LA FOLLETTE REVIEWS CONGRESS WORK
Follette, Robert M. La Jr.
LA FOLLETTE REVIEWS CONGRESS WORK SENATOR TELLS HISTORY OF 71ST CONGRESS Recalls Hoover's Promise Not to Interfere with Legislative Machinery TARIFF FOR FARMERS FAILS to Be FULFILLED Record of...
...For months, the Progressive Republicans and Democrats in the senate attempted to lower the unjustifiable increases in industrial rates and to give to agriculture rates upon its commodities which could reasonably be expected to be effective...
...Congress approved administration measures reducing income taxes $160,000,000 for one year: authorizing the expansion of federal highway aid...
...The special and first sessions ol the Seventy-first Congress were in session for about eleven and a half months, excluding recesses...
...The House, which is dominated by the President, used this opportunity to pass the Hnwley bill, jacking up the high rates oi the Fordney -McCumber Act of 1922 in such a manner that the discrimination between agriculture and Industry was greatly increased...
...OnJ concerning the debenture amendme/ again adopted by the senate, and \M Norris-Simmons amendment restov/ the flexible powers to Congress, did j President, speak out and then onhj SENATOR TELLS HISTORY OF 71ST CONGRESS support the Old Guard Republicans and against, any restriction upon his personal power to revise tariff duties...
...This amendment to the constitution to prevent members of congress, from serving for months after they have been repudiated by the voters at the polls ha3 not been acted upnn by the...
...Thla resolution is of vital Importance to the public and to railroad labor, but the President did not, see fit to Indicate to the '¦'use that he desired to 'Hon on - important legislation...
...Hoover's principal excuse was that he and the tariff commission can promptly begin to Improve the bill...
...Hoover's Responsibility President Hoover must assume full responsibility for the consequences of the Tariff Act of 1930...
...In December...
...President Hoover used every means at...
...but they were hailed by the president as of great immediate benefit to business and to la-j bor...
...t road construction, and public buildings construction by $70,000,000 a year...
...his command to force the confirmation of Judge Parker and his failure to obtain favorable action is no doubt, the most serious defeat of his administration...
...The House emasculated the prosperity reserve bill and It Is still in conference...
...Many of President Hoover's other appointments to the federal bench have been dictated by political considerations rather than by fitness for the office, in disregard of the principles which at the outset of his administration he had said would control nominations for these important positions...
...Only the bill providing for the gathering of statistics of unemployment was passed and sent to the President...
...The senate reduced the cost of this measure from $180,000,000 to $100.-000.000 annually Bnd the House accepted the senate's amendments The president vetoed the bill and in its place forced the House to paw a general disability pension measure, thereby repudiating policies which had been solemnly upheld ever since 1917...
...Upwards of eight hundred public acts and resolutions were passed, but the measures of great importance were: the Agricultural Marketing Act, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act...
...It seems appropriate following the adjournment of Congress lo review briefly some of the legislative development.* which have taken place since the inauguration of President Hoover...
...League for Industrial Democracy...
...President Hoover must, therefore, assume full responsibility for the farm relief measure and the policies of the farm board, whose members he nominated and whose confirmation he obtained from the senate...
...In the meantime our export trade has fallen off since Jan...
...The House voted to reject the amendment, and the bill passed, complied with the President's wishes...
...During the regular session the epochal fight against, the confirmation of Chief Justice Hughes took place in the senate...
...The bill providing for federal unemployment exchanges was not acted upon by the House at all...
...fitness rather than upon political considerations a declaration which the President set forth specifically in discussing judicial appointments in his letter to the Florida Republican conization...
...Lame Duck Resolution The Norris "lame-duck" resolution was passed by the .senate early in the special session...
...The House, after President had issued a statement indicating that he would veto the bill if its rates were thus, increased, sent the Senate amendments and the bill to conference...
...The important outcome of the sessions is the fact that only special interests concerned in tariff privileges and the power trurt were notably victorious...
...Since that day...
...and authorizing but not appropriating $150,000,000 worth of new rivers and harbors projects, to be built at the rate of 10 million dollars a year...
...The revelations concerning- the activities of lobbies and lobbyists have had a salutary effect upon the legislative situation in Washington...
...the Census-Reapportionment Act, and the World War Veterans Pension Act...
...Among other bills enacted, of slightly less importance, may be mentioned the Tax Reduction resolution, the Rivers and Harbors bill, the Federal Power Commission reorganization act, and the Veterans Affairs consolidation act...
...Even some Old Guard Republicans have urged President Hoover to take steps to relieve the party from the embarrassment of having the coming campaign managed by a lobbyist for the Power Trust who diverted funds given him for lobby purposes to stock gambling for his personal benefit...
...The result was substantially the old Fess-Tincher bill, to which were added the provisions for the creation of stabilization corporations...
...there are no signs of improved business conditions...
...The President signed the tariff bill on June 17...
...If he does much along this line he will have to to have more murage as well as more economic sens* than he has so far shown...
...All three have at one time or another been recommended by commissions of which President Hoover was a member...
...After full debate a majority of the senate voted to amend the bill so that the farm board should have authority to inaugurate the export debenture plan designed to give the staple agricultural crops of which we have an exportable surplus the benefit of one half of the tariff rate which would be imposed upon imports of the same commodities...
...War Veterans' Record A bill liberalizing the long standing policy of compensation for World War veterans on the basis of service connected disabilities was passed by the House...
...administration-controlled Houpe...
...fore...
...Position of Hoover Shortly after his inauguration, it was announced through authoritative White House sources that President Hoover would not attempt to write bills and impose them upon Congress and that he would accept or reject legislation as it came to him without trying to intervene for or against its passage...
