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Show THE SIXTY-FIFTH CONGRESS The Sixty-Fifth Congress, just expired, ex-pired, has been a body of remarkable experiences. No congress in our history has had as many and important import-ant problems with which to deal. We will all agree that it did many wise and beneficent things and ' many things that it should not have done. Also that it failed t'o do many things which it should have done. This summary only shows that a body of men is human, and therefore both as well-intentioned and as li able to err as the individual man. We remember that this congress declared a state of war between the United States and the' imperial German Ger-man government, and later, against the Austro-Hungarian government. We gasp when we learn that in two years it appropriated nearly 55 billion dollars. It passes the greatest tax laws ill parliamentary history, in two years levying ten billion dollars in taxes upon the people. And in the same time it authorized bond issues aggregating aggre-gating twenty- two billions. It passed a law to make the country coun-try dry after July 1st, 1919,, for the duration of the .war. And then it passed a constitutional amendment for national prohibition. After it had made its great appropriations appro-priations for different war purposes it usually had to turn to and investigate invest-igate the application of the funds. It was in every sense of the word a. militant body. When it was not making war appropriations or pursuing pur-suing war investigations or appointing appoint-ing food or fuel war commissions it was generally engaged in internal dissensions or in dissensions with the admintration. After all it was our congress and a thoroughly American one. It did the thing it . set out to do, supplied the country with nearly 4,000,000 fighting fight-ing men, furnished the sinew's of war for them and stood at their backs while they went through to victory. It has packed its valise and gone home to rest and to inspect and re pair its political fences. Peace to its cigar ashes and fulfilment ful-filment to its dreams. |
