Show 0 a 0 q A V f washington Vas hington it nearly always happens in the second term of any president that the congress congress begins to balks show signs of asserting its own will this is perfectly natural members of the house and senate ic cognize or have recognized in the past that when a president enters onto his second tern term I 1 he has little more in the way of trading 0 to olter offer them that is to say th the e president has about exhausted political appointments and except for special pieces of legislation the chief executive cannot compensate house and senate members with political plums the new deal congress in mr Roosevel ts first term was subservient indeed it gave him everything lie he asked but now there are encouraging cou raging signs of L a more independent attitude on the part of congress I 1 use the word independent to mean that congress has begun to examine legislative proposals from the white house in the light of the viewpoint of individual representatives and senators instead of an examination solely in the light of the argument of the president the supreme court reorganization proposal brought the first sign of independence by congress this sign broke out in the senate and there are many who believe that the senate will never yield on the presidents proposal to pack the court with any additional justices of his own choosing it is possible that as we view history from say ten years hence the supreme court reorganization plan will be shown to have been the straw that broke the presidents control over a congress in which his party has more than two thirds of the members several other legislative proposals from the white house have met or are meeting real difficulties one of them that must be regarded as important is the relief fund proposition I 1 imagine that in the end the president will get the full billion and a half that he has requested for relief purposes but the controversy over relief funds is significant for instance and as an exam example ale of the undercurrent of feeling in in congress the house took a nasty slap at relief administrator harry hopkins the house did it in a way designed to make mr hopkins peevish it cut his salary as relief administrator by two thousand dollars a year now a cut from to probably is unimportant as far as the monetary affect is concerned but it was the same thing as if the house had turned mr hopkins across its knees and had given him a couple of good spanks what it does actually is to show mr hopkins that the house is still its own boss and it demonstrates as well the house has some spunk left in addition to the relief fund controversy tro versy congress is giving evidence evi also of more constructive opposition to control from the white house over all national policies for example the new faem farm bill is undergoing very critical analysis by the house agriculture committee while this measure to establish what secretary wallace calls the ever nor mal granary and to revive control over important farm groups was not sent to congress from the white house everyone understands it has white house indorsement endorsement indor house leaders accept it at least as representing the principle of AAA and therefore as being representative of the presidents ideas leaders of the farm bloc in the house are quite skeptical of the plan naturally it is too early to forecast what is going to happen on this piece of legislation but it is important to note that the house is giving close and ind independent dependent epen dent study enste instead ad of rushing the legislation through merely because the administration announced it was favorable to the proposition there is discontent in the senate also mr Roosevel ts far flung government reorganization bill has touched so many sensitive spots that some doubt actually exists whether it will get through at all even after revision the feeling in the seante on this matter is so widespread that democratic leader robinson made a statement the other day to the effect that failure of the senate to pass the bill will be no public calamity 1 if their skepticism leads to a more systematic and thorough scrutiny of this bill and other pieces of legislation it seems likely in my opinion mat some costly blunders may be avoided the trouble with congress however when it gets into the humor we now observe is follow I 1 allow that many times it bell cow coto does things the wrong way after all members of the house and senate are human and they flock together behind the bell cow if that bell cow succeeds in stirring up enough excitement take the controversy over the relief funds as a case in point it is plain that the house feels that mr roosevelt does docs not require a billiar and a half in new money for relief but the house apparently does not have the courage to take an out and out position in accordance with its conviction so it is trying to dodge the real issue by holding out for a provision in the bill that would set i aside half a billion of the total for use exclusively on permanent public works under secretary ickes as public works administrator secretary ickes and relief administrator hopkins long have been snarling at each other to get down to cases on this relief fund controversy it actually happens that the real argument is on the side of mr roosevelt either he needs the whole amount for relief or he does not and there is little sense in the house taking a run around the rosebush to cover a feeling of revenge thus the house is shown in a rather bad li liht light R ht if it has spunk enough to spank mr hopkins and ifft if it does not believe that the president needs the full amount he has requested then why does not the house approve of only a billion and stick to that position there is another phase of this house revolt on relief funds that ought to be examined I 1 mentioned earlier that the members of 0 the house and senate no longer expected political plums from the white house now they are trying to get close to the political pie counter in another manner if they can get part of the relief funds allocated for permanent public works they have their snouts in the political trough of the old pork barrel there is a natural reaction for politicians when money is to be passed out and the house has been displaying that reaction to the fullest on the relief funds the proposition simmered down is however that the time has long passed when pork barrel methods can be tolerated in congress it is not a sound principle of representative government and it is not economical on the other hand it seems to me that mr roosevelt cannot escape re responsibility for revival of the pork barrel custom throughout his first term he allowed congress plenty of pork barrel packages and now that lie he is attempting to stick through hi his sown own ideas without providing the usual sop for congress the politicians resent it 0 0 0 while the congress has been fussing and fuming over legislation in downtown wash treasury ington the treas in ii trouble ury is finding its job more and more difficult last week secretary found himself in a position where he had to go into the money market for an additional eight hun dred million dollars he offered new government bonds in that amount and from the proceeds of their sale he will have in the treasury sufficient funds to keep the government going incidentally this new loan will put the national debt almost to thirty six billion the highest point in all history the Treas latest borrowing of new money caused some surprise because it had been thought that the june 15 income tax payments would put the Treas balance sufficiently high to carry the government for another month or two notwithstanding mr roos evelti declarations that government expenses must be cut they are continuing to expand and consequently it has been necessary to borrow more money in order to keep the machinery of government operating it is impossible to discuss the latest treasury loan without linking to it the question of the administrations gold policy and it is is im impossible to mention the gold policy without relating that the united states now has more than twelve billions in gold the united states thus has approximately one half of all the gold in the world this would seem to make our nation the richest in the world but having all of this gold stock is is a very expensive proposition under the administrations gold policy no one seems to kno know w how the administration will untangle unta agle itself from the gol gold d policy it if the united states continues to maintain the present price of gold just so long will other nations ship gold to the shores of america we have seen gold entering the united states at the rate of sixteen million dollars a day for some days of course th is an abnormal rate but the importe have been so high that presently if the present pace is maintained we will have all of the gold and ftp it value will be questionable as a factor in trade from foreign sources comb com rumors that many of the banking interests abroad are perfectly will ing to unload the bulk of their gold on the united states in so doing they put themselves in a position to bargain effectively with the unit ed states whenever the time comes for world nations to discuss mone stabilization 40 western newspaper |