Show 1 Valt ional TOPA Us william walkington the second session of bf the seventy second congress now passing A NOTHING DO into history na as CONGRESS the last lame duck session Is crowning itself with newfound new found glory short sessions of congress in advance of a change in ad administration mints tra tion are never expected to rc ac co Int lell but the current edition Is by nil all odds the winner when the race Is run toward tho the zero indeed those of us who ore are required not privileged by our duties to sit in the press galleries of the senate and the house day after day have indulged in a little game of attempting to locate some legislation which might have been killed but was allowed to pass it just aint and to make the thing more ridiculous senate and house committees were excitedly holding hearings on this bill or that right up to the finish line fine taking testimony on account of which there la Is always a tremendous stenographic bill in addition to tile the printing charges of thousands of dollars and inviting witnesses from here there and everywhere there was not a chance for those bills to be enacted into law and tho the bulk of the committee members admitted the fact privately fiut for the sake of the record 11 they joined with others of their particular committee and went vent right ahead on their grand errand of futility the proponents of the hearings justify their course with the statement that they now have the data upon which to fashion legislation later they argue that the bulk of the legislation had something or other to do with the whole program of lifting the country out of the mire of the depression and a survey shows this to be true in all respects it could be said therefore that tile the orgy of hearings in the short session wa was in preparation for greater things except th that at the records reveal new hearings always have been held regardless of what has transpired before when the ibe same legislation Is introduced in a new session of congress whenever a congress ends all bills on the house and senate calendars of business tile die so the expiration pi of the second session Is a also a the expiration of the seventy second congress con giess and every bill that was before either house or in the hands of any committee of either house becomes null and void 0 6 no one seems to know why there was so BO much activity among the committees of the senate and house jn the session it was apparent at tho the start stait and became more so as december and january passed and february rolled in that it would be a d do 0 noali nothing ing session senators recognized the situation F from rom the republican side came threats and jibes and jests that the democrats were blocking anything and everything thin from the democratic side of the senate chamber came the same tune with just a slight variation in the chorus it was to the effect that the republicans badcon had control which they did if one counted ns as republicans those who had deserted the republican candidate in the 1032 election for the support of mr roosevelt and so it was in the house there was a clear D democratic majority but something else was wrong in that body the plans of tho the leadership did not always carry if they did the legislation was passed only to run into the log jam in the senate some of the house democrats even went so far as to say their majority would not have held to pass some of the legislation put through except tor for the knowledge that the bills would get snowbound la in the senate A Z washington correspondent correspondent for one of the great london dallies dailies cabled his newspaper that the Amer american lenn congress seems seem s to be going in all directions at the same time I 1 quote him because there has been no more lilting fitting description of the situation come to my attention a after all it seems to me the circumstance cum stance ought not be so surprising that the WRITE YOUR a short h 0 r t cession session CON congressman dRESSMAN has hag done nothing I 1 have inquired among a very great number of senators and representatives from leaders down to the newest and latest additions to the membership th their e ir answers to my quei question concerning the lack of accomplishment ment varied so widely that I 1 c included they must reflect minutely the feeling throughout the country every ofie one or nearly every one hns hag had worries through the last three years and these worries have been accented in the last year the owners of these worries whether they sire important worries or just individual worries norr lei looked around for some one to solve their problems bems suddenly aliey thought why there Is 13 our congressman or senator so and so ills mall mail from home has increased as the troubles have grown not that he can do anything about roost most of tho the cases yet he la Is one point upon which the spotlight focuses consequently it to is made to appear that senators and representatives hear so much about the sad state of affairs the suffering the foreclosures fore closures the closed banks tha bankrupt corporations the low price of wheat of cotton of cattle and hogs and dairy products that they are actually going in all directions ions at the same time I 1 do not know whether that excuses them for their failure to get things done but assuredly it Is one of the factors in the situation which lias has been overlooked to a considerable extent but as president hoover passes from tile the picture of national control it Is worth HOOVERS while to wok look TOUGH JOB back for a moment washington observers of all shades of opinion are coming around to the conclusion that whatever im may y have ona been tits his faults lie he had ono of the toughest jobs on tits his hands that ever was faced by a president especially was this true during the last two years of his administration during that time he had a congress made up of a democratic house and a senate in which there never was a majority on either side of any question I 1 mean a majority that could be counted in advance and he was forced therefore to do a lot of trading that mr hoover was waa able to get tits his reconstruction I 1 program as far under way as he did w was as due absolutely to tile the condition of the country and not through tiny any control which he was able to exert so go it becomes rather obvious that whatever mr hoover may have lacked in political ability or acumen whatever were his shortcomings in states craft or however many mistakes he made by refusing concessions ces cess lons the fact still remains that he held the job as president in a period when few men would have succeeded for coupled with all of these fac factors tori there was and la Is no measure the power of the federal government to satisfy all the tha diverse elements of these times the depres depression slon has made experience perle peri ace ence of bygone years a s useless as the proverbial fifth wheel of the farm wagon in view of these facts therefore lt it ought to bo be a cheering prospect for NICE PROSPECT velt to see not FOR ROOSEVELT just a work 1 ing IDS majority but a big majority of his own party in the congressional membership when they get together the american government always has been a party government it thus has hag had to have a satisfactory majority of each house of congress of the same party as the president in order to work well mr roose belts first two years in the white house alouse are assured of such a working control it all who are labeled as democrats turn out to be democrats on the face ot of things it appears that mr roosevelt ought to be able to get whatever he wants from the extra session and the succeeding sessions it Is a situation idea for action there will be so few republicans that observers he here fall to see how they can start any trouble even with the aid of there have been suggestions floating around to the effect that quite a number ot of SENDS UP TRIAL it trial r I 1 a I 1 bal BALLOONS loons have been sent up in the congressional atmosphere by mr roosevelt while there Is no method of confirmation available there has been one condition existing during the last three months that seems to confirm the opinion that the incoming president was testing out sentiment the condition la Is this mr roosevelt has kept hands off insofar as telling leaders of his party in congress what he wanted to have done in the short session he could have made his own pathway easier to travel after becoming president had lie he confided some of his views to the democratic leaders of the house and senate with reference to the suggestions of trial balloons however it Is possible mr roosevelt did tell a few of ills his friends some of his ideas it has been observed here for example that possibly his suggestions were responsible for the consistently busy committees by introducing various and sundry pieces of legislation and holding hearings on them in committees it would be possible obviously to gain a perspective of the public attitude indeed such a period of e experimentation would provide the new president with a most definite outline of what lie could expect in the way of a reception for his plans when they are formally offered to his own congress 0 1633 att union |