The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-05-21
C. ORPHANS TO
THROW CONGRESS
IN LONG RECESS

WASHINGTON, May 81 (Spl)-With
a legislative record that will be assailed
In the campaign as nonproductiye Of
Important accomplishments, Republican
leaders in congress are planning to
throw that body into a long recess in
about one month.
Present plans of the G. o. P leaders
call for a recess of congress the first
week in June. and unless public senti-
ment brings an earlier reconvening,
it is the hope of the Republican legss-
lators to extend the recess until APP
prOXimately near the middle of Septem-
ber 1t is understood that actual adj
journment is not contemplated, be-
cause of the fear that the president
might call congress back into extra SEES
sion to take up some of the rreconstrqc-
ton legislation which has been side
tracked during the present session
With congress in recess. 1t is ,argueo
it will be impossible for the president
to call the members back
Nevertheless. there is also the fear
that even in using the eXpedient of a
recess. the members may run some risk
because the president might issue a
statement directing attention to the
dereliCtions of the legislative branch OF
the government and its failures to take
up the many reconstruction problems he
urged several months ago However
so great is the anxiety of the Repub-
lican leaders to get into their cam
paigns and to avoid the heat of Wash
ington during the summer months that
they are preparing to run the risk OF
popular displeasure.
That more legislation has not been
accomplished Is due primarily to two
things, according to Democratic critics
Of the record. First, the senate wasted
many months in debate on the peace
treaty. and millions of words were
printed in the record of the partisan
fight on the pact with Germany. After
all this talk, the senate finally rejected
the treaty and army reorganization
This period of comparative regular &C
tivity is to be followed now by another
extended debate on the So called peace
resolution which bears the name OF
Senator Knox. put forward by the ma
jority members of the foreign relations
committee as a substitute for peace by
ratification of the treaty.
Second. in the house time has largely
been consumed by fruitleSs inVestiga-
tons of the successful conduct of the
war and by intemecine strife among
the Republicans themselves. The Re-
publican organization in the house has
not worked in harmony, as was indi-
Gated recently by an insurgent move
ment against the steering commit
tee" in the consideration of soldier
bonus legislation. 1t has been increas-
ingly difficult for the steering COM
to hold the Republican rank and file in
line, and Democrats who have been in
congress for years assert they have
never seen quite as much dtsOTganza-
ton in the dominant party of the lower
branch of congress.
Representative Mann, of Illinois
minority leader before he was defeated
for the speakership. and who absented
himself from the house for considerable
periods after that defeat is said to have
been called back several times to pour
oil on the troubled Republican waters
If the Republicans recess congress
early in June, they will Enthusiastically
leave unsettled such great issues as re-
vision of the taxation laws so that the
wartime excess profits taxes shall be
modified and thus help to bring down
the cost of living; bills for the curbing
Of red" activities; a merchant marine
policy; soldier compensation bills. and
a satisfactory policy regarding. the re-
organization of the army and somt
form of training essential to national
preparedness.