THE CONGRESS: The Old

On Dec. 1, Congress assembles. It is not the new Congress recently elected; it is the old Congress of last winter. The old familiar faces, at least most of them, will reappear. A few of the old members, Senators Colt, Brandegee, Lodge, will be answering other roll calls. Some will come back to pay a brief parting call—Magnus Johnson, for example; Senators Ball, Dial, Stanley, Walsh of Massachusetts, McCormick, before a forced retirement to rustication on their farms and by their native fireside. A few, such as Senator Elkins, will be back to wave a gayer adieu. Others such as Senators Walsh, of Montana, Brookhart, of Iowa, will return with a sigh of relief, knowing that they may come again. But, in the main, it will be the same identical Congress—the Congress that nobody liked.

What may be expected of it under new circumstances ? On the whole, its spirit and purpose will remain unchanged. Many members have merely been home to be patted on the back and sent to Washington by their constituents with the injunction: “Go back and do it over again, John!”

One thing may tend to chasten insurgent Republicans, however, and that is Senator Brookhart’s close hunt in Iowa.

Yet it is not to be expected that the 68th Congress, reconvened, will differ from its previous self. That fact of itself will tend to put a check on the proposals which the President will make to it.

He is expected to recommend a new program of tax reduction, less far-reaching than the last. Congress itself may come forward with some new measures of that kind. Representative Martin B. Madden, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, has already suggested that a means be devised of rebating* all Treasury surplusses (over $25,000,000) to tax payers in order to keep the Government poor and reduce the tendency to extravagance by either the Executive or Legislative Branch.

The chief business to come up will be the routine of passing the regular appropriation bills. The Howell-Barclay bill to abolish the Railroad Labor Board will be before the House when it convenes, having passed the Senate at the previous session. Its appearance will probably be the signal for the first great battle.

*This might take the form of a credit against future tax payments.