Evening star., 1924-05-12
ACID TEST AT HAND
FOR ADMINISTRATION
President, at Loggerheads With
Congress, Gets Chance 10
Show Mettle.
NUMBER OF vEToEs LIKELY
Bonus, Exclusion and Tax Reduc.
ton Vital Issues.
BY FREDERICK WILLIAM VILE

Il
BY FREDERICK WILLIAM VILE.
When Calvin Coolidge succeeded 70
the presidency nine month ago. friend
and foe alike said the "acid test OF his
craftsmanship would come when No
found himself at grips with Congress
That hour has arrived. The Presidcnt
stands at bay. On three major leeisla
| tive observation-disclosures immigration
and taxation-he and Congress are at
loggerheads. Weeks of conference auG
conciliaion have not averted a dead-
lock Congress has enacted the bomy.
is about to pass the immigration Bill
and, before the end of May, will doubt
less have adopted an anti-administra
tion taxation law. 1t is a cas- IF vctg
for Coolidge or victory for Congress
! and perhaps even victory for Congres.
| over Coolidge vetoes. The Presidents
| dilemma is acknowledged on all hands
! Universally, too, It is recognized that his
| political fate may be wrapped VI with
the manner in which he escapes from il
Experience as Governor.
AS Governor of Massachusetts Gavin
|
| legislative situations az he now face
He vetoed many bills There is said ID
be only one occasion on which his veto
was oyerridden--the salary grab" act
4 by which members of the Legislature,
| voted themselves a 50 per. cent increase
in pay Mr.. Coolidge Is reputed to have
a persuasive way of imposing his point
! of view on veto occasions, especially
when warding of treasury raids" The
factor that makes some of his support
ers think Congress will move cautously
before overriding his vetoes is tho
strength Of the President as vote
getter.
Nearly everybody on Capitol Hill
| admits that Coolidge is immeasurably
| stronger with Republican voters thar
Congress is. His primary victories
| have staggered the old political
hands in both parties. They remino
party stalwarts of the way 1T. RI
used to round UP the electorate al
the very moments, Congress was de-
| flying him the most brazenly. One
third of the Senate and all OF the
| House are to be elected in November
| Primary returns have demonstrated
Calvin Coolidge's strength with the
G. o. p. rank and file to the hardest I
! boiled politicians. Such of these as
| are now in Congress and "bucking"
i Coolidge policies will ponder deeply
| before taking the final plunge and
| passing Legislation over Coolidge
| vetoes. The Presidents veto mes
Sages, If and when they are sent,
are likely to be pretty vigorous. Sen
ators and representatives who re-
member what happened TO Moses in
New Hampshire (when he was de-
| feated for national convention dele
gate because he wasn't sufficiently
pro-Coolidge), to Pinchot in Penn
| sylvania and to Johnson in California,
may let MISREPRESENTATION be their
law. They may decide that sustain
ing Coolidge in veto is the better
part of political valor in 1924.
Situation ON Bonus.
Unoommoniy interesting political
ident. He will bath lose and gain
support whichever turning he takes
on the bonus, immigration or taxa
ton A bonus veto will anfago-
i nize the American Legion, irrespec-
tive of service mems political affilia-
tons but it will crafty tho business
community, which bankers for tax
reduction. Th, resident knows too,
that not all service men favor the
bonus Senator David A Reed, Re
publican, OF Pennsylvania is anti
bonus. A man who is always on the
side of justice for the plain man.
Senator William L. Borah- also :,
nti-bonus. There is the same kind o.
a situation with japanese exclusion
the rock on which the iminigratio.
bill. may crash as the result Of
presidential veto. A coalition ma
jority in Congress wants inlmediat
exclusion. but Coolidge knows the-
is an extremely large element in the
community that is willing 70 let hin
and Mr.. Hughes achieve exclusion II
less drastic fashion than Congr de
mandS
The California business community.
the White House believes, is with
Coolidge and Hughes on exclusion,
and not with the irreconcilabIe Cal
ifornia exclusionist group in Con
gress. The Oregon and Washington
state delegations are split on thc
exclusion arrangement, some mem
bers favoring the Coolidge Hughes
proposals.
So it is with the taxation bill. \
congressional majority has kicked
the Mellon administration program
into unrecogniZability. But the White
House is aware that there is tremen-
, dous bipartisan support for the pro
gram. Notwithstanding, and thai
thousands of votes will be made as
well as lost if the President goes
into the campaign on tax bill veto
, platform. Coolidge recognizes the
, enormous strength the Democrats
will derive from their ability to prove
that it was they, not the Republican
administration, who wrote the law
under which the ordinary man AND
woman would have their taxes
heavily reduced. The Coolidge re-
joiner to this challenge, of course,
will be that the President, too, want
ed to reduce the common peoples
tax burdens, but had to consider
the question of national revenue at
the same moment. In all probability
we shall in the 1924 campaign have
repetition of the o1d-time protec-
tion-free trade and gold-versus-silver
arguments in the form of 'taT re-
duction or Treasury deficit para
mount issue.
!,