Evening star., 1934-06-21
The Political Mill
By C. Could Lipcoln.

who had pet bills on the calendar
that failed to pass and who are now
disappointed. But, take 1t by and
large, every one is glad that Congress
has packed UP and left Washington
| including the members of Congress
themselves. The President of the
United States and the Vice President
have both taken occasion, In the
brief interval since adjournment, to
| pat Congress on the back and say what
a fine body Of men 1t Is and how pa
triotically 1t has acted Having sue
ceeded in getting the administration s
legislative program through almost, If
not quite, In the form 1t was ad-
vanced,- Is there any reason. the ad-
ministration leaders should not be
pleased with the Congress? The an
swer, of course, Is no" In spite Of
the satisfactory manner in which q
large number of administration meas
ures had been put through, the
President and his advisers had come
to the conclusion that it was time for
Congress to go. You never can tell,
really, just what is going to crop out
when 435 members Of the House and
So Senators are meeting daily in
| Washington, all seeking to stir up
| something new.
President Roosevelt was made q
doctor of laws-the highest honorary
degree given by university-at Yale
yesterday He took the occasion to
reiterate his faith in brains" and to
insist that during his administration
in Washington he would continue to
trust to men with brains. His re-
mark was held to be an assertion that
he would keep right on backing the
brain trust" so called. Now whether
the brain trust has brains in a big
way Is matter which has been
agitating quite lot of people So far
as the President is concerned, he is
satisfied apparently with the quality
and quantity of this brain trust.
When Dr. Rexford G. Tugwen, new
Undersecretary of Agriculture, ap-
peared before the Senate Committee
on Agriculture recently to answer
Senators who questioned his fitness
for the office he denied lot Of things
and one of them was that there is
any brain trust" Perhaps he meant
it just was not incorporated. DR.. Tug
well turned his back on the kind of
national planning" about which he
had written a lot-a kind of national
planning that could not be carried
on without scrapping some American
ideas and institutions. including q
bit of the Constitution. In a good
many quarters it was said that DR..
Tugwell had made monkeys of his
senatorial opponents while he was on
the stand. Whatever else he may
have done, he left these opponents
confused as to what he really does
believe in. Certainly DR.. Tugwell on
the stand was no red radical. This
may have been a disappointment to
some of his friends as well as some of
his foes.
Now and then there has been talk
OF ditching the Democratic leader
ship in the House and Senate; OF
replacing Speaker Rainey and Rep
resentative Joe" Byrns, the Demo-
cratic floor leader of the House, and
OF substituting another Senator for
Senator Joe" Robinson OF Arkansas,
Democratic leader Of the Upper
House. Considering the work that
was done by these gentlemen during
the last two sessions Of Congress,
this kind of talk sounds a bit futile
Of course, there are Democrats with
ambitions in the House and in the
Senate who complain of the leader
| ship. But. take it by and large,
the leaders during the last Congress
did a grand job for the Roosevelt
administration. 1t is true that they
took spanking, along with the
President. when the two Houses rose
up and passed the independent Offices
appropriation bill over the Presi-
dents veto several months ago. But
that was a measure which had to do
particularly with more liberal treat
ment of the war veterans. and it
did not seem that anything could
stop it. The universal approval of
the Congress and its conduct by the
heads of the administra ton must
carry with it approval of the Demo-
cratic leadership in both Houses.
| The leaders PLAYED ball with the
President from start to finish. and
Congress did the same, except in the
sole instance already mentioned. The
next House will be called upon to
elect its Speaker and the Democrats
will have TO choose their floor leader
as well as their candidate for Speaker
At the present writing the Republic
| ans seem to nave no chance of
wrestling majority control Of the
House from the Democrats. and it
seems almost certain that Mr.. Rainey
and Mr.. Byrns will be the chosen
leaders next year.
As for Senator Robinson, his leader
ship of the Senate in the next Con-
gress seems assured. Probably the
only thing that might interfere with
it would be his appointment say. to
the Supreme Bench if President
Roosevelt has any vacancies there to
| fill. When plans for an adjournment
of Congress last Saturday went awry.
Immediately there was whispered about
the report that the Democratic leader
ship of the Senate had fallen down.
Well, If it fell, it did not fall far, for
| Ou MOtludy ulSHI q luldl duJOuTIluleuL
Of Congress was had. with all the bills
put through. The senior Senator from
Arkansas had been his party's leader
in the Senate for IL years, taking
that Office in 1922, when the Demo-
Gratis were in the minority His has
been a strong and able leadership.
| \ 4 4
Postmaster General James A. Far
ley is still chairman of the Democratic
National Committee. Except for the
excessive work which the two jobs
place on a single man, there really
seems no good reason why he should
give up the democratic chairman
ship. Yet, because of the drive in
administration circles, led by the
President, to remove from member
ship in the National Committee off,
GERS of the Government. Mr.. Farley's
retention as chairman stands out. He
is, of course. an officer of the Gov
ernment. The truth Of the matter
appears to be that no one who quite
fills the bill has turned up as a pos
| .sI.1 -