Evening star., 1931-12-11
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Democratic and Republican Pro-
! gressive leaders have Just had pre-
sented for their consideration a brand
new idea in American politics. It's q
proposal that there be formed a sort
fof general staff of economic advisers,
to be on duty at Washington during the
present session of Congress, and per-
haps regularly hereafter, If the scheme
pans out. The suggestion has nothing
to do with the policy committee" which
House and Senate Democrats have
| formed. The duty of the economic
general staff would be not so much to
plan legislative program as to supply
! reliable information and advice re-
garding specific items in such a pro-
gram. 1t would consist of professional
economists for the most part, and
largely of college professors, statistical
experts and men skilled in research.
The underlying purpose of the project,
| which has made lively appeal to
Democratic and Progressive leaders,
would be to prevent Congress going off
half-cocked in such major fields as
| taxation, revenue, agriculture, bank
ing, unemployment insurance, arma-
ments and the other subjects now
clamoring for attention on Capitol
Hill. The staff would be a body of
fact finders and fact-facers unfettered
by political considerations.
X * ~
Amid the rush and hustle of other
matters competing for the limelight In
Washington this week little attention
was paid to President Hoover's recon-
| mendation for incorporation of the
United States Shipping Board In the
Department Of Commerce and for ap-
pointment of an Assistant Secretary for
| Merchant Marine. If Congress acts on
| the suggestion, 1t viii be the first time
| that seni-cabinet Office was ever Gre
| ated to shepherd our trade interests
| on the high seas. In a recent radio
| address Assistant Secretary of Conn
merce Julius Klein called on the Amer
! lean shipping public to ship more goods
In our own boats. Today vessels fiving
the Stars and Stripes carry only about
35 per cent of Uncle Sans foreign cargo
business. DR.. Klein says there's no rea-
| son to expect that all of our foreign
| trade should be sent overseas in Amer
lean ships. But the tonnage we own
today, he declares certainly can take
care OF at least half Of our export Ship
| ments on a competitive basis. Prob
aoiy lt would be the task of an Assist
ant Secretary for Merchant Marine to
| educate American business men to shin
| patriotically.
Senatorial gentlemen whose names
begin with B certainly seem to be in
| the hard luck category All of the
| three new solons whose credentials are
| under IRE happen to have names COM
| menclng with the second letter of the
alphabet-Bailey of North Carolina
BanKhead OF Alabama and Barbour of
New Jersey. Speaking of Bankhead
Tom Hef1in, hot and bothered con-
tinues to haunt the Senate chamber
| like a sailor who hates to leave the
snip. Former members have courtesy
access to the floor, the cloak rooms.
the senate restaurant and practically
all their old perquisites except the
seats they once occupied. The un-
seating OF Bankhead by declaring the
ALABAMA senasorship vacant would not
automatically give it to Heflin. It
would mean another election and re-
qutie the man with the leather lungs
ana Ihe papal complex to try again.
X X +
Ii the management OF the merged
unlted States Lines, International
mercantile Marine and Dollar Line can
arrange 1t the steamship Leviathan will
carry tne American delegation to the
Geneva Disarmament Conference. sail
ing January %. That would land the
delegation at Cherbourg on January
~ or 80 and permit it to reach Geneva
- hours later, or three days before
the conference is scheduled to open
on February 2. The American party.
including delegates, advisers, attaches
ana secretaries, is expected to humber
some DO souls. Opinion persists that
PRESIDENT Hoover will appoint Secretary
OF state Stimson as chief American
| spokesman at Geneva.
u "
The Administration and the World
court Is the theme on which James
Grafton Rogers, Assistant Secretary of
state, VIII hold forth in Philadelphia
tonight before the American Fn,,nda-