Word: bill
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...farm-threat has hung dagger-like above the Republican party. But so impotent has been the Democratic party that the farmers have never let the dagger drop except to prick here and there a political life. For three and one-half years, President Coolidge has unequivocally opposed every farm bill which the farm bloc desired. And, while he has not signed any of the bills which the farm bloc did not want, he has never offered any plan of relief. He has confined himself to advising farmers to cooperate on their own initiative. Hitherto, the President has avoided vetoing...
...news of this bill last week was the more amazing because a month ago not a single political prophet saw a farm bill in this Congress's horoscope. What happened has in it a tale of political strategy all of which is not yet apparent...
...began with a matter of coal. The President wanted a bill passed giving him power to deal with a coal crisis, should one arise. Horrified, coal operators from and about Pittsburgh caused their lobbyists and Congressmen to gyrate. At this juncture, the fine Machiavellian hand of an opportunist plucked the reins of state. It is believed to have been that of able lawyer and farmer's-friend, Congressman Dickinson of Iowa.* Whoever it was, word was passed that the House farm bloc would vote for a coal-crisis bill. Then the farm bloc offered to block the coal-crisis bill...
...quick succession, the Senate and House Agriculture committees reported favorably the revised McNary-Haugen bill. But how to get a vote with so much other important legislation pending? There now appeared one morning after a fashionable dinner at which he had been the lion, the Vice President of the U. S. A banker, Mr. Dawes has nevertheless allowed his blessing to rest on the McNary-Haugen scheme. A man of great resourcefulness, he whiffed the political air and he smelled a bill dear to "big business." That was the McFadden branch banking bill, with which is involved the fortunes...
...together. Just how and where is not known. Farm-bill men agreed to let the bank bill pass, bank-bill men agreed to vote for a vote on the farm-bill. And last week the farm bill, which a month ago had been as dead as a pig in a stockyard, commanded the immediate attention of the Senate?with an even chance of passing by a narrow margin. Thus with two neat strokes of strategy, the farmers were in sight of that land of milk and honey which the government had for five years told them was never-never land...