Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-25
SPECIAL SESSION
WORK OVERLOOKED
Reapportionment to Have
Far-Reaching Effects in
Future Congresses.
BY MARK SULLIVAN.


spends week of recess, the principal
comment about it, both outside the Sen
ate and within, deals with criticisms and
resentmentS of criticism. This Is char
acteristic. The day-to-day record OF
every Congress emphasizes merely Its
superficial aspects
What history will say about the Spe-
cial session of the Seventy-first Con-
gross is first. that 1t passed reappor-
tionment bill, which must have far
reaching effect on our future politics.
The passage of the reapportionment
took place in the early part of the ses-
sion. and today, current comment On
the session as a whole says literally
nothing about it. Yet the reapportion-
ment was more important than the
tariff. The reapportionment will de-
termine future tariffs
The new apportionment WILL speak
ing roughly, take about % members OF
the House away from districts prevail
ingly rural. and add them to city dis
trictS. This change is dictated by the
shift In population from country to
city that has gone on since the last re-
superintendent 20 years ago. It will
have, automatically, a powerful effect
upon the relative power Of the two Sec
tons. rural agriculture and city indus
try, which are right now dramatically
opposed to each other in the tariff con-
troversy. 1t will have an effect on pro-
hibition, taking % members away from
rural districts that favor it, and add
ing them to city districts which oppose
1t. 1t will have similar effect on
presidential nominating conventions.
The new apportionment will flow on
having profound consequences long after
today's excitement is forgotten.
Step In immigration Policy.
Next in basic quality to the re-
apportionment was the fundamental
step in our immigration policy, the
putting into effect of the national
origins basis for quotas, thus modifying
the very makeup of the Nation. AS
to the passage of these two great meas
ureS, reapportionment and national ORR
gins, there was and is no particular
criticism about the way Congress man.
aged.
History will also emphasize the fact
that this session passed a farm Keller
law. This law is accepted practically
universally as a most carefully planned
measure creating an institution, the
Farm Board, in which there is the
highest confidence, and from which
there is general hope of success. The
Farm Board, with half a billion dollars
to loan, Is an impressive institution by
any standard, and constitutes an inrlo-
walton in our Government. The in
stitution, the law and the Senate de-
alterations that created 1t, can con-
fldently invite comparison with the i'm
portant actions of any Senate IN
history.
That a very narrow majority of
the Senate believed in and fought for
an acutely controverted feature, the
debenture plan, will not be, to any
reasonable historian, anything other
than normal. That this controverted
feature was defeated in conference be-
tween Senate and House is testimony
to the orderly functioning Of Congress
as a mechanism for democratic gov
eminent.
Cause Of AcrimOny.
In addition to the completed legisla-
ton already mentioned the session dealt
incompletely with the tariff. 1t is about
the Senate'S action on the tariff that
acrimony now boils. AS respects the
Senate, history will probably say merely
that a majority of the total membership
made a successful figf6 against a given
bill. AS an incident Of the fight, this
majority opposition built up public
opinion which as q whole Is favorable
to it and opposed to the bill. In the
process Senator Borah achieved a domi-
nance Of personality and of argumenta-
tive and political talent such as history
commonly likes to praise.
1t is true that part of Borahs method
consisted Of leading a faction away
from his party. Judgment about that
is something within the field of what
ever conviction individuals may have
about the sanctity of party solidarity in
the responsible role that parties are
supposed to have under our system OF
government.
when the froth Of momentary peev-
ishness within and without the Senate
Is blown away history will at least say
that the coalition led by Borah fulfilled
the useful function that an opposition
party is supposed to have.
At this point, however, comes a
break. From this point onward the CO.
alition and the Senate may or may not
have to endure reasoned criticism, de-
pending upon how the event turns out.
To defeat the original tarin bill was
one thing, and majority OF the Senate
did it, according to the normal and
wholesome role Of an opposition party
Substitute Tariff Different.
To write substitute tariff, however
Is quite a different matter. That calk
for the role, not of opposition party
but responsible party. 1t calls for a
different attitude of mind and diff
ferent temperament on the part OF
leaders It calls for constructive minds
and constructive methods. This tunc-
ton calls for exact, minute informa-
ton In an immense and intricate field
That the coalition was little doubt
full about its own capacity to write con-
structively an alternative tariff bill was
occasionally made clear by members OF
the coalition themselves. The verdict or
this latter part OF the Senate's record
cannot be known until 1t is seen just
what kind of bill they will present wher
their work Is concluded. What can bt
said 80 far Is that the Fundamental
work of this Senate to date does not
call for any invidious comparison witt
the Senate of past Congresses. For th'
ephemeral disapproval now raging prec
edent can be found at the close of prac
tically every session of Congress in his
tory. It must be admitted that mucf
of the present criticism either ema
mates from within the Senate itself o.
Is caused by incidents in the Senate
which, though glazing, are immaterial
That the human beings who compos'
this Senate have been in many case
overworked, tired, and therefore not
their best, is a fact and Judgmen
held by most of the Senators them
selves and frequently put in words b.