Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-03
MOWERS UN[UCKY
IS AGAIN HITS HIM
Same RebeIIious Number of
6. O. P. Senators Defy Him
on Tariff Issue.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.


Thirteen-as far as President Hoo
vers Republican support in the Senate
IN concerned--is the White Houses I'M
lucky number. It WIS precisely by that
margin the administration was first
defeated in the farm debenture fight on
May 8 this year. 1t was also by the
SelfSame group of rebellious Repub-
lican Progressives that Hoover'S plea
for the retention of the flexible tariff
provision was yesterday rejected in the
Senate. Among the Al votes recorded
for the Simmons (Democratic) amend
ment to strike the flexible clause from
the Smoot bill there were the Is Re-
publican votes of Senators Blaine, Bo-
rah, Brookhart. Cutting. Frazier. How
ell. johnson, La Toilette, McMaster,
Norris, Nye, Pine and Schan. All of
these Senators 6efied the adminiStra-
down except Messrs. Blaine, Cutting
and La Toilette. who happened not to
be in the Senate on the day of the
vote.
Expect Victory in House.
Once again the Hoover forces place
their reliance upon ultimate victory In
the flexible fight in the House of Rep
resentatives. 1t was mainly the firm
opposition of the lower branch that
eventually brought victory to the PreSi-
dent on the debenture issue. An ad-
ministration leader told this writer a
few hours after the White House had
lost the farm fight. If the House stands
Arm against the debenture it cannot
possibly become law" Events few
weeks later justified that confident pre-
diction. The farm bill went into con-
ference. The House confereeS eXhib-
tied the Gibraltar-like tenacity prophe-
sled. Summer came and the agricul-l
tural marketing act went onto the stat
ute books in terms which President
Hoover felt he could conscientiously
approve. minus debenture.
Speculation is already rife on Capitol
Hill as to what will now happen If the
Hawley-Smoot bill. by any chance,
should be sent to the White House
without the flexible clause. Almost as
many authorities think Hoover would
veto the measure in that form as there
are others who declare he will do moth
ing of the sort The administration is
strongly influenced by the voice OF the
country on these occasions. Very elabo-
rate machinery is at Mr.. Hoover's dis
posal to catch this voice and accurately
record it for his benefit. There has
never been anything quite like 1t in
previous preSidencies. 1t is one OF the
reasons, his friends say. why the PreSl-
dent has made no real plumbers" since
he took office seven months ago this
week.
May Swing Veto Ak.
II Mr.. Hoover gathers that the people
at large think a tariff bill without the
flexible arrangement is better than no
tariff revision at all-including no tariff
relief for agriculture-then, it can be
foreshadowed with a good deal of as
surance. the White House will not prove
obstructionist. If, on the other hand,
vox populi gives the President pretty
plainly to understand that 1t would APP
plaud a firm stand against the Demo-
Metropolitan progressive coalition,
Hoover is extremely likely to take leaf
out of Grover Cleveland's note book and
swing his mighty veto AK.
The Californian faces this new con-
test with the upper branch of Congress
considerably more strongly fortified in
public esteem than he was at the time
of the debenture fracas. Even Demo-
Gratis, though with natural reluctance,
concede this. Most Presidents generally
enjoy more popularity among the folks
back home" than Congress, and espe-
cially more than the Senate does. The
people are correspondingly inclined to
clap the President on the back encour-
agingly when he goes to the mat with
the oppositionists on the hill.
Has Learned Much.
Hoover has all these factors in his
head at this moment. He is. moreover.
no longer the Alice in Wonderland"
or the boy Scout" in politics that his
detractors so long predicted him to be.
The chief engineer has learned nightly
since his tenancy of No. 1900 Pennsyl-
vania avenue. His supporters insist
that his tariff policy henceforward will
indicate that he is definitely out of his
political swaddling clothes.
Administration leaders deplore that
the President has undergone this Sem
ate rebuff on the eve of Premier Mac
Donalds arrival in Washington. In
Great Britain such parliamentary
setback would call for cabinets resig-
nation-it would have suffered vote
Of mo confidence" The Hoover-Mac-
Donald naval understanding some day
will be submitted to the Senate in the
form of a treaty for ratification. Mr..
Macdonald will be bound to wonder,
when he hears of yesterdays anti-Hoo-
yer vote in the Senate, what will hap
pen to Hoover negotiated naval agree
ment with the British. That Demo-
cratic Republican coalition against the