SESSION OF REVOLT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 August 1939, Page 6

SESSION OF REVOLT

AGAINST ROOSEVELT ADMINISTRATION PARTY DIVISIONS PRESIDENT’S PROGRAMME BLOCKED. IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS IN FOREIGN POLICY. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright WASHINGTON. August 5. The session of Congress w.liieli ended today was an embittered political prelude to 1940—seven months of a spreading' and spectacularly successful rebellion against 1 lie Roosevelt Administration.

It was largely a session of legislative stagnation. It found the Administration with sufficient committee power to advance legislation, but facing in the House and Senate a coalition of Republicans and insurgent Democrats with sufficient votes to cripple or, toward the close, kill its proposals. Thus it was largely a session of stalemate, and, for the President, a session of frustration.

The coalition finally dealt, a major blow to Mi' Roosevelt’s economic' philosophy by killing the proposal for 3,860,000,000 dollars of Federal loans for what were asserted to be selfliquidating projects. Further, the coalition fought to a standstill the Administration’s proposal to revise the Neutrality Act in the interests of the democracies, surrounded the dispensation of relief money with highly restrictive requirements and cut down the relief appropriations. The motive of some of the members of the coalition was to stop Mr Roosevelt and make certain there is no third term. With others this was combined with a growing repugnance toward the Administration legislation, especially its spending Bills. The roots of the revolt, according to some, lay in the Court Reorganisation Bill, by which Mr Roosevelt in 1937 proposed to break the Supreme Court’s opposition to the New Deal legislation. THE DEMOCRATIC RIFT. The break in his party widened as a result of an attempt to purge some of the members in the last primary elections. Anti-Administration Democrats began the session determined not only to prevent a third term but also to wrest from the President the power to name the 1940 Democrat nominee. The revolt was directed principally at the Administration’s fiscal policies, but toward the end it was eating away at other Administration measures. Even the discussion on foreign policy was not free of domestic bitterness. However, the Administration’s record is hardly barren. Paradoxically, while the outstanding event was the rejection of the lending programme, the session produced history's highest peace time appropriation figure, exceeding 13 billion dollars, which was two billion dollars over 1938. The gigantic rearmament programme, which Congress enthusiastically supported, and the farm relief programme account chilefly for the increase. Also Mr Roosevelt received limited power to reorganise the executive branch of the Government.

Although domestic wrangling handicapped administration in foreign affairs, the members devoted more time and thought to the international scene than any other Congress since the Great War.

ACTION AGAINST JAPAN. The Legislature did not see eye to eye with the Administration regarding the attitude to the European crisis, but the session ended with certain Republican and Democratic leaders, notably Senators Pittman and Vandenberg, in accord on what may be one of the most important moves ever taken by the United Slates abroad—the termination of the commercial treaty with Japan. Moreover, while Congress refused to accede to the Administration’s desire to amend the Neutradity Act, leaders promised Mr 'Roosevelt that the neutrality legislation would be among the first subjects discussed when they reconvene in January.

The Republicans and Democrats appear to be looking through the same glasses as regards Japan, and as soon as they reconvene they will probably discuss the question of an embargo in order to introduce it if approved immediately the treaty expires on January 26. Important fruits of the session were an agreement for the exchange of 175.000,0001 b of British rubber for 600,000 bales of cotton, to be held for a war emergency; treaties with Panama for the defence of the Panama Canal; and the establishment of naval bases at Midway, Johnstone, Palmya, Kodiac and Sitka Islands and Puerto Rica. The project for Guam Island was shelved for fear it would provoke Japan. The session has ended with the Republicans a force for the first time since the New Deal began, and jubilant at their prospects, and the Democrat breach wider. Administration foes have obviously gained powerful recruits. Roosevelt supporters predict, however, that some of these will be lost when the insurgent. legislators get home and start talking to their constituents. Particularly on the question of the United States taking a stronger stand to avert a world war, they may find that the average American's support for Mr Roosevelt's views is greater than thev thought. The Seventy-sixth Congress adjourned sine die tonight.