Monstrous Lobby

"The meeting will come to order!"

Under the cobalt-blue ceiling and fantastic chandeliers of the Department of Labor Auditorium, the bustle and fidget of over 2,000 young people settled to a whisper. The members of the American Youth Congress, assembled in Washington for a four-day citizenship institute, "a monster lobby for jobs, peace, civil liberties, education and health," came to order. A. Y. C.'s adopted mother, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, sat placidly in the second row.

Many a curious glance was directed at her. For once this sensible woman had put herself in an altogether too quixotic position. She was on record as believing that Communist influence in the A. Y. C. was negligible. As to that, the youngest youth in the hall knew that Mrs. Roosevelt was either kidding herself or being taken for a ride.

One of the "other" Roosevelts, Archibald, son of Archibald, son of President Theodore, sat by. The delegates (here a pretty girl who could afford a fox collar, there an unemployed Italian in a sweater, Negroes next to white friends, students, sharecroppers, a few "youths" with bald or greying heads) were dog-tired. All day they had seen sights, visited Congressmen, argued, walked up & down with rhyming placards: "Heed the Voice of 21,000,000: Keep the C. C. C. Civilian!" "Scholarships not Battleships!" "Dies is FLIP-PITY about Civil LIBERTY!"

But when Chairman Howard Ennes pounded his gavel, the weary delegates perked up. Not because they expected the speeches to be much fun, or because they thought the meeting would advance the A. Y. C.'s advertised aim: passage of the $500,000,000 Murray Youth Bill to establish a permanent Federal Youth Administration. They had come to see a sideshow. They had their eyes peeled for one Murray Plavner.

For two days Murray Plavner had done a lot of talking. He had praised Republican National Committee Chairman John D. M. Hamilton for refusing to send a Republican Party delegate to any Youth Congress meeting until it purged "Communistic elements which, according to the Dies Committee, dominate it." He had chided Mrs. Roosevelt for chiding Mr. Hamilton. He had made public an attack on the Congress signed by Gene Tunney and four other youngish men. And at this meet ing he had promised there would be action.

Jack McMichael, National Chairman of A. Y. C., got up to speak. He rambled along about the New Deal, about the Ku Klux Klan. When he started deriding the Dies Committee--

"Point of Order! Point of Order!" shouted F. Steven McArthur, leaping to his feet. "I want to make a resolution.

We must clear ourselves of the charge of Communistic--" "You're out of order!" shouted Chairman Ennes.

"He's not!" yelled Peter Tropea, up front, waving a book in one hand.

"Shut up. Sit down! Boo!" roared the assembled youth. Chairman Ennes had Mr. McArthur tossed out. Speaker McMichael went on.

"I demand the floor!" shouted Archibald Roosevelt. "I wish to read a resolution. We must denounce Russia!" "You're out of order!" cried Ennes.

"He's not! He's not!" yelled Peter Tropea, waving his book.

"Boo! Throw them out! Shut them up!" Members of the Congress, taking parliamentary procedure into their own hands, gave Mr. Tropea the bum's rush. Peter Tropea put up a fight, managed to break free and throw his book at an A. Y. C. officer before being ejected. The book was Cannon's Procedure in the House of Representatives.

Archibald Roosevelt meanwhile was singing out his resolution over the din.

One youth briefly wrestled with him. He sat down, sulked, walked out. Smugly the audience settled down. Complacently they listened to the evening's speeches.

Next morning the young folks were in fine fettle. Despite a cold, raw drizzle, they formed in line and paraded towards the White House, 4,466 strong. By the time they reached the White House their spirits were chilled and their hearts were not in their throats as they sang:

We've been getting nothing else but love, Franklin,

That's the only thing we've plenty of, Franklin.

After they had stood in the rain an hour, the youths' spirits were somewhat damped. Finally the President stepped out on the South Portico. He began talking. He tried to be light. No one laughed. He made some political remarks. No one clapped. He was fatherly-told the children to be sure to change into dry clothes when they got home. Not a murmur. Then he lit into them.

When he is pressed, when the time is ripe, Franklin Roosevelt can be blunt to the point of brutality. Faced by these cocky, sullen kids, he let himself go, gave the kids (and their adopted mother, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt) a first-class spanking:

He told them sharply to keep their noses out of things they know nothing about. He noted that the New York chapter of A. Y. C. had condemned U. S. aid to Finland "on the ground that such action was 'an attempt to force America into an imperialistic war.' [Cheers] My friends, that reason was unadulterated twaddle, unadulterated twaddle. . . . [Boos, shushes, dead silence.] That American sympathy is 98% with the Finns in their effort to stave off invasion of their own soil by now is axiomatic. That America wants to help them by lending or giving money to them to save their own lives is also axiomatic today. That the Soviet Union would, because of this, declare war on the United States is about the silliest thought that I ever heard advanced in the fifty-eight years of my life. . . .

"It has been said that some of you are Communists. ... As Americans you have a right, a legal and constitutional right, to call yourselves Communists . . . but . . . you have no American right, by act or deed of any kind, to subvert the Government and the Constitution of this nation."

Next day, the woman in the case got in the last word. She told the Congress that it was fine, ignorance or no ignorance, for them to put themselves on the record, as they had, for Ethiopia, Spain, China, Czecho-Slovakia. As to Finland: "I don't think you should go on record for anything that you don't believe in. ... I know all the reasons that are given for the Russian invasion of Finland. I know all the reasons because I have heard them from my Communist friends--but I still say there is no excuse for a big nation to invade a small nation, and therefore our sympathies ought to go to Finland."

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