Imperial Valley press., 1943-01-17
CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edison

9 ooino 70 be the most historic OF
all times-got off to a flying start,
over 1000 new bills were introduced
on the very first day-759 in the
House a more modest 239 in the
Senate. Yes, sir! This new Con-
eress means business. In ADDITION
to the 1000 and more new ollls'
there were over 800 private blllS
and resolutions.
Taking a closer look at all TINS
back breaking load of proposed
legislation, you discover that
lot of il isn't so new. Hundreds
of the proposals are legislative =
chestnuts that didn't get roasted
or pulled out Of the fires of ora
tory in the last session, or the
session before that or the one be-
fore that. The chances are that
nothing will happen to 80 per
cent of this session. either.
You might expect that in war
time, all these proposed bills pre-
sented before the most historic ses-
sion of Congress would be of tre-
mendous import, all necessary TO
the winning of the war. The hard,
cold fact is that most OF 1t Is ut
terly trivial and you have to look
through column after column OF
fine type listing these bills by title
before you find something that IS
really important to anyone except
the individual congressman who
introduced it or the individual pri-
vate citizen who would benefit
from the bill, if Congress were to
pass it.
DOGS, DRYS AND
DRY CLEANING
Take a few examples.
From the Hon. Usher L. Burdick
of Williston, North Dakota, a bill
to prohibit experiments on living
dogs in the District of Columbia.
From the Hon James j. Heffer-
man of Brooklyn, N. Y, bill to
provide free laundry and dry clean
ing to members of the armed serv-
ice while on active duty.
From the Hon. U. S. Guyer of
Kansas City, Kan, bill to prohib-
it within the District of Columbia
the manufacture . sale Il
or possession of any spurious. vim
Gus, malt, fermented and all alco-
holic liquors whatsoever.
From the Hon. Clinton P. An
dersOn of Albuquerque, New Mex
leo, a bill to authorize a per cap
ita payment of $40 to the men,
bers of the Santa Clara Pueblo
of New Mexico. :.
From the Hon. John Lesinski of
Dearborn, Mich, a bill to grant
pensions to certain mremarried
widows of Civil War veterans
who were married to the veter-
ans subsequent to June 26. 1905.
From the Hon. Mrs Margaret
Chase Smith of SkOwhegan, Me-,
a bill for the erection of a me-
mortal to . Maj Gen. Henry
Knox
From the Hon. Fred A. Hartley
of kearney. N. j., bill to regu-
late boxing contests i'm the Dis
trict of Columbia.
Now most of these world saving
proposals don't get reported in the |
newspapers, and it's just as we'll !
They are not news and they will |
most all die a-bornin'. Yet they |
are all important and the congress
sional obstetricians in their COM
mittee room legislative lying-in
wards must pay attention to every |
one of the brain children thus con-
ceived.
DEMOCRACY AT WORK
Reason these seemingly petty |
proposals are important is that this |
is democracy and the mere fact |
that all these trivialities can get |
consideration of a kind in the halls |
OF Congress is proof that democ-
racy is at work. For in a democ-
racy, theoretically, every Joe !
Dokes is considered important,
even if he's a ScreWball.
The legislative machinery in
democracy must grind every pro-
p0sal thrown into its hopper. Out
of these 1900 bills and resolutions
presented to Congress on its open
ing day, not more than $50 may
ever be passed by Congress. The
theory is that the deserving bills
will be passed and the bad ones
won't. Maybe that's open to
question. A lot of time and ef-
fort have TO be wasted in reject
ing the bum ideas, and in war
perhaps il is wrong to be con-
cerned with such trivialities.