YOU NEVER CAN TELL

All but confirmed cynics know the annual hope that sees Congress reassemble. . It rises of itself. The childishness of men which thrills to "let's begin all over again", reacts to even so earthly a thing as American politics. Sometimes, too, pre-session rumors rouse the public to believe that something more than politics is to reign that some crusade has ardent champions. December brings not only Yuletide cheer, but also a holiday spirit toward politics; and a sense of possibilities.

It is very true that these possibilities usually vanish. A year ago as now, the President addressed serious recommendations to Congress. Upon only one of these, taxation, did Congress act, and upon that confusedly. Neither farm marketing; nor railroad consolidation, nor the Muscle Shoals, nor reclamation, nor the World Court was honored with effective attention. Over farm marketing and the Music Shoals, Congress deigned to bicker for a while. But when it might have entertained the other propositions. It was busied with doling out souvenir cannon and war monuments to the towns back home.

This time, however, as Congress meets, it is turning dawn in international relations. Crescent light reveals Locarno, reveals the League of Nations, vigorous if not triumphant, and the World Court, formidably attractive. To be sure, the new light has not yet gilded politics, nor has the personnel of Congress yet admitted any degree of conversion to a new conception. But the crescent dawn reveals a surge, a wave, a recrudescence, of international vision and, it may be, of altruism. Certainly there is health in hope.