Williston graphic., 1919-04-17

doors unhung and the roof half shin
gled. The firing Is al over, but It d
none too agreeable for near two mill
lion American citizens who are still
Ia Europe doing police duty, sitting
round garrisons, long way from
home, wondering about their fami.
lies and their jobs. You can bet thsy
would like to get back. But they
have to stay there until the job is
finished. They have every right to
expect you to stay on your easy end
Of the job too.
You are asked to buy the best pa
per in the world at q rate Of inter.
est, when the security and exemptions
are considered, and to pay for it out
of your income. AS straight-out
business proposition it is worth while.
But it is more than . business pro-
position. II is part Of the war for
dcmocracy.-Saturday Evening Post.
Il II u
A CANDID OBITUARY
The Sixty-fifth Congress, consider
ing all the circumstances Of the case,
was as poor . Congress as any pessi-
mist on democracy could reasonably
have looked for. 1t enacted neces-
sary war legislation on the initiative
of the President, under his direction,
and in obedience to q public senti-
nlent so overwhelming that no Cong
ress could have disregarded it. But
in the greatest national emergency
since the Civil War it refused to
stir peg out of its comfortable old
ruts. It appropriated billions plan
lessly, wastefully, merely rubber
stamping unreviewed executive csti-
mates.
It levied ten billions Of taxes in a
manner that would have earned a
congress of high-school boys sound
whipping under the old pedagogic
dispensation. 1t stuck to committee
organization by seniority and let the
nation pay the penalty.
One Of the longest Of Congresses
= in session six hundred and thirty
two days-it was unable to finish
most necessary business, and finally
expired by time limitation in a mud
die of incompetence and party poll
tics.
Largely the last Congress was a
hold-over from the Sixty-fourth,
which was in session for almost as
many days during that momentous
time when the world conflict in Eur
ope was ever drawing nearer to us:
That Congress idea Of meeting the
situation was expressed in the mis-
cradle and transparent makeshif: of
granting Federal subventions tc the
state militia. With the nation at the
very edge of war it expired, like its
successor, in q scandalous Senate fill
buster that Knocked the peoples need
and the nations dignity.
Looking back upon the two Ameri-
can Congresses that have sat through
the greatest and most dangerous con-
flict of the modern world, with the
fate of America at stake, we see that
no leadership has come out of them.
Their efficiency for the necessary rou-
tine business devolving upon them
has been uniformly low. They have
more than once, as in the Senate fill
busters, exhibited levity past be-
lief. The plain record shows one
great branch of our Government in
an advanced state of decay, and a
great organ of democratic rule in a
most unservicetable condition. Never
was public respect for Congress at a
lower ebb than now.
It is partly a matter of organiZa-
ton and method. After the shocking
filibuster on the eve of war III 1917
the Senate tossed stop to outraged
public opinion by adopting u very
limited cloture rule. That it adopted
this rule merely as temporary sop
to public opinion and without serious
intention of reform was proved by
the closing hours of the Sixty-fifth
Congress.
When any senator at the close Of
session can veto any legislation by
talking it to death any senator is q
mighty man, whose wishes must be
deferentially consulted. Senators col
lectively will not easily surrender
that agreeable personal prestige. But
situation which puts the time of
Congress and the time Of the nation
and the most vital legislation at the
irresponsible disposal Of the merest
handful of senators, according to their
whims and vanities and piques and
partisan strategies, has got to end
n ConOross il tn bec0Yne an efficient
organ Of democratic rule. Genuine
cloture in the Senate, 80 that a ma
jority can actually control legisla-
tion, is q necessity.
The preliminary moves toward
genuine budget system must be car
ried through to fruition. There also
the real obstacle comes down to
question Of personal prestige of ev-
erybody wanting q finger in every