AFFAIRS IN AMERICA.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1922, Page 5

AFFAIRS IN AMERICA.

DELAY TO LEGISLATION. TACTICS OF OPPOSITION. ECHOES OF COAL STRIKE. By Telegraph.—Presa Awn.—Copyright. Received Dee. 1, 12.5 a.m. Washington. Nov. 29. President Harding is having trouble with the old Congress, whose tenure ends oh March 4. and which he convened for a special sitting in the hope of passing certain legislation, which he could not hope to pass through the new Congress, because of the reduced Republican majority. The House of Representatives passed the Ship Subsidy Bill with one or two vitiating alterations, but • without an amendment which would have denied a sii-bsidy to any American ship carrying liquor. The Bill was passed by a small majority, more than fifty Republicans joining the Democrats and voting In the meantime the Bill cannot go to the Senate because another Administration measure is already there, which promises to disrupt the body. An Anti-Lynching Bill, which aims to protect negroes in the South, has already passed the House, but Southern Senators declare they will not permit consideration of the measure in the Senate and have begun a filibuster, which they declare they will maintain till March 4, making all legislative business impossible. A filibuster means that opposition Senators, obtaining the floor, will talk in relays for months. The closure is not applicable and a vote impossible.

The commandeering of coal passing through their territory by various communities continues, with the result that a sixteen million ton shortage, due to the mirrera’ strike, has become so prevalent that the Federal fuel distribution committee lias issued a warning that where a community seizes coal intended for another community there is liability of a reprisal. The burden is general and attempts at taking the law into ones own hands will only tend towards chaos and suffering all round.

The Federal mine bureau has issued a statement blaming the recent coal mine explosions, resulting in 185 deaths, to the coal strike. It pointed out that the strike caused a loosening of morale throughout the coal industry, a lowering of discipline, and the employment of inexperienced personnel conducive to aeeidents.—A|is.-N.Z. CaW Association.