Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-02-03 | Page 26 | Congress

CONGRESS. Wadsworth of New York and Hitchcock Hitch-cock of Nebraska are scheduled for speeches in the senate tomorrow upon the Chamberlain bills, which propose j to take the power of conducting the war out of the president's hands. This is deliberately wasting the time of the senate upon a dead issue, there being no chance for these measures to pass. But as there is no way to prevent a. senator from blocking much-needed much-needed legislation by talking for political po-litical effect or bellowing in order to gratify a personal grudge, we presume the New Yorker and the Nebraskan, neither of whom is a giant in statesmanship, states-manship, will air their views, that some administration senator will reply re-ply on Tuesday and that the remainder of the week will be wasted in wrangling, wran-gling, while the war waits. There is a vast amount of work before be-fore congress, and such of the committees com-mittees as are not conducting inquiries are hard at work, especially those of the house. The agricultural bill has been reported and passed and a fairly good start has been made in the lower branch of congress. On the senate side ! the interstate commerce committee agreed upon the main features of ; the railroad bill after some of the j members of the committee visited the . White House and ascertained the views 1 of the president. The compromise provides pro-vides that the roads shall be returned to their owners within eighteen months after the close of the war and that the : president be given power to initiate rates. Tho interstate commerce commission, com-mission, however, is made the supreme court so far as rate-making under government gov-ernment control is concerned, as an appeal may be taken from the orders of the chief executive. This bill may be reported to the senate sen-ate some time during the present week if the long-winded senatorial politicians poli-ticians cease harranguiug long enough to give the war bills and routjne business busi-ness a chance. One of the most important im-portant bills to come up, the revenue measure, will not be ready for a number num-ber of weeks, for the total amount needed is not known at the present time. The one thing certain about this bill is that it will undoubtedly increaso taxes all along the line, and that tho people will be taxed until it hurts, and then some. This cannot be helped, for we are at war, and billions must be raised in some manner. At the same ; time, the burden should be equalized as ', far as possible. All tho other bills j will probably get through the house with little delay, and the length of j the session will depend upon the wind of the senatorial orators.