Voice of the People

The deeper a Congressman gets in the political slugging matches and slogans of Washington, the farther away he tends to get from home. This week many a member of Congress headed back to the capital from the midsession recess, surprised at how far Congress had got from home in the furious battle for prestige in dealing with the recession. Around the U.S., TIME-LIFE correspondents caught up with Senators and Congressmen on homecoming rounds, reported these net findings:

Recession. In Michigan auto cities, Great Lakes steel towns and Far West mine and timber communities, there were anticipated slumps, together with demands for extended unemployment compensation quickly. But in the eyes of most voters the economic picture is far from dismal. Said House Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas: "The recession hasn't hit this part of the country yet." Reported Indiana Republican William G. Bray: "Recession talk is not as prevalent as I thought." Even in Florida, hard hit by a citrus freeze and a bad tourist season, Democratic Senator George Smathers was "most surprised" at the lack of interest in the recession. California's Republican Congressman Craig Hosmer said: "The people in my district [Long Beach] are mostly afraid of Congress. They think Congress is acting hysterical."

Farmers. "The farmers aren't just mad at Benson," cracked Washington's Democrat Warren G. Magnuson. "They're mad at everybody." Iowa Democrat Merwin Coad charged back determined to override the President's veto of the bill freezing farm-price supports at 1957 levels (TIME, April 14). But he had little intersectional support; Republican Willard S. Curtin polled his Pennsylvania Dutch farmers, found them mostly for flexible supports or for no supports at all. Said Sam Rayburn: "Nobody told me anything about removing Benson." Said Maine Democrat Frank Coffin, from the midst of dairy country: "There was no reaction to the veto."

Tax Cuts. "Hardly any of my constituents are in favor of a tax cut," reported California Republican Bob Wilson. "I found more insistence upon tax cuts in Washington than at home," said Maine's Coffin. That old tax cutter, Illinois' Democratic Senator Paul Douglas, found the support he was looking for, but Republican Congressman Robert Michel of hard-hit Peoria (farm machinery) changed his mind, said he would vote against an immediate cut. Said Arkansas Congressman Wilbur Mills: "Everyone would welcome a tax cut, of course, but I haven't detected any great demand." Added Nebraska's Arthur Lewis Miller: "I was against a tax cut before I came home. I was glad to see the voters had about the same thinking; it gives me a little more backbone." A nose count of U.S. Senators showed that 70 would vote "no" on an immediate tax cut.

Foreign Aid. "People are very much in favor of it," reported Connecticut G.O.P. Congressman Edwin May. "I'm in favor," said Brooklyn Democrat Emanuel Celler, "but the people in my district show very little interest." "My people are in favor of cutting down," said South Carolina Democrat William Jennings Bryan Dorn. Said Minnesota's First District Congressman Albert H. Quie: "There's been a change in Minnesota. I've even seen farmer meetings where resolutions are passed supporting reciprocal trade." Chicago Democrat John C. Kluczynski switched over recess from an anti-aid stand. Said he: "I just changed by talking to the people. What the hell, we can't be isolationist. We've got to live with the world."

Basic Confidence. No one probed his district more energetically than Michigan Republican Charles E. (for Ernest) Chamberlain, 40, who performs the neat feat of representing two areas (Flint and Lansing) heavily populated with Democratic auto workers, and one Republican rural county. Freshman Chuck Chamberlain earlier had sent 100,000 questionnaires on aid, trade and taxes to his Sixth District, had tabulated the 11,000 replies (57% against a tax cut, 35% in favor, 8% undecided). On his first night home in East Lansing, Chamberlain dropped a log on his foot, bruised it badly.

Nevertheless, he hobbled off on his tour. Said he to 300 people a day: "I'm your Congressman. What can I do to help you?" In depressed Flint (Buick) and Lansing (Oldsmobile), everybody wanted an end to automobile excise taxes. In rural Livingston County, farmers (average holding: 150 acres) suggested that Congress help by easing farm controls and leaving them alone. Congressman Chamberlain talked as well as listened. Demanded auto workers: Why not levy higher duties on foreign cars? Answered Chamberlain: "We have to let those cars come in. They're our balance in trade for hundreds of thousands of U.S. trucks sold to our friends abroad every year."

This week Chuck Chamberlain and colleagues settled down for the remainder of an important session. Back in the cave of the winds there was slim chance that an election-year Congress would quit making a big political thing out of the recession. On the other hand, there was high hope that its members had assimilated perhaps the most important finding to come out of a grass-roots tour since the New Deal days. The people, as Maine Democrat Frank Coffin put it, displayed "powerful basic confidence in the American economy." The confidence was grounded not on Washington slogans but on a remarkably unanimous conviction among workers, farmers and businessmen that the U.S. economy itself could cure the recession.

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