The National tribune., 1908-01-23
A DO=NOTHING SESSION.

SOuSiCso NidIhiuX i IWe iii OOtu houses
I and in All the Committees Ever
any Fervid Campaign Oratory on Tap
| The session of Congress has now last.
ed almost two months. Probably peo-
| pie outside of Washington are little
aware what a fagrantly do-nothine
Congress it has been and still is. Even
people in Washington have little real
ization of the Congressional loafing that
has been in progress, for, except on
the big debate days when there is some
thing to attract, Washington pays but
little attention to Congress.
There Is inertia and Indifference in
every committee room of Senate and
House. except where there are appro-
priation bills to prepare. Generally the
measures, conduct hearings and sound
public sentiment about legislation. The
first half of the long session (the pres
ent session Is the long one) Of a Con-
gress does much educational work. The
| members of the Is or 20 active COM
| mittees acquire vast deal of informa-
ton for themselves, thru study of pend
ing bills and especially at hearings Civ
en- to various people and the repre-
l.
ests, both good and bad, that swoop
down upon Washington. Officials of
the Government are called in to give
expert testimony. The forenoons are
filled with statements from citizens
bearing upon everything, from banking
reform to the necessity for fighting the
gypsy moth as an interstate pest.
The Senate and House Chambers gen.
orally ring with interesting debates in
the first haff Of 1nnor
Is plenty of buncombe in these debates,
as there is likewise IN the committee
hearings. But the best parts of them
get into the newspapers, the speeches
are all printed by the Government, and
the country from Maine to California
learns something new about legislation
and legislative topics, as it picks the
wheat from the chaff. The whole pro-
ceeding, cumbersome as it may be, is
educational, and, therefore, on the
whole, quite helpful.
With January near an end, and, ac-
cording to the plans of the leaders, with
the session nearly half gone, there has
been practically no political agitation in
what the school-boy orators are wont
to call "the halls of Congress" Secre-
tary of War Taft and Lieut.-Col. Geo.
w. Goethals, Chairman of the Isthmian
Canal Commission, have been before a
Senate committee and told something
about the canal work. There has been
hearing or two about the Federal in
spection of grain. That is nearly all.
In the House.
Over at the House end a great num-
ber of Department officials have been
on the committee carpets, but they have
been only before the committees that
prepare the appropriations, and have
been telling why they asked for certain
sums of money in the annual estimates,
and trying to impress the committees
with the idea that they cannot possibly
get along with less. That. however, is
the annual proceeding that cannot be
dispensed with. The work is hardly
quaints the Appropriation Committees
more fully with the Governments
needs
This preliminary work of preparing
the appropriation bills is going on
apace. In few days the. first of the
big supply bills will be presented in the
House. Then that body will become
very busy. and for about two months
it will be occupied most of the time
passing these great measures, carrying
an aggregate of three-quarters of a bill
lion dollars needed to keep the wheels
of Government moving between July
/, 1908, and June so, 1909. If Speaker
Cannon can have his way the House
will be thru this work by March 81.
He would give the Senate another
month to review and approve the work
the House has done, and then he would
have Congress adjourn, without having
done anything else at all. If he and
the Senate leaders have their way the
60th Congress, covering the two-years
period between March 4, 1907, and !
March 4, 1909. will pass into history as
the most inactive Congress for a gener-
alton. 1t will be absolutely impossible |
for the next session to enact much if |
any general legislation because of the |
time limit.
Very Little Oratery.
Usually there is more or less of an |
hubbub at the Senate. Dur
ng the December and January period |
Of long session the Senators speak to
1ivers resolutions and arouse the coun-
Try on National issues. There has hard
altho Presidential election approaches
md the time is ripe for manufacturing
for use in the campaign. OF
course, there is time yet for that sort /
# thing. Probably the public is infiu-
enced less now by Congressional
speeches than it used to be. but party
workers and campaign orators still take
Heir cues ITOIn tue SeutlnentS express
ID in the ough-and-tumble debates of
he Senate and the House. l.
So far nine-tenths Of the Senators
md nine-tenths OF the Representatives
rave been sojourning in Washington as
no they were merely Winter resort
'isitors. OF course. they have to put
IN front and make a bluff of being
busy, but Washington observers knowt
hat it is bluff. The letters they re-
.eive from their constituents can gen.
,rally be disposed of in an hour or two
# day. They don't troop around the
Departments as much as they used to I
10. There Is splendid telephone ser {
ice In Washington, and nowadays the {
senator or Representative, or more Of {
en- his clerk. calls up the Department
'ficial, and finds out in three minutes (
What it used to require an hour to do. {
In the early part of a session the
enate generally has some long-drawn- :
ut discussions in executive session over I
he ratification Of treaties. This year 6
here have been no treaties to ratify. ]
Every week there has been an adjourn '
nent from Thursday to Saturday and {
to Monday. The Senate ses- t
ions have been for only four days in /
week. and then most often for only a
n hour or two. The House has done {
little better. but not much. 8
OF course, there may yet be a Garrison /
nish. The appropriation bills are splen- G
id vehicles for general as well as po- l
tical debate. If the Democrats arouse f
themselves they may pour hot shot into a
he Republican cohorts which will be Z