The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-03-21
HOUSE DEFEATS PLAN FOR ARMY 22O,OOO STRONG Amendment to Hay Prepar edness Bill Lost By, Vote
 of 183 to 1O3. PASS ARMOR BILL
 OF PULLMAN TODAY Congress Speeds Up Pro gram and Places Ban on
 "Wind Hammers" :"

army from 140, 900 to 220, GOO. Repre-
 sentative Kahn of California, ranking
 Republican member of the Committee
 on Military Affairs, championed the increase.
 | The vote disclosed that the House l was not strictly divided on party lines. Eleven Democrats supported the prop fosition. They were Conry, Farley, Hubert and Caldwell of New York, Olney and Phelan of Massachusetts, Hart of New Jersey Coady of Mary land, Liebel of Pennsylvania, Burke of Wisconsin and BorIand of Missouri In addition to Representatives Towner of Iowa, Mondel1 of wyoming, Camp bell and Anthony of Kansas, McKen- zie of Illinois and Meeker of Missouri, who spoke against the increase, some 30 other Republicans voted against changing the bill.
 I Minority Leader Mann, in supoprt- ing the amendment, called attention to the fact that the President made a i trip around the country in behalf of preparedness.
 E Now what has he received there for ?'' he asked. This bill author Eizes ah increase in the regular army
 of 10000 in the next fifteen months. I remember when gentlemen on the l floor said at the time we had a reg u1ar army of only 25.0OO that you ]5cou1d not increase it because you could not get the men to enlist. To say we cannot get the men is to write our countrymen down as pusil1ani- llmous towards
 Representative Gardner of Massa- chusetts said it was superf1uous for the President to go over the country and exhibit the existing sentiment for preparedness to have it result ttin the linountainl being in labor and bringing i forth al ridiculous mousse | Representative James of Michigan, interrupted to ask if the bill in it's present form would not have the sup i port of William J. Bryan, Henry Ford and Jane Addans.
 Not, only could those pacifsts vote for this bill,' responded MT. Gardner. .but all the people of this House who for. years have been fighting against a large army can and will vote for it."
 Chairman Hay closed the debate under the five minute rule against the amendment.
 'GentIenen talk about emergen- cies,'' he said, If we had an ener- gency it would take a million men, not ,220, ,000. If we undertook to fol- low the military experts we would have thousand bills in this House instead of one. Every one of them has a different idea about these things
 He charged that the National Se- curity League is carrying on a pro- paganda in this country mot for the purpose of preparing the country in compulsory military service in this country"
 A proposal to outdo the Kahn amendment by making the army 25O,- 900 men, was lost without a roll call
 The Senate will pass today the Till. man bill providing for a government plant to make arraor plate for the T1a TI1n jority of at least 25. A few RepubIi- cans will support it.
 Won't Raise Steel Price.
 Senator Oliver told the Senate that he had been authorized by the presi- dent of the Midvale Steel Go. to say that his concern would not raise the prices of armor plate, nd matter what action Congress takes on the pending measure.
 Following out the suggestion of the President that Congress should t'speed up'' in its legislative program, Demo cratic leaders of the House began work today upon a plan for concerted action which will result in the passage through that body by June 15 of all the important legislation
 Acting Chairman Pou of the com mittee on rules, began a number of conferences with his Democratic col 1eagues, notably Majority Leader T idea is to have a rule reported within the next few days which will cut off all unnecessary debate upon appro- priation bi1s, the discussion to be confined solely to the measure before the House. The North Carolina member explained that days and weeks are wasted in debate upon sub 1ects entirely foreign to the questions before the House
 We can give those members who desire to speak for home consurnption leave to print in the .Record,'' he said.
 we are to make any progress Within the next month or so, we must cut out all useless discussion upon measures over which there is little or no difference of opinion.''
 It is probable that with the passage of the Army Preparedness Bill through the House a caucus of Democratic
 members will be called for the pur- pose of agreeing upon some definite proposition which will mean an early adjournment of Congress, at least in so far as the House is concerned Most of the appropriation bills are passed without so much as a standing vote being necessary It is probable will be the Naval Bill, which is bound to provoke some debate when it reaches the floor
 It is not the intention of the House leaders to shut off legitimate debate when honest differences of opinion 1 exist among the mem bership. But it | is proposed that the professional wind tanners shall not be given | the opportunity to exploit their views on every conceivable subject, which can serve no good purpose, but sinp- 1 ly retard the progress of the Admin istration's policies.
 Colonel William A. GIassford, chief signal officer of the Western Depart.