The National tribune., 1908-01-23

~
Dental nomination.-NewS Item
will be better policy than to use their
ammunition now, when the National
Conventions are five months away.
As matter of fact. the same do
nothing policy prevails at the White
House as prevails in Congress. The
Government wheels everywhere have
slowed down. The President used to
be crowding Congress under whip and
spur. He is not doing it now. Prob
ably the reaction is not to be wondered
at. One who has had to drive ahead
in obedience to the pehests of a task
master eases up when the task master
quits. At any rate, Congress is taking
a nice long Winter loaf, and the 500
men On $500 a year, with a lot of
perquisites, are having nice. easy time
of it in Washington. They will go back
to their constituencies quite as refresh
/ ed from labor as tho they had been
spending their time in the Bahamas or
Havana or other sunny paradises Of the
South Atlantic.
! Flood Of Petitions.
Both branches of Congress are bulg-
| ing this Winter with petitions. 1t may
be a do-nothing Congress, but not in
the branch of acquainting Senators and
members with things that a great many
people want or that the friends of
great many people want Every year
and at every session there are new lines
of this popular activity Hundreds of
thousands of dollars of good money are
spent, sending the petitions along to
ones Senator or Representative. The
letters that SO swell the receipts of the
Post Office Department come from
Maine. Texas, California. every State in
the Union, and nowadays also from
l Hl yyaf
| Philippines.
They form quite department in the
daily publication of Congress-the Con-
gressional Record. No issue appears
without them, any more than a WELL
established daily newspaper would come
out without the local intelligence or
something about the activities of the
sporting world. The editors of the
Congressional Record simply shovel the
items into the broad columns of the
Record, all under a little heading of
Petitions, etc" There are usually a
page or two and sometimes much more
in the House of Representatives alone
Each petition is preceded with, by the
Speaker" 'by Mr.. Alexander" "by Mr.
Burleigh," or by some other of the 391
members of the National House, for
there is not member but what offers
a considerable number of petitions every
session and helps contribute to the pc
tition column of the great Government
daily
In every Congress there are many
petitions for legislation that will fur
ther benefit the soldiers who fought for
the preservation of the Union, and this
session is no exception in that particu- |
lar. This Winter there are many petit
tions for the Sherwood bill to give all |
veteran soldiers 81 per day; also many |
petitions for bill that has been before |
several Congresses to grant pensions to !
ex-prisoners of war; also for civil war |
officers volunteer list, and SO on thru |
quite a list. |
The ProhlbitioniStS, who have been |
gaining wonderfully in strength thru
out the country in the last year or two |
send great many petitions to the final
legislative authority of the land. They
exercised their right of petition year
in and year out when it did not seem
to make any impression on the law
making powers: but gradually the cause
has been gaining ground. and Senators
and members are beginning to pay more
attention when the flood of prohibition
petitions begin to pour in. The walls of
the Capitol could be plastered over with
any one of a dozen different sets of pro-
hibition petitions. This Winter they are
chiefly for the enactment into law of
the Littlefield original package bill. A
Federal enactment is required to make
all liquors shipped into any State sub
ject to the operation of the laws in that
State. Representative Littlefield. of
Maine, has been an ardent champion
a far day when Congress will pass such
a law. because SO many States now
have prohibitory laws that their Sen
ators and Representatives at Washing
ton will be voting for it. Heretofore
there have been very few prohibition
States, and the prohibition Congress
men were not a large company under
under the Capitol dome.
The Parcels Post. Is
A furious battle of petitions is on Il
with reference to postal legislation. 1t,
is perhaps more strictly a battle be- I
tween the hardware associations and I
the banks on the one hand and the s
Oranges on the other hand The Grang- '
ers everywhere are taking up tie cud- !
gels for a parcels post law, and gen. c
orally also for a postal savings bank '
law. In Florida and some other South r
ern States they have Farmers Cooper t
alive and Educational Unions, which /
have a mission much like the Oranges. @
rhey are whooping it up, however, for II
he same postal reforms. AS an ex- t
ample, the Farmers Cooperative and 5
Unions of Bristol and S
Warren Counties, Fla, have just sent b
iequest 10 CohSresSIndn Cldrk, OF
hat State, which IS represented in the v
petition columns of the Daily Record g
tlong with petition from the Omaha a
Central Labor Union. offered by Con- T
sressman Hinshaw, a petition frem r
Changers, offered by Con- n
FRESHMAN Wilson, and a petition Of a t
fruit Growers Convention in Cali Il
ornia, offered by Congressman Hayes, a
III for the extension Of the parcels
,ost system. b
And scattered thru the columns of n
he same issue one finds the Pennsfi- d