The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-21
FIRM
ANOTHER NOTHING DOING CON-
 GREss IS FoRECAsTED.
Bulk of Men Who Retarded LegisIatios at Last Session Have Been Re- elected and show Nc
 Improvement.


 Washington, Aug. 20.-tSpecial. 1-- Are we to have another Nothing-Do- ing Congress?
 That is a question which is now con- corning a great many people who are genuinely interested in several long pending issues. The answer to 1t, as far as answer can be discerned. ts not at all reasuring. Nearly every one of the stand-patters who controlled the o-nothing policy of the Fifty-eighth Congress were reelected and, under the powerful political muscle of Speaker Cannon will more than likely be held down to the same program.
 One of the curious and interesting things of the situation with respect to relations between the executive and leg islative branches of the present regime is the utterly futility of all the Pres idents promises and assurances that things shoul dand would be done. which he urged.
 The stand -patters in the last Con- gress, as 1t Is said they will do in the Fifty-ninth. rendered President Roose- veit's earnest declarations and brave promises on the two subjects of tariff revision and railway rate regulation wholly inocuous. Apparently fretted by the dilatory tactics of the Repub- lican leaders in Congress. President Roosevelt has talked for over year of holding an extra session of Con- gress. The railway rate question seem ed to possess his mind above all other issues. The two houses had their two committees, the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce and the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce giving long hearings. and the result was the ruling legislative temper was further from adopting any proposed remedy than ever before.
 A~n .n& hA NAk way representatives got very much the better of argument all along the line. They were represented before the com mittees by the ablest men at their conn mand, while those seeking rate reform had q very desultory representation, and none of these offered practical plan which had any general support. Railway rate regulation now looks ai- most like a dead issue.
 Nothing But Fuss.
 It is a demonstrable thing that Pres ident Roosevelt on tartff revision, as we'll as on railway rate regulation, has made more fuss than any man or set of men," What has arisen since the close of the last do-nothing Congress to encourage a belief that the Prest- dent will more effectually persuade the Flfty-ninth Congress has not been in- dicated in any quarter. As before re-  cally reelected as a class. There will be in Congress meeting in regular ses- sion next December, 251 Republicans and 135 Democrats. a Republican ma- tority of 1ls. About fifty of the ma jority are new members. Desirous of good committee assignments, they will very likely do what Your Uncle Joe and his friends require fin the way of standing pat. They have seen how the @( kfsxk Gtn n41GF triumphed over the great Roosevelt himself several months ago and they will realize that the President has weakened on any idea of tariff revision during the remainder of his adminis- tration. The prosperity of the country the apparent strength of the country among the powers of the great interna- tional circle along with certain nelde of Investigation invoked for the execu- tive departments. the Republican lead CTS hold, will occupy every bit of the time. barring that devoted to the annu- al appropriation bills. that Congress can spare. ere the campaign for the next Congress will set in.
 A little while ago there was so much talk of tariff revision that members be- gan to renew their studies of the ques- tton. The Senate. although not tQs be held responsible for initiating revenue raising legislation. appointed the vaca- ton time for the Committee on Finance to sit and hear persons interested in the tariff schedule. The committee has done nothing. Two of It's leading mem- bers. Senator Aldrich. chairman. and Senator Allison, have been away nearly ever since Congress adjourned. on a European tour. The Ways and Means Committee of the House has done noth- ing, and evidently noes not Intend to do any more when Congress meets than when 1t was not ip session. History will mark the Roosevelt administration as a complete failure as far as concerns its power over Congress in matters Of general legislation.
 Congress vs. President.
 Beaten on reciprocity, beaten on the extra session, beaten on railway rate fixing. beaten on tariff revision. achiev' ing nothing through a Congress cam pletely controlled by his own party where is the greatness of President Theodore Roosevelt? Where will it be when the Fifty-ninth Congress shall have met and adjourned. doing nothing that he has asked it to do? Will he call upon it again in December, 1905 to do something for the relief of the country? When Congress meets in De- cember there will be as usual scarcely anything done except to organize by election of officers Of the new congress and the appointment of committees Then the holidays come and some time early in January the two houses will get down to business
 The questions which the President months ago sought to make hot issues have grown as cold as leftover saueF kraut from a Dutchman's dinner. all under tn econgealing breath of the stand -patters. What this powerful class Of Republican statesmen intends to do t0 pass away the legislative time is a theme of nebulous conjecture. ex- cept in the two matters of shaping the regular appropriations to run the Government another fiscal year and to provide a remedy if possible for the treasury's habit of showing deficits.
 Thee seems to be a general impress sion that Congress will be obliged to consider measures looking to greater safety for the Government from graft CTS in the executive departments. Pub lie pressure is more vigorous in this than in any other direction of Federal Legislation. This indeed may be sAid to be the only prospective measure of Legislation In which the President and the Republican Congress will likely pull together. Watkins.