The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1940-12-12
(By Staff Wr.ter)

WdSIl1IIStOII. - liz ASANooA W
Congress to adjourn until the new
Congress comes in to take 1t:
place on January 3 is only one
symptom Of the fact that the
President is not going to have as
easy sailing as he has had in the
past. The majority of the new
Congress is made up of members
of the present Congress, and
while they have a Democratic
majority, they have strong 10y
al opposition" facing them, and
they are going to be very careful
indeed not to take an attitude
which might be disastrous to ma
ny of them in another two years.
For while the public at large
is accustomed to thinking of ma
tional politics in four-year terms,
every member of either party IN
the House of Representatives is
painfully conscious all the time
that his term is only two years
and that if he doesn't begin lay
ing the ground work as soon as
he gets in he is likely to go out
sooner than he expected to.
Adjournment Urged
The President has been egging
Congress on to 60 home ever
since last June. Congress, as soon
as the national alarm began over
the whole defense situation, took
a stronger stand against the Presi-
dent than any Congress of any
party has taken in recent years.
Republicans and Democrats alike
Joined in retorting to the Presi-
dents statement that he did not
think it was safe for him to go
more than twelve days journey
from Washington, that in that
case it wasn't safe for Congress
either. So, much as they disliked
sticking on the job, these gentle
men who are accustomed to long
vacations, have been staying right
here in Washington and have
been doing more real and con-
structive work since the Presl-
dent tried to chase them home
than Congress usually does in any
such space Of time.
The biggest thing, OF course
that this Congress has done is the
series of laws and appropriations
for National Defense. No nation
in peace time has ever authorized
or spent so much money. That the
next Congress will carry on
where this one quits, goes with
out saying.
Outside of the defense laws
and the acts relating to them, 1t
may not be too much of an at
tempt at humor to point out that
Congress has at last got around to
defending itself, against the COL
lapse of it's own roofs. For years
the architect of the Capitol and
expert engineers have been
pointing out that unless scme-
thing is done about it the whole
roof of both the Senate wing and
the House wing will collapse
some day, perhaps after heavy
snow, and kill few hundred
members of Congress. So this
Congress finally got around to 1t
and is finishing out its days in
other places than those where 1t
customarily meets.
Original Room
The Senate is meeting in the
room which was originally built
for it but which was used for
seventy-five years or more by the
Supreme Court. The House has
abandoned the old wing at the
north side of the Capitol build
ing and is holding its sessions
temporarily in the caucus room OF
the new House Office building.
Architects and builders are re-
placing the stained glass roofs on
cast-iron frames which have stood
to their job for three quarters OF
a century. And sometime in April,
or maybe later, the new 77th
Congress which comes into exls-
tence on January 8, will find it
self in quarters befitting its i'm
portance.
Outside of protecting the nation
and protecting its own members,
one of the last acts of the old
Congress was to pass a law in
te11ded to protect the public
against improper jurisdiction of
purely statutory bodies. This is
the so-called Logan-Walter Act,
which provides for Court review
of any decision or action, with
few exceptions, made by any one
of the more than one hundred
Government bureaus which have
been set up under the New Deal
and given quasi-judicial powers.
This is one of the laws that Presi-
Ill NV