The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1908-03-26
ALL EYES ON CONGRESS
20 Decide on the Most
Important Matters Now
Before the Nation.
VENEZUELAN MISSION
Labors Challenge Mct--Prcsdcnt
AID Party Leaders Willing TO Yield
Only Part of Its Dcmands-"Stand
Pattcrs" Realize That Tariff Re.
vision Must BE Provided For.

Washington, Mar. 26.-Congress-
ional and administrative matters will
reach q stage this week where the at
tention Of the entire country will be
focused on the White House and the
Capitol as ii has not been In years.
On the eve of a Presidential cam.
paign. on the heels of financial dis.
turbance, and with the battleships in
the Pacific, the dominant party is
about to take steps which will decide
whether there is to tariff revis.
Ion, whether there is to be an adjust
ment of the strife between labor and
capital, whether there is to be an
emergency currency. and whether
there is to be little war with Vene-
Zuela.
An enumeration of what is coming
quick and fast before the attention Of
Congress includes matters in which
the entire American public is vitally
Interested. AS a first step in hold
Ing the public attention. President
Roosevelt will transmit from Secre-
tary Root the official record and re-
ports on the matter at issue with
Venezuela.
There will be vote in the Senate
on the Emergency Currency bill.
which has been before that body for
almost two and a half months. and
then the bill will go to the house.
Its fate will probably be decided in
the affirmative in that body.
President Roosevelt is expected to
send to Congress a special message,
embodying his views upon matters
upon which he thinks Congress
should act. Assurances are given
that this message will differ in tone,
If not in substance, from that which
he sent on January 81, and which
was regarded by the financial inter-
ests as especially hostile to them and
was given as a reason for another
slump in the stock market.
The coming message is outlined as
conservative and conciiatory. It is
said to be not very long and to deal
with practically all matters in which
the President is Interested. These
are labor, railroad combinations,
right to combine on the part of rail-
roads and labor unions, tariffs, trusts,
with the right of combination to ex-
ist under law; an Employers Liabil-
ity bill and immunity of labor unions
from the three penalty clause" Of
the Sherman Antitrust law.
Capital does not get all it demands
In the message, but it gets much
Labor does not get all it demands in
the message, but 1t gets much. The
President will not recommend that
Congress legalize that favorable
weapon denounced in the report Of
the Coal Strike Commission, the boy
colt.
But this Is not all that is coming
to the attention of Congress. The
tariff reformers in the republican
party have won a victory over the
stand patters" and the latter have
been brought to realize that revision
is coming and that they had better
take hand and have the tariff re-
vised by its friends" rather than by
Its enemies"
That the President and all the par
ty leaders are ready to accept the
challenge for the labor unions, led
by Mr.. Gompers, in their attacks on
the courts and In their insistence
that they be given special rights over
all other organizations and corpora
tions is being made perfectly clear.
The administration is ready to
meet the unions half way and give
them what Is reasonable. but the ad-
dress issued to the workers" by the
unions bidding them insist on upset.
ting the courts by forced legislative
action ,and to support no candidate
for President or Congress unless he
did their bidding. has not had the ef-
feet of changing the attitude of eith-
OF the President or the leaders in
Congress.