Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-05-19
REPUBLICANS In
CONTROL in CONGRESS
CONTINUED from First Page ]

sence to-day disrupted the time
honored custom of appointing con-
gressional committees to call at the
White House for notification of the
executive.
The session beginning to-day was
expected to run virtually to the
time for the regular December ses-
sion, which will precede the 1920
national conventions and presiden-
tial campaign.
Important House committees were
to be chosen to-day, but the Senate
Republicans were not ready with
their committee assignments, be-
cause of the progressive fight against
the election of Senators Penrose of
Pennsylvania and Warren of Wyom-
ing las chairmen of the finance and
appropriations commiAees respec-
lively.
Senate leaders arranged to ad-
journ to-day until Thursday, to give
time for the Republicans work on
committees. Little business is
planned in the Senate until these
are arranged, although several
speeches on the League of Nations
and kindred subjects probably will
be made.
VIII Investigate Waste
In addition to the enormous
amount of routine business in the
composition, analysis and passage of
the usual big appropriation bills. the
Sixty-sixth Congress will be charged
with the responsibility of investigat-
ing waste and ineff1ciency, the delays
and blunders which characterized
the administration of too many ex-
ecutive departments of the Govern
ment. On top of these tasks many
enormously important questions of
policy of national concern must be
worked out, reconstruction legisla-
ton enacted and a hundred other
tasks completed.
Repeal of Taxes Promised
Another highly important task
which the Republican majority has
included in its program is the re-
peal of many if not all of the un-
popular and obnoxious smaller taxes
such as consumption taxes on nee
cessities. soft drinks and the like, the
general lowering of tax rates, the
increase of revenue through the GUS
tom houses and the protection
through high import taxes of the in
FAINT industries which have sprung up
in this country since les foreign
sources of supply were cut off by the
war.
All through the whole course of
the Congress the Republican major
ity will be guided by the principle
that it is highly necessary and of
the greatest Importance to inaugu-
rate and maintain a policy of strict
est economy in the business of rum
ming the Government. This has been
10 aUsf S.f
gram and it is promised that ''pork"
legislation is to become q thing of
the past.
The course of legislation and it's
ultimate fate will be guesswork on
nearly every bit of legislation, and
the urgently necessary speed in going
the mountain of work con-
fronting Congress may be lost entire
ly if the President and Congress get
down to the point of a knockdown
and drag out fight.
Inquiry Into Conduct of War
Once Congress gets into it's proper
stride Investigations into the whole
conduct of the war administrator
willgo on side by side with the grind
ing out of the constructive legislation
necessary for the after the war peri
cd. These Investigations are not
to be undertaken with the sole idea
of trying to embarrass the Admin
but to bring to light the
true situation which has existed and
to apply the proper remedy where
it is not too late.
Congress is faced with the re-
sponsibility for working out the fu-
ture policy of the Government to-
ward the railroads. The situation is
looked on as the most entangled and
difficult to unravel and is. ccmpli-
Gated by the fact that the Railroad
is even now in dire
need of additional funds and prob
ably will demand from Congress an
appropriation of a billion
dollars.
Strengthening out the telephone
and telegraph tangle and the return
of the systems to private ownership
must be accomplished and it is a
foregoing conclusion that the forma-
ton of this legislation will be ac-
companied by thorough investiga-
tion of the manner in which Post
master General Burleson, to whose
hands the administration of the
systems was entrusted after they
were taken over, Sas discharged that
trust.
Leaders already have promised
that the torrent of complaint and
the failure of the country controlled
wires to live up to the promises made
when the legislation empowered the