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Show Merry-Go-Round By DREW PEARSON and ROBERT S. ALLEN WASHINGTON Outwardly, the congress that convenes today ts no different from that which adjourned two and one-half months ago. In every external respecj, it is the same body. Under the surface, however, a very profound pro-found change has taken place. Two new factors fac-tors have entered the Capitol Hill picture: (1) next year's elections, (2) the increasingly ominous omi-nous business recession. Their effect em the temper of members will be profound. Ordinarily, In an election period, a congress tip against a popular president is inclined to be tractable. Roosevelt had this consideration in the back of his mind when he overrulrd the unanimous counsel of his advisers and called the special session. To whip his measures through with a minimum of difficulty, he counted heavily heav-ily on the fact that the entire house and a third of the senate faced going on the block. But after he issued his call business went into a nosedive and his secret calculation no longer fitted the circumstances. It is possible that the slump may act to offset the election factor and spur congress to become more truculently tru-culently independent than ever. This is the unexpressed un-expressed hope of administration foes. On the other hand, a jittery economic condition con-dition may create a "scare psychology" in the chambers and play into the president's hand. That was what happened in 1933 and "34. The inner White House circle isn't saying so publicly, but it is figuring strongly on history repeating itself this session. The net result of these various influences is still anybody's guess. Balance of Power The first batch of supreme court decisions revealed one very significant fact: The presence' of Justice Black has made no fundamental change in the complexion of the tribunal. Chief Justice Hughes and Justice Roberts still wield the balance of power. They determine deter-mine the slant of the court's decrees. If they side with the liberals, the result is a liberal ruling. If they line up with the conservative justices, the conservatives win. The two major decisions handed down by the court involved tax issues. In one, challenging the constitutionality of an Iowa law taxing state bonds, Hughes and Roberts voted with Justices Jus-tices Stone, Brnndeis, Cardozo and Black. This gave the liberal bloc a 6 to 3 victory. In the second case, testing the right of the government to tax bonuses paid former employes em-ployes of a reorganized corporation, the chief justice and his Philadelphia colleague held with the conservative group. This handed them the palm by 5 to 4. In new deal circles the Hughes-Roberts swing did not pass unnoticed. Under cover it again fanned into flame their smouldering bitterness against the chief justice. The new dealers credit Hughes with chief responsibility for the defeat of Roosevelt's judicial plan a score they have neither forgiven nor forgotten. Labor Expert Although Miss Frances Perkins is the government's govern-ment's No. 1 authority on unions, she was at a total loss the other day as to how to deal with employes in her own department. Telephoning an important new deal executive, she inquired excitedly, "What do you do when your employes send a committee to you to bargain bar-gain collectively?" "Why. I meet with them, of course," was the surprised reply. "You do?" "Certainly. Haven't you ever read the Wagner Wag-ner act'" NOTE Labor department workers charge that Miss Perkins is trying to dodge negotiating with them by setting up a "company union grievance committee." High Flyer To the disclosure of the commerce department's depart-ment's failure to enforce the law requiring U. S. passenger ships to install sprinkler systems, add a new revelation: For the past six months Assistant Secretary J. Moore (Rowboat) Johnson has been using an $85,000 government plane operated at a cost of 150 an hour, for his private air-taxi. The ship was acquired last year for the purpose pur-pose of making experiments with new aeronautical aero-nautical instruments. Its initial cost was $60,000 and $25,000 additional was spent for equipment. Officials of the bureau of air commerce had high hopes that the plane would enable them to test new devices and train inspectors. But their hopes have been frustrated by Johnson. This 12-place Lockheed airliner, the same type of craft used on the principal air routes of the country, has been appropriated for the personal per-sonal use of the assistant secretary. Since last April he has made 'fifteen trips to various parts of the country. He went five time to Indianapolis, twice to his home in South aCro-lina. aCro-lina. once to Rhode Island for the yacht races, and once to Yellowstone National park. Unquestionably some of JohnsorTs high-priced air touring can be claimed to have been on official offi-cial business. But there also can be no doubt that much of it was purely personal. Copyright, 1937, for The Telegram) |