Evening star., 1937-05-30
Congress
Continued From First Page.)

House and Senate as it did when 1t
first broke upon them-prepared, it is
said. by some OF the bright young
men, Of the New Deal. 1t is true
that joint hearings have been promptly
arranged, in the hope that the bill
may be speeded-or seemingly so. But
the prospects are that the measure
will be materially amended before it
is ever taken up for consideration in
either house.
The attack made on the labor
standards bill by American Fedora
tion of Labor, which prefers to have
minimum wages and maximum hours
left to collective bargaining, has been
another wet blanket upon the measure
Wages Bill Criticized.
One criticism leveled at the meas
ure yesterday by Democratic Sen
ator was that If the Labor Standards
Committee Is set up as proposed, it will
Immediately become target OF labor
unions all over the country, demand
ing that the minimum wages be fixed
at higher levels, and that the levels
be the same in the various parts of
the country
The administration certainly seems
to be looking for trouble" this Sen
ator said
Senator McCarran of Nevada also
urged that the labor bill be passed
slowly and even that it 20 over until
the next session Of Congress. Mem
bers OF Congress. he said, ought to
take the problems home and study
them.
The majority of the Judiciary Com
mittee, opposed to the Presidents
court bill, hopes to submit an ad-
verse report on the measure to the
Senate later this week, according to
Senator McCarran. After it is on
the calendar, the administrati ton forces
will have to decide whether they wish
to force 1t to some kind OF conclu-
sion or whether they are willing to
let it lie dormant. Another alterna-
tive would be an announcement by
the President that he would with
draw the proposal, since the court
has sustained the Wagner labor re-
lations act and the social security
act and since he is to have an op-
portunity to appoint a new associate
justice in place of Justice Van De-
vanter. The President has given alb
solutely no indication that he will
withdraw the court bill, although a
number OF his followers on Capitol
Hill devoutly wish he would do so.
Pressure for Robinson.
After Justice Van Devanter is "out"
and of the court, the President may
send in a nomination at any time
The pressure for the appointment of
Senator Robinson of Arkansas has
been very great. But many of the
New Dealers are strongly opposed, and
it has been rumored in some quar-
ters that there Is opposition to the
appointment by John L. Lewis and
William Green, heads of the fighting
labor organizations of the country.
On the other hand, it might be very
difficult to get the Senate to confirm
the nomination Of one of the more
radical New Dealers if it were sent
to the Senate now. What the New
Dealers would welcome would be the
withdrawal of a second member of
the Supreme Court-that is the with
drawal Of another conservative men,
ber. Then the President could send
IN at the same time the nomination
OF Robinson and of professed lib
eral, and hope to get them both con-
flrmed without much difficulty.
II the President declines to appoint
Senator Robinson and should name
another, the situation would be dis
tinctly cloudy. If he is not going to
give the appointment to Robinson,
the President may simply fail to make
any appointment for the next sew
eral months. The court will not be
IN session anyway.
Over the week end administration
House leaders have been working
feverishly to straighten out the tangle
over the relief appropriation bill. If
they take beating in the House on
this measure administration prestige
Is likely to wane bit.
SUMNER SESSION SEEN,
JASPER, Ala, May 20 P).-Speaker
William B. Bankhead foresaw today
a prolongation of the present session
OF Congress "for two or three months. "
We may run until September, :"
said the Alabamian, "but hope we
Will get done sooner"
Bankhead, at his home here for q
"Arthritis