Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-12
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS

Senator Watson Of Indiana, Republic
can leader, is now confident that the
tariff bill will go through the Senate
on its final reading. A month ago even
this was surrounded with uncertainty
but the latest careful count of noses in
the Senate seems to assure the adoption
of the bill in whatever form it is pre-
sented for final passage, prior to going
to the conference committee. There
Senator Watsons responsibility ends
and his prophecies stop. There Is no
mistaking the strong undercurrent of
opinion in both branches of Congress
that Mr.. Hoover may never be called
upon to either sign or veto the bill
that it may never emerge from the con-
ference committee. The House, view
ing what the Senate has done in slash
ing industrial rates, in shearing the
President of his power over flexible
tariff rate making, and in loading the
debenture plan onto the bill. is in rather
belligerent mood. In tariff making. as
in naval agreements, there are limits
beyond which no compromise seems
possible.
The Senate appears to have thrown
overheard, so far as this session goes,
all thought of legislation for consolida-
ton of railroads, motor bus control,
Filipino 1ndependence, the Couzens
communication bill. and in fact all con-
troversial questions of size, save the
Norris Muscle Shoals bill, which is ten
tatively slated to have the right of way
when the tariff bill goes to conference.
Only one out of the six legislative pro-
posals of President Hoover and the
Wickersham commission relating to
prohibition seems. destined to be trans
lated into law at this session; that is the
bill passed by the House last week trans
ferring the Prohibition Bureau from
the Treasury to the Department of
Justice.
The importation of parrots has re-
Gently been forbidden by executive or
der as preventive measure looking ia
the prompt suppression of psittacosis
the so-called parrot disease. 1t is now
discovered that the Department OF
Agriculture has banned the importa-
ton of hares, though for entirely unre-
lated reasons. Hares, according to Paul
Reddington of the Biological Survey
breed with incredible rapidity. and are
menace to orchardists, destroying
young trees by gnawing the bark. A
| prominent hunt club of New jersey
| sportsmen finds itself with 800 Polish
hares on the docks at Bremen, Ger
many, for which it paid $l2.50 each
but the importation of which is now re-
fused.
X X X X
At this juncture when naval disarma-
| ment is of paramount interest, and
naval parity between this country and
Great Britain is of first concern, a tab
ulation just issued by Lloyd's Register
of Shipping, dealing with merchant
ships tonnages, Is of peculiar perth
! nence. In the United States in 1929
! merchant vessels launched totaled 1885,
| 063 gross tons according to Lloyd'S
| figures. This compares with total OF
| 1,522 ,623 gross tons of merchant ships
launched in Great Britain and Ireland
during the year, and world total OF
| 2,793,2l0. Great Britain'S total was the
| largest of any year since 1921. The
| United States total was smallest with
| two exceptions of any year since 1921.
any postwar year to date. Great Britain S
merchant shipbuilding during the past
| eight years has averaged well over a
million tons year. The United States
in the same period has launched only a
little more than a million tons for the
entire eight years. Here is revealed a
disparity of large dimensions.
! X X X
The Constitution gives to the Chief
Executive of our Nation the title "Presi-
dent of the United States" and to his
understudy the title "Vice President oil
the United States" but when that i'm
mortal document comes to the highest
| judicial officer 1t confers the impress
sively short title "Chief Justice" It il
not "Chief Justice of the United States
nor Chief Justice of the Supreme