...The conference committee, dominated by the President's adherents, eliminated the debenture, but their first report was rejected by the senate, in order to force the House to vote on the debenture plan...
...LA FOLLETTE REVIEWS CONGRESS WORK SENATOR TELLS HISTORY OF 71ST CONGRESS Recalls Hoover's Promise Not to Interfere with Legislative Machinery TARIFF FOR FARMERS FAILS to Be FULFILLED Record of Administration O n Unemployment Discussed...
...j Business depression and unemployment have, however, continued in spite of the fact that the president obtained the legislation for which he asked...
...bill plafln...
...The senate amended this bill to give World War veterans the same rates of pension as those paid to the Spanish War veterans...
...There remains to be acted upon at the December session many vital measures of concern to the people of the country...
...The fundamental difficulty is that the measures which he recommended do not affect the causes of the present, depression, signs of which made their appearance some time before the October stock market, crash...
...The conferees reported back the low rates which President Hoover had previously dictated to the House and the bill pas-sed both the House and the Senate...
...the country had begun to suffer from a serious business depression...
...Other countries are considering action to curtail our export trade and the administration has become ro alarmed that it has sent...
...The President, after calling a series of business conferences to create optimism, proposed to stimulate business by a tax reduction and by a new public works legislation...
...In other schedules, he recommended that revision be confined to "limited changes" to aid industries in which unemployment had resulted from "insurmountable (foreign) competition...
...The Senate passed Senator Wagner's three bills dealing with unemployment...
...The bill to limit the u?e of injunctions in labor controversies was blocked in the Senate .Tudlciary Committee for months by administration Senators but was finally reported to the Senate adversely, where it remains on the calendar until next December...
...President Hoover mu?t...
...1. at the rate of a billion dollars a year.' Although Republican Leader Watson declared on June 13 that "If this bill is passed this nation will be on the up grade financially, economically, and commercially within 30 days...
...President Hoover has been appealed to without avail to indicate to the House leaders that he desired action upon these bills...
...immk" from on the iimfi lia<(\ the senate, but was blocked by administration leaders in the House...
...The Senate Finance committee, controlled by Old Guard Republicans, reported the bill without materially reducing the discrimination against agriculture...
...WASHINGTON, D. C. In weekly comments I have endeavored to keep the readers of The Progressive informed concerning the important issues under consideration at Washington...
...Out of the maze of hurriedly-considered and frequently Ul-advised law enforcement legislation proposals advanced by the President at one time or another only one, to lighten the Jones Law-penalties for ".-light" or "casual" violations was passed...
...Tariff for Agriculture" The President's second request in his message to the special session called for a revision of the tariff to benefit agriculture...
...The senate after full debate rejected the nomination of Judge Parker for supreme court because of his decision upholding an injunction enforcing yellow-dog contracts, and because his nomination appeared to have been made for political rearons without regard to the qualifications which should determine appointments to the court...
...The president issued a vehement statement opposing the debenture amendment shortly before it was voted upon in the Senate, thus breaking his avowed policy of non-interference in legislative deliberations...
...Since the enactment of the Hoover plan of laxm relief, agricultural prices have been lower than at any time since the deflation of 1920-21...
...THE TARIFF With elaborate explanations and apologies President Hoover signed the tariff bill which has cost congress more than a year of agony to produce...
...It If of little purpose to judge whether the President or Congress was triumphant as a result of the two sessions just closed...
...The Parker Appointment By ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE...
...Canada, our best customer, has retaliated against our goods...
...The exposure of the activities of Claudius Huston, President Hoover's personal choice as Chairman of the Republican National Committee, has not a." yet resulted in Chairman Huston's removal...
...Despite the President's opposition, the senate amended the farm relief bill by adopting the debenture plan...
...Not once during this long contest over tariff rates did thej President indicate his attitude towar< the high industrial rates which his peri sonal supporters were advocating...
...1929...
...The Norris bill for government operation of Muscle Shoals passed the Senate by a. substantial majority...
...Congress also granted the President's wish to transfer the Prohibition Bureau from the Treasury "to the Department of Justice...
...Og-den Mills, assistant secretary of the treasury, abroad in an effort to appease the wrath of our foreign customers...
...It is still in conference and the House conferees have refused to accept the compromise offered by the Senate conferees on the ground, publicly stated, that the President is opposed to the generation and sale by the government of even the surplus power not required for the manufacture of fertilizer...
...He maintained his silence even during the closing days of the tariff fight in the senate when the work of the coalition on behalf of agriculture and the consumer was being wrecked by the most brazen and rorriid log-rolling deals...
...and Italy has adopted high duties against our automobiles...
...The Couzens resolution halting further railroad mergers until the Congress could investigate holding companies and devise ways and means for their regulation passed the Senate but remained unacted on by the House...
...France is preparing to do so...
...It was further announced that his nomination^ for public offices would be based upor...
...The Lobby Inquiry The lobby inquiry conducted by the subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee was the outstanding investigation of the two sessions...
...The last four of these measures were actually only further steps in programs upon which the federal government had embarked years ago...
...At the outset of the special session everyone agreed that farm relief legislation should be given consideration first...
...The senate and house committees on agriculture, after consultation with the President, drafted bills which followed the specifications laid down in hl-message...
...for he could have vetoed it by a mere scratch of his pen, and his veto would have been sustained by the senate, if not by the House...
...therefore, assume full responsibility for launching the government upon a general disability pension policy for World War veterans, a policy which will cost enormous sums in the years to come...
...Leaders of the house sought to save the Republican membership from committing itself and sent the bill to conference without permitting a vote upon the senate's amendment...
Vol. 1 • July 1930 • No. 32
