| Show SEEN HEARD around tho national capital 1 by CARTER washington senator joe robinsons warning that the stock exchange ch ange regulation bill would not pass this session unless it was got in speedily which caused such happiness in wall street and such rage among the forward lookers among the presidential advisers gives promise or of ranking among the historic bulls of the year it may not be so far reaching in actual effects as the comment of A J S weaver head of the sugar section of AAA that there was no use trying to save bave the domestic sugar industry but it was more spectacular and will for certain other reasons be longer remembered except among those directly interested in sugar the point Is that the warning was actually an invitation to senators who want this or that piece of pending legislation killed to filibuster they jumped at once to the conclusion that robinsons words meant the president was desperately anxious for an adjournment journ ment of congress by the date robinson specified may 15 they took the tip therefore that if the leaders find out t there here Is going to be a tremendous amount of oratory against any measure enough to delay adjournment they will pigeonhole that particular measure until next sess session luiL then there may be other fish to fry but robinson Is in a hot spot he wants terribly to be a justice of the supreme court of the united states and he has a fair chance of having that ambition gratified the president has given him more than a hint that he be la Is willing to give him this honor when the next vacancy occurs further the next vacancy Is right there justice Mc of tennessee has notified the president privately that he wishes to retire he Is eligible to retirement and he Is though this did not develop publicly far from being in sympathy with the present course of things lie ile has been in the conservative minority on every important decision notably the decision on the minnesota mortgage moratorium law and that on the new york milk price fixing law eyes supreme court prior to the first of these decisions there had bad been considerable concern in administration circles about the progressive versus conservative division of the high court the brain trust seriously contemplated having congress enlarge the court object to have two more progressives progress ives lyes appointed but chief justice hughes seems to have definitely moved to the liberal bide aide as aa a result of which there are now five progress progressives ives and four conservatives serva tives so go the proposal to enlarge the court was abandoned but the forward lookers are determined to enlarge that majority the first time a conservative retires there lies the rub joe robinson has always been regarded as a conservative serva tive in his capacity as democratic leader of the senate however he has sponsored or supported every roosevelt piece of legislation no matter how radical hence they have become one might eay any a part of his creed which would make the brain tr usters willing to accept him perhaps it a bit grudgingly as all right tor for the high court hence a statement on the floor which might have the effect of postponing for a year enactment of the stock exchange regulation bill so BO dear to the radical heart and for that matter a part of the democratic platform was not calculated to smooth robinsons path to the high court especially as the president within two days had to reassure rens sure the press that he still wanted the bill and actually throw out a warning that it just might become necessary to keep congress in session longer than he had desired in order to obtain that objective I 1 robinson has one element of strength which may stand him in good stead however there la Is no doubt whatever that the senate would confirm him and without delay also there Is no doubt he would approve as a jurist all of the program he had a hand in putting through new nev tariff bill attacked as another step toward a dictatorship and defended as an absolute necessity to protect america from the sudden whims of foreign governments ern ments which have power to matee make quick changes in their tariff ird and other restrictions on imports the presidents new tariff bill seems huely of enactment as this Is written despite strenuous fights for certain amendments the president insists it Is strictly an emergency measure the wo word rd emergency does not appear in the bill ball so administration spokesmen on capitol hill may be embarrassed to oppose an amendment writing it in the feature providing for reciprocal trade agreements virtually little reciprocity cip elp rocity treaties save eave that they will not r require ratification by the senate had been generally discounted for a long time it was one of the phases of the presidents plan for encouraging a revival of foreign trade in general and american exports in particular cular the part of the bill permitting the president to raise or lower duties t to 0 the t e extent of CO 50 per cent ceni without agreement or consultation la is piece of another picture it Is designed of course to give the president dent power to meet the quick and sometimes very annoying shifts of import restrictions of other countries to alto puta weapon in his alg hands calculated to prevent such octlona hurting american exports obviously to walt wait for action by congress to meet such a situation Is unthinkable after congress had time to think the tha situation over its actual surprise though not openly expressed to any extent was that the president asked tor as little as he did why lie be so some me of them are asking ask tor for unlimited powers to change tariffs and not subject himself to tho the same bamo BO 60 per cent restriction under which hi he and the tariff commission have been working A restriction which also prevents tampering with the free list either by additions or subtractions good talking point government by executive order to 19 a good talking point for the critics however and they have been going to it the fact remains that thai there la Is a lot of sentiment for giving the prest dent a weapon to lilt hit prance france in particular ti and any other nations which occasionally cramp our exporters by sudden changes and also that thero there ts is quite a bit of sentiment for the proposed reciprocal treaties in facts fact so many critics of the wallace AAA system of handling agricultural surpluses have committed themselves on the tha peek peck side aide of encouraging exports that thai it Is a little difficult for some of them to backtrack back track little as they may like to give the president this additional power also the president has a good case in the practical workings of the very idea he be has used in backing this plan theoretically at least in the liquor quotas he obtained some very quick concessions when certain nations indulged in their recently developed pastime of hamstringing ham stringing american exporters without warning actually critics point out this la Is by no means proof the president will have hare nothing else to offer as juicy as liquor quotas they contend and certainly nothing else which will not produce a roar from local industry which might be embarrassing politically liquor production tremendous production capacity of the distilled liquor industry Is giving some concern to the administration distilleries already in oper operation atLon fire are producing far more than the highest estimates of consumption ever made in addition new distilleries are being rushed up which will augment that promise of a surplus which cannot be sold at a profit when the liquor Is ready for the market the situation Is brought about of course by the fact that there Is not nearly enough good whisky at the moment and no prospect of enough to sum supply ly the demand tor for some time to come but that time la is coming and it spells trouble for the distilling industry when it arrives ves some gome 86 80 distilleries have already been Ileen licensed sed official estimates of their capacity Is proof gallons a day the term proof gallon always used by the government in computing taxes means liquor containing just 50 per cent alcohol actually of course much distilled liquor has always contained less and very little has baa contained more so the figures are very conservative but to this present capacity must bo be added plants building and in prospect if their estimated capacity la Is added the total becomes proof proda gallons instead of a dayt day I 1 the point of course Is how does this compare with probable consumption estimates of this have run around proof gallons a year but the treasury department in making its estimates for tax purposes has figured proof gallons gallong of domestic production plus gallons of imported liquor exceeds Estinia estimates tes which indicates that the present capacity alone exceeds the treasury estimates for consumption by just per cent while the total production it if all the plants now seeking licenses are added will exceed the total consumption by four times not allowing for any volume of imported liquor at alit all discounting this slightly though certainly not enough to arouse enthusiasm about starting new distilleries Is the fact that the treasury has haa probably been conservative in figuring revenues it may well be that the he actual consumption of legal liquor will be much greuter greater than the experts in the treasury have calculated but not not indeed unless the treasury experts made the biggest of till all their history in figuring revenues in advance in addition there Is no guarantee that the percentage of imported liquor will not greatly exceed that being calculated at the moment at present for instance the import duty on buquor Is 5 it a gallon this being on top of nil all taxes which domestic liquor has to pay this 5 a gallon tax for instance does not exempt the imported liquor from the governments 2 a gal lon ion tax on domestic liquor nor from any of the local taxes nor other federal taxes in other words there la Is a charge of for every quart orl for every fifth most imported liquor being sold in fifths on scotch or irish or canadian or on french brandy or jamaica rum in addition to the charges for domestic liquor but this Is not apt to endure I 1 it Is quite probable that the tariff on imported liquor will be reduced it la is being advocated to increase total revenue and to encourage american ex ev ports of other bip krisht W arto |
