Evening star., 1919-03-03
B|TTEREST BREACH
IN HISTORY OF u. S.
Executive and Legislative
Branches Fight Defeats
Needed Measures.
BOTH USE HARSH WORDS
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.


Never before has there been such
a tangle in Congress as today, never
before has bitterness between the
executive and legislative branches of
the government been carried to such
extremes as The defeat of needed iec.
islation for the American people
! simply because the President and Con-
gress haven't been personally or politi-
cally compatible with each other.
At the White House the vocabulary
used to describe the so-calied obstruc-
tionists in Congress is of the violent
KIND that indignant and angry people
use when they imagine themselves
! wholly in the right and never in the
wrong. AT the Capitol the remarks
about Mr. Wilson's tactics are equally
descriptive, rejecting an intense re-
sentiment at Mr.. Wilson's failure to
announce date for an extra session.
/ Called Defiance of People.
Even some democrats feel that the
| judgment of the American people as
registered in the November elections
should not be ignored by the Presi-
dent, but recognized at this time.
If the electorate believed the re-
/ publican party better suited to pass
upon questions of foreign policy
which the President made the basis
for his appeal last November. then
the sooner the country has an oppor-
tunity to express itself through its
r. q ant in Sy:,-
Congress the better-so goes the
| argument, and any delay by the
| President in calling an extra session
will be regarded as a defiance of the
mandate OF the people who chose
ajority of republicans to represent
| them in Congress.
Tomorrow the democratic party
goes cut of power after having had
control of the House for eight years
| and the Senate for six When the
hard to onjecture-certainly their
Hack of leadership in the present ses-
sion has made most observers here
who are not partisans anxious to have
somebody else take hold of the legis-
lative branch of the government in an
effort to get prompt action on needed
reforms. So far as presidential pros
poets are concerned, republican OPP
portunities' are conceded to be es-
pecially bright.
Mr.: Wilson is not going to be a
candidate for a third ternl-that may
not have been specifically stated at
the conference with democratic ma
tional committeeman here last week.
but it has been plainly said by him
to others just before the congress
sionaS elections last November, and
! a record of one. of those informal
! conversations was made in this
column at the time
r
The President will find himself COM
PEELED to call an etra session early
He himself has said he would call
| one when he got back from Europe.
! The chances of his getting through
, in Paris before June 1 are slim. 1t
will be nearer July before an agree
| ment can be reached, especially now
that the league of nations must be
amended Friends of Mr. Wilson be-
lieve he will find it necessary to an
nounce May / as the date for the
extra session. Congress- could con-
vene and get busy on appropriation
bills before Mr.. Wilson comes home
with the peace treaty.
Those who know the President best
consider that he is solely interested
| in the success Of his peace mission
and not concerned with domestic pol
itfcs any more. Unquestionably Con
gress will purge itself of partisan
pittei heS" iiioNi' As.eci IL MI. iiSoH
calls an extra session and gives the
republicans their opportunity to get
organized than if he endeavors to hold
back the organization of Congress un-
til midsummer.
The future of the democratic party
rests largely with Mr.. Wilson. Though
the democratic committeeman realize
the President will not be candidate.
they look to him to give them their
cue So far as political advantage to
the democrats is concerned out of the
league of nations fight. if it is even
tually won by the President, the sup
port given the project by William
Howard Taft is expected to act as an
Offset.
Any effort by the democrats to claim
credit for the league il 1t is firmly
established will be met with the same
counter attack as the republicans used
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