Norwich bulletin., 1918-06-18
WASHINGTON AFFAIRS

Senator Weeks Son on the Firing
 Line-Plan For Airplane Station in
 Fertilization Bill = Slackers BiIll
 Likely to Pass-Connecticu Senators
 Opposed Gag Rule.
 Special to the Bulletin)
 Washington, D. G. June 17.-A war correspondent of the Washington Post thus describes a visit he paid to 8 small shack on the firing line where Lieut. Weeks, only son of Senator John " Weeks, of Massachusetts was in charge of a battery. and which gives a vivid idea of how the boys on the firing line live Over There"
 "Ascertaining the location of the American Battery that I heard in ac- ton I started out on foot to find it. Down the road, then sharply off to the right along the line of little dummy railroad which carried am- munition up to the very front. I turn ed off into a swamp, took a muddy path through piece of woods. over which men were carrying shells on their shoulders up to the guns. I came upon a bit of a shack, so cleverly camouf1ag- ed that it looked like a thicket. 1 called out and young officer emerged He was First Lieutenant Charles Sin claire Weeks, the son of Senator John w. Weeks, of Massachusetts He greeted me warmly and invited me into his house. It was a very small shack made of boughs Of trees covered with sticks and leaves. A box in one corner served for a table where he had his telephone and his tobacco. At the side were two hunks, for he shared A1zs IA$ +t.r, officer. The floor was attractively carpeted with mud three inches deep The walls were festooned with haver- sacks and canteens and revolver belts and field glasses and things. Every few minutes his battery would let go with terrible bang, right at our ear and presently we walked out to see it in action The guns were located in the emplacement about 30 feet away, down the steepest, slipperest, muddiest path 1 have every seen. In the gun pit, standing knee deep in mud and water, the soldiers were busily engaged in dropping shells into the boche lines across the way. Leading from the gun supplements was long trench, and dug into the sides of this were the Wretched holes in the earth in which the men slept Fifteen fee> under
  man fire came uncom' ortably close, Liuet. Weeks would beat it down there too"
 The fortifcation bill will be reported out of the appropriation committee next week and will carry a recom- mendation of $16,GS1,000 for the es- tabiishment of airp4ane stations. Un- til the report is made public it will not be known just where the stations are to be locate but the subcommittee has recommended that there shall be sixteen stations thirteen of which to | be on the Atlantic coast and the re- maining three on the Pacinc coast 1 Although no definite details are ct obtainable Chairman Borland of the l sub committee today stated that the existing system of fortification would 1 largely guide the recommendations for air craft stations We do not fec it would be advisable" said he ito es- tablish stations along barren strips ol coast. but shall recommend a system based largely on the present line oi of Notifications. Cities and harbor: of the greatest value of the United
 States would naturally be the frs
 points of attack by the enemy, and il is these points which we shall recon mend be fully protected. Of course l New York comes first, and after tha we shall recommend stations at points where the presenet fortifications show
 the United States regards them al most valuable and where the enemy would be likely to strike. To sucl
 points we shall recommend special air
 craft protection"
 The ways and means committee vii
 continue the hearings on the revenu'
 bill until June 20th. Thus far fewe men have applied to be heard thai
 was expected. Congress is staggered
 by the suggestion of Secretary Mo
 Adoo that eight billion dollars be rais
 ed next year by taxation. Whethe
 congress will stay in continuous session
 until after the passage of the bill 0
 whether it will take a month reces
 to give the ways and means committe
 uninterrupted time to frame the bil is still undecided. With the passag g
 of the sundry civil bill on sight an
 the fertilization bill the only appropria
 ton measure of importance left O. the programme. there will be little 0 nothing for the house to do until tn , revenue bill is in shape to come be fore it. And that will probably be | month OG more dIIGT begins it work behind closed doors One exception is to be made regardin z closing hearings June 20th The Pub fishers association informed the com mittee it desires to be heard, an
 could not prepare it's statements
 the date named, and the committe
 agreed to hear them June 18th insteat l The alien sIaekers are likely to |
 caught in the draft net an at earl
 date, as it looks now as though tf , stacker bill would pass and the me F of draft age of forced to serve. I'll matter was before the house this wee
 achusetts who introduced the bill sai
 that over a million and quarter me e in this country of draft age are alier n and at present exempt from draft. . some states, the percentage is as hie
 as 35 to 40 per cent. This is an UT l just and unfair drain on our citize V population and the spectacle of 4 young alien stepping into the job { the drafted American is not an agree able one" said MT. Rogers. but TUT
 ming still deeper is the conviction
 to our shores obtaining our protectic a our people that the alien who has can }, and enjoying our freedom and pro' n perity, must not escape without u
 slightest obligation to defend the Uni
 ed States in it's struggle for exis - ence."
 : One of the bills before congress
 for providing badges or buttons f
 men who have been honroably di t charged from the army. Congress