The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-15
PRESS ON OUR CONGRESS

I
 the congress of the United States has : lost most of it's friends, if indeed it ever s&A-;Ehad any. Whatever it is that the Amer
 jean people expect of congress, it ap-
 pears that their expectations are peren-
 nially unfulfilled. To be sure, it is ad-
 Lnitted that there have been sessions of
 congress that have done things worth s,. while, but the admission usually does not ,.+ come until years afterward. Former Congresses, like the good old days, are ,~ always the best. Perhaps even the con z 77eress just past may some day come to < ss enjoy an acclaim that is now denied it. ,s- It is not only the press this time, but also .- the Republican president and the Re- < publican national convention who con- .zas demn the most recent congressional ses- -se sion. That being the case, perhaps con- :; ,as gress has builded better than it is given credit for.
 .gst aThe Memphis Commercial- Appeal e- boldly calls it "our worthless congress-" ... = and goes on to say: "There was a desire .,.- on the part of congress to enact into law 3 many things that would have been hurt fGssrful to the masses of American people.
 Some of the boobs there wanted to put 2. their minds higher than the minds of the - judges of the supreme court. Others .2* wanted congress to wreck the railroads, : thereby bringing about receiverships and 4dtSI DIlHSlHS dDOuC government owner az. ship and still later bringing about soviet x control. Still others wanted to subsi- ,f .dize the wheat growers of the North 2 5f west who insist upon riding over their ;: farms in automobiles, growing one crop
 and eating canned food and living in - town. But after all, inefficiency and .f-.' stupidity may be an asset for the. na-
 tion. Destructive and oppressive legis-
 s7lation failed because of the inability of the various groups in congress to act < with sufficient intelligence to put it ] 7: through" Whereby, by it's very ve-
 hemence, the Commercial Appeal seems : + to lessen the force of it's argument. It | is just as easy for a defender of con- : .gress to say that the ma ajority of these
 unwise things failed because of the in- 'Y telligence of some of the members who opposed them.
 ,1f. That "the first session of the sixty :, eighth congress was one of the most tur- : bulent in history" is the opinion of the
 Cleveland Plain Dealer. "It opened with prolonged organization fights. Bitter
 partisan warfare with the insurgent Re-
 publicans holding the balance of power 7 developed in the consideration of the
 revenue bill, which finally was approved,
 and was waged in connection with pro-
 posed legislation upon which no action l, was taken. The last day of the session
 was fairly typical of the entire six months, with individual senators demand
 ing action on their own pet proposals as
 a condition to their permitting approval
 even of appropriation and deficiency bills which usually are accepted as
 matter of course" There is no doubt ..., that the record of congress was not such 7 as to be a source of pride to the Re- :, publican party.
 3.;- A sentiment shared by many is ex- pressed by the Detroit Free Press: "In z view of the failure of legislation good
 and bad, the question of a special ses- .-.f sion arose before the regular session was ;: z. fairly ended. competent, conscien- tious law-making body could do some ,rs-good work for the country between now :: and December if it were in session; but ;-ca the present congress is neither compe-
 tent nor conscientious. If it had been it .. would have cleaned up it's work before .ss- adjourning. Its reassembling would ' ,., probably mean only new dose of the x old painful, disgusting stuff" Likewise the Washington Post: "If congress had possessed a shred of patriotic foresight
 it would have provided for the better
 ment of the navy's battleships and for
 additional cruisers. But it had neither zsc4 patriotism nor foresight. It was con- cerned in personal, sectional and party s. politics. The few individuals in congress who struggled to improve on the national
 defense were swept aside by those who
 pressed for class legislation" In this -,+ft appears that the Post is very unfair to ,ss1the lower house which passed very ex- ss=Ypeditiously the extraordinary naval ap- s1 pfopriation bill providing $150,O00, ,000 .Fs for the purpose cited by the Post. In
 fact, the lower house should come in for x Honorable mention on a number of counts, including acceptance of the Ford .-. offer for Muscle Shoals, and would
 doubtless have improved it's record had "a it received any cooperation from the Y senate.
 -s.S. Some curious reasoning is ndulged ssi-i in by the Kansas City Star and is repro : duced here for whatever mental gym nastics it may afford the reader: Neither party can claim for itself the credit for if what was worth while or evade respon- = stbility for much that was unsound, un- Isa just or reprehensible. If there is greater { Responsibility on one side than on the ssl. other it would seem to have been with Z sthe Democratic minority rather than the s'- Republican majority, for the Democrats
 sought and procured a coalition with the
 radical Republican bloc, forming coali-
 tion majority. It is a record that neither" s~ party can successfully defend before the
 country in the coming campaign. Each -; party will have to depend for campaign - thunder on the character of men it nom :. mates for the presidency and the vice
 presidency" The Star planes the Dem
 ocrats for the Republican schism and for taking what advantage was possible of
 that schism. As matter of fact, the {. only "coalition" was in regard to tax {. reduction schedules, and house insurgents 1. deserted the coalition even then on the
 final vote The average taxpayer of the country owes the Tightening of his
 burden to the Democratic influence [. alone, for had it not been for Democratic
 opposition the Mellon plan with its
 higher schedules on small incomes would
 hava heconne law. 1t is a new doctrinA