National Affairs: The Seventieth

Last week, three months after it met, the 70th Congress had the aspect of a thoroughly political Congress, which is what any truly professional Congress is expected to be in a presidential year. Its routine work was pretty well out of the way, but matters of intimate consequence to citizens, and therefore of private anxiety to Congressmen, were in a state of turmoil which portended a legislative jam when it comes time for the Congress to adjourn in June.

Work Done. The first thing the 70th Congress did in December was to make amends for things left undone in the filibustering 69th Congress, by passing a Deficiency Bill of appropriations to pay the back bills of assorted Government branches. Also, the House shoved along to the Senate with dutiful promptitude, appropriation bills to run the Government until July 1, 1929. By last week all but two of the ten Departments, and most of the independent bureaus, had been provided for. The two Departments yet to be provided for were Agriculture and the Navy and last fortnight the Agriculture moneys ($143,000,000) were voted by the House.

The one other large piece of legislation passed by both houses was the Alien Property Bill, to return or pay for seizures made eleven years ago. This measure carried riders increasing various clerical salaries, which irked President Coolidge, but not seriously enough to invite a veto. It was signed last week.

For the fourth time in five years, the Senate passed Senator Norris’s common-sensical resolution to amend the Constitution so that Congress, including newly-elected members, would meet on a set date (Jan. 2) each year and remain seated until its business is finished, instead of making new Congressmen wait 13 months to be seated and adjourning on March 4 every other year, as now; also, so that the President would take office Jan. 15 instead of March 4. Last week the House hemmed and hawed as usual over this attack on “lame duck” sessions and modified Senator Norris’s resolution beyond recognition. Then, as usual, it voted down the whole proposal. “Lame duckery” will continue. Representative La Guardia of New York promptly filed a bill to abolish “lame duckery” without amending the Constitution.

Both houses passed, and President Coolidge signed, a measure providing some 100 millions for new Federal buildings here and there throughout the land. For buildings in the District of Columbia, funds were authorized in a separate bill.

Work Half-Done. Outstanding upon the 70th Congress’s list of good intentions when it met were eight measures, varying from a flood control outlay to radio legislation. Of these eight intentions, four had been debated, three passed by one or other of the houses and five not yet acted upon by either house, up to last week. The half-done work was as follows:

Tax Relief. The House passed a Revenue Act before Christmas, to cut taxes by 289 millions, which was some 65 millions more than the Administration thought safe. So soon as the measure reached him, Chairman Smoot of the Senate Finance Committee, dutiful Administration man, pouched it and announced that the Senate would wait until mid-March, for tax-talk. To complicate tax reduction, Senator McMaster from South Dakota evinced his friendship for farmers by promising to tack upon the Revenue Act his rider-resolution, which was passed by the Senate, declaring for downward revision of the tariff. Otherwise, the chief tax issues among Democrats, G. O. P. and Progressives, centre on the amount of relief to be afforded corporate incomes; upon repeal of the inheritance tax (G. O. P. pro); upon repeal of the automobile tax (Democrats & Progressives, pro); and upon reduction in the “medium brackets” ($18,000 to $65,000) of individual income tax (G. O. P., pro).

Shipping. Whether or not, and how, to keep the Government in the shipping business, or to extricate it; and at the same time, how to nurture a private merchant marine, had been national questions long before the 70th Congress came into being. The Senate was first to voice its current solution. Last month it passed Senator Jones’ bill, requiring a unanimous vote of the U. S. Shipping Board to part the U. S. from any of its seagoing white elephants. Expecting opposition in the House and a veto from President Coolidge, Senator Jones tacked this bill, too, to the Revenue Act, which will be the kingpin when late-session log-rolling begins. In the House, the Jones bill was promptly sidetracked while Representative White of Maine brought out a bill to expedite the sale of Government-owned ships and to assist private operators with construction loans at low interest rates, with mail subventions, with Government insurance.

