Evening star., 1933-02-05
BY WILLIAM HARD.

D1 uhhDs
This session Of the Congress Is Ger
tainly having hard time catching uE
with the depression-or with anything
else.
It must ultimately pass IL appropri-
alton bills. That is, it must pass them
if it does its duty. 1t so far has passed
one-just one-appropriation bill. That
is the so-called first deficiency"-a bill
of very secondary importance on the
point of the amount of money involved
OF the remaining 10 appropriation
bills, have been passed by the House
of Representatives and sent to the Sen
ate. OF these five, three have been re-
ported to the Senate by the Senate Ap-
preparations Committee. The first OF
them-the Treasury and Post Offce
appropriation bill-was debated this
week on the Senate floor
The work of debating and passing the
appropriation bills-which is always the
principal work Of short sessions
far from accomplished; and adjourn
ment must take place on March 4.
The whole of the rest Of the time OF
this short session" could profitably be
spent upon the appropriation bills, ii
the budget is to be balanced. To bal
ance the budget was supposed on last
Election day to be the central instant
coming endeavor of the Congress. The
prospect now is that this session of the
Congress may pass the appropriation
bills. but in all probability will not bal
ance the budget.
In so far as the balancing of the
budget may be regarded as a necessary
preliminary to the removal Of the de-
preston, the depression will b, just as
hvely-or just as stagnant-on March
4 as it was when this session Of the
Congress began.
Gentlemen in the financial district OF
New York City, who last Fall seemed to
see the end of the world if the budget
was not balanced, will be at full liberty
on March to telephone for the un-
dertakers. But they won't. It seems
now to have been just another Amer
ican slogan" The gentlemen who
started it and who popularized it will
buy and sell stocks and bonds in the
week of March in much the same
manner in which they have been buy
ing and selling them during the last six
months and they will merely send tele-
grams to the new President of the
United States saying that the budget
and without fail in the immediate
future"
One profound reason why the budget
is not likely to be balanced is that the
Congress has at last addressed itself to
the subject of the reduction of agri-
cultural mortgage indebtedness. The
Senate Committee on Banking and
Currency has started hearings upon
numerous bills for emergency govern
mental refinancing of that indebted
ness.
These bills are some of them of dis
tinguished authorship. They come
from such men as Senator Robinson of
Arkansas and Senator Hull of Tennes-
see. They are taken to be in general
harmony with the views and purposes
of the President elect. They imply the
appropriating of large sums OF Federal
money. Senator Hull's bill would ap-
propriate a billion dollars to be spent
through the Reconstruction Finance
Corporation. One Of Senator Robin
sons bills would appropriate total OF
approximately ane and one-half billion
dollars to be spent through an Emer-
gency Agricultural Refinance Corpora
ton and through the Federal Farm
Loan Bureau.
Such legislation is thought to be ne
cessitated by the state of mind existing
among the farmers. The standard ma
tional organizations of farmers have
demanded imitation of the currency.
They have demanded more dollars with
which to pay debts. In order to check
their desire for more dollars, the Con-
gress is driven to the idea of giving
them smaller debts. The political choice
is taken to be between the initiating of
dollars and the debating of debts. The
debating OF debts is thought by most
Senators and Representatives to be pref
erable. A similar thought seems to be
held by the President-elect.
X X x
But the debating of the debts of the
farmers requires governmental action
and governmental expenditure; and
governmental expenditure means fur
ther large borrowing by the Govern
ment; and further large borrowing
means further unbalance of the
budget, strictly technically considered
That further unbalance, however, would
be for the purpose Of preventing none
tary imitation. The President-elect is
said to wish to have both balanced
will be politically difficult for him I'M
mediately to get both. Some sort OF
agricultural debt relief, which will cost
the Federal Government q vast lot of
new borrowed money, seems likely
in this Congress or in the next.
That this Congress will accomplish
1t is asserted by some and denied by
others. The doubters are struck by the
bad luck which has afnicted this ses-
sion of this Congress ever since 1t as
sembled on the first Monday Of last
December.
Its total record Of major accomplish
ment to date is the appropriation bill
already mentioned and the Philippine
independence bill. The latter bill turns
out to be highly displeasing to the most
powerful politician in the Philippine Is
lands-Manuel Quezon. Mr.. Quezon 4
jocularly accused Of simply wanting
complete Independence (with all offices
manned by 100 per cent Filipinos)