Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-02-04
TRADING IS BRISK
ON CAPITOL HILL
Many Moves Seen to Substi-
tute Compromise for
StubbornneSs.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

| Never has there been in recent
! years SO much talk in the corridors
/ of Congress of Legislative trades ana
| deals. Possibly it's because the SEES
| sion is bound to end March 4, and
| unless compromise is substituted for
stubbornness virtually nothing con-
| structiye can be done.
But the number of bills that are
| getting a place on the calendar is off,
set by those which are being side
| tracked. For example, the President s
recommendation that coal regulation
be instituted, so that the Govern
ment may use its influence to prevent
~oal strikes, is practically shelVed Tor
the session And the rumors are that
the advocates OF the McNary- Haugen
bill went to the group who wanted
zeal legislation killed and persuaded
hem TO help the farm relief bill, in
exc hange for which the coal pro-
n ais would not be pushed.
Tie trade that was made in the
Senate to get the farm relief voted
o. did not have in it any pledges
with reference to the actual support
or opposition to specific measures.
But the agreement has been carried
out in one of the most curious ways
that legislation has ever been ad-
vanced. The men behind the Nc
Fadden branch banking bill were
convinced that nothing they could
do could prevent the passage of the
McNary Haugen bill if 1t ever came
to vote.
Seems Sure of Majority.
They also saw that the McNary-
Haugen bill sponsors would deliber-
ately prevent the passage of the all
important branch banking bill. How
ever when the Senate voted Sc to Il
to make the farm relief bill the UNI
finished business this does not mean
that Sc votes will be cast for the
measure itself 1t seems certain,
though. that the bill will command
a majority.
This very fact had a good deal to
do with the attitude of the champions
of the McFadden banking bill. They
do not regard it as the vicious measure
from an economic viewpoint that the
original McNary-Haugen bill was sup
posed to be. In other words, some of
the men who will vote against the
measure on principle are willing to
see some farm relief plan tried out
land the agitation ended temporarily
at least. Had the McNary- Haugen bill
contained provisions which were dis
aStrOuS IN an economic sense, the
usual filibustering tactics would have
been employed and the McFadden
bills chances for passage at this ses-
sion forfeited.
Many Views on Banking.
So far as the farm group is con-
cerned 1t had no real interest in pre-
venting the branch banking measure
from going through. There are all
sorts of viewpoints on the branch
banking problem. but here, too, the
farm bloc was ready to let the legisla-
ton go through and an experiment be
started on the new plan.
In some cases the McFadden bill
enlarges the powers of national banks
to an extent that will be welcomed by
them, though it does put them some
what in competition with trust COM
paTies on real estate loans, which
hitherto could be made for a year, and
now can be made for at least a three
year period. A limitation is placed on
the amount of capital that can be
used for real estate loans, but the
present provisions have not been con-
sidered helpful, and it is contended the
national banks will have greater in
centive to lend their money in this
respect than heretofore.
There has been talk of legislative
trade on the Boulder Dam bill in the
House, but the interests are so COM
plicated that it was said to have been
abandoned, although a last-minute re-
vival of the effort to get the Boulder
Dam proposal through the House this
time may yet be made.
tCopyright. 1927