Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-17
Huge Task Confronts Congress With Mass
o. Proposed Legislation Awaiting Action
Continued From First Page.)


Nicholas Longworth and Majority
Leader John @. Tilson of Connecticut
are conspicuous, will evidently be as
dominant as ever No combination Of
forces which can be engineered there
by Democratic or insurgent elements
led by the Democratic leader, John
Garner of Texas. seems likely to shake
that organization which, according to
some observers, is more potent than the
one which in former days was under
the sway of Joseph q. Cannon.
The fact the two houses are at log
1erheads over tariff and the further
fact that no one knows how long II
viii be before the tariff complications
are settled. will not prevent the great
committees at each end of the Capitol
from getting down to business prac-
tically as soon as the regular session
opens
To Rush Appropriation Bills.
The task of passing the great annual
appropriation bills, involving billions Of
dollars. each year becomes more seri-
Gus and difficult and the House appro-
priations committee, where falls the
chief burden in the shaping of these
bills, will lose no time in formulating
the appropriation measures, reporting
them and crowding them through the
House.
They will also be pressed in the SEN
ate as rapidly as the venerable Senator
Francis E. Warren, chairman of the
appropriations committee in that body,
can press them. In spite of the fact
that he is the last member of the Union
Army of the Civil War in Congress and
is long past 80, Senator Warren is
known as one of the most untiring and
energetic workers in either branch at
the Capitol.
President Hoover, like President Cool
idge, will urge that economy be OBJ
served in relation to the budget. but
in view of the expanding demands for
appropriations, such as those for flood
control and for farm relief, along with
numerous others, it will not be easy to
keep down the expenditures.
Financial Crash Complicates Matters.
It is out Of the ordinary for tax re-
vision to be under way In Congress at
the same time as tariff revision. This,
however, may happen in the regular
session. AS has been well known for
some time, the administration would
like to see a reduction of the taxes in
the coming session. So would most
elements in Congress. Just what will
be done about it, however, will depend
on the outlook as to the Governments
quent years.
How far the recent crash in the stock
market is going to upset calculations
as to Government revenue and hence
as to tax revision is something which
will be weighed carefully before any
action is taken. In any event, the
House ways and means committee will
be called on to give thought and atten-
ton to the matter, in conjunction with
fha hast y13fy1Ne ~ fl1o HRroa e,,px, haaAaA
by Secretary Andrew w. Mellon.
Banking Problem Difficult.
But, even taking into account tariff
revision and tax revision, the outstand-
ing subject before Congress Is likely to
be the financial and banking problem,
as 1t has been intensified and accen-
tuated by the recent crash in the stock
market and the recent developments
with relation to credit because of the
unprecedented demands for credit for
comprehensive are the ramifications of
this subject that it is impossible to de-
scribe them in any brief compass.
The Federal Reserve system Is in
volved because Of the relations of the
banks in the reserve system to the
lending of money for speculation. Banks
outside the reserve system are in
volved. It has been repeatedly charged
in recent months that the unprece-
denied volume Of brokers', loans was
serving to withdraw credit from ordi-
rates in q fashion adverse to general
business and industry and agriculture.
May Deal with Speculation.
On top Of deal of speculation I'M
precedented in this or any other coun-
try, there have come recently a series
OF crashes which have accomplished at
least a partial defiation at the expense
Of vast numbers of people. In addi-
ton to all the domestic phases of the
matter, it has recently been realized
that it has important international
aspects.
For these and other reasons, Con-
gress is under strong pressure from
many quarters to take up the many
questions entering into the fianciai
banking, credit and speculative situa-
ton and 1t will undoubtedly do so, in
the opinion OF able members of both
House and Senate. How far it is going
and what legislation will come out Of
1t all is another matter. In fact, no
one Is in a. position to do more than
guess.
1t is taken as practically settled that
both the Senate banking and currency
committee, Of which Senator Peter Nor
beck is chairman. and the House bank
ina and currency committee, of which
REPRESENTATIVE Louis T. McFadden is
chairman. will conduct early investiga-
tons. These promise to be extremely
comprehensive.
May Revise Federal Reserve Act.
In the Senate committee there Is
strong sentiment for an inquiry under
the King resolution, which is unusually
broad and covers a score of aspects of
the banking, financial and speculative
problem. Senator Gerald P. Nye Of
North Dakota has pending a resolution
for an inquiry into speculation, but the
King resolution is broader.
The proposed amendment to the
tariff bill for a stock tax, which has
been urged by Senator Carter Glass is,
Of course, intimately related to the
proposition. but even If Congress should
impose such tax, which is doubtful,
this would not halt an inquiry and
eventual legislation along much more
extended lines.
AS is well understood, financial au-
thorities for some time have regarded
inevitable an oYerhauling of the Fed
eral Reserve act. Moreover, such bank
ing questions as branch, chain and
group banking are looming up. It is
not probable the regular session Will
bring about any comprehensive legiS-
lation for the overhauling of the coun-
try's financial structure. But there will
be an investigation at both ends of the
Capitol which will tend to prepare the
way to action before any great length
of time.
Country Banks Oppose Branches.
Not at all out of the bounds of prob
nf int
commission like the Aldrich- Vreeland
commission to study the Nations finan-
cial problems with the same cor1pre-
hensiVeness as the studies that nreceded