Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-08

President Hoover's action in conven-
ing special session of Congress recalls
that almost every President from Cleve-
land to Harding, inclusive, called one al
most Immediately after taking office,
Grover Cleveland summoned the House
and Senate in August, 1893 to repeal the
Sherman silver act. Mckinley convened
Congress In March, 1897, to enact the
Dingley tariff. Taft decreed special
session in 1909 to take up the tariff and
the income-taX amendment. Wilson
brought the National Legislature to
Washington in extra session in April,
1918, to deal with the tariff and cur
rency legislation. Harding's special
Congress met in 1921 to tackle the bud
get, the tariff and revision of the tax
system. Thus, in our generation at
least, the holding of special sessions has
been so frequent and so regular that it
may almost be said to have become a
part Of our governmental scheme.
X X X X
Although Mr.. Hoover convenes the
Seventy-flrSt Congress for the "extraor-
binary occasion" the Constitution
puts it-of farm relief and tariff re-
vision, 1t is not within the power of the
Chief Executive to confine the extra
sessions deliberations to those or any
other matters. Once assembled, Con-
greSS can do what it pleaseS. Repub-
lican House leaders, however, have taken
steps to rivet attention on the issues
which inspire the forthcoming session.
To that end, only the committees on
ways and means, which deals with
tariff matters, and the committee on
agriculture, which will handle farm re-
lief, will be authorized. In addition, the
committee on rules will function. Other
legislative business may crop up before
adjournment, but the House leaders
Speaker Longworth, Floor General TIL
son and Rules Chairman Snell-intend
to see that at least nothing is trotted
out to prevent tariff and farm relief
from having the right of way. There is
governing factor, apart from all this,
which's likely to keep Congress nose
to the predestined grindstone That
factor Is the inminence of Summer
Washington Summer. Optimists think
mid-June may see the sessions business
accomplished. Less hopeful souls be-
lieve Congress will be lucky to be away
by the Fourth of July.
x X x *
Washington politicians are of opinion
that the New York stock markets reso-
lutte refusal to indulge in any sensa-
| tional upward movement in celebration
of Hoover's Inauguration is one way Of
showing Wall Streets dislike of the
markets" following the Californian's
nomination and election, and many
dopesters opined that the Hoover mar
ket" on and after March 4 would be
| more bullish than all the others put
| together. 1t hasn't materialized. No
| body has ever quite fathomed lower
| BroadWay'S anti-Hoover crouch. One
explanation is that the international
banking clique has never forgiven him
for his opposition to the unlimited
| f1otation of foreign loans in the United
| States without restrictions of any kind.
X x X X
Presidents come and Presidents go at
| the White House, but there's one modest
and efficient gentleman in the establish
ment who apparently Is going on for
ever. He is Rudolph Forster, executive
clerk of all the Chief Executives of the
republic from William Mckinley to
| Herbert Hoover, both inclusive. Forster
| thus enters upon his service under his
seventh successive President-a WON
derful record of SO uninterrupted years
| No one in the world knows the White
House ropes as Forster does. He is a
walking encyclopedia of dates, tradi-
lions and precedents. Thousands of
presidential letters. commissions and
other executive documents pass across
his desk in the course of year. They
should be sweetly perfumed, for an I'M
| failing adornment of Forster's work
table is a vase of beautiful roses, fresh
each morning from the White House
conservatory.
X X X X
Keep an eye peeled on the honorable
| Frederick C.. Walcott newly installed
| Junior Senator from Connecticut, as
| the personal spokesman of President
Hoover in the upper house. Jim" Wat
son will have unrestricted sway as the
official G.. o. P. administration leader,
| but Senator Walcott, because of his
intimacy with Hoover, will need to be
listened to with respect. The Senator
was one of the Presidents most valued
coadjutors in the postwar American
relief administration in Europe. He and
the late DR.. Charles D. Walcott cele-
hrated secretary Of the Smithsonian In
stitytion We're cousins. Senator Walcott
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