Word: rayburns
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...right?"), then appeared himself. In a letter, Harry Truman replied: "I am much in the same frame of mind you are . . . The compromisers got nowhere as I was sure they wouldn't, and they never had any consideration for me." This sounded like a slap at Speaker Sam Rayburn, who tried to put over the compromise. Press Secretary Charles Ross hastily explained that there had been a double misprint. The letter should have read: "The compromises got nowhere . . . and they never had any consideration from...
...debate rolled into its second week, Speaker Sam Rayburn made one last effort to break the impasse. Knowing that the Administration's bill was a lost cause, he and his aides had cooked up five compromises which they hoped would attract votes. The provisions, with a few minor changes, were lifted from the Taft-Hartley Act itself. The most important of them was the one giving the President authority to use the weapon of injunction in national-emergency strikes...
...Speaker Rayburn had relinquished the chair and was prowling around the House, perching here & there, nervous and anxious. Minority Leader Joe Martin took the floor to defend the softened version of the Taft-Hartley Act (the Wood bill), which was backed by the Republican-Southern coalition. Then Rayburn's compromise package was introduced. Sam himself stepped out on the floor. Eloquently, somewhat defensively, he appealed for votes for his measure: "Let us not have one sector of Americans known as labor . . . believe that we would press down upon their brow a crown of thorns...
...Veteran Rayburn could tell from the dutiful applause that he had lost. In obedience to John Lewis' orders, some Democrats from Lewis' coal-mining districts slid over to the Republican side; Sam's proposition went down by a 211-to-183 vote. Then the House took a roll-call vote on the Wood bill. The coalition measure won its preliminary test...
That night Rayburn & aides went to work on Southern Democrats, pleading for votes against the Wood bill so that the Administration-controlled House Labor Committee would at least have a chance to frame a new law. They pointed out that passage of the Wood bill would be a complete surrender to the Republican minority. Some Southerners listened. Next day, ten who had voted for the Wood bill somersaulted and voted against it. It was breathtakingly close. Down went the Wood bill by a hairline vote...