Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1913-03-26
THAT is DEMOCRATIC PLAN FOR
HANDLING ALL MATTERS OF
NATIONAL MOMENT.
"THE WATCH ON THE SENATE
BY This Method Attention VIII Be
Conferred on the Upper House While
1t Considers Such Things as the
Tariff.
BY GEORGE CLINTON.


desirable, from a party efficiency
standpoint, to undertake no legislation
at the extra session except that relat-
| ing to the tariff. II present plans OF
the national Democracy are carried to
| their logical end it seems that all leg
| islative matters of great national mo-
ment will be considered by congress
| singly.
There are reasons for the present
planning of the Democrats concerning
the manner of handling the larger leg
| islative problems. 1t is apparent that
I the president, and the leaders with
him, do not wish to have the country's
attention divided between the two
| houses Of congress when vitality 1mpor-
tant matters are up for consideration.
Some one has called this plan the
watch on the senate
In order to explain clearly just what
the plan involves. let the subject of the
! tariff be taken. The house Will con-
slider tariff legislation, will pass the
bills and then will send them over 10
| the senate. Now IL the house, after 1t
gets through with the tariff, should
take up some other piece of national
legislation the country's attention
would be divided between the subject
under discussion in the house and the
! tariff discussion in the senate. This is
exactly what Mr.. Wilson and those
Democratic leaders who are staunchly
| supporting him wish to avoid
To Focus Eyes on Senate.
| AS soon as the house gets through
with the tariff bills, If the present plan
is carried out. it will do nothing ex-
cept meet often enough to keep within
| the laws requirements, and so the
| country can watch the senate and
thereby remind it that its tariff tinker
ing is under the public eye and that
nothing which should not be- would
| be allowed to go unchallenged-
| If the present plan of the Democrat
/ ic leaders shall be made to apply to
| the future 1t will not mean necessarily
that the house, after completing big
piece of legislation and sending it over
| to the senate, would simply mark time
while the upper house was giving the
] appropriation bills and minor bills of
various kinds which the house can de-
bate and pass while the senate Is do
| Ing duty on some matter generally &C
counted of greater Importance.
The point is that the Democrats
want to succeed in their administra-
/ ton and, If the truth must be told,
/ some of them are afraid of the senate.
! They want the senate to do as well as
the house does and to put through the
| Democratic legislation proposed by
Mr.. Wilson without any amendments
| Of Importance. They think that this
| can be accomplished if public atten-
ton Is focused on the senate, and if
| the Democratic senators generally are
made to know that they are expected
| to live UP to the spirit and to the let
ter of the platform of their party.
Now Definitely Placed.
1t is possible now to give def
nitely for the first time the names
! of members of the next house OF
representatives who will stand in OPP
position to extreme conservatism,
whether 1t nlanifests itself in the
Democratic or in the Republican
party.
There has been cloud of doubt
over the positions, which some of the
men elected to the lower house Of
the Sixty-third congress intended to
occupy. There is a respectable min
ority of members outside OF the Demo
cratic party who can be depended up
on to uphold advanced policies of Mr..
Wilson they do not go too far into the
radical field, and also to take posi-
| ton of opposition to high tariff pro-
nouncements or extremely conserva-
tive legislative pronouncements on
| any subjects made by the conserva-
tives of any party
The ranks of progressiyism outside
of the Democratic party fell under sew
eral designations. One man is writ
| ten down politically as an Indepen-
dent; other men call themselves Pro
| gressive-Republicans other combine
the party names of Washington and
Republican; others call themselves
straight Washington party men, and
the others are Progressives with a
| capital P.
Forty-seven Are Progressives.
There are forty-seven members who
fall into one or the other of these
| classes. According to the list of mem
! Lers-elect of the next house which was
prepared by the house officials, there
will be IA Republicans in attendance
| All Of the men who aDnaar in tho 1ict
which is to follow are classed by the
Democratic authorities as members of
| the Republican party, but only a few
| If them speak of themselves as Repub-
licans. Those of them who keep the
| party name invariably put the hyphen
and the word progressive before it.
| So it is that from this total number of
Republicans written into the present
| congressional directory as such, there
| rnuSt he Stlhtracted fortv-spvon uup,