Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-15
DEBENTURE DEFEAT
; HELD UP TO HOUSE
Administration Believed to Be
Pinning Hopes on Lower
Branch.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Hoover administration leaders in Con-
gress are chagrined but by no means
disconnected or discouraged by the Sen
ate's action in grating the export
debenture plan onto the farm relief bill.
They acknowledge that a ticklish con-
greSsional situation has now arisen, in
Volving possibly grave constitutional
controversy between the House and the
Senate, but the Presidents managers on
Capitol Hill do not fear the eventual
outcome.
They now pin their hopes almost eX-
clusively on the House of Representa-
tives. If the lower branch stands firm
against the debenture, administration
spokesman assert, it cannot possibly be-
come law. Such firmnesS on the part
of the House, moreover, regular Re-
publican leaders declare, will eventually
mean farm relief legislation Of some
sort, and Of a sort satisfactory to the
White House.
insurgents" in Dilemma.
They argue that the insurgent Pro-
gressives from the West-the debenture
bloc-will not dare" go home after the
special session with a record of having
frustrated relief legislation. They will,
in other words-as administration lead
ers calculate-fght on for what they
would prefer, viz, the debenture plan,
but sooner or later will take what they
can get, viz, farm bill minus deben-
ture.
For the moment. this writer learns in
authoritative Republican quarters, three
congressional alternatives exist, as fol-
lows:
l. The House can take the position
that the Senate exceeds its conStitu-
tional authority in initiating revenue"
legislation by putting the debenture
scheme into. the farm bill. If the
Senate, through its debenture ajority,
denies the House contention and stands
pat, deadlock will ensue on a wholly
collateral question entirely unrelated to
the agricultural issue. 1t will mean,
apart from any merits of its own, in
definite postponement OF farm relief.
May Submit to Conference.
Il 2. The House and Senate bills as
passed by the respective branches OF
Congress can be sent to conference
Between them and an attempt made
there to iron cut the debenture and
other differences, with view to agree
Iinent upon some mutually satisfactory
measure.
Z 3. The House can pass a special rule,
which would be necessary under the cir
eumstances. summarily throwing out"
The debenture clause from the farm bill
sent over by the Senate and refusing
to consider it. This would automatic
ally end any possibility of farm legis-
Iation. But administration Senate
leaders figure that such a prospect is
the last thing the debenture bloc from
The West desires or could possibly
tolerate. The expectation, on the con-
trary, is that rather than face their
agricultural constituents in the wheat
and corn belts empty handed, and di-
rectly responsible for another period
Of blasted farm relief hopes, the de-
henture insurgents would yield as grace
FULLY as they could and permit nom
aebenture bill to be passed.
Leaders Apparently Confident.
8 Hoover leaders in Congress seem to
Hnink the situation will develop rapidly,
and more or less along the lines herein
described Meantime, they insist, cur
rent events on the Hill give neither the
President nor themselves any genuine
cause for downheartedneSS as to the
future The burden of their song Is
that it will all come out in the wash.
They did not think the process would be
So Strewn with thorns as it Is, but by
the end of the Summer or the begin
ming of Fall, at the outside, they're per-
suaded the situation will have righted
Itself. This applies to tariff, as well as
to farm relief.
An official mouthpiece Of White
House congressional strategy was asked
today whether the valley of Senate
tears through which the administration
is now passing is likely to be its fate
from now on. He decidedly thinks not.
Smith Supporters Implacable.
He believes that when farm and tariff
matters are out of the way and general
Hoover policies come to Congress the
President can contemplate relatively
easy sailing and reliable support. Sen
ators Norris of Nebraska and Blaine of
Wisconsin-who supported Al Smith in
5928-appear to be the only Republican
Insurgents upon whom administration
leadership feels it is never going to be
able to count. Otherwise the G.. o. P.
captains believe their paper majority
an the Senate will turn out to be, for all
Essential purposes, a real majority and
q rock to which the White House on
major occasions will always be able to
cling.
Copyright, 1929