Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-04-17
FEW CHANGES MADE
NOT MANY NEW MEMBERS SIT
TING IN EXTRAORDINARY
SESSION OF CONGRESS.
FIRST WOMAN IN THAT BODY
Miss Jeanette Rankin of Montana
Creates Favorable Impression-Pre-
caution for Safety of Legislators
Appropriation Measures to Be
Brought Up at Once.
BY GEORGE CLINTON.

Washington.-Con has assem-
bled In war session. Seriousness of
purpose marked the opening. There
was shadow upon all the members
present, but through it cleaned the
light of resolution.
The first session of the Sixty-ffth
congress is in extraordinary session.
With the exception of one year there
has been either che usual long session
or an extra session in every year since
William III. Taft took Office. This seS-
sion of congress is the first one which
has been compelled to face virtual war
conditions since Mckinley spoke to
congress in May, 1898, In behalf of a
war with Spain which should free the
Cuban people from the yoke, and put
an end to the terrorization and tyran-
ny visited upon the people of the Pearl
of the Antilles.
Congress today is Misunderstanding
body. The Democrats held control of
the last house by a majority of be-
tween twenty and thirty, and as the
house is pretty evenly divided be-
tween the two parties at this session
it can be seen that only compare
lively few Democrats have been sue
ceeded by new Republican members.
Most of the Democrats who held office
in the last congress have been re-
elected, and this is true also of the Re-
publicans.
First Woman Member of Congress.
Every person who entered one of the
galleries of congress on Monday for
got for minute the war conditions
which prevail and centered thought
and eyes on the seat occupied by the
first woman who ever has represented
a district of the United States in the
congress of the nation. Miss jean
nette Rankin of Missoula, Mont, rep
resentative-at-large from that state,
bore herself modestly and well in an
exceedingly trying position.
There are many oldtimers in the
present organization of the house. Jo-
seph G. Cannon of Illinois, former
speaker, still holds his place, and with
him is Isaac r. Sherwood, Democrat,
of Toledo, O., who Is eighty-two years
old and who was brigadier general dur
ing the Civil war. General Sherwood
has been pronounced pacifist until
recently. The other day he cancelled
a speaking date which he was to make
before a gathering of peace promoters
and issued a statement in which he
declared he was willing to go to war
and intimated that he would like once
more to lead troops.
Watch Legislators Safety.
In way congress at this session is
meeting under guard. Washington
has the appearance in part of a
city (which expects things to hap
pen" Perhaps there is no real
expectation that anything is to hap
pen, but the officials believe there is
nothing like taking precautions.
On the day that congress opened no
man, woman or child was allowed to
carry package into the capitol Even
umbrellas were barred from the house
and senate chambers, because in the
folds of an umbrella 1t is possible to
conceal things If one Is so inclined.
Extraordinary measures were taken
to protect the president of the United
States and all the other high officials
Of the government on the day of the
opening of congress, and the same
precautions viii be taken hereafter.
Washington has been affected by
fever of suspicion.
So far as specific cases are con-
cerned there was no truth in the ru-
mors which f1oated about. Men OF
high standing in the community suf-
fered from idle gossip OF the inconsid
crate. 1t may be that there are real
cases of reasonable intent in the
capital and that they will develop and
punishment be meted out, but so far
as the first cases were concerned the
stories were brewed in the teapots of
the afternoon gossip table.
Appropriations In Order.
At the last session of the last con-
gress the lawmakers provided for the
navy but left the army without any
sustenanee. One of the first acts of
congress at the extraordinary session
Just opened will be to sanction the
army bill carrying large appropria-
lions of money.
II is barely possible that If it had
not been necessary for the president
in the closing days of the last session
to ask authority of congress TO arm
merchant ships of the United States,
an the appropriation bills might have
been passed. The house had disposed
of them and the senate had taken care
of several of them, but there were
four or FIVE big supply measures TO
which the senate could give no con-
sideration because the days of the
closing hours were taken up with dis
cussion which resulted in a contro-
versy concerning the patriotism or
Lack of it of certain senator's. q con-
troversy of which he echoings are
still heard.
When the house passed the army ap-
preparation bin it, of course, was sent
at once to the senate. There it was
amended in the committee on military
affairs. One of the amendments was
a proposal for universal military TAIN
ing. When it became evident that the