Evening star., 1922-09-17
Congress Needs to Concentrate

democrat on the appropriations COM
mittee. who. in the event of demo-
cratic landslide would be in charge
Of all the legislation covering the
Ave billion dollar federal budget:
Discussing. as spokesman for his
party, the 'inefficiency of the present
Congress" Representative Byrns
said: The majority leader takes
great credit in the claim that this
Congress has passed 39S separate
laws. public and private. and the
House. in addition. has passed 276
bills. public and private. (Since that
speech both houses have passed a
large number of bills. including 1e5
in one day by the SenateD He boasts
this is at the rate of two and one
third per day. which in itself shows
what little real consideration was Civ
en- them. and the iniquity of passing
measures through the House under a
special rule cutting off discussion and
denying a free opportunity to offer
amendments, and which has been in
greater extent than ever before. By
such an argument he shows very
poor conception of the real duty of a
legislative body.
1T is not the number of laws en-
acted and bills passed, but the char
acter of the laws and the public bene-
fits accruing which measures the real
worth and capacity of a legislative
body. The truth is we have too many
laws. There is entirely too much gov
ernmental interference by legisla-
ton"
In a recent speech in the House on
"Our Bill of Rights" and its checks
lessness," Representative Harry B.
Hawes of Missouri. who served the
military intelligence department dur
ing the world war and was assigned
to the general staff. deplored the fact
that while the last generation held
the Constitution as its guide for leg
islative enactment and controlling ex-
ecutive discretion. of recent years cit
liens have neglected consideration Of
the Constitution. He explained this
situation thus:
"The war taught organization. and
now much of the surplus energy gen.
Grated during that period is diverted
Testing itself in various forms of prop
aganda, and specially organized minor
ity interests are springing up at
tempting to force the national gov
ernment to do things which were for
merly left for the individual to do for
himself.
Carried away by haste and excess
Of zeal, the fundamental things in our
Constitution are assailed in proposed
laws, and in many cases public Off
cials are themselves guilty of what 1t
properly termed official lawlessness
in trying to carry out the extreme
wishes of those organized minority
groups"
He concludes that: The great
thinkers and educators Of our country
are becoming alarmed at the neglect
Of the study of the Constitution. Judge
Martin J. Wade and many others have
made notable contributions to this
subject.
"We are in period of reaction
which always follows a great war
Hasty and Incorporate legislation is
proposed. State and federal omcials
are attempting to make laws of their
drifting the legislative and executive
officers into acts of official lawless-
ness A more thorough study of the
Constitution by the average citizen
will produce the check now SO neces-
sary for the preservation of our
broader liberties"
! All OF which shows the Heaven is
working and that the forward-look-
Ing men in Congress are aroused to
the evil OF too much 1egisiation and
the need for o definite Legislative bud
get 3Nt - there Wa need for .
anapeisl budget