The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1933-02-17

Ing into history
A DO-NOTHING as the last lame
CONGRESS duck" sessions is
browning itself
with new-found glory. Short SEES
sions Of congress, In advance Of
change in administration, are never
expected to accomplish much, but the
current edition is by all odds the win
ner when the race is run towards the.
zero.
Indeed, those Of us who are re-
quired-not privileged-by our duties
to sit in the press galleries Of the
senate and the house day after day
have INDUCED In a little game Of at
tempting to locate some legislation
which might have been killed but was
allowed to pass. It lust amt"
And to make the thing more ridicu-
lous, senate and house committees
were excitedly holding hearings on
this bill or that right up to the finish
line, taking testimony Con account of
which there Is always a tremendous
stenographic bill In addition to the
printing charges of thousands Of dol
lars) and inviting witnesses from here,
there and everywhere. There was not
a chance for those bills to be enacted
into law and the bulk of the commit
tee members admitted the. fact pri-
vately. But for the sake Of the ''rec-
ord" they Joined with others Of their
particular committee and went right
ahead on their grand errand Of futility.
The proponents Of the hearings JUS
tify their course with the statement
that they now have the data upon
which to fashion legislation later.
They argue that the bulk Of the Leg
islation had something or other to
do with the whole program of lifting
the country out Of the mire Of the de-
preston, and survey shows this to
be true in all respects. It could be
said, therefore, that the orgy Of hear
ings in the short session was in prepa-
ration for greater things, except that
the records reveal new hearings al
ways have been held, regardless of
what has transpired before, when the
same legislation is introduced in
new session of congress.
Whenever congress ends, all bills
on the house and senate calendars of
business die. So the expiration of the
second session is also the expiration
Of the Seventy-Second congress, and
every bill that was before either house
or in the hands of any committee Of
either house became null and void.
No one seems to know why there
was so much activity among the COM
mittees of the senate and house In
the session. 1t was apparent at the
start, and became more so as Deem
Der and January passed and February
rolled in, that it would be do-noth-
ing session. Senators recognized the
situation. From the Republican side
came threats and jibes and jests that
the Democrats were blocking anything
and everything. From the Democratic
side Of the senate chamber came the
same tune with just slight variation
in the chorus. It was to the effect
that the Republicans had control,
which they did If one counted as Re-
publicans those who had deserted the
Republican candidate in the 1882 cleo
ton for the support of Mr.. Roosevelt.
And so it was.
In the house, there was clear
Democratic majority. But something
else was wrong in that body. The
plans of the leadership did not always
carry, and If they did, the legislation
was passed only to run into the log
jam in the senate. Some of the house
Democrats even went so far as to say
their majority would not have held
to pass some of the legislation put
through except for the knowledge that
the bills would get snowbound in the
senate.
A Washington correspondent for one
of the great London dailies cabled his
newspaper that "the American con-
gress seems to be going in all direc-
tions at the same time" quote him
because there has been no more fitting
description Of the situation come to
my attention.
After all, 1t seems to me the cir
cumstance ought not be SO surprising
that the short
WRITE YOUR /, session has done
CONGRESSMAN nothing. l have
inquired among
very great number of senator's and
representatives. from leaders down to
the newest and latest additions to the
membership. Their answers to my
question concerning the lack of ac-
complishment varied so widely that
I concluded they must reflect infinitely
the feeling throughout the country.
Every one. or nearly every one, has
had worries through the last three
years and these worries have been ac-
centuated in the last year. The own
ers of these worries, whether they are
important worries or just individual
worries, looked around for some one
to solve their problems. Suddenly,
they thought: "Why. there is our con-
gresham" or Senator SO-and-So. His