LAST-MINUTE LEGISLATION

Everyone will not be satisfied with what the present Congress accomplished in its final session. Its worst critics will affirm that it did things it ought not to have done and left undone all the important things. Labor wants immediate action on the immigration question; others want relief at once from the heavy burdens of war-time taxation. And to make matters worse the long-suffering Congress has only-till March 4 to satisfy popular clamor.

Events may turn out better than the pessimists expect. It is reported that President Wilson will ask that the primary consideration be the financial problem; this will suit almost everyone. Another report is that Chairman Johnson of the Immigration Committee favors legislation which shall put a temporary stop to all immigration; nothing could satisfy better Mr. Gompers and his followers. The net result of this course of action would please the majority.

Congress should cheek all immigration without wasting much time, and this would be the wisest thing to do, inasmuch as the present emergency passport legislation under which immigration is now controlled expires on March 4. The solution of such an important question as the admission of foreigners demands time for investigation and discussion; no doubt the present administration would gladly pass on to President-elect Harding the responsibility of determining our future policy in the matter. If Congress, with the immigration problems off its hands, could then accomplish something to relieve the taxpayers of the country, it will, at least, have discredited any assertion that it left undone everything of importance.