Radio. The Congress not having acted, the Federal Radio Commission, set up last year to spend a twelvemonth assigning wavelengths and generally regulating the national ether, technically ceased to exist last fortnight. Should the Commission not be resuscitated, ether regulation would presumably revert to the Department of Commerce. Accused of not knowing or doing its business and of discriminating in favor of the high-power stations of eastern cities, the Commission was practically disgraced, but the Senate passed a bill by Senator Watson to extend its life another year, with enlarged powers over nationwide networks and radio advertising. Last week, in the House Committee on Merchant Marine, this bill was being pondered with a view to forcing the Commission to distribute licenses “more equitably.” The chief effect of the proposed House amendments would be to deprive the oldest, biggest, richest stations, in Manhattan and Chicago, of the high wattages with which they now allegedly drown out smaller stations in far-off cities.

Work Not Done. The five major measures much heard of but not acted upon up to last week are:

Flood Control. Directly affecting the Treasury, and therefore the degree of wise tax reduction, is the most pressing extra-budget item of all flood control in the Mississippi Basin. The Administration’s $296,400,000 program, of which the States benefited were to pay $37,080,000, besides furnishing rights of way, was scrapped in February by the House Committee on Flood Control and replaced by an expansive $473,000,000 program, to be borne entirely by the U. S. This measure President Coolidge promised to veto. Senator Jones of Washington then tried his hand at the problem and last fortnight introduced a $325,000,000 measure retaining the local-payment principle insisted on by President Coolidge but actually costing the States only some $12,000,000. Since this bill did not affect tributaries of the Mississippi, many a Congressman, especially Arkansans, at once attacked it. Debates in both Houses pended, action remained far off.

The Navy. Sparing on other outlays, the Administration advocated at Christmas time a bill to authorize 74 new ships for the Navy, to cost some $1,500,000,000 including men and maintenance, over the next nine years. This program was chiefly one of replacement but pacific citizens objected so strenuously that the bill was scrapped last month by the House Naval Affairs Committee and replaced by a 16-ship program to cost only some $264,000,000, reserving to the President the power to suspend construction in case of another international disarmament conference. The House received this bill last fortnight but it had to wait its turn to be debated.

Farm Relief. Even farther postponed, but far more controversial than the Navy program, is the latest reincarnation of the famed, aged McNary-Haugen bill. Senator McNary last fortnight explained, and last week the Committee on Agriculture reported favorably, a draft modified to meet nine of President Coolidge’s last objections. The new bill calls for a $250,000,000 revolving fund to be loaned by the Government to marketing associations to aid in selling surplus crops in an “orderly” way. Also, it would establish a Federal Farm Board to administer this fund and it removes all restrictions from the President in naming this Board’s members. Also, it makes the relief provisions applicable to all farm produce instead of only six “basic” commodities. But—and here the fight will arise as of yore—the bill retains, as an alternative method by which the Federal Farm Board would help market the surplus, the much-debated “equalization fee”—a percentage levied upon all producers of a crop in which there is a surplus, to be spent eking out a “fair price” for producers faced with a loss on that crop. Last week, while the Senate anticipated hot debate on Senator McNary’s bill, the House Committee on Agriculture was struggling to frame a similar compromise.

Muscle Shoals. The future of the $51,000,000 U. S. power plant at Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee River in Alabama was as obscure as ever last week. In the Senate, the debate was on a resolution by Senator Norris providing that the U. S. keep the plant, operate it, sell the electricity to citizens for miles around. The Norris resolution also authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to use Muscle Shoals electricity in making nitrates for fertilizer, but the wording of the resolution reflected an opinion that synthetic fertilizer processes are too costly. In the House, contrarily, a committee was discussing a bill to lease Muscle Shoals to the American Cyanamid Co. Senator Norris attacked this bill from afar, warning that it was but a maneuver to put Muscle Shoals in the hands of power pirates. “You cannot make fertilizer cheap by passing a law and saying that fertilizer shall be cheap,” cried Senator Norris.

Boulder Dam. Farther off than solution of the Muscle Shoals deadlock was the Boulder Dam project on the Colorado River. Here more “power pirates” figured, but not as prominently. Congress was delaying action until the seven States drained and watered by the Colorado should agree among themselves what they want the U. S. to do.