Evening star., 1932-07-27

Reviews of the record of Congress re-
veal lack Of unanimity in the judg-
ments Of the country as to the char
acter of the service given by the legis-
lative branch Of the Government. There
is broad recognition of the importance
of the work done and its unprecedented
character for peace time, but there is
some tendency to criticise the uncer-
tainties of the methods employed.
With the suggestion that mo fair and
impartial opinion of this Congress can
be expected from any extremely parti-
san source" The Oklahoma City Okla
homan independently declares that
Congress succeeded in submerging
craftsmanship and working for the gen.
eral good to a greater extent than most
Congresses have succeeded in doing"
Holding that measuring the accom-
pliShmentS by the magnitude of the
tasks, Congress did fairly well,'' The
Oklahoman, nevertheless, feels that the
members were more successful in in
creasing taxes than in reducing ex-
Penses, and Thought too much of re-
lief In purely pork barrel terms" and
reaches the final conclusion that ut
was not the worst Congress that we
4AatC A1du, d11O ny no means was II tIle
best" The Butte Montana Standard
Democratic) believes that 1T achieved
some brilliantly successful legislation
and registered some miserable failures"
"The country" thinks the Youngs-
town Vindicator independent Demo-
crGtic) lis revising its Judgment and
conceding that. in view of the danger
GUS things that might have been done,
Congress is entitled to more credit than
the people until now have been willing
to give" The Birmingham Age Herald
Oemocratic) advises that "if the Nation
has been irritated by blunders, it is
only fair that some credit be given for
actual and undeniable accomplish
ment." The Duluth Herald Gndepend-
ent Republican, declares that fairness
requires an expression of appreciation
for the broad national spirit with
which most of the acute problems of
the times were met by both houses
during long and tremendously trying
session" The Rochester Times Union
independently believes that, ION the
whole. the record of legislation actually
becoming law has been more satiSfac-
tory than seemed likely at the begin
ming of the session; that action of
the Senate was frequently. though not
always. along sound lines" and that
President Hoover's leadership was an
outstanding factor in getting good
legislation and blocking bad"
Value OF the legislation enacted i'm
presses the Texarkana Gazette Demo-
cratic), the Lincoln State Journal (in-
dependent Republican, and the Indian
apolis News independent Republican,.
The last mentioned holds that credit
stability has been strengthened and the
Nation prepared more adequately to
deal with imperative tasks" The Bal
timore Sun independent Democratic)
AYERS that with much of the criticism
Of Congress 1t Is not easy to sympa-
thize," and points out that unless we
are willing to surrender our Govern
ment to the tender mercieS of star
chambers, we cannot consistently criti-
ciZe the frank and sometimes violent
discussion Of public issues" The Jer-
sey City Journal independent Repub-
lican) pays the tribute that Congress
attended to the most important things
and refused to do hundreds Of foolish
things" The Dayton Daily News (in-
dependent Democratic) summarizes the
results with the statement that this
branch of the Government ''has been
In continuous session for seven months
with an output of work never matched,
save in war time, for an equal period"
The Topeka Daily Capital Republican,
states: 1T is the largest program of any
Congress in time of peace and, as the
Chamber Of Commerce of the United
States graciously comedies, a good rec
ord. For an important part of it, Con-
gress rose above party"
4
Recognizing a lack of party con-
troll" the Springfield Mass Republi-
can independently says that Congress,
thus handicapped, has done much bet |
ter than could have been expected. and