St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1907-01-16
Letter from Washington.

country Il IHOSl Interesting CAlIlpitioh'
and one which furnishes food for thought.
At this writing the date of final adjourn
ment is only two months away and sub
stantially every important appropriation
bill remains to be acted on. Yet to all
appearance both the House and Senate
are proceeding as though time were
unlimited. In addition there are many
matters of grave Importance outside the
appropriation bills, sufficient, indeed, to
occupy every spare moment. 1t is easy
to see that the closing hours of the 59th
Congress will be congested more than
those of any late preceding Congress.
Observation of the proceedings during
| the next two months will cast some
light on our system of government and
may lead to some instructive conclusions.
As is well known a Congress sits from
the first Monday in December of the year
after it is elected, until it adjourns some
time the following summer. 1t meets
again the next December and sits until
the following March 4, when the life of
the House of Representatives expires.
Thus it sits about six or seven months
one session and three the next. The
consequence of this system is that the
short session is consumed almost entirely
in caring for appropriation bills, and
legislation left from the session before.
There is no time, or at least very little,
to consider new legislation of import
ance, and if any is taken up, the con-
sideration given must be very scant or
other regular measures must be sighted
General legislation can be initiated,
therefore, only once every two years.
An Objectionable feature of the present
arrangement is that most of the general
legislation must be considered in the
committees when about twenty-five per
cent of the members are sitting for the
first time. During the second session
about twenty-five per cent are sitting for
the last time and their interest is
diminished. Thus the work of the COM
mttees suffers during both sessions, to
some extent.
Another objection is the power that
the committees WELD during the second
session. Time will not admit of a close
scrutiny by individual members of even
the appropriation bills. They are
necessarily held back until late, and
showed through with express speed. In
consequence the committees must be
relied on almost entirely. During the
closing hours one conference report after
another is adopted with the scantiest
consideration and under enforced
draught. There is no chance of a change
in the system at present, but it would
seem better method if Congress divided
its work into two sessions of six months
each. The stumbling block is that
representative does not take his seat
now until nearly thirteen months after
he is elected unless an extra session is
called The matter is worth keeping an
eye on, for the rush which will character
ize the termination of this Congress will
again attract attention to the faults of
our system.
The above calls to mind the fact that
the demand for a change in the date of
inaugurating our presidents from March
4 to April 80, appears to have been side
tracked. Last year this movement was
backed by number of states through
their governors and legislatures, but
nothing has been heard of it for some
time.
Some interesting politics are going on
in the republican national committee
over the Craftsmanship made vacant by
the promotion of Mr. Cortelyou to the
cabinet The meeting of this committee
always stimulates the gossip for the
presidential race. The timefor the nomi-
nation is more than a year off yet, but
the shaping of matters in advance of the
meeting OF the convention is about due.
1t is not like it was in 1896 when Nc
klnley so lowered above all other
possible candidates as to make his nomi-
nation an assured fact long before the
assembling of the convention Up to the
present time it is anybody's race.
Foraker, Shaw, Root, Taft and Fair
banks are all on the waiting list They
stand for radically different policies.
Vice President is the conservative one OF
the lot, but Mr.. Foraker is also classed
as an opponent Of many of the most
extreme measures of President Roosevelt,
Shaw, Taft and Root, have each been the
upholders of all the policies advocated by
the President. 1t is true that Taft dis
closed a desire to kick a little over the
traces at the order making the wholesale
discharge of the colored troops, but that
was only tentative and he has become
one of the warmest defenders of the
President on that issue Mr.. Root ha.
taken a very advanced stand on increas
ing the power of the federal government
and especially for increasing that of tn,
President. So far as the world know,
Mr.. Shaw has also stood very firmly be
hind the President in all things. To hin
there has been manifested some opposi
ton among the monied classes, and som
of his financial proposals have beer
severely frowned upon. Each of thes
three cabinet officers took an active par
in the recent campaign and their speech
! es attracted wide attention. In tn
q. senate Mr.. Foraker is standing in tn