The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-04
MANY BILLS FAIL TO PASS DESPITE r |NALL HOUR RUSH
Apparent Throughout Final Day That Numerous Meas ures Doomed-Long Re-
 cess in Store

WASHINGTON, March 3.-(By As sociated Press.)-An eleventh hour drive for action on wide range of bills was on today as the Sixty seventh Congress neared It's close.
 While legislation, varied in scope and vital in effect on international relations as well as on purely Ameri- can activities, has been enacted, 1t was apparent that hundreds of measures would fail, despite last minute efforts to extricate them from the damned calendars of both houses
 With the passing of the present Congress. in session practically con- tinuously since early in 1921. Wash ington faces a suspension of congress sional activities which probably will continue until the first regular ses- sion of the Sixty eighth Congress In December. In the event President Harding adheres to his present inten- tion of not calling a special session. the recess will be the longest since 1915.
 The closing Congress. in it's rela- tions with the President has been noted for continuance of executive addresses to joint sessions. MT. Harding made a half dozen of these,
 
 tation of the shipping Legislation February 2S, 1922; the British debt funding agreement, with renewed demand for a Senate vote on the shipping bill. last month. his discus sion last August IS of the railIoad and coal strikes; his requer+ for postponement of the soldiers bonus bill July 12. 1921 and his addresses coincident with the opening of ses- sions of Congress.
 Birth of Bloc.
 The bloc" movement was born during the present Congress, with or ganization of the Senate farm bloc, headed by former Senator Kenyon republican, Iowa, with Senator Cap per, republican Kansas as his suc- cessor. It has been very active in passing farm legislation. The pro- gressive bloc was organized last De- cember at the conference called by Senator La Toilette, republican, Wis consin, and Representative Huddles- ton, democrat. Alabama. but has never met again, although 1t promises to be factor in the next Congress, A war veterans bloc in the House also was inaugurated recently.
 An unusual Aux of congressional Investigations also have marked the closing Congress. in both House and Senate. Few were concluded. Sev- eral will be prosecuted during the coming recess and others in the new Congress.
 Prominent among these investiga- tfons was those into Impeachment charges against Attorney General Daugherty; the Ford Newberry sen atorial election contest from Michi- gan; the escape of Grover Cleveland Bergdoll. Philadelphia draft -dodger; the West Firgini coal mine warfare of 1921; American occupation of Haiti and Santo Domingo; agricultur- al conditions by the Lenroot- -Ander- reserves and into oil and gas prices by the Senate manufacturers com mittee.
 Other investigations included the Muscle Shoals, Ala. power project including Henry Ford's offer; the alleged dye lobby, treatment of war veterans, civil service and charges of former Senator Watson, demo- crat, Georgia. that wholesale illegal executions of American soldiers of the A. E. F. had occurred.
 International affairs have been prominent in the Senate. with fre- quent discussions of and interven- tions In immediate European devel- opments. Prominent among these was the Senate resolution requesting recall of American troops from the Rhine, which was followed in a few days by the Presidents withdrawal order. Efforts of Senator Borah re- publican. Idaho. to initiate an in- ternational economic conference and furnished several spectacular per- iods.
 Treaties Ratified.
 A large number of treaties mostly of minor character were ratified by the Senate, including the S25,00O,- 900 Panama Canal settlement with Colombia on April 20, 1921, the Ger man, Austrian and Hugarian peace treaties October IS, 1921, and the seven arms conference conventions in the spring of 1922 There was no further action on the Versailles or the three-power treaty urged by France for her protection against Germany. The treaty to relinquish American claim to the Isles of Pines has gone over until the next Con- gress.
 Principal domestic legislation en- acted blythe Congress included: the Fordney-McCumbe tariff bill; revis- ion of the internal revenue laws; the temporary, emergency tariff act; the reduction of the army to 125,00 men and the navy to S6,000 men; the 3 per cent immigration quota re- striction law; statute establishing the federal budget system; provision for federal control of cable landings; the knox-Porter peace resolution; creation of the allied debt commits sion; the agricultural cooperative marketing law; the meat packer con trol act; reorganization of the vet erans bureau; strengthening of the prohibition law by forbidding pre- scription of beer; creation of the fed eral coal commission: authorization for 24 additional federal judges; reg ulation of future road aid: the China trade act and the resolution provid- ing interchangeable railroad mileage