The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1913-12-03
PROSPECT OF LIVELY SCRAP IN
WASHINGTON.
Both Senators and Representatives
Arc Sharpening Their Scalping
knives for President Wilson and
Are Determined TO Make Him Feel
Their Power.

there is o. large percentage of error
in this impression, as the events OF
coming winter are likely to demon
strate.
Next week will witness the opening
of the first regular session Of Con-
gress since Woodrow Wilson took up
the rcins of government which the
democratic party snatched from the
reluctant hands of William III. Taft.
The nation will soon be i'm q position
to obtain n, new light upon Congress
iii It's relations with Mr.. Wilson.
Though it is true that the executiv.
| and Legislative branches Of the Gov
ernment have been in action for prac-
tically an equal number of months
since the neW Administration began,
yet the movements of the legislative
branch during that time have been
rightly restricted. Monday the bonds
will be removed, and when the gavels
of Speaker Clark and Vice President
Marshall fall at noon on that day both
houses will be in sense free to
choose their own gait.
House committees were named last
spring, but none Of them held any
meetings of Importance throughout
the long summer and fall except the
committee on appropriations, ways
and means, and rules. The tariff and
currency measures were the only two
submitted to the House with Admin
istration and party sanction, ano
every possible force was exercised to
exclude other subjects. HOW well this
ti HxE the sitszs rsSorS I, SkGS$g
q. S<1s H6Sat6 faeie
efforts to break waSFYf0M President
Wilson's repeated declaration that the
attention of Congress should be con-
centrated upon the enactment Of traiff
and currency Legislation. These at
tempted diversions, calculated to dis
play the independent power of the
Senate, were not productive Of any
very marked success, with the pos
sible exception of the passage of the
Sc, mems safety bill by that body. The
Underwood Simmons tariff bill rep
resents practically the total COM
pleted work of the Senate for the eight
months continuous session.
There is a good deal of criticism of
the President in Congressional circles
on account of this limitation OF the
scope of the special session, and much
time was undoubtedly wasted But the
answer is that it might have. been
impossible by any other course to
drive the tariff bill through both
House and Senate and bring the cur
rency bill to the point of debate on
the Senate floor after getting it
through the house and out Of the
Senate banking and currency COM
mittec. The fact that the president
thought he could do even more
should not blind us to the fact that
what he did accomplish was remark
able.
With the brakes off the begin
ming of the regular session, all the
restless committees will get busy and
the baskets on the Speakers and Vice
Presidents desks will be filed with
continuous flow Of bills of all kinds,
while committee reports will clog the
calendars and there will be endless
lighting for recognition on the part
of members with pet measures they
desire to have considered.
This, also, will be the first time the
one hundred or more new members of
the house, having worn off their shy
ness, will feel themselves free TO
jump into the game in earnest. Near
ly all of them will try to deliver at
least one set speech to be sent home
for campaign purposes. In the pro-
cess the older members will have an
the newcomers as debaters and the
galleries will be entertained.
While there can be discovered no
signs of open rebellion against Prcsi-
dent Wilson in either the house or the
senate, it can be said with truth that
there is Il deep feeling of resentment
which is sure To find an outlet before
the regular session ends The eXplo-
sion may come soon after the reading
of the presidents message or it may
be delayed until spring but it is about
as certain to come as that the sun
Will riS" tomorrow.
Representatives and senator's
that is, the great majority of them
do not relish the way in which the
president kept them i'm Washington
with nothing to do; they resent