Show GOING ON IN washington congress headed straight for long extra session i many weighty problems by WILLIAM BRUCKART washington the wish of a great cumber of senators anti anil representatives to stay in ID washington at least apart a part of this coming summer Is going to be fulfilled they are headed straight into an extra session of congress and unless all signs fall it Is going to be a long drawn out affair it always has been the case that a goodly number of the national legislators prefer to stay around the capital after a futile session rather than to 0 go home and see the folks constituents have a habit of asking embarrassing barr assing questions as to why nothing was done about this that or the other so except tor for a short period between the retirement of mr hoover and the date which president elect roosevelt Roo flies fixes for the extra session representatives and senators are likely to be here on the job through much of the summer the incoming chief executive thus far has kept his own counsel about the extra session but the wiseacres wise acres among the hundreds of volunteer assistants who have tied themselves to him or have attempted to do so claim that the extra session will be called around april 20 that will give mr roosevelt Koo sevelt roughly seven weeks of the seven months honeymoon in the white house douse for which he asked during his campaign mr roosevelt was not the only one who desired to have that honeymoon period at the beginning of his administration the expressions from business leaders were of the same tenor they thought and still believe the absence of congress from washington for a while would serve as a tonic for the country by allowing business to move along undisturbed during that time heavy work ahead there Is no better way to depict what kind hind of a job confronts the extra session than to set down some of the things pressing for decision nere here are just a few of them the unbalanced federal budget with its family of related questions like taxation economies in government abolition or consolidation of government functions and the policies necessary to carry out those decisions unemployment relief with the further call for federal funds tor loans to financial houses railroads cities and states and now it Is even proposed to make loans to school districts war debts to which Is inseparably linked proposals for a world ecO economic DOMIC conference involving tariff policies economic restoration monetary standards involving valorization of sliver silver and re establishment of foreign trade inflation of the currency and its siamese twin domestic mortgages both farm and city allied with these two questions necessarily Is the question of ways and means to pull our own country out of the depression and legislation revising national banking and federal reserve laws the ile demand for immediate payment of the veterans bonus has a place in the same picture prohibition in its various phases the whole category of agricultural problems and prices of commodities and questions of production and distribution these are not mentioned in the order of their importance but they all are with us and they all must be dealt with 0 0 leftovers left overs on card ca rd no one doubts that the extra session will continue for a good many weeks there Is much to be done A considerable portion of the work to be faced results directly from democratic party pledges upon which victory was won but important as those are the things that will be left over from the present do nothing session of congress probably are equally if not more important that Is to bay the democrats have added to their burden by being unable or unwilling to formulate and pass a definite program of legislation in the current session take the question of the treas finances for example majority leader rainey of the dem socratic controlled house has abandoned any attempt to balance the budget or even take steps to do so in the short session taxes and government economies are all tied up in a neat bundle to in that one question it will not be easily solved of course it must be stated that any program which the house puts through under present conditions will be torn to tatters in the senate where an even division of membership makes direct action impossible that Is one of the reasons cited or suggested by speaker garner and mr rainey for dropping a financial program until everything Is under the control of the democrats yet such a course bously adds to the load of the extra session and there are many observers who feel also that it increases the possibility lity of democratic factional lights the rows which the democrats will have to settle will not arise in ID all legislation the tremendous majority awill will make for reasonably smooth sall sail ing tor for instance on such things as prohibition hibi bibi tion repeal and lesser legislation abut cut aben money que questions eions are up questions of taking more taxes from a I 1 tax ridden electorate the varieties of views will number at least half as great as the number dumber of representatives and senators mr roosevelt campaigned on promises is of economy tie fie proposed to the voters to do away with a truckload or so of government functions most of the democrats I 1 in congress made the same sort of arguments now however it seems as though some of them had bad their tongues in the cheeks economies are necessary judging from the argument one hears in both house and senate but make it apply to the other fellow first farm relief and banking among other things due to face the extra session are farm relief and banking legislation if the senate takes the house farm parity bill the domestic allotment plan under another name it faces a certain veto from president hoover the bill over which senator carter glass dem of virginia has worked so long and ably to revise the national banking and federal reserve laws Is going nowhere in this session so it Is easy to see what gigantic forces will be exerted against two measures which it appears mr roosevelt favors each of these bills has opposition spreading from coast to coast but it remains to be seen whether that opposition is strong enough to break the unit of democratic strength the character of the fight that Is to come over the glass banking bill has been thoroughly demonstrated by that which took place in the senate recently it Is no game at which children can play there are tremendously big bankers against it and there a goodly number of little bankers against it their objections are not to the same sections but that Is immaterial this banking legislation links licks right into the problems of domestic debts and that in turn Is tied like a knot about the use of the federal reserve system as an AD aid to economic restoration back of it all obviously are the two camps one urging inflation of the currency even to the point of abandoning the gold standard and the other group preaching sound money and retention of the gold standard this phase of the problem that will be left on mr Roosevel ts lap provides an entree lato into the picture for all of the varied patent medicine legislators who have their own plans for curing everything from the hives to an economic breakdown into this picture also Is seen the probable advent of leaders in the movement to pay the soldiers bonus immediately many of them want to pay in currency that has just come fram the government presses and with nothing behind it the domestic debt situation also gives the self appointed type of economic doctors another opportunity there are farm debts and debts of city home owners over whose heads beads mortgages bang plenty of words will rend the atmosphere about these conditions dit ions lons probably some legislation will come out of the situation centering around debts changes in the bankruptcy laws are now nov impending as I 1 explained in an earlier dispatch the consensus Is that this legislation Is moving in the right direction and that something worthwhile will eventuate that legislation however has only a very slight connection with the general farm problem it may and probably will result in help in the case of mortgages of city property but it will not deal with mortgages on farm lands those mortgages are so great that distinctive and separate consideration must be given them 0 0 complex foreign questions mr roosevelt lately has given touch much thought to the category of foreign questions too some of them are in a situation at present that lod indicates leates they are growing in complexity I 1 refer to the japanese far eastern condition particularly but there are disturbing elements in south and central america as well it can be seen without recourse to imagination that these are closely related to war debts any mention of war debts connects up at once with international ter tariff policies and mr roosevelt Is proposing some sort of an international new dew deal with respect to the high tariff walls erected in so many countries congress has said it would have nothing to do with any proposals for war debt revision but it Is going to have that subject before it whether it likes the idea or not it Is extremely improbable that there will be any revision yet it must be recalled that such ien men as senator corah borah rep lep I of idaho have said they would not be averse to a scaling down of the war debts provided they can enforce a limitation on the other nations also to cut down on their expenditures for arms and munitions of war let it not be forgotten the borah view Is gaining then too it must be recalled that senator lson of mississippi a democrat and an astute le lender sider is promoting an idea about worldwide world wide agreement on tariffs and Is seeking to enforce reduction in arms expenditures along with it IL these are all of uncertain form at present but the ideas are not without merit in the opinion of leaders everywhere ery where they must be reckoned with and in the extra session too thus thua when one studies the picture and 0 observes erves all the detail it can hardly be doubted that the extra ses seg sion Is in for a peck of trouble the nature of the problems and the conditions of the people of this nation udd and of the world preclude any evasion at western napper Nw union |