The Harrison times., 1917-01-27
NO EXTRA SESSION
CHANCES ARE AGAINST NEW CON.
eRESs BEING CALLED
AFTER MARCH 4.
ONLY RAIL LAWS IN THE WAY
General Belief Is That President viii
Get Measures Through at Present
Session, in Spite Of Opposition
Within His Party.
BY GEORGE CLINTON.

WaShington.-"NOth but war will
bring an extra session of congress"
said leading Democrat today. Then he
added loosely and ungrammatically,
"and there amt gOin' to be no wal"
Extra session talk always comes to
the surface and often above 1t In
Washington just at this season OF the
year. The people of the city profit
by extra sessions, and perhaps natu-
rally enough they like to have congress
called together in extraordinary ses-
sion. Washington correspondents have
learned by experience that it is not
always safe to take the opinion of
residents of the city of Washington on
the matter of the probability of the
president calling senators and repre-
esntatives together for a siege of it
after March t.
1t is true however, that recently
there has been some talk of an extra
session among the members of con-
gresS. This is not due to the fact
that the members want an extra seS-
sion, for they do not, but it is trace
able directly to the feelings of some
Of the dominant party men that the
president may not be able to secure
at this session some of the legislation
which he is inSiStent upon and that
therefore he may feel compelled to
bring the lawmakers back to start the
new congress at the uncompleted work.
Now the legislation which is in mind
when the possibility of an extra ses-
sion is discussed is the railroad legis-
latiOn growing out of the sO-called
eight-hOur act of the last session. In
his address to Congress on December
5 President Wilson urged first and
foremost, and in fact to the exclusion
Of almost everything else, the pass
age of a bill which should increase
the membership Of the interstate COM
merce commission and its facilities for
performing it's manifold duties, and
urged also that the authority Of law
should be given to provide means for
full investigation and assessment of
industrial disputes before lockouts or
strikes can be declared.
Opposition in Both Parties.
There is opposition in congress in
hnth ortin 70 thn Of fhn hill
providing for the prevention of strikes
or lOckOuts until an investigation can
be made There have been free pre-
dictlons that the legislation will not
pass, but it is perfectly evident that
the close friends of the administration
do not worry at all about the prospect
confronting these two chief measures
which the president has urged.
If one will take the trouble to 90
through the newspaper files Of the last
four years and to read a little con-
cerning the chief pieces of legislation
which congress has enacted, he will
find that in at least tWO-thirds of the
cases trouble was predicted in ad-
vance between the administration and
the Democratic majority in congress.
1t almost invariably has been the
case through the years Of the country's
history that any party holding a ma
iority in congress, and while a presi-
dent of the same party was in the
White House, finally has yielded to
the presidential demands for legisla-
ton, even if at first it was pretty def
nltely determined that at heart a con-
greSsonal majority was opposed to
tne things to which it gave its sane
ION.
The railroad legislation may be good
or it may be bad. Opinions differ but
it takes only a knowledge Of past hap
penings to make the lawmakers in
Washington understand why the
friends Of the administration are so
certain that the legislation which the
president wants enacted will be enact
ed. 1t is a pretty safe prediction that
the two chief things which Mr. Will
son urges in his message will pass con-
gress prior to March and that if an
extra session depends upon the fact
Of these measures there will be no eX-
ira session necessary.
Porto Ricans to Be Citizens.
1t seems to be entirely probable
that within a few months time Uncle
Sam will welcome some hundreds Of
thousands Of persons who in sense
have been his subjects" into the
household Of full citizenship.
President Wilson has indorsed and
congress is expected to pass bill in
troduced by Senator Shafroth Of Colo
RADIO to give the people Of Porto Rico
the status of American citizenship,
Recently there came to Washington
three commissioners from Porto Rico
to urge that the United States do what
the islanders from their point Of view
consider to be right, by these West
Indian people once ruled by Spain, APP
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