Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1916-03-16
Mills Of CONGRESS
grinding SLOWLY
ONLY ONE APPROPRIATION BILL
PASSED DURING THREE
MONTHS SESSION.
IMPORTANT LEGISLATION y.
REMAINS UNTOUCHED
Might End Session in Three Months
by Working Six Full Days Per Week
Revsnus Bills Must Be Enacted
and Nothing 10 Yet Dons-Polities
Playing Part in Delay.
Especial Correspondence

! -
Especial Correspondence
Washington, March Is. - Congress
has been in session for three solid
months and in that period exactly one
appropriation bill has been made law
the urgent deficiency bill. which was
put thru by the middle Of December
Exactly one appropriation bill has been
sent to conference since that time, but
it has not vet been approved: this is
the further urgent deficiency BILL" in
troduced in January for the purpose OF
helping along staggering government
The other appropriation bills-there
are some fourteen Of them in all-afa
"in process" Being "in process" means
that they are being ground out either
by committee or by one house or the
other. Two OF these bills, the Indian
and the postoffice, have passed the low
er chamber; these same two have been
received and referred" in the senate.
The army bills have both been reported
in both chambers, and in addition the
house has received the legislative bill,
which it has been debating for nearly
q week, the rivers and harbors bill, and
the agricultural bill.
Remaining to come from committee
into the light of day are the District of
Columbia bill, the diplomatic and con-
sular bill, the Notifications BILL the
general deficiency bill, the military
academy bill, the naval bill. the pension
appropriation bill, and the sundry civil
bill. II, as administration leaders liv-
ing In the neighborhood Of the White
House predict, congress will clean up
and adjourn with all its business done
by the list or the 18th Of June. congress
must show speed during the next three
months so far in excess of the speed
which It has shown during the last
three months that life in Washington
will indeed be just one thing right
after another. -
Revenue Bills Untouched.
4 Wholly aside from the appropriation
bills. which in many respects are
easier Of passage than other and less
customary legislation, any estimate Of
the situation in congress must take
into, consideration the all-important
question Of revenue. Revenue must be
raised this year. Much revenue must
be raised. and new methods of raising
1t must be employed. At the present
writing the administration is as much
alta loss on this point .as Is the aver
hge citizen. The secretary Of the treas
kFy has embarked for South American
ports on board battle ship. and moth
ing Like q decision on revenue and how
to raise It may be expected till he re-
turns two months hence This means
that At will be the middle Of May be-
fore the house. whose function it Is to
originate supply bills, will be told by
u. &c ~ Al
Of it, and previous experience has dem
Ohstrated that 1t ds impossible for the
house to act promptly upon any sug-
gestion. particularly upon one involv-
ing such controverted principles as are
involved in revenue legislation.
Then there is the shipping bill, which
has not even been reported in the
house. to say nothing of the senate.
some of which have passed the house,
ana one Of which, the Shields water
power bill. has been under active con-
alteration In the senate for the last
three or four weeks. Then there ds the
railroad resolution, providing for a
joint committee to Investigate the leg
isIative needs of the railroads and to
recommend to congress measures for
the relief Of the present confusion.
Then there is the whole subject Of la
For legislation, with the American
Federation of Labor and its powerful
political influences driving congress
into some sort of action-on the i'm
migration bill at least, and perhaps on
the child labor bill, already thru the
house, to say nothing of the convict
labor bill and minor proposals along
the same lines. -a ......
.s4s Makes Haste Slowly. +
1t Is probably conservative esti-
mate to say that If congress actually
should get down to business tomorrow
and work at top speed six days week
for the next three months, it would be
able to clean up It's slate. But the UNI
fortunate fact Is that there is no indi-
cation or apparent hope that congress
ii contemplating any such program.
Essentially without leader or leaders,
and subject only to the driving force
at the Whita House, congress makes
haste very slowly. One employee of the
house, In position to hear much gos-
SIP. as we'll as to see the workings Of
the wheels, declared today that adj
journment could not come before the
middle OF September Weeks ago
Speaker Clark set the date as in the
i 4 !. I; O. ssSss. % the deg days, and
while Secretary Tumulty recently Of
fered to wager that June 10 would be
the end OF 1t all, it, he had SO many
friends among those present that no
one took him up.
ga IN a edition TO. these svartnns ron sid
erations, each making for delay in the
operations OF congress, there is tho
. ever-presenti and always likely pos
sibility that something may break" IN
either or in both hoases. Such dis
turbance was the recent furry over
the McLemore resolution
but highly damaging to the cause OF
facilitating business. During the Pc
rfod OF such occurrences, neither the
house nor the senate seems CAPABLE
OF turning another wheel. Committees
adjourn early Or do not meet at al.
and members can not give their minds
to routine when their own political
future may depend on what they say or
!; on now they vote on q matter thrown
suddenly at their heads for instant dis
,,css.a. s II u many more such matters
viii be thrown Into the machinery or
congress- before June nobody In the
WOrld can pred1cI pur there Is Always
! tfYe possibility. and once congress gets
switched OF the track. Il takes time
:. Z aud pa Ience to put back again
EDsusk