White House and Capitol
The United States Congress resumed work on Tuesday after the summer recess and at once struck an attitude at variance with the President. The fact that just as the executive was demanding a largely increased flow of melt for military service the Canadian War Minister should have announced that 20,000 Canadian home-service troops were to be "demobilised" was no doubt unfortunate, but Colonel Ralston could hardly have been expected to consider how a purely domestic, almost departmental, arrangement in Canada might affect policy in the United States. The 2o,000, moreover,- are not actually to be demobilised ; they remain in the Army but will be used for other purposes than actual home-defence, which the expul- sion of the Japanese from the Aleutian Islands and other factors have made a less onerous undertaking. But the drafting of more classes to military service is an unpopular, if necessary, move, and Congress- men are peculiarly sensitive to protestations liy their constituents. The American Constitution has great merits, but its provisions for the election of the President and of Congress means that for the last- year of every quadrennium every move is made with an eye on the coming polls. America is just entering on one of such periods now. The course of the discussions in the Senate and House in the present session will show which of the country's legis- lators is, and which is not, capable in a time of crisis of subordinating considerations of party and personal position to the interests of the country and of humanity.
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