The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1894-11-29
in THE NEXT CONGRESS
Probable Distribution of I'm.
portant Chairmanships.
BASED ON REED BEING SPEAKER
Hermann to Have the Chairmanship Of
the Rivers and Harbors, and Burrows
the Ways and Means Chairmanship-
The Appropriations In Doubt.

AouIN0IONS NoNCuUcI ~. AAO
House Committees which are expected
to be of the greatest Importance in the
next Congress are those on Ways and
Means, Appropriations, Rules, Banking
and Currency, Coinage, Weights and
Measures, Rivers and Harbors, and Pub
lie Buildings and Grounds. The first
three named always head the list in Or
der of Importance. The others are ex-
pected to assume Importance in the next
Congress because of the special condi-
tions which will prevail during that
Congress. The Banking Committee will
certainly be one of the most important
committees on the list, if there should
be an effort, as it is limited there may be,
to revise the currency laws and change
the present system. The probability Of
an effort to secure silver legislation and
the further probability that the Repub-
lican party when it comes into power in
House may want to formulate policy
on this question, will have the effect also
of advancing the Coinage Committee to
q position of the first rank. The, Rivers
and Harbors and Public Buildings Com
mittees will have the delicate task of
providing for public improvements, so
far as the committees of the House can
accomplish this work.
With so many new men as there will
be on the Republican side of Congress,
and all of them feeling that it will be
necessary for them to make q showing
to their constituents, there will natural
ly be a pretty general clamor for ap-
preparations for postoffice buildings, GUS
tom houses and river and harbor i'm
provements. While the Republican
party has always shown disposition to-
ward liberality in public Improvements,
there is probability of an effort to hold
their miscellaneous appropriations as
low as possible. The low condition of
the treasury and the fact that a Presi-
Dental election will be 80 near at hand
will prove strong arguments in this di-
rection, as will the possibility of Presi-
Dental veto. The Republicans at pres
emit have six of the seventeen members
of the Rivers and Harbors Committee,
and all their members have been re-
elected except Henderson of Illinois.
With Henderson out of the way Her
mann of Oregon takes first place in the
Republican membership of the Com
mittee, with Stephens of Michigan,
Hooker of New York, Grosvenor of Ohio,
and Rey burn of Pennsylvania following
in the order named. Itcannot, of course,
be known whether the next Speaker will
follow the seniority rule. If he should,
Hermann would become Chairman.
Milliken of Maine leads the Repub-
lican membership of the Committee on
Public Buildings, and the chances are, If
Reed becomes Speaker, Milliken will be
made Chairman of this committee.
Morse of Massachusetts, Is the only Re-
publican member of the committee re-
turned. Only three of the old Repub-
lican members of the Committee on
Banking and Currency are reelected.
They are Walker of Massachusetts, Rus
sell of Connecticut and johnson of In
diana. Walker is the senior member,
and his chances for the Craftsmanship
are the best. OF the six present Repub-
lican members of the Committee on
Coinage, Weights and Measures five have
been reelected to the Fifty-fourth Con-
gress. They are in the order named:
Stone of Pennsylvania, johnson of North
Dakota, Dingley of Maine, Hager OF
Iowa and Aldrich of Illinois. Stone
would naturally become Chairman of
the committee if he desired the place.
In the natural order of events Bur-
rows of Michigan will become Chairman
of the Ways and Means Committee.
With Reed in the Speakers chair there
is little doubt that he will be given this
important post, which carries with it
the Republican leadership on the floor
of the House, if he fails in his ambition
to succeed Senator Patton in the Senate.
With Reed in the Speakers chair and
Burrows in the Senate there would be
only three Republican members of the
present committee left to choose from,
these being Payne of New York, Dalzell
of Pennsylvania and Hopkins of Illinois.
Henderson of Iowa is the ranking Re-
publican member of the Appropriations
Committee, with Cogswen of Massachu-
setts, Bingham of Pennsylvania, Ding
ley of Maine, Grout of Vermont and
Cannon of Illinois coming in the order
named. It Is possible that neither Cam
non nor Henderson will be given the
Chairmanship in the event of Burrows
becoming Chairman of the Ways and
Means Committee; the probabilities are
strong that the East would demand the
Craftsmanship of the next most impor.
tant committee, which would be the APP
preparations. In that contingency Cogs-
Wells chances for being promoted to the
head of the committee would be excel
lent. II Reed becomes Speaker of the
House, the Republican membership Of
the Committee on Rules will probably
be composed of himself and the Chair
men OF the Appropriations and Ways
and Means Committees. He pursued
this plan in the Fifty-first Congress, and
there is reason to believe that he would
revive it rather than initiate Crisp's pol
icy of distributing the honors.
THEY WILL LECTURE.