Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-12-04
WAIT .GAvELS' FALL|PUBuc SERVICE BILL
Congress viii Assemble at
Noon Tomorrow.
SLIM ATTENDANCE LIKELY
TO PASS APPOINTMENT AC.

Matter OF Red1StT1ctlng the states
Probably Will Be Taken Up
Early in Session.
Tomorrow at noon precisely the gavels
Cannon. falling simultaneously in Senate
and House. will convene the Sixty-first
Congress for it's closing session. The Con-
gress will end by constitutional limitation
at noon March 4 next.
Present indications are that there will
be slim attendance in the House Until
| after the holiday recess. Very few MEM
| bers have arrived in the city. Many Of
| them. especially republicans, seem to have
lost interest in their work.
The leaders of each party in both
houses appear to be In accord in the opin-
ion that no general legislation. beyond the
passage OF the apportionment act. will be
effected. and that the time Of Congress
will be fully occupied In passing the ap-
preparation bills.
| Early action on the apportionment bill
will be urged. in order to let those state
| legislatures which meet in January pro-
I
| for the next congressional election. Many
q good republican district will be snuffed
| out in those changes and replaced by dis
| tricts showing preponderance OF demo-
cratic votes.
| 1t is a question as yet undecided
whether further efforts will be made to
change the rules Of the House. Some of
the insurgent republicans are eager to
Speaker Cannon and humiliate him. They
| may be handicapped, however. by luke
| warmness of their aforetime allies, the
democrats, without whom they can do
nothing. 1t appears that the democrats
are not nearly as anxious to ride a tilt
procedure as they were last session. Then
they were without responsibility and It
| was their play to aid everybody in MAX
| ing all the trouble possible.
Democrats to Go Slow.
But now. we'll, things are somewhat
different. They will be called upon next
December to assume responsibility and
| run the House machine. They are in
clined to go a little slowly in setting
precedent that may come back to
plague them within a year.
The democrats are far from being
agreed on whether the committees shall
be appointed by a committee on commit
tees or by the Speaker. They will have
to thrash that subject out pretty thor
oughly i'm conference during this session.
Representative Ollie James of Ken
lucky, who ranks with the democratic
leaders in the House, gives his views ON
this subject as follows:
Il take generally the position Of Champ
Clark. the democratic leader, although
have not discussed the matter with him
year In advance the democratic members
of the Sixty-second Congress will get to-
gether and will decide on some plan for
handling legislation in the open, some
thing the republicans have never done.
Will Not Pack Committees.
I'm the democratic Congress, bills will
| not be smothered In committees. We shall
| come out and fight bad bills and pass
good ones Neither will committees be
| packed. The democrats may be relied
on not to perpetuate the committee
morgue. which the republicans created
The people elected democrats in majority,
| believing that there would be relief and
honesty in the handling of legislation.
| We shall not disappoint the people, and
| at the right time We will all get together
| and agree on a procedure which will be
| satisfactory in design and in result
The first days session is likely to be
| uneventful The House will be called to
order by the Speaker, prayer offered by
the chaplain and the roll called to de-
| velop the membership present. Some mi
| nor resolutions from the committee on
accounts may be offered. the while a
committee Joins the Senate committee to
| notify the President that Congress is in
session and would be glad to receive sug-
gestions from him. When that commit
tee returns, with the probable report that
the President will communicate his views
In writing, Tuesday. resolutions of con-
dolenee for colleagues who have died
during the recess probably will be Of
fered and the House will adjourn.
In the Senate. the legislative body
which never expires, business will be
taken up as II Congress had adjourned
but yesterday. There will be bills, petit
lions and all that sort of thing, and
probably an early executive session to
act on nominations.
Vacancies on Supreme Court.
1t is supposed that the Supreme Court
vacancies will be filled by nominations
submitted Monday, and every effort will
be made to secure speedy action on them.
as the court is waiting for a full bench
to rehear the corporation tax cases and
the great antitrust suits.
Reverting to the one subject of general
legislation which seems assured OF con-
sideration-the apportionment bili-it is
certain that long and careful considera-
ton will have to be bestowed upon it.
The increase in population would give
many states additional representatives in
the House on the present basis Of an
portionment, while some states would
lose.
The first question to be determined will
be whether the membership Of the House
M
there will be differing views. The House
already Is very unwieldy in membership
and strong objections are entertained by
many to increasing 1t. At the same time
the awakened interest OF the people in
popular government may compel the