Evening star., 1935-03-11
ePOliticalM Mill
By C. Could Lincoln.

taxpayers returns must be In the
hands of the collectors of internal
revenue, the roars Of those who con-
tend that their rights are being in
vaded increase. This is pink slip"
day in the House A lot will be said
In denunciation Of these pink slips,
and the bill for the repeal Of the law
which requires that the taxpayers
must fill these slips out and file them
in all probability will be passed. No
one really believes that the Senate
will have time, or perhaps the In
clination, to put through the repeal
bill before March Is. The drive to
have the Senate take favorable action
on the repeater is under way. how
ever.
The Senate has been the body
which has insisted in the past on IN
come tax publicity. 1t was senator
La Toilette of Wisconsin and Senator
Norris of Nebraska who have favored
the plan in the past, although Sena-
tor La Toilette declares that his plan
was merely to make the entire tax
return a public record" instead OF
! the pink slip idea. The Senate mas
plenty of troubles on its hands today
without taking up the pink slip mat
ter. With the work-relief bill and
| Senator Huey P. Long and his attack
on the Roosevelt administration, CEN
tering for the time on Postmaster
| General Farley, to occupy It's time
and attention, it will be strange u the
Senate is able to give consideration 10
| the pink slip for some time to come.
Only an overwhelming desire to call
a halt to the income tax publicity, re-
| sulting in unanimous consent agree
ment to act quickly and favorably on
the pink slip repeal, could put through
the repeal bill quickly in the Senate.
X X
Public attention has centered so
strongly on the Presidents work-relief
| bill, the proposal to continue the
N. r. A. for another two years and
the general hurry burly in the Sen
ate that little has been said OF the
proposed banking bill. Not many of
| the legislators themselves have had
time to 60 into the details of this
measure which is one of far-reaching
| Importance. Sooner or later, however,
| the administration forces will, 1t is
expected, get behind this bill and
there will be a real fight over many
Of its provisions.
The American Liberty League, fol-
lowing out its program Of discussing
| the legislation which comes before
Congress for consideration. today has
issued its own analysis of the banking
bill. What it has to say regarding
the bill is a plenty. Its chief COM
plant is that it strengthens the grip
of the Executive over the whole sys-
tenn and makes it far more "polit-
ical." Here are eight objections which
the league lists:
! 1t provides for abdication by the
Congress OF its constitutional duty to
regulate the value of money. 1t dele
gates to the executive branch unre-
str:cted authority to control the VOL
ume of currency and credit without
so much as declaring a policy. 1t
makes our monetary and banking
structure subject to the Whims OF
political influence. 1t strengthens the
Presidents power over the Federal
Reserve Board and makes it impoSsi-
BILE for that agency or the Federal
Reserve banks to be independent. It
shifts to the Federal Reserve Board
powers now exercised by the non
political Federal Reserve banks. 1t
destroys safeguards in present law af-
fecting the use of currency and credit.
1t facilitates imitation and offers no
adequate means of checking tend
encies in this direction. 1t opens the
door to unsafe banking"
\
The Liberty League suggests that
national commission of appropriate
character be set up to look into the
whole matter of banking legislation
before any new bank acts are passed
by Congress. With regard to political
control of banking, the league has the
following to say:
The experience of nations through
out history has been that, when gov
ernmental influence over banking Sys-
TENS assumes the nature of manage
ment rather than supervision. financial
ruin follows. In such circumstances
the fiscal requirements of treasures,
rather than of industry and agricul-
ture, tend to become the prime con-
sideration in the determination Of
policies. The outstanding examples of
disastrous imitation in the world have
resulted from political control of CEN
tral banks"
The political future of Senator
Long, the Louisiana kingfsh, is a
matter of a lot of conjecture these
days. No one quite seems TO know
whether he will run for Senator, Gov
ernor or for President next year. That
goes for Mr.. Long himself, for he has
announced himself a likely candidate
for all three of these jobs. 1t seems
pretty certain that Long could not
have the Democratic nomination for
President if he wanted it. So if he is
going to run for President, it will
have to be with some other party
designation. Democrats in the South
who have deserted the Democratic
party have had difficult time. Two
Democratic Senators, for example, in
North Carolina who jumped the fence
and supported the Republican candi-
date for President in 1928. against
Alfred E. Smith, found to their sorrow
that they had lost out with their con-
stituentS couple of years later. They
were retired from the Senate.
X X
Senator Long could have the Demo-
cratic nomination for Senator or Gov
ernor in Louisiana, unless there
should be political revolution against
him in the next few months. But if
he is intent upon seeking the presi-
dency there is not the slightest
chance of his getting the delegates
to the national convention Of the
Democratic party. The Democratic
party organization has been built up
in the last two years more strongly
than ever before. After all, organ
ization counts. Furthermore, as be-
tween President Roosevelt and Long,
the former would command the
noDlIlar Sllp-ort tOdaV of the vast