The city of Omaha was abuzz with excitement as the summer of 1918 approached, but for one group of citizens, the news out of Washington, D.C. was a bitter pill to swallow. The Omaha Democrats were among those whose well-laid plans for the season were about to go up in smoke.
On May 27, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson delivered an address to the joint houses of Congress, announcing that the legislative body would remain in session until a new revenue bill was passed. For those with fences in disrepair, the news was a cruel blow. Chairman Simmons, the head of the Ways and Means Committee, had previously promised that a new revenue law would be on the statute books by February, but that deadline had come and gone without a single step forward.
The opposition of Chairman Kitchin had stalled progress on the measure, and it seemed as though the summer would be spent in limbo. The president’s decision to keep Congress in session was a direct response to the Senate Committee on Finance’s failure to deliver on its promise of a new revenue law by Christmas. The delay had left many with broken fences, their summer plans up in the air.
As the news spread, the people of Omaha were left to wonder what the future held. Would the summer be a time of repair and renewal, or would it be a season of disappointment and delay? Only time would tell, but one thing was certain: the people of Omaha were not pleased with the turn of events.
The Ways and Means Committee hearings, once seen as a chance for lawmakers to run over to the battlefields of France and Flanders, had now become a seemingly endless exercise in bureaucratic red tape. The people of Omaha were left to pick up the pieces and wonder what other surprises the summer of 1918 might hold.
As the days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months, the people of Omaha couldn’t help but feel a sense of frustration and disillusionment. The promise of a new revenue law had been nothing more than a distant dream, and now it seemed as though the summer would be spent in a state of limbo.
In the end, it was not a crime that had brought the city of Omaha to its knees, but rather the slow and laborious pace of government. The people of Omaha were left to wonder what the future held, and whether the summer of 1918 would be a time of repair and renewal, or a season of disappointment and delay.
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Key Facts
- State: Nebraska
- Category: Public Corruption
- Era: Historical
- Source: Library of Congress — Chronicling America ↗
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