly be a Dunkirk for U.S. foreign policy.

The shadow of John L. Lewis hung smokily over defense production (see p.20). A revolt was on: part of it led by men who were not opposed to intervention, but were opposed to moving against enemies abroad without first cracking down on defense strikes at home. They were bolting out of anger at John L. Lewis, and the Administration's pat-a-cake labor policy. Some of these could be wheedled or hammered into line, some could be bought with a promise of a crackdown on Lewis. But the biggest opposition came from men who on each measure had searched their minds and their hearts honestly and with humility, who wanted always to vote to keep the U.S. out of war.

Some of the soul searching and conscience wrestling might have been avoided by members who took their jobs literally as Representatives. Outstanding were the cases of Kansas and Nebraska. Surveys, polls, opinion-samplings, the position of daily and weekly newspapers have amassed much evidence to show that the citizens of both States favor repeal of the Neutrality Act's obstructions to delivery of the goods. Yet Kansas members were to vote: 1 for repeal, 6 against; Nebraska members, 1 for, 4 against.

Little egg-bald Speaker Rayburn had added up the list of bolters. The answer was disaster.

On the evening of the first day's debate the Administration leaders were as beaten as men can be who refuse to admit it. Man after man had taken the floor to sound one theme: I have voted for each single step. I have voted for each dollar of defense appropriations. But the U.S. stands now at the crossroads (or maelstrom or precipice). If we send our ships directly into British and Russian ports they will be sunk American boys will be killed, the U.S. will be inflamed, the U.S. will go into war, and the U.S. is not now equipped to win that war.

This kind of sensible-sounding talk, hour after hour, had strongly affected men who never made speeches. Shrewdly the Republicans lay low, surrendered their time to dissident Democrats who had never been dissident before--such men as South Carolina's James P. Richards, Texas' Charles L. South, New York's Walter Lynch.

Late that night Rayburn and John McCormack, majority leader, counseled with the President, then wrote him a brief note. In it they asked a question he did not have to answer (What would be the effect abroad, especially in Germany, if the bill did not pass?), hoped he would answer a question they did not ask (What are you going to do about John L. Lewis?).

When the two men went to bed; they and the night were tattered. At 11 a.m. next day Rayburn assured a press conference that he had enough votes to win. (At that very moment he was licked by nearly a score of votes, and knew it.) By noon he had picked up a few. For two days, he and Leader McCormack had been talking steadily, persuading, wangling, flag waving.

His aides had been busy battering down the last arguments, many of which centered around very practical considerations: Churchill had announced that the British were over the hump, and British insurance rates on transatlantic shipping had been lowered 25% only the day before (a piece of bad timing which made Administration men curse the English). Members asked reasonably and sincerely: If the Battle of the Atlantic is being won without repeal of U.S. neutrality, why repeal? If the U.S. has only 7,000,000 tons of shipping, as against the British 25,000,000 tons, why do they need it? If our patrol system is working, why convoy direct to England, asking for trouble? Why not merely transfer our ships to the British?

Rayburn took the floor at 3:48 p.m. There were eleven minutes left before the vote. He read the President's answering letter. Mr. Roosevelt incidentally took this "opportunity of mentioning" that the bill's failure would weaken the defense effort at home. He noted the conference to be held between Lewis and the steel operators next day, wrote: ". . . It is obvious that this coal must be mined. . The Government of the United States has the backing of the overwhelming majority of the people of the United States, including the workers." Rayburn paused, drew breath, said quietly: "And then the concluding line: The Government proposes to see this thing through. Very sincerely yours, Franklin D. Roosevelt.' "

There were heavy cheers. Then Rayburn said:". . . in this titanic, this fateful struggle for democracy . . . I am ready to follow or to lead in any movement by legislation, or sanely otherwise, that will keep defense production going in the United States of America." The House roared cheers again. In the last two minutes five votes were known to have been changed.

The clerk's voice boomed: "Allen of Illinois!" "No!" "Allen of Louisiana!" ";Yes."The count seesawed, nip & tuck. Not until the "Ws" were reached could Rayburn be sure. He announced the vote at 4:25, in the hushed House: "212 ayes to 194 nays." The bill was passed. A shift of ten votes would have killed it. Of 159 Republicans, 137 had voted against repeal. But if 22 Republicans had voted against repeal instead of for it, the bill would have been beaten. In the two days of debate the Republican leader, Joe Martin of Massachusetts, had said only five words--these when the order of speakers was mixed up: "What is the program now?"

This week, with the bill's signing, the trained Navy gun crews, averaging some 15, will go aboard many a merchant ship, where the ready guns are quickly fixed on the already-prepared gun mounts. The ships will begin to move into the horizon, headed for England and Russia, will dock at Liverpool, London. Archangel--or perhaps with Davy Jones.

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