The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1919-03-22
THE REINSTATEMENT OF POWER"

II has been suggested from Washington that one of the
first things the next congress is likely to do is to pass a bill
setting March ), in every odd-numbered year-tnat Is the
year following a general election-as the date ior te cohVeh-
ing of the newly elected congress. That Will oDvlate any re-
currence of the condition that now confronts the Nation. Much
of the legislation upon which the country awaits was formuy
lated in the last congress, coming from the mousse "her al
appropriation measures must originate, to the senate IN the
closing week of the sessioIi-in some important instances IN
the closing hours of the session. 1t was formulated by a con-
gress that had already been repudiated by the people and car
rid many provisions to which the new congress was known
to be opposed, the plan being to force them through on the
theory that the minority would not dare defeat them because
Of the important appropriations to which they were a''acneo'
But there were some members who accepted the challenge
leaving the people to place the responsibility where, in their
opinion, it rightfully belonged.
This would also restore to the legislative branch OF the
government some degree of the independence of which it has
been robbed by the unprecedented course of the executive,
and the people are awakened to the need Of this.
Under the law as it stands and has stood since 1870, the
congress elected last November cannot meet until next De-
cen,ber unless the president calls it in extraordinary session.
In normal times with a normal president there has been no
inconvenience to the country in this rule, but with a freak in
the White House who is or would be a law unto himself, there
is a constant menace to the Nation in the present rule, though
it has stood for almost a century without serious suggestion
of a change.
This usurpation has been no more forcibly or clearly set
forth by anyone than by a member of the presidents own
party in the closing days of the last session, when Senator
Hardwick of Georgia said: 49, ~
81 have seer the executive branch of this government alb
sob and magnify its W powers at the expense of other
branches of the government until the congress of the United
States stands abashed and ashamed before the American people.
without standing. without credit, without self-respect, without
power. Your bills are drawn in the executive bureaus and are
merely passed up to you for your complaisant acquiescence,
their rejection not being permitted.
Il have sen this country Prusaanzed in order that we
might maintain the proposition that free America raj unable to
fight a "a unless she adopted the methods of despots.
And now. last of an, Mr.. President. the fitting climax
comes. Having absorbed all power that belonged to the states,
having taken all rights that belonged to the citizens and lodged
them all here with the federal government. the executive. then
procaiming his indifference in some cases to judicial opinion
and his contempt always for congressional sentiment proceeds
to take them all to Europe with him in a ship named by mock
cry the George Washington. and proposes to hand them over
to a league of nations dominated by foreign powers"
4 u =
Under the rule now proposed congress could, in the alb
sence of important business, recess on the day it convened Il
such date as it might determine, and a few members of each
house could meet from time to time, under the terms of a
concurrent resolution, and extend the recess or compel the
attendance of all members as the constitution provides. And
the concurrent resolution would not require the presidents
approval. Congress would be technically in continuous SEES
sion, subject to the will of a majority of its own members.
y x x
No master of language ever more fittingly described an
unusual procedure than Congressman STEVENSON Of Minnesota,
when he referred to it as an "embezZement of power"
General Goethals, after rendering his country valuable
service in the quartermasters department., has been retired,
at his rquest, to private life. 1t is said that he is to go to
France and take part in the rebuilding of parts of that coun-
try. 1t will be almost as strenuous as the building of the
capa1 m vocfly oor noGHv