Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-23
Congress Batting Average.

The first session of the Seventy-first
Congress is at an end. The tariff bill
is uncompleted. but mileage is safe.
Indeed, the mileage allowance of mem
bers of the Senate and the House for
the special session already had been
paid, and the mileage for the regular
session opening December would have
been paid also in due course. There
has been a fear, however, that some
criticism might arise because of Con-
gress voting itself this mileage allow
ance to convey members from their
matter of fact, Congress was in session
Up to the last minute before the regular
session opened.
The Congress has one achievement,
however, to its credit since it was called
by the President into session April Is,
the new farm relief law providing for
q Federal Farm Board with wide
powers. For years such legislation had
hung fire because a majority either
could not agree or because the Chief
Executive was unwilling to try on the
country alleged panaceas which he con-
sidered economically unsound and I'M
workable. The special session now
closed was called by President Hoover
for the benefit of the farmers. Follow
ing closely on the heels of the last
election, 1t was apparent that even the
most irreconcilable would go along with
a farm bill which would be approved
by the President rather than again pre-
vent all legislation.
The manner in which the Republican
majority dealt with the tariff bill, how
ever, seems stupid in the extreme in
retrospect. Instead of following the
recommendation of the President, who
urged limited revision, in aid of the
farmer and of such industries as have
in recent years suffered from foreign
competition, the House ways and means
committee brought out a bill which
was in effect a general revision with
hundreds of changes. As>the bill passed
the House, it aroused wide criticism in
the farm States of the West. The
Senate finance committee tinkered with
the bill for months and while it re-
duced rates in some instances it raised
many in others. The result was break
in the Republican ranks in the Senate
ending in the coalition" which has
dominated the situation, but which has
been effective in getting final action on
the tariff bill at the special session.
The failure of the Republicans of the
Senate to act tremendously on the tariff
is no more to be attributed to the Pro-
gressive Republicans who joined the
coalition than it is to the old guard
group which stood out for increases on
many of the industrial schedules. In
deed. the demands of the Progressives,
made in the interests of the farmers,
who have had the small end of the
tariff stick for years. were in many in
stances justified. More recently the
so-called young guard" among the
Republicans, group seeking to bring a
semblance of harmony in the Repub-
1ican ranks and to get the bill through
the Senate without further delay, pro-
posed that the increases demanded for
the farmer should be granted and that
the existing rates on industrial products
of the Fordney- McCumber tariff act
should be allowed to remain. But the
Republican Progressives were unwilling
to accept such program. They had
taste of power and proposed to go be-
yond their original demands. In this
the ProgressiveS showed themselves as
little capable of real leadership as the
old guard itself.
The Congress will return in weeks
time. At the regular session /; may be
hoped that wiser counsel will prevail
and that accomplishment will take the
place Of failure. An election is coming
on. This fact may spur the Republi-
cans to more united action, or it may
cause still greater disruption with the
Democrats seeking to divide the wings
OF the Republican party further. Not
little will depend on the course of the
next session. If in the coming election
the Democrats should win control of
one house of Congress even, it would
make impossible the program of Presi-
dent Hoover.