Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1916-12-06
Everybody Hopes No Extra
Session Will Be Necessary
but Fear of 1t Is Looming
Large at Washington,
SPEAKER CLARK WOULD
STOP WASTE OF TIME
Believes Congressional Record
Should Be Suppressed So
as to Remove Temptation
10 Make Speeches,

fcpECtAL nlSPATsh 10 hohNlNs JNONNNHA
Washington, Dec 5.-Congress has
nut its nose to the grindstone and Will
keep il there incessantly until Mafch
at noon, when the sixty fourth con-
gress expires by limitation of law.
In the manner in which this final
session dispatches its work probably
will be decided whether the sixty-fifth
congress will go to work, in extra ses-
sions, after the Inauguration, or
whether the country will be given a
much yearned for resting spell until
the regular time for convening in De-
cember 1917 Nobody wants an extra
session next spring, Everybody fears
il will be unavoidable, from the way
things lie now.
No congress has Iabored as long or
as diligently as those that nave come
in the Wilson administration and yet
the work piles up to an appalling eX-
tent. The more that is done the more
work there seems to be.
Speaker Proposes Reforms.
Speaker Clark has announced him
self in favor of stopping the publica-
ton of the Congressional Record and
closing up the galleries of congress in
order to compel members to quit
grandstanding and do their work. In
addition the speaker said he would
like to do away with the Christmas
HOLIDAYS, extra sessions of congress,
and the present voting system. He
would install an electric tabulating de-
vice to record the votes of members
in place of the present roll call
method
At yhis period last year, the end of
congressional milling seemed longer
off than ever, for there grew up the
bitter controversy about military pre-
paredness. When the siXty-fourth
congress came in one year ago, there
we're al kindsf \ 3les in the air.
From the economic legislation of the
preceding sessions, the country had
aboutfaced and took up with an en-
trely different set of problems, mostly
of warlike sort After lot of KICK
ing and sprawlng about there was
evolved the preparedness legislation
some of it good, some bad and some
indifferent.
IabOr-Capital Fight Looms.
Comes now the last of the sixty
fourth congress and the end is not IN
sight It's another kind of conflict
that is rafting at the doors for a
chance to get settled by hook or py
crook. The capital and labor issue,
as it is involved in the disputes OF the
railroads and the brotherhoods, casts
an ominous cloud over the session.
OTIS of good folk are scared about 1t.
They think they hear the rumble OF
an upheaval-civil war, revolution or
something of the sort, and 1t sends the
shivers running all over them.
No one who knows what is going on
at this intensely interesting period dis
counts the gravity of the issues that
will be ventilated this winter. There
Is a widespread realization of the
fundamental nature of the adjust
ments that are sought, by both the
railroads and the brotherhoods and or
gani2ed labor generally.
The magnitude of the issues has
forced lot Of serious thinking and
through all the pessimism and. .optim-
ism, there is the belief that some
thing" will surely be done to avert a
more serious crisis. Nobody knows
just what will or what can be done.
There is disputation, confounding or
issues, distrust. acrimony, and down