Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-05-14
PRESIDENT WIL SON REBUKES CONGRESS
 FOR INTERFERENCE
Sharply Vetoes Appropriation Bill Because of
 Rider

Washington, May 13.--President Wilson pointedly informed congress today that in his opinion the legis- lative branch of the government was showing an increasing tendency to interfere unduly with the exercise of executive functions.
 Taking as a vehicle for his admo- milton a sharply -phased veto of the annual legislative executive and ju- dicial appropriation bill, the presi- dent declared that one of the rid CTS of the big supply measure would muzzle executive officials with a Censorship" regulated by the con- gressional joint committee on prof. iting.
 Immediately, the presidents posi- tion both on the general principle in- volved and the specific case cited was challenged by republican leaders of the senate and house. Senator Smoot, republican, Utah, chairman of the joint committee, declared in a formal statement that the president apparently had been deliberately un- informed" about the appropriation bill and Representative Good, repub- lican, Iowa, chairman of the house appropriat committee, told the house that "there must be some mis- take somewhere"
 Whether repassage of the bill un- changed will be attempted or wheth- CT the feature objected to by the president will be eliminated had not been decided tonight. The measure 'o,, ,.; l., miscellaneous expenses of many gov ernment departments, and it must be approved in some form by the end of June or these funds will lapse.
 The president also cited several other measures proposed in the pres ent congress to support his charge that there had been "an invasion. of the province of the executive, cal culated to result in unwarranted in- terference in the processes of good government" He said that some of these measures he had permitted to become law as temporary expe- dients, but that he felt the time had come to call halt before "destruc- tive" precedents had been establish ed.
 The section of the appropriation bill which led to the veto would pro- hibit the printing or mineographing of any government publication ex- cept by authority of the joint com mittee. Such provision, said the president, would give to the commit tee "power to determine what infor- nation shall be given to the people of the country by the executive de- partments."
 Both Senator Smooth and Repre- sentative Good, however, asserted that the committee already had been given control over government publi- cations by an act which the presi- dent signed on March 1, 1919 and that the purpose of the present provision was to extend that power so meri- torious periodicals could be continued.
 A row between the joint commit- tee and Roger w. Babson, formerly connected with the committee on pub lie information, was blamed for the president action by Senator Shoot, who said in his statement that Bab- son apparently had "made use of the president or his advisers in carrying out his threat and determination to the censorship which, without the least foundation, he has charged against the joint committee.
 "The president or his advisers have been most grieviously misled in this veto" Senator Shoot continued.