Show 0 a v washington president Ident roosevelt Koo sevelt has told congress that lie ho wants it to finish its labors rind ani expect adjourn in short long session order lie ho has hag fl figured that about three months ought to give the members sufficient time to mull over the problems problem that confront I 1 them hem and that they then should return to their several homes cat but the president Is doomed to disappointment if lie he sincerely believes that he be can get congress out ot of the capital by the end of starch march the best guest right now Is that the congress will be in session st at least four months and it Is well within uie the range or of possibilities bili ties that it will remain in session almost to the time of the national conventions there are it number of factors that flint make realization of 0 the presidents early adjournment wish impossible of realization probably the most influential of these Is the fact tant tills this is ft a campaign year every member of the house and one third of the senate along with sir mr roosevelt himself are affected by the election date and polities politics must have its turn every four years this same condition obtains and every four years politicians do about the same things in furtherance of file their own political interests the bulk of the legislation to be considered has its political tinge politics oven even creep into the annual appropriation bills and usually the result Is a swelling of the totals in order that some gears of 0 individual political machines nay may he be oiled just a bit for smooth running in the campaign while the abe appropriation bills are am in from a political standpoint their weight in this session of congress sinks rather lelow par because there are such things as the bonus for the world war veterans the townsend old age pension plin various new deal reform measures and such replacement legislation as may be necessary since the supreme court kicked over new deal propositions like the agricultural adjustment act with its processing taxes and sundry other schemes however the roosevelt leaders in congress may desire to net the machinery of legislation can be run only so fast in an election year 0 0 0 one of the chief reasons why a congressional session in an election year drags on longer than seek usual Is because of publicity the publicity value the sessions have for individual representatives and senators members of congress discovered a hundred years ago that yie vie chambers of the house and senate constituted splendid sounding boards for the tion alon of political views there has beben increasing use of this potentiality as the ienus years have gone by until now the older members of the house and senate have become very adept in capitalizing on abis factor it takes no stretch of the imagination to discover that a senator or representative speaking from the floor of his respective ci chamber amber gets much more publicity than his opponent back home who talks only as a private citizen it la 13 perfectly natural therefore that those members seeking reelection election re want to take full advantage of the publicity vehicle available to them in washington the we use of this publicity weapon Is available to opponents of the new deal as well as to its supporters while the approaching election may be expected to knit the house democrats more closely into a unified front tor for the november election the tame same condition Is not true in the senate in that body there are a number of old line democrats who do not like tha new deal and who are going to utilize every available opportunity to make their record as democrats as complete as it Is possible to do before they must speak to the home fols folks in ID person it Is obvious that such men as senator carter glass class of virginia cannot desert the democratic ticket and run fer reelection election re independently so it Is to be 1 expected that men of this type will establish for themselves a comprehensive outline of their political beliefs belief as democrats while distinguishing their position from that known na as the new deal they must look to the future fluture when according to all indications they feel the party machinery will again be controlled by the jeffersonian Jeffers onlan type of democrat instead of by the reform type of democrat headed by men and women with the new deal outlook an additional additional factor operating in the senate Is the presence presence of two ican presidential pos two more in the per factors sons of lt senator william koran borah of idaho and arthur 11 of michigan senator borah Is actively seeking pledged delegates to the republican national convention senator denber says gays he be Is not a candidate but the well known bee Is buzzing buzzan around and there are many observers who think that senator Is hoping that in case ot or a convention stalemate the assembled delegates may riot and turn to him as the no nominee mince such a condition means as it bs has s met meant before that these two men will desire to see all of the political issues alred aired in congressional debates dc batea it Is I 1 only natural and lo 10 logical cical its as well that the lie republican minority in the house and senate will seek to foment asi as much debate as possible in order to obtain a record of what the majority party thinks or proposes to do it if returned to power in all respects the session will be the most political politic nl therefore since sir roosevelt took office ilia 1118 presidential message on the state of the union already Is being kicked back end and forth and picked to pieces in the preliminary camp campaign alga gunfire there Is simply no way by which tills this situation can be avol avoided ded the opening of congress was wag the opening of the 1030 campaign in an earlier letter I 1 reported to you concerning the question of a neutrality policy anti anil congress declared at that time may alay stall that it was as the most important item to come before the current session it remains so go I 1 believe the situation Is even more delicate than in my earlier of tills this problem and it may well be that congress will stall along in reaching a decision slon on this policy in order to give foreign developments an opportunity to manifest themselves fur ther the administration apparently la Is willing to let congress work out the legislation without much interference but the leaders realize that a decision will be difficult as long ong as foreign maneuvers continue to present an almost dally daily aban change e in the scenery reference Is made to the neutrality question here because it Is one of the things s entering into the combination that will cause a longer session than the president ident wishes there teems to be no doubt that passage 04 0 a bill to pay the soldiers bonus at an early date will be accomplished in this session likewise there Is hardly the shadow of a doubt that it if congress passes such legislation and mr roosevelt vetoes it tho the bill will be passed over the veto it Is a campaign year and A Is not a good time for politicians to antagonize an organization with the vast membership of the american legion or the other groups of es service men this legis lation lallon will not contribute much to the length of the session but in all such cases representatives and senators must make their speeches and be on record as to why they voted for 0 against a bill the townsend plan cannot get anywhere in the current session I 1 do not dot mean that it will be dodged as a subject of discussion this Is impossible there will be plenty of debate on it in the end however it will be sidetracked then there was a flock of 0 inflationary schemes due to horn in on the parade as the session moves forward farm mortgage re financing Is one of them it Is that the in those who are willing to prostitute the currency in any manner are leading in this fight a 0 in all probability also the current session of congress will be called upon to meet some waiting lems ams resulting from decisions adverse decisions by the supreme court of the he united states the court hai hag before it any number of cases involving new deal policies including such as the AAA the TVA with its tennessee valley power yardstick the attempt to regulate wages and hours of labor under the burfey coal bill known as the little NKA end and a halt half dozen othar policy propositions it seems unlikely although no one can guess that all of the these measures will be held constitutional it if any are held invalid naturally the president ident will ask cengr congress I 1 ess to draft new legislation As a sample of file lie political aspect of the current session one can sight the furor that was stirred up when president roosevelt delivered his massage on the state of the union to a night session of congress except for one instance presidents always have delivered or sent their message to congress at noon of a day aft after erthe alie session lias mr boosel vent chose to get his messa message 0 to congress on the very first day of the current session but in order to do it and allow for consummation of the usual routine of the opening day it was necessary to hold bold a joint session at night the white house announcement of this decision immediately precipitated a biting demand from henry P fletcher republican national chal chairman mr fletcher charged that since the presidents speech was being delivered out of hours and was being broa broil least to potentially the greatest radio audience ever to listen to n presidential message of this kind the broaden broadcasting companies must agree to allocate time for the republicans to answer it the republican chairman assorted asserted that the message was reduced to the common level of a political speech and so he demanded for the opposition the right to analyze it from the opposition standpoint through the same number of radio stat stations ioni and tt to potentially the same radio audience 0 western newspaper Now paper union |