Show weekly beekly VV news analysis fanti anti administration congress hangs up paradoxical record by joseph W la bine EDITORS NOTE when opinions ui are expressed in in these columns they r th those se of the sews news analyst and not necessarily of the newspaper CONGRESS ggs oy ipse apse Loqui loquitur tur ait it speaks for itself said frank lin roosevelt in latin after the house refused on roll call to pass his biu bill expanding lending power to both house and senate he forwarded my good wishes tor for a pleasant vacation then he bundled up some last minute bills and left for hyde park while his loyal friend from florida sen claude pepper was holding up adjournment by denouncing the un w Z PEPPER willing to scuttle jeopardize righteous partnership democratic gi 0 P coalition of those who have been willing to scuttle the American government and jeopardize the peace of the world because they hate roosevelt and what roosevelt stands for but when the first session of the seventy sixth congress was safely packed away observers meditated on its record A rebellious anti white house gang had nevertheless appropriated the record shattering peacetime total of see chart including a last minute farm loan fund tor for the sake of quick adjournment appropriations tabulated relief 1 relief supplemental relief first deficiency 1 independent ade p eident offices legislative establishments treasury post office military establishment war department supplemental war department part ment nonmilitary navy department second deficiency agriculture and farm credit interior department district ot of columbia department ot of labor state justice commerce sit departments permanents ait deficiency lency deficiency permanents and indeli total observers also examined the piece by piece record of legislation and found franklin Roosevel ts early session victories almost offset his late session defeats though they knew no switch back to the sentiment of last january is in prospect white house victories congress was not all bad to the president the senate confirmed all but 10 of his appoint appointees ies including new cealish supreme court justices frankfurter and douglas equally new cealish commerce secretary hopkins and attorney general murphy passed were his unprecedented peacetime peace time defense program intact except for guam fortification modified governmental reorganization which will save about a year and his 1940 relief program laden with restrictions continued were his gold content devala when a permanently anti admin adain congress meets again next winter the record aaion power and his currency stabilization fund white house defeats vivid in retrospect they include 1 his 3 spend lend plan emasculated by the senate killed by the house 2 his housing expansion bill 3 neutrality revision on which much of the nation agreed with him 4 a 1939 relief deficiency appropriation of 5 rejection by the senate of f two appointees virginias floyd roberts as federal judge and nevadas william boyle as U S attorney tor for nevada and withdrawal of two more whose rejection was imminent ins thomas amlie appointee and donald wakefield smith NLRB appointee 6 refusal to hike debt limit above but long term bond ceiling was raised other legislative moves some minor new deal victories other minor NS LURS 29 appropriation RECORD up in an anti new deal year defeats but only one hatch bill carrying important political implications house approval over white house objection jec tion of to probe NLRB abolition with apparent white house approval of undistributed profits tax in business appeasement tax revision bill bill also provided reciprocal taxation of federal and state employees fl postponement to next term of badly needed railroad aid legislation one of the sessions greatest failures 0 only aly move in this direction approval of voluntary rail debt adjustment without necessitating bankruptcy 41 C postponement of much debated revision of 1 farm program 2 wagner labor relations act and 3 wage hour act 41 fl defeat of townsend a month pension bill and passage of far reaching social security amendments which freeze old age annuity pay roll taxes at 1 per cent for next three years extend coverage to more people and liberalize benefit payments 0 L passage of hatch clean politics bill received coldly by white house because it eliminates much of the administration machine from campaign which proscribes political activities of all except top bracket federal jobholders 0 L refusal to revive florida ship canal a white house proposal C continuation over white house objection of dies committee on un amerl lantsm which was called a forum of i disgruntled politicians summer sessions by custom each pre election year brings its quota of congressional investigations while most weary senators and representatives were heading back home a larger than usual group of seekers after the truth remained in washington for postgraduate post graduate work among them 1 a house committee to study the national labor relations board 2 a house committee to study proposed changes in the tax structure 3 rep martin dies far famed committee on un american activities 4 sen joseph oma honeys monopoly committee 5 a house merchant marine committee investigating alaskan fishing conditions up for last minute consideration were many others including a new appropriation for the lafollette civil liberties committee a committee to investigate the status of allens aliens another to survey the condition of american indians indian S POLITICS truths open for public inspection this month are two great pertinent political truths 1 that the right kind of publicity can turn a third rater into a first rate presidential candidate almost overnight 2 that today as always public sentiment is sufficiently pliable to make room for any new face that may pop up the conclusion n s first that presidential campaigns are