Evening star., 1936-11-11
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

If the Roosevelt landslide proves one
thing in particular, 1t shows that the
country doesn't want any shooting of
Santa Claus-not right away, anyhow.
Voters plainly indicated that they wish
no premature shutting of of the opulent
source from which recovery blessings
have so generously flowed. Republican
campaign charges of New Deal extrava-
gance, as election returns reveal, made
little or no dent. Authorities now hazard
the guess that until taxes begin to
make people feel the pinch Of Federal
bounty for relief, farm benefits and
other purposes, there viii be no very
vocal protest against continuance of New
Deal spending policies. Nevertheless and
notwithstanding. President Roosevelt is
proceeding earnestly in the direction of
trying to balance the budget" To
what extent he is able to beat intentions
into deeds will not be disclosed until his
fiscal message reaches Congress. During
the campaign F. D. r. intimated that
he expects two primary factors to pro-
mote budget balancing-Q decrease of
work-relief needs through steady i'm
provement in business and absorption of
the unemployment slack by private in
dustry, and 90 increased Treasury re-
ceipts from private and corporate in
come taxes and other revenue sources.
Figures just issued by the Alexander
Hamilton Institute show that the ma
tional income in September reached q
recovery high with $5.383, ,000, 900, which
Is some 30 per cent below the pre-
depression peak of $7,786. 100000 in Oc-
tober, 1929.
n n n
Four Republican House veterans, who
are completing IL terms and % success
sive years of service in Congress, all fell
by the wayside on November 3. They
are Representatives Bacharach of New
Jersey, Cooper of Ohio, Darrow of Penn
sylvania and Lehlbach of New Jersey.
All of them entered the House on March
4, 1915, along with their brother Re-
publicans, Representatives Smell Of New
York and Tinkham Of Massachusetts,,
who escaped the recent holocaust. With
popular Ike Bacharach's disappearance
from the scene, Vice President Garner
becomes the sole survivor at the Capitol
of the famous quartet of Nick Long
worths congressional inseparables-the
late Speaker, Garner, Bacharach and
Judge Finis Garrett of the Court of
Customs and Patent Appeals.
** x*
Not since the Fifty-second Congress,
which took ofice after the dethronement
of Gear" Tom Reed, has the Republican
estate in the House fallen so low as it
will be after next January. During the
former depression there were only SO
Republicans in body of 333 members,
as against the SO who will sit in the
next House of 435. The G. O. P.'s per-
centage in the incoming Congress there
fore works out at a fractionally smaller
figure than its strength in the Fifty
second Congress. On the latter occa-
sion, the minority was so attenuated
that it could caucus comfortably in the
room of the Judiciary Committee. Re-
publican leaders believe they have at
last reached an irreducible minimum
in the House, but after what happened
to their recent rosy hopes of increasing
their strength there, you never can tell.
X Il
Despite a current impression that
Father Coughlins exit from the political
scene was precipitated by Cardinal Pa
cells presence in the United States,
many prominent Catholics are convinced
that the papal secretary Of state actually
had no hand in the affair. They feel
sure that the Vatican long since de-
cided simply to let matters take their
own course, in the confident expectation
that sooner or later the Detroit radio
priest would be eliminated. Be that rs it
may, 1t u agreed on most hands that tho
holy ~ y Tar from displeased with the