Evening star., 1938-03-11
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WIFE,

Constructive negativeness-a phrase
worthy of Senator Ashurst, but of which
the Arizona word-builder is not guilty
pretty we'll describes the snail-like per-
formance OF Congress during the past
nine weeks of bicker and delay at the
Capitol. Considering the abiding gravity
OF the new depression and the bitter
need of remedial legislative action,
House and Senate could hardly give a
more disheartening exhibition of fiddling
while the national Rome burns. Blame
cannot be exclusively attached to- Con-
gress. The White House, through its
feeble leadership in both branches, bears
much Of the responsibility. If not the
lions share. President Roosevelt's albi
for the stalemate on the Hill, if he cared
TO offer one. would probably be that
administration control has gone where
the woOdbine tWineth not Except for
crop control, which has been enacted,
F. D. RS program is completely stymied.
The wages and hours bill is doomed to
indefinite postponement. Government
reorganization. il adopted at this ses-
sion, or later, will emerge from the con-
gressional hopper so mangled that its
own godparents will hardly recognize it.
Wednesdays smashing defeat of the
third basket" tax on corporation profits
glaringly illustrates the powerlessness of
the President to impose his views. Apart
from what it considers the intrinsic
dement's Of the rejected tax, the House
vote reflects the resentment of the sys-
tenn that came in with the New Deal, of
abolishing the tradition whereby the
lower branch originates revenue laws
and having them written by Treasury
theoreticians.
4
Herbert Hoover's hobnobbing with the
Nazi bosses in Berlin recalls the war
time period, 1876, when the leader
of the Commission for Relief in Bel
GUM was in a state of almost perpetual
rancor and hot water with the Ger
mans. In Prof. Gays two-volume history
of the public relations of Hoover's organi-
zatlon, there are page after page OF doc
umentary evidence attesting how 1.-The
Chief" had to battle for his rights against
the opposition and pretensions of Gen. Won
Bissing, the military governor general
OF the occupied territory. Hoover made
frequent trips to Brussels from his head
quarters in London. personally to pro-
test to the Prussian martinez against
army trespassing on the relief business.
More than once the future American
President had to tell the Kaiser's epau-
leted emissary exactly where he got
oil. Once Hoover had Ambassador
Gerard demonstrate with Foreign Sec
retary Won Jagow at Berlin. Hoovers
resentment of the Germans arrogance
reached the boiling-point in November,
1915, when they began deporting Bel
gians for labor service in the Reich.
Many relief workers were thus dra-
gooned. In notable letter to Minister
Brand Whitlock at Brussels, the c. r. B.
leader declared that while the United
States could probably do nothing about
1t, the situation called at least for an
"indelible stamp of American disap-
proval," in the absence of which there
would be ''blaze of indignation" among
the folks back home who were putting
up the money for nearly million tons
Of meal a month for starving Belgium
and expected Hoover to account for
every bag of it. Ever and anon there
were ugly rumors that the Army was
diverting relief supplies to German
bellies.
Mrs. Joe Robinson's appointment as
postmaster of her home town of Little
Rock, Ark, at $1,000 a year reminds
Washington that postal jobs are favorite
ways OF rewarding senatorial widows.
After the passing Of Senator William j.
Harris, Democrat Of GeOrQia in 1892