Evening star., 1936-03-09
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WHLTAM VILE.

After nearly a week of milling over
the Presidents tax proposals. members
of Congress, including leaders chiefly
responsible for revenue legislation, con-
cede their inability to foreshadow with
any degree of assurance Just what will
finally come out of the hopper. One
guess is as good as another, they say
There's fair unanlmity on one point
that whatever scheme administration
leaders in House and Senate decide
upon is altogether likely to command a
majority in both houses. Over the week
end, the impression crystallized that
Treasury suggestions of alternatives" to
revision OF the corporate surplus tax
Structure-Such as manufacturers
sales tax, sitter personal income levtes.
revival Of nuisance taxes. etc.-will have
the inevitable effect of generating sup
port for the Presidents original plan.
The "or else" taxes arouse widespread
disfavor on Capitol Hill. Nobody likes
the idea of having recourse to them. with
a congressional election just around the
corner. Representative Smell of New
York, House Republican minority leader,
has rung brand new change on the
Roosevelt tax plan. Over the radio the
other night he dubbed it alliteratively
soak the saver" scheme.
Il X Y X
Robert w. Bingham. American Ambas-
sador to Great Britain. is expected in
Washington this week, having arrived in
the country from London at the end of
February. Coming fresh from the
troubled European scene, President
Roosevelt and Secretary Hull will have
the advantage of Col Binghams first
hand knowledge of affairs over there"
at the moment when the international
situation is beclouded anew by Hitler's
defiant resolve to remilitarize the Rhine
land and denounce the Locarno pact.
While Uncle Sam is completely disen-
tangled from Old World trials, trlbula-
tions and intrigues, any serious threat to
peace would be of immediate concern to
us. Between the turmoil in Japan and
the new crisis in Europe, the State De-
partment and its diplomatic representa-
tiveS at strategic centers are working
overtime these days and nights, watching
the tortuous and incalculable course OF
events Our experience between 1914
and 1918 is always here to remind us,
neutrality to the contrary notwithstand-
ing, that you can never tell just what
may happen.
Charles s. Wilson, American Minister
to Yugoslavia, who had narrow escape
from an aSsaSSin's bullet in the Belgrade
parliamentary chamber the other day.
rates as Uncle Sans ace authority on
Balkan affairs. A native of Maine and
Harvard man, he has been associated
with the diplomatic service continuously
for 35 years, having started in as secre-
tary of legation to Greece, Rumania and
Serbia in 1901. Since then he has been
on duty at various times not only IN
those countries but in Montenegro and
Bulgaria, as we'll as in Cuba, Argentina,
Italy and Spain. He went to Bulgaria
as Minister in 1921 and to Rumania in
1928. He has been envoy to Yugoslavia
since 1888.
TWO of the men appointed to high
places In the new Hirota cabinet at Toxic
are we'll known at Washington through
former official service In the United
States. Admiral Nagano named as min
lister of the navy, was naval attache at
the time of the Washington armament
conference In 1921 20 and is remembered
as an tlrlcomrnonly sfrewd, blunt sailor
man. He was chief of the delegation
which recently walked out of the London
Naval Conference because of Japan'S
failure to obtain parity with Great
Britain and the United States. Tsuneo
Matsudaira, designatea by Prcmie@