Evening star., 1936-05-18
Congress and Adjournment.


With the opening of the first of the
major political party national conven-
tions only three weeks away, congress
sional leaders are seeking a quick
wind-up of the present session. In
national campaign year this is the usual
goal-an adjournment of Congress sine
die before the conventions. The pros
poets for such program this year are
not bright. The two big must meas
ures of the President have still to be
tackled by the Senate, the tax bill and
the relief bill. Furthermore, there is
the possibility that the Supreme Court
of the United States may at any time
invalidate the Guffey coal act. In that
event, an immediate demand may be
made upon, the President to obtain from
Congress new legislation dealing with
the coal industry. If the President and
Congress yield to such demand, the
session may be prolonged indefinitely.
The Presidents tax bill, which is based
upon the theory that high taxes should
be levied on undistributed earnings of
corporations, has run into Snag in the
Senate Finance Committee. That COM
n1ittee stands ready, 1t is said, TO Junk
the House bill in large part and to write
one of its own. At the same time, the
Senate Appropriations Committee, which
is still working on the relief blll-a de-
fciency appropriation so called-is Won
dering whether it should "earmark"
some of the funds for the Public Works
Administration and the Rural Resettle-
ment Administration. The President
has insisted that the entire amount
appropriated for relief and works should
go to the Works Progress Administration,
presided over by Harry Hopkins, prince
of spenders. The Chief Executive, how
ever, has intimated that the P. W. A.
and Rural ReSettlement are, after all,
to be allotted each slice of the 1,425,-
100000 appropriation. The Senators are
concerned. They have lingering fancy
that Congress should make appropria-
tions and designate to which Govern
ment agencies the money should go.
Congress has been sitting for more
than four months. Its accomplishments
so far have been the passage OF the new
farm relief act, the soil erosion act, to
take the place of the defunct A A. A,
the passage Of the soldiers bonus act Tor
the distribution of more than $2,0OO,O ,OOO,-
900 to World War veterans, beginning
next month, and the re-enactment OF
the neutrality act, with certain amend
ments. That is the legislative crop. The
fact that the administration Immediately
sought to beat the Supreme Courts de-
cision on the A. A. A. around the bush
seems to point to an effort on its part
to enact new coal legislation if the Su-
preme Court knocks down the Guffey act.
There is, of course, no vital reason why
the Congress should adjourn before the
national conventions if it still has i'm
portant legislation to handle. 1t will
not be long before the Republican Ma
tional Convention meets in Cleveland
and adopts its party platform. There
may be the germ of an idea, popular
idea, in some of its platform planks.
With the Roosevelt Congress still in
Washington the New Dealers would be
in position to rush through measures
covering such ideas and so steal the
g. o. p. thunder. That, in itself, is
thought worth considering.
The tax bill, however, still stands as
the largest impediment to a quick
adjournment. When the President first
produced the plan for taxing undistrib-
uted corporate earnings it was hailed as
a happy and popular solution of the tax
problem. 1t would levy a tax on the
few and not the many. Since that time,
however, it has been discovered that
the tax plan is not popular with con-
siderable number of persons, which
probably is painful surprise. The tax
payers of America, doubtless, are COM
ing to realization that what is one
mans taxes is another mans relief.