Evening star., 1925-03-05
CONGRESS EXPIRES
WITH MUCH UNDONE
Less Than Half of Officially
Approved Legislation.
Is Enacted.

The sixtyAeighth Congress expired
yesterday with less than half the of
ficially approved legislative program
written into law.
With the executive approval. just
within the legal deadline, of the
legislative and deficiency approprla-
tion bills. all the vital supply meas
ures were successfully enacted, but
there remained on the calendar sew
eral bills of national interest whlch
had been given so-called priority by
the administration leaders. A vote
upon these had been blocked by
combination of delaying tactics on
the party of opponents and lack or
time for consideration.
No measure of general public i'm
portance which did get through the
jam, however. failed of executive ap-
proval, it was declared at the White
House last night, though two or three
bills were understood TO have been
left on President Coolidge's desk
when he departed for his inaugura-
tion at the Capital They were all
said to be measures dealing with
private claims, but whether they were
given pocket vetoes" or were signed
before he left was not definitely
known.
shoals Bill Dies.
The Muscle Shoals leasing bill died
In conference, despite the expression
Of hope at the White House that some
legislative authority would be given
for disposing of that problem.
Farm relief measures were LETT in
various stages. the Capper Haugen
bill on the Senate calendar, the Nc
Nary -Haugen farmers export corpo-
ration bill in the Senate agricultural
committee files. and several less
widely discussed proposals in varying
degrees of consideration.
Enactment of public building pro-
gram, approved by administration
spokesmen to make up for the lack of
construction during the last decade,
failed when the House and Senate
came to a deadlock upon the matter
of jurisdiction over approval of prof.
ects.. Settlement of French spoliation
claims also went over another year
after waiting more than a century.
eral Senators threatened to prevent
more pressing legislation.
Bnnkng Bill Fails.
The McFadden bill to authorize ma
tional banks to maintain branches
under certain conditions and other
wise to compete with State institu-
tionS on a more equal basis had been
put aside in the Senate after three
days discussion and remained truly
4 we'll as technically the "unfinis shed
business" when the final gavel fell.
An amnibus pension bill, changing the
basis of compensation for Civil War
widows, and a similar measure combin-
ing hundreds of individual proposals
for pensions and increases of gratuity
already authorized. also were left on
the Senate calendar.
Among the bills on the leaders
program which were approved were
those increasing postal rates and
salaries, providing for a system of
selected settlement of Government
reclamation projects, liberalizing the
issue of credit from farm loan and
Agricultural credit banks. and the
naval omnibus measure containing
many items of interest to that serv-
Ice.
The first Senate bill of the Congress
was a pension measure, proposing an
annuity to Mrs. Warren G. Harding; the
last was similar in character, pro-
posing a pension to a widow of
Spanish American War veteran.
Signs 20 Bills.
The final legislative suggestion in
the Senate was offered by Senator
Copeland, Democrat, New York, and
coincided in context with the speech
made a few moments later by Vice
President Dawes. The New York
Senator, by resolution, proposed to
amend the Senate rules so as to re-
quire three objections to prevent
unanimous consent, instead of one, as
at present.
In the final drive of the last two
days the Senate disposed of more than
so bills which had already been
given House approval. No less than
20 were laid before President Cool
idge, when, in accordance with Gus
TOM he stopped at the Capitol before
the inauguration to attach his sigma
ture.
Nearly $4,000 legislative proposals
were placed before the Sixty-eighth
Congress in the course of it's two
sessions. Bills and resolutions in
troduced in the House totaled 1900
and in the Senate about 4,800.