Story of a Special Session
STORY OF A SPECIAL SESSION THE special session is over, to the relief of many, including Senator Moses, to the disappointment of the newest of the senatorial groups, the Young Guard, the Turks,...
...He could do nothing...
...industrial schedules could now be nicely fattened...
...And it was not indifference...
...But for once representatives of the agricultural states were not so innocent, nor so impotent...
...after long confusion, order was beginning to appear...
...If we are getting very little in return for this expenditure we can still be thankful that it did not buy us the Smoot-Hawley Bill in its original form...
...Through the greater part of this amazing session, Mr...
...There came to be almost as many divisions in the Senate as there were members...
...We decline to agree with those who feel that any tariff bill at all would have been better than none...
...It was a case of every dog for himself...
...There was a flurry of activity, and then the Senate adjourned...
...Then everyone knew what they meant...
...They were out for protection...
...STORY OF A SPECIAL SESSION THE special session is over, to the relief of many, including Senator Moses, to the disappointment of the newest of the senatorial groups, the Young Guard, the Turks, dedicated to the rescue of the President...
...the end was not yet in sight, but an approach had been mapped out...
...No doubt the special session cost the government dearly, and it was devoted almost entirely to work on the tariff...
...Hoover has kept his hands off, which is what no one could have predicted of him in March...
...Actually, no one knew what the new and shifting alignments meant, what they signified, until the vote to remove manganese from the free list...
...Here was a volatile situation, apt to fly off in any direction, at a touch...
...In four days the Senate had done more with the tariff bill than in the previous three weeks...
...The campaign of 1928, with its sweeping promises, was buried and done with...
...Industries of all kinds had been the chief beneficiaries of other tariffs...
...Democrats, Insurgents, Independents, Old Guard, Young Guard, made alliances which were dissolved and renewed...
...the farmers would cash in on this...
...He spoke once, to ask that flexible rate-fixing be left in his power, and was rebuffed...
...What caused all the trouble, of course, was the refusal of the regulars to heed the President's wishes for a moderate revision of schedules, and later the refusal of the agricultural interests to accept anything less than what had been promised them...
...There were so many denials of any possibility of a third party that it was only natural to suspect that we had here the first seeds of such a party...
...As far as the farmers were concerned, the Old Guard had expected that what had happened before would happen again...
...And by autumn it was very plain that if anyone could be neglected, it could not be the farmers...
...the farmers would be made a few mild concessions, they would complain for a while, and then take what they had been offered and make the best of it...
...Complaints were louder than had been expected...
...Finally he asked for action...
...were more numerous and more menacing...
...it was helplessness...
Vol. 11 • December 1929 • No. 5
