Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1921-08-19


legislators then to 80 home and stay
until December.
1t is still impossible to tell wheth-
er the much-desired recess of congress
will materialize or not. Congress IT.
self is divided over the question, anG,
as has been said, divided in its belief
as to how the country feels about the
matter. There is some hope that there
may be a recess. by August % or Sep
TENDER /. 1t is certain that the Presi-
dent desires this, but whether con-
gress will meet the desire by cleaning
up the interim work and standing
ready to depart, remains to be seen.
This is. a special session of con-
gress, and times have changed so far
as special sessions are concerned. In
the old days when the speaker of the
house named the members of the COM
mittees, it was his plan, when a spe-
cial session was called Immediately
after new congress was assembled,
to appoint only those members of COM
mittees which would have to deal with
the immediate legislation for which
congress had been brought into spe-
cial session.
Thomas B. Reed. when he was
speaker, did this, and Joseph G. Can
non on one occasion did it. but in re-
cent years the committee appointing
power of the speaker has been taken
away from him and now party eau
Gus of the dominant membership set
ties the matter.
Special Session, General Work.
At. the beginning of this congress
the committee memberships were all
filed, and although the special SEES
sion was called virtually specifically
for the purpose of taxation and tariff
Legislation, congress has gone into all
kinds of things, and has been able to
present them for consideration because
the committees of the house had been
named and the members wanted to
work. Moreover, there was pressure
from here, there and everywhere for
legislation of this kind or that kind,
and committee members felt the pres
sure and yielded to it.
There are a hundred underlined leg
islative purposes in view in congress
today, and some of the Republican
members, who of course are response
BILE because they represent the ma
jority, have insisted that other things
than the tariff and taxation should be
looked after at once, while other Re-
publican members, feeling the effects
of hot weather and not believing that
the country wants long session, have
insisted that the tariff and tax should
be disposed Of and that a recess should
be taken. The President seems to
side with this latter group of his
party.
There is criticism among many old
er members today because conditions
are such that congress cannot be kept
to the duties for which it was called
together and leave minor things alone.
The Republican leader of the senate
and the Republican leader of the
house each apparently felt compelled
to go to the White House to secure
that support which would make the
senate and the house Republicans fol
low the leadership.
There is one thing, however, that
thus far the leadership has failed to
accomplish. 1t has not been able to
bring a unanimity Of opinion, or at
any rate of acquiescence. among the
followers in definite policy on just
what should be done and what should
not be done. It seems possible that
President Harding. if he so desired,
might be able to force a recess.
Geddes' Cancelled Dinner
Washington has been more than in
terested in the recent Lord North
cliffe incident This titled proprietor
of several great English newspapers
was invited to dinner at the
British embassy in Washington, in
which city he was temporary guest.
Then suddenly the dinner was called
off and the invitations which had gone,
it is said, to the President of the Uni
ted States, the cabinet officers and to
many men prominent in official and
social life. were recalled,
Lloyd George recently deprived the
Northcliffe newspapers of certain
news gathering privileges at British
official headquarters in London grant
ed to all newspaper representatives, ir-
respective of the political affiliations
of the journals which they represent.
The privileges were cut off because Of
criticism which Lord Northcliffe had
passed on Marquis Curzon, the British
secretary for foreign affairs
The next scene of the trouble after
it left London was Washington, where
the incident just recorded occurred.
The lie has been passed between Mar
quis Curzon and Lord Northcliffe, and
at this writing things are still very
much up in the air and everybody is
still very red in the face.
Juicy Topic for Gossips.
These embassy incidents always in
terest Washington, because it loves
gossip as it loves politics. The Lord
Northcliffe-Anbassa Geddes-Lloyd
George Marquis Curzon affair will not
be forgotten at Washington dinner ta-
bles for a long time to come. Of course
this matter was purely British ore,
except for its American setting, but it
came pretty near involving the Presi-
dent of the United States in an I'M