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Show Washington; i Comment I The traditional conviction that when the president turns his back on congress for a brief vacation, nothing constructive is accon'.-plished accon'.-plished (or else something undesirable, unde-sirable, from the chief executive's viewpoint) is due for an upset,, because Mr. Roosevelt returns from his fishing trip to find the legislative situation greatly improved. im-proved. For one thing, the status' of the wage-hour bill is infinitely better; it has been wrested at last . from the rules committee, its passage pas-sage in the house is possible, ancc the senate's threat of a filibuster against it has practically vanish- . ed. The recovery program, said" , to be certain of passage in the house, will have to buck only 10 hours of debate; the new deal still has Senator Pepper, its ardent supporter, by grace of the Florida ; primary last week. So, Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt must be considerably cheered by the picture that greets him on his return to .the White House, and thus will likely be encouraged , to more frequent and longer va- , cations. The main problem now is I to get the congressmen back home in time to do some plain and fancy campaigning. Prospects for 'adjournment 'ad-journment by June 1 are pretty slim, because the wage-hour bi'.l cannot possibly reach the house j floor until May 23 and time out for fireworks in both chambers must be considered in optimistic. I predictions to end the session . . . This vacation-during-business idea is evidently "catching". Now its congress that has taken to traveling travel-ing and (of all things!) at its own expense. Two hundred members with their wives went to Charles-', ton a couple of weeks ago to see the azaleas (all expenses paid); but this time, a jaunt is being planned to Boston and it's going to cost the legislative gentlemen (Continued on last page) Washington Commert (Continued from first page) ?25 each for a four-day trip. Thi 1 party will help to launch ihe destroyers de-stroyers "Mayrant" and "Trippe- . iQloam note of 'tie week was Work Progress Administrator ; Harry Hopkins' relief picture foi the next fiscal year. IhrougJi 'his testimony before a house appropriations appro-priations sub-committee, it appears ap-pears that the government musi pay out the staggering sum of 3,- i 000,000,000 for relief of the na-! tion's jobless; this is three times the president's budget estimate. I The probaible deficit for the year I starting July 1 will be $3,722,000,-000, $3,722,000,-000, according to the acting budget budg-et director, Daniel W. Beil; the deficit for this fiscal year ending June 30 will be about "$1,250,000,-000, "$1,250,000,-000, in the estimate of this same authority. The only hope for less deficit next year lies in the possibility pos-sibility that the public works administration ad-ministration may not withdraw from the treasurv a full $1,000,-000,000! $1,000,-000,000! The international situation has had Washington hostesses distracted dis-tracted for a long time; the problem prob-lem of what envoys to invite to which party when whose counti, is fighting whose, sometimes assumes as-sumes hair-tearing proportions. One has to be velly velly careful about these delicate diplomatic things 1 But this time it was the diplomats turn to edit a guest list The German ambassador planned a dinner to honor Dr. Hugo Ecke-ner, Ecke-ner, German dirigible expert, ami what with the furore aibout the sale of helium, it must have have been a problem to get .together) just the right group of guests. For one thing, Secretary Ickes. who is holding up the helium sale j was omitted from the list. A group of senators, most of whom' are connected indirectly with ; granting permits for the sale ot helium were invited, and, ot course Sumner Welles, undersecretary under-secretary of state. Apropos of war in foreign lands it is estimated thai, following Mr. Roosevelt's appeal for a $1,000,-000 $1,000,-000 fund for relief of civilia,. victims of war in China, the amount contributed by individuals, churches and other groups including in-cluding $100,000 appropriated b'J the American Red Cross in April, has now reached the total of $1,-539,000. $1,-539,000. And still apropos oi' foreign affairs, the United States has recovered $1,700,000 of $3,-600,000,000 $3,-600,000,000 in foreign trade, lost since 1 ! 3 2 , largely through 16 reciprocal re-ciprocal agreements with oCher nations. This statement was vouched for by the vice chairman of the itariff commission, Henry F. Grady, at the spring meeting of 'the American Trade association last week. |