The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-26
CONGRESS- CAN WELL BOAST OF ITS RECORD Longest in History and Rich in Achievement .s WHAT TT HAS DONE Democratic Party Had Definite Pro- gramme in View Which Has
 Been Carried out Almost in Entirety
 
WHAT IT HAS DONE

Washington. october 25.-,special)-So on adjournine. while Congress may quote. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done and we have done those things which we ought not b have done,'' 1t, may, on the whole, point to record of industry and achievement un- paralleled in the history of the country Congress has sown the seed and culti- vated the vines of much legislation what the fruit will be only time can tell.
 In point of industry-one almost might say enduranee-the Sixty-third Congress has ecipsed the record of even the Eff tieth, which in its first session sat from December 5, 1887. to october 20. 1888, a total of S2l days. The present Congress first assembled on April :, 1913, and sat continuously till December l, when that session ran right into the second, with out opportunity for the members to ob- tain any mileage. Except for short Christmas vacation the statesmen have kept busy from December 1 up to the present time, making a total of over 5so days of grinding and gruelling endeavor.
 And in this time there were introduced in the Senate total of 6s4l bills, an av craze of 69 IT to each of the 96 members, without counting 472 Senate resolutions. 1s6 joint resolutions and ss concurrent resolutions. Almost equally industrious the members of the House introduced 19. so7 bills, an average of ASS for each of the 4s5 members s72 joint resolutions 50 concurrent resolutions and GAS House res- olutions.
 
 Executive Also Busy At the executive end of the avenue, President Wilson also was, busy, sending to the Senate over 5000 nominations. near ly all of which were confirmed. Most prominent of those which went astray was that of Thomas D. Jones of Chicago to be member of the federal reserve board, this being withdrawn when the President became convinced that the Sen ate positively would refuse to confirm it. This was bitter blow to the President, as Jones was avowedly his personal se lection and strictly his own individual choice.
 Under the head of legislation, the appro- priations claim first place, and Congress sustained it's reputation as a billion dollar institution. The aggregate appro- priations were sl, l15, sos, TT .26, in which were included the following items Rivers and harbors s90 ooo, 900: army, slOl ,O19 PIP 50: navy, s144, ,66s 7l6.61; Notifications, s5,627, roo; Military academy, $S37 ,SS9 54; pen sions, $16s l5o0oo; postal, s3l3, ,364 667; sundry civil, sl1oo70. a27 .s9; legislative. executive and judicial s37.6So 22s. 70; agriculture, $ls, 65.ss2: diplomatic and consular, $4.so9. lQ- O ,if.t .,f To- lumbia, $12.172, 5ss. i9.
 Beyond this s2,7ooooo was sent to Eu- rope to help stranded Americans and $l,- l ooo coo was appropriated for the represent tation of foreign governments by Amer lcan officials abroad and s5oOO0o was used to bring Americans home from Mexico-in all tidy total.
 1 In calling the special session of Con gress in April 1918. President Wilson had a definite programme in View, based on the promises of the democratic platform, and this has been carried out almost in it's entirety. Two of the leading measures enacted into laws were those for revision of the banking and currency system and to destroy the trusts and to prevent their formation in the future. The banking and currency bill was debated throughout the entire first session, and was passed in the second session. providing for the ea- taDf1Snment or l1 regional reserve systems and the creation of the federal reserve board.
 L First of the so-called antitrust laws was the Newlands law for the creation of trade commission, this to investigate the trade prices of corporations and firms, with power to determine what constitutes unfair competition" The orders of the board, however, are subject to review | by the courts.
 | Next in order in antitrust legislation is | the so-called Clayton bIll to prohibit price discrimination, exclusve contracts, interlocking directorates and holding com l panies. and also exempting farmers or ganizatons and labor unions from the op 1 erations of the antitrust laws. These l exemptions caused acrimonious debate in /, both branches. especially in the Senate, but ultimately were retained in the orig l inal measure and were approved by the President.
 The Rayburn bill for regulation and su- pervision of railroad security issues passed the House and is on the Senate calendar for consideration and passage in December.
 Other Lines of Legislation Interesting in other lines of legisa- ton was the repeal of the Panama canal tolls provision in which the President was