The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1924-05-15

dom of expression, legislators freely
admit that they are haunted these
days by the spectre of a Presidential
veto on their pet measures. The sub
ject of Presidential scrutiny of bills
enacted by Congress is uppermost in
the minds of party leaders because a
veto, which if sustained, has far
reaching effect upon the political for
tunes of members of Congress.
With the Senate Tax bill at wide
variance with the measure passed by
the House, the task OF the conferees
is of great Importance. 1t will be
necessary to remodel the two drafts
in order to meet the approval of both
Houses. There are certain features
1of these measures which are obJec-
tionable to the President and the pos
sibility of his veto of the tax revision
measure has provoked considerable
alarm. 1t has been said that the
President as candidate for re-elec-
ton may take the tax issue to the
country for settlement at the polls.
By that it is meant that Mr.. Cool
| idge, in the event he finds veto es-
sential, will go before the people ask
| ing for their support for the Mellon
bill which Congress rejected. No
doubt the Democrats would welcome
an issue of this kind because they
feel that the acceptance of many OF
their basic tax ideas by Congress
proved the worthiness of their plans.
The development of a political fight
along these lines will depend, it is
said, upon Mr.. Coolidge's acceptance
or rejection of the completed tax bill.
A poll of the Senate and House
conducted by leaders of both parties
brought assurances to representatives
Of the farm organizations that the Nc
Nary-Haugen bill, or some other
measure of agricultural relief, will
be passed before adjournment. 1t is
of such vital Importance to the
farmers and to the government that
| it is proposed to devote several days
to discussion of the measure. An eff
fort has been made during the last
few days to expedite the consideration
of the McNary-Haugen bill in the
House. The days and minutes are
so valuable that the Senate adopted
night sessions in order to dispose OF
more important measures. Under
pressure from the agriculture dis
tricts, members in both Houses are
urging their leaders to give serious
thought to general legislation of in
terest to agricultural communities.
L.
All political parties are at work
on plans to bring about record vote
at the next election. The recent cleo
lions showed the growing indifference
of the people to their power at the
ballot box. The claim is advanced
that the decay in influence over leg
islators has been due to large ex-
tent to this attitude on the part of
voters who have been free to criticize
errors in commission and commission,
without taking the only means of re-
dress.
1t is indeed a problem of unusual
magnitude at present because figures
prepared from non-partisan sources
show approximately one-half of the
voters fail to perform their civic
duty. 1t has been estimated from re-
liable sources that for every 100
votes cast for President in 1920, there
were 90 stay-at-homes, or absentees.
These figures are astounding to the
lay mind and almost beyond belief
DuU Gll6 lIo1Il ClCCIlOll ulotllSCo
prove this condition. 1t is said that it
is not characteristic of any particu-
lar section. Campaign managers will
insist upon energetic missionary tao
tics in all congressional districts this
year. The effect of a personal can
vass is shown in returns from Ken
lucky for 1920, where there were on
ly "a absentees for each 100 votes
registered at the polls, and the result
was that Cox carried the state by
4,017, very close margin. The
statement is made in Vermont that
the percentage of absentees was 113
for every 100 votes cast for President
in 1920. This is one reason why
members of Congress are anxious to
get home for the preliminary cam
paigns.
The failure of the legislative body !
to revise the immigration bill in con-