Evening star., 1939-08-13

bach of Washington and Pepper of Flor
ida did their ardent best for the New
Deal but they were unavailing against
such old hands as Vice President Garner,
Harrison of Mississippi, Clark of Mis-
souri,, George and Tydings, who sided with
the Republicans whenever a controver-
sial New Deal or anti-New Deal proposal
was at issue.
Although many of President Roosevelt's
formal and informal recommendations
were carried out during the session, it
has been said that his domestic policy
was repudiated when the House refused
to consider his spending-lending bill.
and that his foreign policy was rejected
when the Senate Foreign Relations Com
mittee voted IL to II to postpone revi-
sion OF the neutrality laws until next
session.
These important defeats have caused
some OF the more jealous New Dealers
to predict there will be an extra session
IN November, although Stephen Early,
the White House secretary, recently OBJ
served that he could not see such ses-
sion in the offng, except one made nee
essary by European war.
A special session, however, is DOS
sibility if not probability because of the
1910 conventions. Its calling-if Euro
pean war is ruled out-apparently will
depend on reports to the White House
about the popular reaction to the record
OF the last session and whether Mr..
Roosevelt can formulate legislative pro-
gram for the last year of his second
term. His complaints at his Hyde Park
press conference Tuesday against the
coalition of Republicans and anti-New
Deal Democrats indicated that he might
go to the country" over his recent de-
feats. But neutrality legislation and a
revised spending lending program would
hardly justify the risk of an extra session
within the next few months 1t has been
suggested that he might get behind a
glgantc national health program in an
effort to distribute Federal funds and
thus forestall a general old-age pension
plan, but there is scant evidence at this
time of such procedure.
Might Fit Into Strategy.
There is much to be said for a special
session regardless of the administration
defeats and its possible 1910 program. If
Congress should be called back to WASH
ington about November l, it could ad-
Journ In May or early June to give the
country breathing spell before the July
conventions. The bitter tempers of the
closing weeks of the last session demons
trated that the public welfare is not
served by keeping legislators in the
jungle summer heat of Washington. And
II the Senate isolationiSts insist on fill
clustering against revision of the neu-
trality laws, a November session would
fit in with the administration strategy.
Such session would revive the old prac-
tice of having most of the appropriation
bills through the House by the Christ
mas holidays, and would give the admin
istration time to work on its program
if it has one
If there is no special session, with a
subsequent breathing spell before the
conventions, there are good prospects
for another Democratic Madison Square
Garden f1asco, with the Roosevelt spend
ing philosophy and labor policies taking
the place of the prohibition and Ku Klux
Klan issues. The Hatch clean politics"
law will insure that the next Democratic
convention will not be an administrations
controlled affair like the one at Phila-
delphia in 1896, at which Mr. Roosevelt
wrote the platform, but whether any
group will be dominant next year is
purely speculative problem
In his annual message to Congress last
January President Roosevelt declared
that most of the economic problems of
the country would be solved if national
income of $8o,OO0,OOO,Oo0 could be at
tained. The current income is at the
rate of $4,000, 100000 to $4,000 900 900 a
year. The country's major problem, as
he said in his letter to Senator OMahoney
last May. is to determine "why a large
part OF our vast reservoir of money and
savings have remained idle in stagnant
pools"
The last session offered no solutions
to these problems.