The Prescott daily news., 1911-04-21
POSITIONS FOR DEMOCRATIC WORKERS NOT ENOUGH TO
 GO ROUND.
SENATE IS WITHOUT LIFE
Committees Are Not Organized and Little Work Is Being Done Pending Legislation De-
 bated Threadbare.

w dSlHnS IOU, Aplll GIs " HliS tuA1 session of congress. is of interest to the country at large the daily pro ceedings at this session to one who has been in Washington during the last few years are extremely dull. The reason for this is, the Democrats in the house are beginning to enact leg islation which has been before con gross so long and so often that it has been debated absolutely threadbare in both branches.
 The bill to extend the scope of cam paign fund publicity was debated in the house at great length a year ago The resolution for the direct election of United States senators has been be fore congress repeatedly, and was sub jected to a debate of almost intermna- ble length in the senate, during the last session. Likewise, the Canadian reciprocity act was debated in the last house, and even such an ardent stand batter as Representative Fordney, of Michigan, felt called upon to apologize to the house flor warming up" his pre- vious speech
 No New Features Develop.
 The significant feature of the ses. sion is, of course, the fact that legisla- tion which has long been agitated in the country. is about to pass one house of congress at least. Thus far, how ever the debates in the house have produced no new features or argu- ments on either side. It is merely a question of the votes, no matter what is said and the Democrats. believing they were empowered hy the people last fall to pass their legislative pro- gram, are preparing to do so.
 In the meantime, in order that they may not be charged with having stran- gled the Republicans. they are permit. ting three days of debate in the house on the Canadian reciprocity bill and will pass it with the aid of some Re publicans, when the time comes.
 The mere application of numerical strength to a threadbare issue is not inspiring. to say the least. Fortunate. ly. the Democrats are bringing these issues to the front so rapidly as to relieve the feelings of these who are compelled to watch proceedings more or less minutely.
 Little Life in Senate.
 Thus far the senate of the United States has shown little signs of life in this congress. That body is meet ing practically only two days a ween, and while its committees are supposed to be continuous bodies, nevertheless senatorial courtesy is keeping back the committee work because neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have filled the vacant committee places. Owing to the large number of changes in the personnel of the sen. ate, there are more places to be filled on the big senate committees than usual.
 Patronage Question Troubles.
 The Democrats in the house of rep resentatives are still having their trou. bles over the patronage question. It was proposed by the Democratic eau GUS to Top off jobs on the house pay roll paying an annual salary of $1S2,- 900. While this proposition as a gen eral plan seemed wholly acceptable, practical experience in working out the details is being attended with some difficulties
 The Democratic plan has been to de- eide upon the patronage as a whole and then mass 1T out to tba nap,o,rat Of the house pro rata It has been estimated that it would give each member of the house jobs worth about $900
 Therefore, in order to land a good job for any one state. several mem.