largely a matter of smart public r relations e I 1 a t I 1 0 n s P work second that thai election is not in the bag tor for PAUL mcnutt any man going up cause of this excitement is paul V mcnutt who popped li back ack from the philippines two months ago got his handsome picture in the papers was called a charming young man by president roosevelt then ended up by getting himself named federal security administrator from here he may develop into the presidents crown prince in june je candidate mcnutt ranked fifth among democratic hopefuls as tabulated by highly accurate gallup polls in order garner 47 per cent parley farley 16 hull 12 hopkins 5 mcnutt 3 six weeks after his federal appointment paul man mcnutt had jumped to second place jack garner still well in the lead suffered a mite the standings garner 46 per cent mcnutt 13 hull 12 farley 12 hopkins 3 other political news chios sen robert alphonso Alp bonso taft bad trailer in G 0 P gallup polls became the first to toss his hat in the ring while finding his senatorial office interesting candidate taft magnanimously nani agreed not to run away ay from a harder job LOUISIANA hot oil reaped heaped atop several score other indictments facing prominent louis was a federal charge against former gov richard leche whose feet had heretofore been kept clear of the muck surrounding state officialdom ci the indictment charging leche politician seymour weiss and freeman burford texas oil man with stepping up production of rodessa oil wells and running the contraband or hot oil over into texas violating the connally act agriculture barter forgotten by surplus ridden U S lard producers is the humorous situation several years ago when they bartered lard tor for german machinery finding themselves holding several thousand musical but useless harmonicas harmo nicas today germany still needs lard for which she will pay 60 per cent above the present do bestic price of 5 to 5 cents a pound contrary to the state departments reciprocal trade program is the barter plan producers would now institute rebuffed by secretary of state Cordell Hull producers and german barter emissaries turned to the treasury department where undersecretary john W hanes agreed to a hearing the plan which obviously seeks legal circumvention of very definite foreign trade regulations is something like this U S packers having arranged a transaction in germany would sell lard to an american importing firm which would trade it to private german buyers tor for aski marks usable only in that country the importer would then purchase german products now on the U S free list paying in germany money about one fourth what he would pay elsewhere products turned over to lard producers here would be largely of farm nature machinery cream separators and fertilizer hanging on the fringes of this plan were U S cotton interests h hoping g german barter might also be a solution for the cottonseed oil surplus problem while the state department part ment fumed secretary of agriculture ri henry A wallace decided to alleviate the trouble somewhat by placing both lard and cottonseed oil on the federal surplus commodity corporations food stamp plan international chess game for two months jittery france and britain have forecast another crisis in august or september As august was born it indeed looked like a crisis in which japan had become of great nuisance value to adolf hitler and benito mussolini what bothered americans was that their own nation seemed being drawn into this chess game as a result of justified U S retaliation against insults in the far east at italis lake como was played the key move in this game there met toshio Shira torl japanese ambassador bas to rome and gen matahiko ambassador to berlin their purpose to perfect a military alliance binding japan za ma 4 z Z ambassador he vowed hara kiri with italy and germany it if it tailed failed said their friends the ambassadors had vowed to commit hara kirl kiri suicide by disembowelment simultaneously neou sly at tokyo youngish army leaders began a drive to purge toes foes of the military alliance meanwhile there was every indication these three powers were doing their best to confuse and frighten not only france britain and russia who opened joint military conferences feren ces in moscow but also the U S sharp on the heels of U S abrogation of the jap trade treaty had come anti american and anti british demonstrations in china jap airships destroyed two yangtze river steamers at a mob destroyed offices of the british international export corporation with democracies attention shifted away from europe for the moment the axis exerted pressure on spain and the balkan states dragging them into line should europe become embroiled in war while washington tried desperately to remain aloof prime minister chamberlain told the house of commons he might have to senda send a powerful fleet et to asia more interesting to americans however was the proposal of laborite john morgan that british and american asiatic fleets be combined under a U S admiral to keep order in the orient said he 1 I would regard it as a first farst class move RACES one way out since last march thousands of czecho czechoslovakian slovakian jews have fled to the U S on visitors permits their ameir property confiscated their only hope lying in refuge on some distant land sometimes even this hope is futile within two d days ays the U S had this problem brought shockingly to mind twice 6 in chicago 43 year old mrs adele langer wife of a czech jew whose textile mills had been confiscated fisca ted took quarters in a loop hotel with her two sons six and tour four late that night she threw her sons from the thirteenth floor window slashed her wrists and jumped C in new york german refugee albert aaron whose wife died two weeks earlier from an overdose ot of sleeping tablets hung himself from his apartment door |