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Second Session of the Seventy-third Congress, January 3, 1934, to June 18, 19341

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

E. Pendleton Herring
E. Pendleton Herring
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

This Congress has been conducted in a crucible. The problems that demanded consideration were the most momentous since the war years. These tangible burdens, weighty and perplexing enough when taken separately, served in the aggregate and under the conditions of the time to test in most exacting fashion the very governmental system itself. The adequacy of Congress as a satisfactory political institution was at stake. Was the presidential system as such competent or even capable of meeting its responsibilities? The leadership of Congress during the special session was sustained in large measure by the impetus to action engendered by the economic crisis. But weaknesses in the congressional structure, hidden by the unifying effect of the emergency period, appeared clearly during the second session. What were the elements affecting Congress as a law-making body, and how did the presidential system withstand the strains of this second session?

Type
American Government and Politics
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 28 , Issue 5 , October 1934 , pp. 852 - 866
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1934

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References

2 Those at the conference on April 14 were: Vice-President Garner; Senator Robinson, the majority leader; Senator Harrison, chairman of the finance committee; Senator Fletcher, chairman of the banking and currency committee; Senator Pittman, chairman of the foreign relations committee; Senator Dill, chairman of the interstate commerce committee; Senator Smith, chairman of the agriculture committee; Senator Walsh, chairman of the education and labor committee; Senator McKellar, chairman of the postoffices and post roads committee; Senator Glass, chairman of the appropriations committee; Senator Black, head of the speeial air mail investigating committee; Senator Clark of Missouri; Senator McAdoo of California; Senator Lonergan of Connecticut; Senator Conally of Texas; Senator Murphy of Iowa.

3 Cong. Rec., February 14, 1934, p. 2563: “The rules committee was requested to bring in this rule. We did not originate it. We hardly ever originate a proposition for the consideration of a rule. The leadership of this House is behind this rule, and moreover, at this session of Congress we set up in this body on our side a new organization, known as the steering committee of the Democratic organization in the House, and that committee was expected to perform certain functions with reference to questions of party policy and with the management of our efforts here on the floor of the House. Before the rules committee was willing to bring in this rule, realizing the temper of the House upon the rule we brought in to consider the independent offices appropriation bill, we requested that this matter be submitted to the conservative judgment of the steering committee of the Democratic party, to determine whether or not we should bring in this rule.”

The rules committee during the session reported 64 special rules. Of these, 58 were passed, three were tabled, two remained on the calendar, and only one was voted down.