Evening star., 1922-01-15
BIZ n. o. MESSENGER.
RESIDENT HARDING assemblies
the Senate and House leaders
around the dinner table at the

- the Senate and House leaders
around the dinner table at the
White House and talks over
the legislative program for the ses-
sion. Senator Mccormick. member OF
the steering committee, invites in
fuential senator's to a dinner-table
gathering to discuss the prospects OF
carrying out what the chief execu-
tive and the party leaders think
should be done. So, the conference"
idea is contagious and the motto
'1et's sit down and talk it over" be-
comes popular everywhere.
President Harding's efforts to bring
order and plan out Of the somewhat
disturbed condition Of legislation
were successful. AS result OF the
friendly conferences the President
and the Congress leaders are found
to be working in harmony and in both
legislative and administrative circles
there is said to be anickened sense
Of the necessity Of cultivating party
solidarity and adnnting a program of
constructive legislation.
X X Ax
It was about time From the coun-
try there were coming ominous rum
blines of discomfort with Consress.
which in the end mieht threaten to
envelope the administration as a
whole. with reactionary effect at the
polls in November.
The belief of the political wise ones
in Congress is that things will pick
up" for the republicans If the pro-
gram resulting from the efforts Of the
President for teamwork is promptly
carried out.
X * \ 4
Your old friend. Adjourn Con-
gress-by- midsummer bobs up as a
result of the improved legislative out
look 1t sounds good. but doubtful to
the experienced in Congress What is
most likely to result Is to aim at
midsummer adjournment and achieve
the sessions end in time to do little
campaigning and go to the polls on
election day And what is not unlike
ly is that in order to do this much
there will have to be stricter curtail-
ment of debate and many night ses-
sions. -. :
Senator Lodges proposal to add the
soldiers adjusted compensation bill
as an amendment to the bill to fund
tion. Broadly described. the susges-
tion is that the debtoI nations may
supply bonds or other securities in
lieu of their notes. the securities thus
presented to be purchased by the
American public. the cash secured to
pay the soldiers bonus.
President Harding was very in
sistent that adjusted compensation
legislation should not wait upon the
settlement Of the foreign debts. but
that the bill providing for the bonus
should carry ways and means for
meeting it.
Financial circles demanded that no
excessive form of taxation should be
authorized on top Of the burdens now
carried and that no additional issue
of government bonds made. to lessen
the market value Of the liberty bonds
now SO widely held by the public.
+
It would be regarded by the re-
publican politicians in Congress as
very advantageous to have the ad-
justed compensation bill enacted into
law before the spring primaries. 1t
IL not expected that the opposition
will delay action, as there would be
q decided degree Of unpopularity at
taching to partisan effort to hold up
the soldier legislation.
That there will be honest differ
ences Of opinion, not confined to party
lines, on the method Of meeting the
bonus Is expected as Inevitable. There
will be radical differences of judg-
ment among the financiers, as ever
when a financing or financial propo-
sition is put forward. There will be
long and learned disquisitions upon
high finance more or less understand
able by the lay public.
But there will be, In the end,
bonus bill.
Senators note with interest the
starting of an active campaign
against the so-called agricultural
bloc, which Is getting under way in
the eastern states. The bloc at
tributes it to wall street." that
dragon which turks in. the granite
canyons of lower Manhattan and be-
lieves that the louder it bellows the
stronger will the bloc become and