Show SEEN and HEAR around he f NATIONAL CAPITAL By Carter Field fAMOUS WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT NT w William W Gibbs Sen Washington McAdoo is having pl plenty of trouble support for hIs drum up trying bill which to would exempt AmerIcan of i coastwIse ships from payment first In the e first canal tolls tofu Panama department is Treasury place the it b because rt cause to the plan opposed thedoes give lye up the does not want to g The Treasury Is having revenue enough trouble with congress S be- be because because wants to cut taxes cause that body directions and is very in various onesto onesto ones onesto any new reluctant to Impose to replace them hut But that is only part of ot the opposition opposition good many tion There are re still a representatives who senators and remember when Mr McAdoo was Panama canal tolls lobbying on this lobbying on the other her question but sidel side Wood Wood- Woodrow Woodrow Woodrow One of the first big fights of to repeal the ex- ex ex exemption row Wilson was emption of American coastwise ships from these tolls President Wilson held first that the Ule exemption violated the spirit It if not the letter ot of the Hay treaty wIth Great Britain But he also held that this granting of exemption to our coastwise shipping was wa bad economics economics eco- eco So bitter did the fight become In Involving all the then very strong anti anti- British anti BrItish feeling in this country that it left scars which were still ugly when Wilson entered on his last i fight to to ram the Versailles treaty I through the senate So high did feel teel feeling feeling I ing run that on at least one occasion only the bulk of ot Sen Henry F Ash Ash- Ashhurst hurst Ash hurst burst of Arizona thrust suddenly between two quarreling senators prevented fisticuffs right on the sen sen- sena sen- sen senate senate a ate te floor Resented Opposition Wilson to the day of his death ne never er forgave any senator or rep representative representative who ho opposed him on this Panama canal tolls issue He never made any allowance for political expedIency For Instance it was clear at the time yme ime that no senator from any of the Pacific coast states could go along alone with him and hope to survive at the next election Yet Wilson never forgave Sen George GeorgeE E Chamberlain of Oregon nor Sen Francis G Newlands of Nevada for voting as their own states demand demanded demanded demanded ed edlie edHe He lie was the more convinced of the rightness of ot his cause because I most of the Republicans on the sen senate senate senate ate foreign relations committee In Including eluding Elihu Root and Theodore E Burton went ent along with him HeI He I was the more sensitive because the I I platform on which he had been elected barely a year before the fight started pledged the Democrat is ie party specifically to continuance I of this canal tolls exemption The issue has never quite died I The platform on which Warren G Harding was elected in 1920 prom promIsed promised promised that the exemption would be I restored though no move to carry carryout carryout carryout out this promise was ever made Opponents of the point out that it would apply only to coast coast- coastwIse coastwise coastwise wise ships never to overseas shIp shipping shipping ping As coastwise shipping is barred to foreign ships there is no question involved ed of encouraging AmerIcan shipping except on the possibility that the exemption would permit the coast to coast ships to haul some freight which now goes by goesby rail raU This last argument rouses no enthusiasm in the administration today todo because of the eagerness to toI I do everything every possible to help the raIlroads in order to stimulate buy- buy j buying ing by the ra railroads roads But Mr McAdoo is now a senator from California and hence sees the problem through California glasses Whereas his devotion to Woodrow VI V Woodrow il ii Ibon is on no greater than th n when he from a liner his pair against senate approval of the World court another Wilson Issue Lynching Anti Bill Pressure for the anti lynching bill billis is not based purely on humanitarian es nor is it just gust politics Simi Similarly resIstance to the measure is not based L purely on the idea id that only ly this form torm of brutal lawlessness his lis I is the proper preventative for taro tain certain certaro types of crime Underneath the surface there is a real areal struggle 6 of far lar J Tesch reaching which has extent lynching nothing to do with lynch jag ing per se nor c a en WIth situation the crime To the South has ha been a the proposal which constant threat for tor 30 ye rs is but another form of the so called force orce bIll back bk toward the Se end of the last century The force I bIll would have hae put sUperVision of elections in the indivIdual states in the inthe handy hand of the government ment Southerners federal govern I were sure that it would mean their federal troops at atI I Ifor for the polling palling ostensIble glares on election d iy 1 purpose of mak lag Ing It Possible for vote and with the every ever negro to po purpose pose e they feared cd of ot concealed pur publican Republican providing Re majorities The by bayonets ba South beat the force torce bill by a filibuster lead by Sen Arthur Pue Gorman of Maryland The proposal was never seriously made again Mot Most of the agitation for the anti bill which originated ted in the Republican party fully Rep mep m Leonidas C Dyer St Louis oIS can was the I sponsor p of the bill ul