Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-04
ROTH SENATE AND HOUSE
STRONGLY REPUBLICAN
President Hoover Takes Office With
Friendly Majorities Controlling
Votes i'm Both Houses.

be able to report bill as early as April
l is still question.
Indications from the hearings before
the House committee are that there
will be a general demand for consid-
cradle increases in tariff rates. One OF
Mr.. Hoover'S jobs as President will be
to put the brakes on and to prevent
an Unfortunately high tariff. 1t has been
generally understood that one of the
principal features in the farm program
of the new administration was a re-
vision of the tariff duties on farm
products upward. 1t is expected that
the farmers will have the benefit OF
considerably increased duties. Amer1-
can manufacturers will not permit this
opportunity of demanding more pro-
lection to pass in silence, however.
Other administrations have suffered
in the past because of tariff reviStons.
This was the case in 1909, when the
Payne Aldrich tariff act was put
through soon after William Howard
Taft became President. 1t is expected
that President Hoover will seek TO avoid
the embarrassment which might come
to him at the beginning Of his admin
istration from the passage of an I'M
wise tariff bill.
Not all will be plain sailing when the
new Congress gets down to work. The
Democrats will naturally seek to en-
barrass the new administration when IL
can and to make political capital for
the congressional election which comes
next year. There is also the question
how long the Republican Progressiyes
in the Senate will trot along with the
administration. While it is true that
some of the Senate and Progressives
look upon Mr.. Hoover as more pro-
gressive than any President that has
entered the White House in long time.
along progressive lines as they desire
him to do.
Appointments in Senate Today.
President Hoover may have an OPP
portunity to test the temper of the
Senate Immediately. His list Of ap-
pointments to the cabinet goes to the
Senate today The Senate has been
called into special executive session to
receive such communications as the
President may desire to send to the
upper house The call for the special
session of the Senate was issued some
weeks ago by President Calvin Coolidge
It was obvious that President Hoover
would not be In a position to call the
Senate together until after he took the
oath of office today. and action by the
retiring President was necessary.
In the past 1t has been held that
President of the United States was en-
titled to select any one he desired to
form his immediate official family-the
heads of the executive departments of
the Government. who together compose
the Presidents cabinet. The confirma-
ton of their nominations came as a
matter of course at the hands Of the
70
the Senate has been inclined to
scrutinize the appointments Of cabinet
officers more carefully.
Challenged in Past.
Some of the appointments have been
squarely challenged by the Senate. One
during the Coolidge administration was
fatty turned down-the appointment of
Charles Beecher Warren of Michigan to
be Attorney General Mr.. Warren was
recognized as an outstanding lawyer.
He had been prominent in councils of
the Republican party and served for
years as Republican national committee
man from Michigan. But it was
charged in the Senate that Mr.. Warren
had represented certain interests IN
yolyed in cases either likely to come into
the Federal courts for trial or already
slated for trial.. and also that he was
an owner Of stock In corporations so
involved. When the vote on his nominal
ton was taken it was a tie, and Vice
President Dawes was absent from the
chamber and did not return until the
vote had been announced. Had he been
present and voted for confirmation, as
he would have done, Mr.. Warren would
have been confirmed. As it was the
Senate on a tie vote, rejected his
nomination.
Whether any of Mr.. Hoover's ap-
pointees will face so serious an ordeal
remains to be seen. It is not necessary
under the law to send to the Senate
the appointment Of any cabinet officer
who may be a holdover from. the pre-
ceding administration, as, for example,
Secretary Mellon-except when a Post
master General Is reappointed who has
served full term Of four years. The
law compels the resubmission Of the
name Of Postmaster General. for his
term Is specifically fixed at four years
by law. Threats have been made to
fight the reappointment of Secretary
Mellon. but Mr.. Hoover is not compelled
to send his name to the Senate. Presi-
dent Coolidge did not resubmit the
names of the cabinet officers who stayed
on after he became President four years
ago.
Likely to Come Under Fire.
There are indications, however, that
the Senate will examine carefully the
appointees to the Offices of Attorney
General. Secretary of Agriculture and
Secretary of the Interior. There was a
determined fight waged in the last
Congress against the appointment of
Secretary Roy o. West of the Interior
Department, and Senator's interested in
the water power question are likely to
demand full statement with regard
to the incoming Secretary of the In
terror Department. The man who heads
the Department of Justice also Is likely
to be Scrutinized carefully. If President
Hoover's ideas are carried out, the pro-
hibition enforcement unit is to be trans
ferred from the Treasury Department
to the Department of Justice, and the
duty OF enforcing the dry laws will be
taken from the Secretary of the Treas
ury and handed over to the Attorney
General. The drys in Congress and
out of 1t are insistent that an Attorney
General who is personally in sympathy
with the eighteenth amendment be
appointed.
Prohibition. by the way. and its en-
forcement Is looming as a real issue
for the new administration. Presi-
dent Hoover has declared prohibition a
noble experiment which must be worked
out constructively. He has declared
- .f~lk