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Show Washington. President Roosevelt has told congress that he wants It to finish Its la-Expect la-Expect bors and adjourn Long Session ln snort rdeT, s He has figured that about three months ought to give the members sufficient time to mull over the problems that confront con-front them and that they then should return to their several homes. But the President Is doomed to disappointment If he sincerely believes that he can get congress out of the Capitol by the end of March. The best guess right now Is that congress will be ln session at least four months and. It U well within the range of possibilities that It will remain in session almost to the time of the national conventions. conven-tions. There are a number of factors that make realization of the President's Presi-dent's early adjournment wish impossible im-possible of realization. Probably the most Influential of these is the fact that this is a campaign year. Every member of the house and one-third one-third of the senate, along with Mr. Roosevelt himself, are affected by the election date and politics must have Its turn. Every four years this same condition obtains and every four years politicians do about the same things in furtherance of their own political Interests. The bulk of the legislation to be considered has Its political tinge. Politics even creep into the annual appropriation bills and usually the result Is a swelling of the totals in order that some gears of Individual political machines may be oiled just a bit for smooth running In the campaign. While the appropriation bills are Important from a political standpoint, stand-point, their weight in this session of congress sinks rather below par because be-cause there are such things as the bonus for the World war veterans, the Townsend old age pension plan, various New Deal reform measures and such replacement legislation as may be necessary since the Supreme court kicked over New Deal propositions propo-sitions like the Agricultural Adjustment Adjust-ment act with Its processing taxes and sundry other schemes. However the Roosevelt leaders in congress may desire to act, the machinery of legislation can be run only so fast in an election year. One of the chief reasons why a congressional session in an election year drags on Seek longer than usual Publicity ,s because of the publicity value the sessions have for Individual representatives rep-resentatives and senators. Members of congress discovered a hundred years ago that the chambers of the house and senate constituted splendid splen-did sounding boards for the dissemination dis-semination of political views. There has been Increasing use of this potentiality po-tentiality as the years have gone by until now the older members of the house and senate have become very adept in capitalizing on this factor. It hikes no stretch of the imagination to discover that a senator sen-ator or representative, speaking from the floor of his respective chamber, gets much more publicity than his opponent back home who talks only as a private citizen. It is perfectly natural, therefore, that those members seeking re-election want to take full advantage of the publicity vehicle available to them in Washington. The use of this publicity weapon Is available to opponents of the New Deal as well as to Its supporters. support-ers. While the approaching election may be expected to knit the house Democrats more closely Into a unified uni-fied front for the November election, the same condition is not true ln the senate. In that body, there are a number of old-line Democrats who do not like the New Deal and who are going to utilize every available opportunity to make their record as Democrats as complete as It Is possible to do before they must speak to the home folks ln person. It Is obvious that such men as Senator Sen-ator Carter Glass of Virginia cannot can-not desert the Democratic ticket and run for re-election Independently. Independent-ly. So it is to be expected that men of this type will establish for themselves them-selves a comprehensive outline of their political beliefs as Democrats while distinguishing their position from tlint known as the New Deal. They must look to the future when, according to all Indications, they feel the party machinery will again be controlled by the Jeffersonlnn type of Democrat Instead of by the reform type of Democrat headed by men and women with the New Deal outlook. An additional factor operating In the senate Is the presence of two Republican Presl-Two Presl-Two More dentlal posslblM. Factors t'es In the persons per-sons of Senator William E. Borah of Idaho and Arthur Ar-thur U. Vandenberg of Michigan. Senator Borah Is actively seeking pledged delegates to the Republican national convention. Senator Vandenberg Van-denberg says he Is not a candidate but the well-known bee is buzzing around and there are many observers observ-ers who think that Senator Vandenberg Vanden-berg is hoping that, In case of a convention stalemate, the assembled delegates may riot and turn to him as the nominee. Such a condition means, as It has meant before, that these two men will desire to see all of the political issues aired ln congressional debates. de-bates. It Is only natural and logical as well that the Republican minority minor-ity in the house and senate will seek to foment as much debate as possible In order to obtain a record of what the majority party thinks or proposes to do if returned to power. In all respects, the session will be the most political, therefore, since Mr. Roosevelt took office. His Presidential message on the state of the Union already Is being kicked back and forth and picked to pieces in the preliminary campaign gunfire. gun-fire. In an earlier letter, I reported to you concerning the question of a neutrality policy Congress and declared at May Stall that tlme that u was the most important im-portant Item to come before the current session. It remains so. I believe the situation is even more delicate than ln my earlier analysis of this problem and It may well be that congress will stall along In reaching a decision on this policy ln order to give foreign developments develop-ments an opportunity to manifest themselves further. The administration adminis-tration apparently Is willing to let congress work out the legislation without much Interference but the leaders realize that a decision will be difficult as long as foreign maneuvers ma-neuvers continue to present an almost al-most dally change ln the scenery. Reference Is made to the neutrality neutral-ity question here because it is one of the things entering Into the combination com-bination that will cause a longer session than the President wishes. There seems to be no doubt that passage of a bill to pay the soldiers' bonus at an early date will be accomplished ac-complished In this session. Likewise, Like-wise, there is hardly the shadow of a doubt that If congress passes such legislation and Mr. Roosevelt vetoes It, the bill will be passed over the veto. It Is a campaign year and It Is not a good time for politicians to antagonize an organization with the vast membership of the American Legion or the other groups of ex-service ex-service men. This legislation will not contribute much to the length of the session but in all such cases representatives and senators must make their speeches and be on record rec-ord as to why they voted for or against a bill. The Townsend plan cannot get anywhere In the current session. In nil probability, also, the cur rent session of congress will be . , called upon to Waiting meet some proD. Decisions lems resulting from adverse decisions de-cisions by the Supreme court of the United States. The court has before it any number of cases Involving In-volving New Deal policies, Including such as the AAA, the TVA with Its Tennessee Valley power yardstick, the attempt to regulate wages and hours of labor under the Guffey coal bill known as the Little NRA, and a half dozen other policy propositions. proposi-tions. It seems unlikely, although no one can guess, that all of these measures will be held constitutional. constitution-al. If any are held Invalid, naturally natural-ly the President will ask congress to draft new legislation. As a sample of the political aspect of the current session, one can cite the furor that was stirred up when President Roosevelt delivered his message on the state of the Union to a night session of congress. Except Ex-cept for one Instance, Presidents always al-ways have delivered or sent their message to congress at noon of a day after the session has had two or three meetings. Mr. Roosevelt chose to get his message to congress on the very first day of the current session but In order to do It and allow for consummation of the usual rnllllnil r.t I , i weening aay, u ns necessary to hold a joint session at night. The White House announcement of this decision immediately precipitated pre-cipitated a biting demand from Henry P. Fletcher, Republican national chairman. Mr. Fletcher charged that since the President's speech was being delivered "out of hours" and was being broadcast to potentially the greatest radio audi-ence audi-ence ever to listen to a Presidential message of this kind, the broadcasting broadcast-ing companies must agree to allocate allo-cate time for the Republicans to answer It. The Republican chair-man chair-man asserted that the message was reduced to the "common level of a political speech" and so he demanded demand-ed for the opposition the right to analyze It from the opposition standpoint through the same num. ber of radio stations and l0 pu,. tially the same radio audience, e Western Ni'wupnpc Union. ' |