POLITICS IN AMERICA

Evening Star, Issue 22228, 4 January 1936, Page 11

POLITICS IN AMERICA

LAST CONGRESS BEFORE ELECTIONS PRESIDENT BROADCASTS OPENING ADDRESS Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright WASHINGTON, January 2. The seventy-fourth Congress will be convened to-morrow for the last session before the Presidential elections, and for that reason, according to many observers, it is likely to produce more in political by-play than in legislation. Indicative of the political importance the session holds, President Roosevelt has taken the unprecedented step of arranging to deliver the regular opening message on the state of the nation at 9 o’clock in the evening, instead of the customary hour of noon, wishing to attract a radio audience as large as possible. This has brought violent recriminations from the Republicans, who charge the President with using the- halls of Congress as a political forum. The first legislative Act to be considered once the Congress has been organised, and one which may easily prove to be the most important undertaken, will be the revised neutrality law, which Administration experts have already drafted. It is understood that it will carry out most of the provisions of the present one, with the important exception of giving President Roosevelt permissive powers to extend full embargoes beyond war implements to “ materials used in war,” covering important American commodities, such as iron, steel, petroleum, copper, and cotton. On the domestic side Another hitter controversy ■ over the payment of the veterans’ bonus is expected, and considerable partisan manoeuvring on appropriation Bills and other routine legislation.