Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-04-11
MEMBER or ASSOCIATED PRESS.
CONGRESSIONAL GOSSIP.

CONGH6SSJONNI SS0o'V'
1t is daily becoming manifest tina
congress is facing stormy session
and that there can be made no fore
cast of the probable legislative re
suits. The fact that both Of the grea!
political parties are badly divided is
no longer denied and the leaders ap
pear TO have little hope Of restoring
anything more than surface harmony
There are virtually four parties
each with large representation
working at odds in the present SEES
sion. The republican minority OF the
house is divided between regulars and
insurgents, as was evidenced by the
vote in the speakership contest. The
breach between these two factions is
even wider in the republican majority
of the senate.
A sharp line has been drawn be-
tween the conservative democrats OF
the senate, who are opposed to any
attempt at dictation on the part OF
William Jennings Bryan and the pro-
gressive democrats, including prac'
tically all of the new members and
several veterans like Senator Stone
of Missouri, who are Bryan adher-
ents. The house democratic majority
seems thus far to have escaped a
break. but the leaders fear that the
party contests in the senate may at
any time spread to the other branch.
The situation has interferred with the
selection of committees and the be-
ginning of legislative week.
Probably there never has been a
congress where so much uncertainty
existed and where the uneasiness has
been so equally distributed between
the two major political parties. OF
course this is due in part to the fact
that in the present congress the dem
ocrats are in power in the house and
the republicans are in control of the
senate. The real cause of the anxiety
however, is believed to be due to the
proximity of the party conventions.
which will select the standard bearers
for 1912, and the knowledge that a
slip by either during the extraordi.
nary session or the regular session to
follow may easily determine the re-
suit of the next national campaign.
SO far as the administration program
is concerned there is no room for
speculation. President Taft has re-
commended the enactment of legisla-
ton to carry out provisions OF the
Canadian reciprocity agreement and
it is no secret that he would be glad
to have congress stop at that. Neither
is there any obscurity about the pro-
gram of Speaker Champ Clark. Rep
resentative Underwood. chairman Of
the ways and means committee, and
other democrats who are directing the
policy of the house. Their plan for
progressive legislation en- number of
subjects with which the country has
been made familiar in the past year
or so has been given out.
Now that the new majority in the
house has adopted rules giving it
just as much power as any majority
ever enjoyed, there is no doubt that
measures on the subject of direct cleo
ton of senators. publicity before cleo
tons of campaign contributions. and
any further tariff changes the major
ity desires will be sent to the senate
in whatever order is decreed by the
ways and means committee. The re
publicans may expostulate or de-
nounce as they please: they will be
poWerless to prevent. The real legis-
lative problem, therefore. will be the
senate end of the capitol.
Only time will tell what sort of line
up there will be in the senate on tar
if matters. Previous sessions have in
dictated that there are just as ardent
protectionists in the democratic rep
resentation as in the republican. and
a like situation may develop when