Rocky Ford enterprise., 1916-03-31
IS LIKE GUESSWORK
ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO FORE
CAST FINAL FORM OF IMPoR-
TANT LEGISLATION.
PROPHETS ARE ALL AT SEA
Party Leaders Guessins-New Con.
sressional Directory Is Instructive
Human Document-Plans Made for
Great Memorial Bridge.
BY GEORGE CLINTON.

BY GEORGE CLINTON.
Washington.-Legisla has been
and continues to be a loiterer this
winter. The administration. the house
and the senate. to say nothing of per-
sons outside of both. have been en-
gagged in one gigantic guessing con-
test concerning the final form to be
taken on by legislation of Importance.
The prophets business has been an
arduous and precarious one this
year. Comparatively few of the fore
casters are justified in claiming that
they are prophets with honor in theiT
own country. The reason for the Ut
ter inability of the administration or
of the leaders in either house of CON
gress to foretell results, with anything
like certainty that their words will be
fulfilled, is that the members OF
house and senate irrespective OF party
lines have been divided among them
selves upon nearly all the greater
questions OF the winter. 1t has been
impossible for the leaders of either
party in either house to learn definite
ly Just what following he could count
upon in advocacy or in opposition TO
any of the more commanding meas
ures Of legislation.
The Preparedness Bills.
Take the preparedness bills for in
stance During the preliminaries OF
the framing of preparedness bills in
house and senate the two committees
of the two bodies charged with the
work of preparing legislation were
shown to be completely at odds with
each other on the matter of the proper
handling Of the subject in hand. The
chairman of the senate committee on
military affairs wanted a continental
army such as had been suggested by
the administration. The leader OF the
house committee on military affairs
was utterly opposed to the plan for
continental army and was in favor
of a great strengthening OF the militia
and comparatively small increase in
the regular army.
1t was impossible for anybody to
tell which of the two men in charge
of things would give way. Today
both the house and senate have re.
ported military preparedness bills and
while II was thoroughly believed at
the outset that they would be radical.
ly different in all their provisions
there are some few signs of q
coalescing of views, but the two meas
| ures still are almost Numerically op-
posed one to the other.
There will be a compromise of some
kind between house and senate on the
military preparedness bill and 1t is
perfectly apparent that there must be
compromises between the two houses
| on other bills such as those affecting
the navy and on some other matters
of high Importance. In the senate
there are many members who favor
the plan OF the house. So it rs easy
enough to see how utterly impossible
it has been and still is for the proph-
cts to foretell accurately the outcome
on these big defense measures.
In the matter of the resolution warn.
ing Americans not to travel on armed
liners belonging to belligerent coun-
tries, the membership in house and
senate has been divided not into par.
ties but into groups irrespective OF
houses show no trace of Republican.
ism or Democracy. but are both
marked deeply with the signs of both
parties. Old members say that never
in their memory has there been such
a mixing up of party friends and
foes on both sides of a question as
there has been on this matter which
has created such a sensation In the
country.
Prophecies Shattered.
There were supposedly wise men in
the senate who predicted within an
hour or two OF the vote on the Gore
resolution. now a matter of compare.
lively recent history. that the affair
was sure to be settled one way be-
cause it could not be settled any 9th.
er way. The prophets saw their
prophecies shattered within fifteen
minutes of their utterance Some sen.
ators voted one way or another, and
then made speeches exactly counter
to their votes. The whole proceeding
was enough to distract the minds OF
men who tried to get any logical de-
ductions from the course of affairs
and from the final vote
The same condition of things was
true in the house when the McLemore
resolution finally came under direct
discussion. This was resolution
elso intended to warn Americans from
taxing passage on belligerent passen-
ger ships which had guns mounted for
defense. In the house. from hearing
the first speeches, stranger could not
tell which was the Republican side of
the chamber and which the Democrat
ic No one could ges any idea of