Seventy-second's End

Herbert Hoover stuck a long black cigar between his teeth, nipped out the tails of his cutaway and sat firmly down at the black oval table in the centre of the President's room just off the Senate lobby. He was still President of the U..S. with work to do. An enormous wall mirror reflected the drawn tired lines in his face as he hunched over a stack of bills laid before him. William McKinley (in bronze) glowered out of a corner. Down through the heavy tracery of a chandelier "The Eye of God'' painted on the ceiling was fixed upon the grey Hoover head as it bent to its task. Around the mosaic floor stood Senators, Representatives, Cabinet members, military aides, clerks and bodyguards silently watching the 31st President perform his final duty, wind up an era.

Squiggle-squiggle went the President's pen as he signed bill after bill. When he came to the one appropriating $1,083,567,534 for independent offices, he paused, stood up, read parts of it, tossed it aside. Then he sat down. The scratch of his pen blended with the blurred bumble of voices coming through the swinging doors to the Senate chamber. A second bill went into the discard--a last-minute measure by South Carolina's Smith providing for a government cotton pool in return for acreage reduction. Herbert Hoover still had a mind of his own and he was determined to use it until the final minute. His rejection of the cotton bill set the head of outgoing Secretary of Agriculture Hyde wagging with approval.

In December President Hoover had recommended a major revision of veterans laws to reduce non-military disability allowances. Congress ignored his proposal. The independent offices appropriation bill carried the maximum legal amounts for ex-soldiery. Even before he left the White House President Hoover had explained his pocket veto of that measure: "The appropriation bills passed by the Congress, when taking into account mere postponements to later deficiency bills, show that the total appropriations were approximately $161,000,000 above my recommendations. Of this increase $130,900,000 is in the independent offices bill. I am not signing this bill in order that it may be reviewed in the next session."

With these last official acts of his Presidency, Herbert Hoover marched out of the room and into the crowded Senate chamber. There, after swearing in John Nance Garner as his successor, Vice President Curtis delivered an emotional five-minute farewell which ended: "And now, with a last expression of thanks and good wishes to all of you, I declare the Senate of the 72nd Congress adjourned sine die."

The passing of the last "lame duck" session in U. S. history was a sombre, subdued affair. The nation was too wracked with troubles for silly songs and partisan chatter. The nearest thing to a joke was cracked by Republican Senate. Leader Watson, defeated for reelection, when he announced that he was "going home with the almost unanimous consent of the people of Indiana."

Died. Unfinished legislation left behind by the 72nd Congress:

P: Beer bill.

P: Domestic Allotment.

P: Increased R. F. C. relief for Unemployment.

P: Glass banking bill.

P: Taxes to balance the budget.

P: Economy to do the same.

P: Mortgage relief.

P: St. Lawrence Seaway Treaty.

P: World Court protocol.

P: Debt moratorium for municipalities.

P: Two thousand Hoover nominations.

Done. The prime accomplishments of the three-month session were:

P: Submission to the states of a resolution to repeal the 18th Amendment.

P: Independence for the Philippines.

P: Bankruptcy revision.

P:Reorganization power for the new President.

P: Power as great as that of any state banking official for the Comptroller of the Currency over national banks during the current crisis.

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