Evening star., 1933-01-01

depend. He will begin to express his
personality soon, in the choices he
makes of cabinet members. These
choices will begin to appear soon, and
will continue to be made known, from
time to time, until he steps into the
presidency on March A. His selections
will be observed with high curiosity, to
deduce, among other things, how he
will lean, where he will take his posi-
ton in the gamut that runs from con-
servatism to the opposite-call it radi-
calism for convenience, though that
word has little real meaning in Ameri-
can politics.
If most of his cabinet selections, or
the more important ones, are conserva-
tives of the type of Owen D. Young
Though 1t is not meant to imply here
that Mr.. Young viii be in the cabineD
one inference will be made. II con-
siderable number of Mr.. Roosevelts
cabinet selections go to Democrats of
the less conservative type, or if he
chooses to include some of the Repub-
hcan progressives who supported him
in the campaign, a different inference
will be made.
Thereafter, on March 4, he will be-
come President, and will begin to ex-
press his personality, his attitudes of
mind, in the innumerable and widely
varied ways that go with the preSi-
dency. BY all of that, Mr.. Roosevelt
and the Democratic Congress that was
elected with him, will give a nev key
and new direction to Aaerican' poll
| tics. Since all this is of the futare,
it would be futile to speculate about
it now. Whoever writes about it a year
from today. in a review Of what will
have actually happened IN 1888, will
II rr,flll lx. - IL
judgments based on deeds.
Lame Ducks to Pass.
The fixed facts Of the coming politi-
cal year are simple The present Con-
gress. the old one will continue until
March 4. CParenthetically, this may be
the last occasion when this condition
exists. The new amendment to the
Constitution, the so-called lame duck"
amendment, now before the States for
ratification, will presumably be ratified
soon. Thereafter, this overlapping of
an old Congress upon a newly-elected
will have existence after an election
will be the new one.)
The first question is, what will this
present Congress 0asting until March
~ do? The answer is, not much. SEN
ator Arthur Capper of Kansas says it
viii be known as the Congress of Dis
appointment" 1t may be called that
by those who expect much of 1t. But
no experienced person expects much.
One simple reason is that the time is
short. From January to March 4,
inclusive, Is "a days. Deduct 10 Sun
days and holidays - New Year,
and Lincoln's birthday. February IA
and there are only 81 working days
left. That Is very short to do much
more than pass the routine appropria-
ton bills necessary to keep the Gov
ernment functioning.
There is another suf1cient reason
why the old Congress, doomed to ex-
pire March 4, will do little. : 1t Is
divided C'ongress-the House Demo-
cratic by a narrow majority, the Sem
ate Republican by q narrower majority
-and even so, only nominally Repub-
llcan, for some 10 of the so-called Re-
publican Senators are Progressiyes, who
are law unto themselves
That intricately divided condition is
enough alone to tend toward paralysis
To accentuate 1t, the President is a Re-
publican, known to be leaving his Office
on March 4. All in all, little besides
imperative routine work can be ex-
pected from this old Congress.
1t is true that the House, by forced
steam and high pressure. has had
roll call on repeal of the prohibition
amendment (Which lacked enough votes
to succeed, and another roll call on
beer (Which had majority. The SEN
ate, more leisurely, with rules permit
ing long debate, may vote on these
measures. A bill for Philippine inde-
pendence, passed by the House last
T.
the Senate. Aside from these, not MANY
measures other than the routine busi-
ness will emerge at this final session
OF the old Congress before it ends on
March 4.
Dividing Date.
March 4 will be a rather epochal
date. On that. day will come the end
of the old Congress as well as the END
OF Mr.. Hoover's Republican presidency.
To call it epochal in the political
sense would be far-fetched. The Re
publicans have held the presidency for
IL years, and now step out. That Is
not much more than an ordinary
change. It will be the first time in
IA years that the Democrats have had
full control of the Government-House.
Senate and White House. That is not
very striking, either.
Yet the change will have some pic
turesque features. Among those who
will step out of power as the result of
the November landslide is the Republi-
can Senate leader, Jim" Watson of
Indiana. As Senator and member of
the House he has been in the Capital |
with intervals for 50 years.
When Mr.. Watson was first elected to
the House in November, 1894. there was
not In the United States an automobile. |
There was not one mile of what we
now know as paved road. There was no
alrplane, of course; no motion picture |
and no radio; indeed. the telephone
was still a comparative novelty, as an
invention only 20 years old, and as a
practicable utility considerable less. In
1894 the trolley car was still novelty |
Mr.. Watson has lived to see it pass its |
peak OF expansion and begin to de-
cline.
When Mr. Watson first took the oath
of office in the Capitol, there was still /
Russian czar and Chinese empire /
There was still German kaiser and |
an Austrian one. Spain was still a |
monarchy and so was Portugal. There |
was no such independent country as |
Poland or C0echoslovakia. Joke of |
that day was to speak Of "the Irish |
ambassador" like the quip about the |
admiral Of the Swiss Navy" But as |
Watson leaves the Capital, one of the |
persons he will say good-by to will be |
a duly accredited envoy extraordinary |
and minister plenipotentiary of the |
Irish Free State"
Truly, Mr.. Watson. between 1894 and I
1882. has seen much change. Of all |
the things he might have imagined /
when he was first elected in 1894. the |
least probable would have been that |
he would one day vote declaration Of |
war which would cause some two mil |
lion Americans to 90 to Europe as SOL
diers
The Indiana Senator, If he has the /
imagination and the sense of history. |
could make on March next. one of |
those speeches in which an old man |
raises an impressive hand and begins: |