for tor lor 5 many ses I lions alons comes from rom politicians I Ious sous anxIous to tO M favor n nAt At A curry with the Negro voters In their districts or states Whether it really days pay ays dividends in votes is a moot question Actually Mr Dyer was almost defeated bya by byI a negro Democratic opponent de I despite spite his prominence In this cause And the I Republican negro Oscar I De Dc Priest was defeated by a Demo Demo- Democratic Fratic cratic negro in Chicago who still holds the th seat To Cut State Stale Powers Power But Interested also In the tho drIve are a 11 group which believes the best Interests of the country will be served by extending federal powers Po and decreasing state powers ThIs groUP has a splendid object lesson for Its argument In the activities of the G men They point to the achievements of 01 these federal men and to the gains made In the war on automobile thefts since transporting a stolen car across a st state line would bring the federal detective agencies Into play There is a good deal to be said on both sides aides but the fact remains that while the South Is still strongly Democratic and follows the New Deal in somewhat laggardly fash fash- ion because of Its party regularity It Is still unconvinced on the old old states rights issue It wants to re retain retain tams tain state tate rights and powers though of course tt It wants its full share and anda a little bit more If it it can get It of federal spending So the th South views the anti lynch lynch- lynching ing bill with suspicion Many of the Southerners rs fighting It In the senate and house would be tickled to death to have ha hav G men go after th the leaders of ot lynching mobs mobs-it mobs it the were sure it would stop right there This does not mean that there are not some Southerners who believe b lynching is occasionally occasionally Strange necessary Maneuver A pork barrel log rolling hill in reverse is the strange maneuver which just just possibly may possibly may send the present congress down in m history as upsetting every tradition of political legislative tive bodies The possibility of ot such an extraordinary extraordinary extraordinary proceeding is occasioned by bythe bythe bythe the tremendous public demand for revamping the tax legislation so that a green light may be given business and the return of ot prosper prosper- prosperity prosperity prosperity ity It Is complicated by the fact that for or every dollar doUar of lightened tax burden on the corporations an- an another another an another other dollar doUar must be Imposed in some other form of unless taxation taxation that dollar doUar is saved by restricted spending Prediction expert Emil EmU Hurja said to some friends a few weeks back that congress would surprise every every- everybody everybody everybody body by simply refusing to grant the administration appropriations of anythIng like the volume of the last few years The former ace lieuten lieuten- lieutenant lieutenant lieutenant ant of ot James A Farley Parley was greeted wIth smiles when he made this as- as assertion assertion as assertion The smiles miles may still have been justified but there is begin begin- beginning beginning beginning ning to be a n possibility that con con- congress congress congress gress will actually do a job of budget budget budget et slashing which will wUl bring very deep pain to Harry L Hopkins Harold L Ickes to mention just two of ot the officials most in danger from the pruning knife Sen Pat Harrison chairman of the senate finance commIttee shocked his colleagues considerably the other day by hy stating that it if the strong senate bloc advocating repeal of the undistributed corporation earnings tax succeeded it would be necessary either to Impose a sales small tax or go after Incomes so that they are now exempt Harrison hastened to add that he had aiwa alwes always s opposed a sales tax and still did His main point was that It might be possible to modify but not to repeal the undistributed earn earn- earnings earnings earnings ings tax tax- For the same reason reason- that reason that the Treasury could not spare repeal of the revenue revenue-he revenue he opposed the capital stock tax Needs the tIle Money The point Is that the Treasury not only needs all aU existing revenue it Is to be needs more ir re it if the budget balanced Whereas politics as well as consideration for tor the small in- in income income in income come families makes taxing them any more highly objectionable es- es especially es especially if it the tax is to be direct so that they can see it It Which confronts congress with the only alternative as Its leaders to cut cx noW view the situation to situation to the bone This would be all aU very well wen if tf t were not that each Individual senn sena senator senator tor and representative Vi w ants to keep Treas Treasury Treasury Treasury the money flowing from the dis district district state or ury to his particular That is the traditional basIs for log rolling Senator A wants an appropriation for his state but to get forget i it h he has to agree to o vote for foro similar appropriations forthe for the states of Senators B C and D Other Otherwise Otherwise Otherwise would not vote wise these senators for his appropriation So that the only way expenditures for really be cut effectively is can reversed for reversed for this process to be re Senator A to say to his colleagues I will agree to cut the appropriations lions for my state it if you will agree to cut them in ours urs Service e Sell Bell Syndicate |