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Show Washington Comment j With more and more members i of congress arriving in town well in advance of the session some because they had to come early to put the kids in school, some be-, be-, cause they're bored with life "back home" and yearn for the taste of a metropolis plans for next congress con-gress are shaping up. Outstanding Outstand-ing among the predictions of ' those-whc-snould-know are these jtwo: that the next congress will ! spend at least $10,000,000,000, and that foreign relations will play the big role when the congress convenes. con-venes. The administration's de- fense program and continuing rc-: rc-: lief costs will require at least the ' gigantic sum quoted above, and iii-sy equal or surpass this year's I peace-time record of $11,361,815,-1 $11,361,815,-1 000. There have been unofficial I estimates that the armament pro-I pro-I gram will cost $1,500,000,000. Then, the recent election showing a general dissatisfaction with the crop-control program, may lead to a program of parity payments on major crops, which would entail an expenditure of about $1,000,000,- 000, which might be raised through I a processing tax. As for relief, j new appropriations will have to be forthcoming pretty soon, since almost al-most daily reductions on the relief re-lief rolls are indication that 'the appropriation of $1,425,000,000, j allotted up to March 1, 1939, are running low. This congress will undoubtedly bring to the problem of foreign relations some expert and firsthand first-hand information since so many of our senators have been travelling abroad recently. Senators Bark-ley, Bark-ley, Guffey, White, Burke, Ship-stead Ship-stead and Schwellenbach were all at the Hague as delegates to the Inter-Parliamentary Union conference confer-ence and managed a few jaunts on the side to put them in touch with the critical European situation (particularly Senator Shipstead, a member of the senate's foreign relations re-lations committee since 1923, who was in England during the Czechoslovak Cze-choslovak crises); even now, Sena-I Sena-I tors Lodge and Tydings are abroad I on vacation trips and will come back with even fresher impressions ; than the delegates. One mutually i shared conviction appears to domi-! domi-! nnte these senatorial travellers: (Continued on last page) i Washington Comment (Continued from first pagel there is practically unamimous opposition to permitting immigration immigra-tion to these shores of a horde of European refugees, and we are likely to hear some sharp opinions on the subject when congress has convened and got down to busi- ness. The other important ana highly controversial issues which are already on the fire and positively posi-tively sizzling in prepara'tion for I the new congress include such old reliables as the WPA (involved in the probe of politics in relief) ; government reorganization; labor relations; the farm act; the social ( security act, taxes, and government govern-ment spending a formidable program pro-gram and one calculated to make a conscientious congressman earn his salt I President Roosevelt's announce- ment that he is giving to the United States his huge collection of public papers, documents, books, and correspondence for the last 2S years, to be housed on his Hyde Park estate when he leaves the White House (the Hyde Park place undoubtedly to become the property pro-perty of the nation at his death) :'has brought cries of delight from historians hereabouts. His gesture will fill a long-felt need. The papers of almost all the other presidents, which would have filled . .. many gaps and illuminated many passages in our national history, have been scattered to the four winds. Some were given to friends; some, left to presidents' widows, were not preserved, or, if turned over to libraries, suffered considerable consider-able editing. Private and public papers, valualble to historians, left by John Adams and John Quincy Adams, are locked in a family vault in Boston and are not 4 available. Former President loov-- y er had his huge collection shipped to California and guards them closely. Mr. Roosevelt's donation to posterity will include, besides his own official papers, his private collections of paintings, drawings, prints, manuscript letters and documents, loghooks and pamphlets pamph-lets relating to the American navy from 1775 to date. This navy collection col-lection is regarded generally as second only to that of the navy (department itself. Contributions from cabinet members and other prominent administration figures have been sclicited hy the president presi-dent to complete the data. |