The Pulaskian., 1917-01-26
CHANGES ARE AGAINST NEW CON- GREss BEING CALLED
 AFTER MARCH 4.
ONLY RAIL LAWS IN THE WAY
General Belief Is That President will Get Measures Through at Present Session, in Spite of Opposition Within His Party.
Rv eEoReE clIMToM

sald leading Democrat today. Then he added jocosely and ungrammatically, "and there ain't goin' to be no war.1
 Extra session talk always comes to the surface and often above it in Washington just at this season of the year. The people of the city profit py extra sessions, and perhaps natu- rally enough they like to haye congress called together in extraordinary ses- sion, Washington correspondents have learned by experience that it is n9t 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 siege of it after March 4.
 It 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 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 it's 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 both parties to the passage of the bill providing for the prevention of strikes or lockouts until an investigation can be made. There have been free pre- dictions taat 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 go through the newspaper files of the last four years and to read little con- corning 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.
 It almost invariably has been the case through the years of the countrys history that any party bolding a ma- jority 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- tion, even if at first 1t was pretty defi- nitely determined that at heart a con- gressional majority was opposed to tlle things to which 1t gave its sanc- tS,n.
 The railroad legislation may be good or 1t may be bad. Opinions differ, but it takes only 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. It is pretty safe prediction that the two chief things which Mir. 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- tra session necessary.
 Porto Ricans to Be Citizens.
 It seems to be entirely probable that within a few months time Uncle Sam will welcome some hundreds of thousands of persons who in a 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 rado 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 parently the influence of these commis- sioners has been felt. It is known that President Wilson for some time has been thinking on Porto Rican matters.
 In his address to congress delivered December last the president urged nothing in the way of legislation, out side of the railroad measures which he