Legislators

Glamorous portrait of Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas (D. CA). From: Beth Gore.

Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas (D. CA) took the troubles of every American housewife to the floor of Congress today---the high cost of living. Here she is shown carrying a basket of groceries to the floor of the House where she said the rising cost of living is anything but a mirage. From: Beth Gore.

New picture of Senator Forrest C. Donnell of Missouri. From: Beth Gore

President Harry S. Truman addressing a joint session of Congress asking lawmakers to enact legislation authorizing the government to seize the steel industry and run it until the contract dispute is settled. Seated behind him are Vice President Alben Barkley, left, and House Majority Leader John W. McCormack. Donor: Hennepin County Historical Society

Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio (right, seated in third row from floor) sits with his hand to his mouth as he hears President Harry S. Truman (at rostrum, extreme left) denounce the Taft-Hartley Act and ask congress to quickly give him power to seize and operate the struck steel industry. Seated in the same row as Senator Taft are from left: Joseph McCarthy (Wisconsin), Richard Nixon (California) and Andrew Schoeppel (Kansas). Donor: Hennepin County Historical Society

President Harry S. Truman delivered his State of the Union address to a Joint Session of Congress, meeting in the House Chamber. Seated behind the President are Vice President Alben W. Barkley (left) and House Speaker Sam Rayburn (right). Donor: Hennepin County Historical Society

President Harry S. Truman delivered his State of the Union message to a joint session of Congress. On the rostrum behind President Truman are Vice President Alben Barkley (left) and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn (right). Donor: Hennepin County Historical Society

President Harry S. Truman delivers his State of the Union message to a joint session of Congress. Prime Minister Winston Churchill (upper left-center) holds a text of the speech as he sits in the front row of the balcony. Seated directly in front of the President are members of his cabinet. From left: Labor Secretary Maurice J. Tobin, Commerce Secretary Charles Sawyer, Agriculture Secretary Charles Brannan, Interior Secretary Oscar Chapman, Postmaster General Jesse Donaldson, Attorney General J. Howard McGrath, Defense Secretary Robert Lovett, Treasury Secretary John W.

Office of Economic Stabilization Director William H. Davis, also former head of the War Labor Board, telling Congress that "settlement of labor disputes by government is destructive of all the creative values of collective bargaining." Compulsion, Davis said, should be used only in war time or in peace time cases involving public utilities. From: Beth Gore.

Lauchlin Currie, former aide to late President Franklin D. Roosevelt, testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee, denounced as lies the charges that he fed U. S. secrets to a wartime Soviet espionage network. He said the charges of his accuser, Miss Elizabeth Bentley, were based upon "hearsay three times removed." From: Beth Gore.