Evening star., 1935-06-27
THE POLITICAL
MILL
BY G.. Could Lincoln.

duullA1Aotl dblOu lCdQCIo III AUL1kICoo VI
the realm Of bad dreams, the fact seems
to remain that the President did send
a message to Congress urging certain
tax reforms. Mondays conference be-
tween the President and certain con-
gresSional leaders, and at which Vice
President Garner also sat in, although
it lasted two hours and three-quarters,
amounted to nothing. At least that
must be the conclusion after consider
ing the Presidents press conference
comment yesterday.
When the White House conference of
Monday adjourned, Senator Robinson
of Arkansas stepped across the doorsill
of the Executive Mansion and dictated
the following statement to a waiting
group or IS or 80 newspaper men:
"At the conference. attended by the
Vice President, Speaker Byrns, Chair
man Harrison of the Senate Finance
Committee, Chairman Doughton OF the
House Ways and Means Committee and
Senator Robinson, it was decided to
press for action on the recommendations
OF the President as to amendments OF
the tax laws during the present session.
The chairman of the Finance Commit
tee Senator Harrison, will ask his COM
mittee to consider the subject with
view to proposing amendments to the
Joint resolution extending certain taxes
and with view to adding these amend
ments to that joint resolution"
n x
This statement, while unexpected in
some of it's details, seemed clear enough.
1t was a declaration that the admin
istration leaders had decided to tack
the Presidents tax program on the joint
resolution, then pending in the Senate,
providing for the extension OF certain
excise and nuisance" taxes beyond
July l. The subsequent activity of Sem
ator Harrison, his statements to the
press and the meetings OF the Senate
Finance Committee to pass on these
amendments all seemed to bear out
Senator RobinSon's announcement Of
what the White House conference had
decided.
In order to prevent the lapse of the
excise taxes-entailing loss OF $780,
900 day, every one knew that the joint
resolution would have to be passed by
Saturday of this week. Since the joint
resolution was to be rushed to passage,
and since the tax program was to be
placed in joint resolution. it seemed
quite natural to suppose that the tax
program was to be put through by
Saturday-or within five days. So the
newspapers interpreted the matter.
Newspaper intellect, or brains, or what
ever it is that newspapers have, how
ever, is not, it seems. what it used to be.
The President at his press conference
yesterday said emphatically that there
had been no suggestion at the White
House conference that the tax program
was to be passed by Saturday. No one,
he said, had intimated such thing in
any shape or form. No one had assumed
that the measure, with its new tax pro-
gram, would pass within five days. The
newspapers were wrong.
4 X
The press comment on the proposal
to rush the tax program-deSigned not
only to raise additional revenue, but
also to create a better social order"
through decentralization of wealth-was
not favorable. There were rumblingS OF
revolt in the House and Senate. Decla-
ration by Senator Harrison that there
would be no public hearings on the tax
amendments proposed because they
would take lot of time was not greeted
with any enthusiasm. Senator Borah OF
Idaho, who favored the tax program
generally, thought that course pursued
would have a bad reaction in the coun-
try. 1t did.
It's all very puzzling. The White
House conferees on Monday must have
misunderstood each other. An explana-
ton, perhaps, may lie in the suggestion
that the House was to bring in tenn
porary joint resolution extending the
excise taxes for 80 to 90 days, to prevent
any lapse in these taxes, and thereby
permitting the Senate to consider be-
yond Saturday the pending joint reso-
luton extending these taxes for year
or two. However, Senator Harrison in
the Senate said quite frankly that he
proposed to use all possible speed to get
the tax program tackled on the pending
Joint resolution, and get them both
passed by Saturday.
When the Presidents tax message was
first read to Congress the general i'm
preston of many of the Democrats was
that he would not insist upon having
the tax program written into law before
the adjournment of the present session
of Congress. They let their impressions
be known. Immediately the progressive
group in the Senate set up loud pro-
test. Senator Huey P. Long of Louisiana
took the floor with a roar that it looked
to him as though nothing was going to
be done after all about the share-the-
wealth tax program. Most Of the men,
bers of Congress were anxious to get
through with a session that already
has run almost six months. They did
not take kindly to the idea of staying on
in Washington this Summer until a
new tax program could be put through,
in addition to all the other must bills
on the Presidents list. But gradually
the leaders were forced into an open
position favoring the passage of the tax
program at this session.
X
In order to accommodate the members
who desired to "get through" the plan
to expedite the passage of the tax pro-
gram by tacking it on the joint reso-
luton pending in the Senate seems to
have been devised. But now the jig Is
UP, apparently so far as a speedy ad-
journment is concerned, and it looks as
though Congress would be here until
the latter part of August or September.
The leaders are going back to the old
way of dealing with tax reforms. They
are to be originated in the House, after
full hearings before the Ways and
Means Committee. One Of the COM
plants of House members has been that
these taxes, should have their start in
the House, not the Senate, under the
constitutional provision providing that
revenue legislation must originate in the