The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-17
AS TO A SPECIAL SESSION OF
CONGRESS.

If the President has decided not TO call
an extra session of the new Congress the
Journal thinks he has made a mistake
There is no question of principle involved,
nor of the adoption or abandonment of any
particular policy. 1t is simply a question
of methods and of the most suitable time
for acting and as such it is open for
temperate discussion.
The two important matters to be con-
sidered by an extra session would be cur
rency reform and the enactment of laws
for the government of our new posses
sions. 1t is not likely that the closing ses-
sion of the present Congress will take any
action at all regarding currency reform
the Senate as now constituted being ad-
verse, and it will not be able to do much
on the other line, owing to the shortness
of the session. Its adjournment will leave
the currency question untouched and a
great many important questions relating
TO our new possessions unsettled. We
should think the President would desire
early action regarding both of these mat
tiers, and we believe the country expects
it. A dispatch says: THE President has
been persuaded that the country can get
along without agitation over changes in
it's currency and banking laws until the
new Congress meets in December, $780,
and that Congress will be in better po-
sition to legislate intelligently with regard
to new territorial acquisitions a year
hence than it can next spring" No doubt
the country could get along till Deem
Der, 1899, without any legislation on these
subjects, but the question is not so much
of getting along as of doing a neces-
sary work promptly. The country could
have got along during the summer and
fall of 1897 without any legislation on the
tariff question, but the President called a
special session of Congress on March 15
nearly nine months before its regular time
of meeting, for the express purpose of leg
islating on the tariff question. There will
be many important matters relating to
our new possessions left unsettled by the
Fifty-fifth Congress, regarding which We
should think the President would desire
Congressional action as soon as possible.
AS for the other question. the Republic
an party is pledged to currency reform as
a necessary means of maintaining the gold
standard and any action by the President
that savorS even in a remote degree of a
purpose to shelve, table or indefinitely post
pone the question will be regarded with
disfavor by a large majority of Repub-
licans and by the business men of the
country generally The question has not
been settled by the war as slavery was by
the civil war. 1t is still a live question anu
an open issue, and inaction or indefinite
postponement of action would be the worst
possible way Of trying TO settle it. Early
legislation on this question is more i'm
portant than on anything else, because it
has direct bearing on the business and
prosperity of the country. and cannot be
even temporarily bridged over by executive
action, as can the questions relating to
our new possessions. If the President is
willing to take the responsibility of exer-
cising arbitrary authority under the form
of military government which he would
doubtless do wisely. public interests