Evening star., 1926-12-08

Calvin Coolidge. being man or 1eW
words, it Is legitimate to conclude
! that he lays paramount stress upon
those subjects to which. now ana
then, he gives verbal attention. Ihat
applies particularly to those annual
reports on 1.-THE state Of the Union"
known as presidential messages to
Congress. Measured by the yard
stick Of the language he lavishes
upon current issues, 1t Is easy to de-
duce from the communication yes
terday sent to Capitol Hill which
of them Mr.. Coolidge considers to be
out in front. Farm relief easily
comes first. To it the President de-
votes 3h of the 20 pages OF his
printed message. Economy and TAX
reduction follow with 1a pages. Ma
tional defense gets about 2 pages.
| Foreign relations also claim couple
of pages. Altogether the latest Cool
idge encyclical ranges over "a differ
ent major topics. The President Is
| a past master in disposing Of even
the biggest problems with epigram-
matte terseness. This weeks mes
sage is more than ordinarily charac-
teristic in that respect.
X X n \
The lame duck session" OF Con.
eress is always a mixture Of JOY and
sadness for its participants in both
houses. It Is heavily tinged with re-
morse for men who have been rele-
gated to private life by unapprecla-
tive constituencies, and are spending,
in most cases, their farewell seasons
in washington. Externally an atmos-
pheres Of all-pervading jollity prevailed
this week when Senators and Repre-
sentatives who hadn't seen one an
odinllrnmPnf
met again on their respective noors.
Back-slapping, elbow-greasing, glad
handing and shoulder-clasping pro-
ceeded ad libitum. Republicans, Dem
ocrats and Progressives mingled and
fraternized like the members or
college fraternity assembled Tor re-
union. After all. such scenes typify
the finer side Of American politics.
Only in rare instances are party con.
troversies, even when the dregS OF
defeat in recent elections have peen
tasted, carried into mems personal re-
lations. That is especially the situa-
tion in the Nations most exclusive
club, officially designated the Senate
of the United States.
l. X X X
Nobody in cotemporary history has
accomplished a more rapid back-1rom-
Elba performance than David lgnatlus
Walsh, Democrat, Of Massachusetts.
He bade good.by to the Senate on
March 4, 1925, and here he Is back
again, in December, 1926-an interval
Of a bare 81 months. When Smith W..
Brookhart of Iowa again adorns the
Senate scene, his return will mark an
almost equally rapid comeback. The
Hawkeye rabble-rouser. who Is a WIS.,
| itor to Washington this week, was
ousted at the end of the Winter OF
1925. He will be doing business at
the old stand in December, 1927, pro-
vided that a special session doesn't
bring him officially to Capitol Hill be-
| fore then. Once again there are two
Washes in the Senate-they. respec-
lively, of Montana and Massachusetts,.
Although there Is a pair Of Messrs.
Walsh, the list Of senatorial ladies'
will contain no Mrs. Walsh. The Mon
tanan is a widower. and the conQueror
of William M. Butler Is, apparently.
an invincible bachelor.
Not many members of Congress re-
sumo their annual duties at Washing
ton with the flattering slogan, Re
elected without opposition" attached
to their credentials. Wisconsin's two
noble Romans-Representat Hen
ry Allen Cooper and John M. Nelson,
| pillars Of the La Toilette church
have that distinction. On November
2 both Of them were returned to the
House by grateful districts in which
no rival candidates stood against
them. Mr.. Cooper was reelected to
his seventeenth term, although he did
not sit in the Sixty.sixth Congress.