The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-08-12

| joke in this house Seven Of its 13 men,
bers are of the somewhat radical south
ern type, Mr.. Moses of Georgia being
chairman and Mr.. Stallings Of Alabama
tho chief objector. No other part of
tho session has resulted in so little for
the time occupied as the Friday night
session to consider pension bills. Ordi-
narily the committee on banking and
currency and that on coinage, weights
and measures would be of prime i'm
portance but the former has probably
been more divided in opinion this year
than any other committee of the house,
and the irascible Bland has been COM
pelled to admit that his specialties are
just now on the ebb tide. Chairman
Hatch of the committee OH agriculture
has fought ably and vigorously for his
favorlte bills, and several Of them have
got through the house and been put
quietly to sleep in the senate At the
close, however, he had the satisfaction
of knocking out tho Hansbrough amend
ment, which the senate had voted, add
ing 81, 600, 900 to the agricultural bill
for discriminating the Russian thistle,
and it evidently did him good clear down
to his fetlocks.
The Claims Committee.
The committee ON claims has done
just about its regular work The COM
mitteo on education has killed the usual
number of crank bills All of the va
rious committees on expenditure have
done only routine business, and tho
same may be said of all those commit
tees which deal with affairs of q per-
manent nature. from the District of Co
lumbia down. The committee on for
eign affairs has done really splendid
work, and no other committee has been
more generally successful. When the
committee ON Pacific railways was an
nounced, Senator Cullom said in his
quiet way, Don't trouble yourself to
hunt up the details of testimony and
bills. 1t is fixed that nothing is to be
done. Z" This prophecy was pretty nearly
fulfilled rs to final results, but not
quite. The committee has heard an
enormous amount of evidence and argu-
ment OH tho subject and has formulated
very elaborate measure, which will be
known rs the Reilly bill, for funding
the Indebtedness and extending its pay
ment a minority, however, consisting
of Messrs. Boatner of Louisiana, Snod-
grass of Tennessee. Cooper of Wiscon-
sin and Hepburn of Iowa has filed re-
port III favor of n much more radical
measure. 1t proposes that the govern
ment shall foreclose it's claim and sell
the road to reorganiZed company. Mr.
Harris, i'll supplemental report, recon-
mends that tho government take the
road into its direct ownership and run it
as sort of experiment to see how that
sort of thing could be done.
Unsuccessful Claims.
Tho last of July is the proper day to
sum up on, for as tho session draws
near an end members begin to bring in
bills by the Wholesale, 90 or 100 per
day, for political effect only, and with
certain knowledge that they will not
pass. This congress met Aug. Z, 1898,
and the first session adjourned Nov 8,
the second session beginning Dec. 4; so,
deducting the six weeks of last fall and
the Christmas holidays, this might be
called good 1913 months session
On the last Of July there had been
brought into the house, printed and re-
ferred 1850 bills and in the senate
2,270, reports made to the house /, $40
and to the senate 597, house executive
documents 25S and senate 1877, with
miscellaneous 100. aud Of the sepato
22S Nevertheless, OF laws classed az
public acts there had been passed and
signed but 131 and 38 private acts,
with 81 public and only 3 private
resolutions. At that time, however, the
senate was just fairly getting its hand
i'll on the pile Of private and special acts
brought over from the house. the num-
Der running far into the hundreds before
the end. There were at tho Same date
but 81 joint resolutions passed out of
2l2 which had been brought in, and it
Is to be remembered that this great mass
Of over 900 bills and resolutions ac-
tally brought into the two houses and
acted upon i'll some way is but the resid-
uum OF very much greater mass of
stuff which is forced upon the consider
alton of the committees.
Perseverance Rewarded.
There Is the committee OH education,
for instance, which is generally looked
upon as n sort of buffer to keep the
cranks from bothering the house, and it
seldom happens that more than one in
80 of the measures brought before it
reaches the house. More than all others,
however, the committee on claims has
to slft few grains out of vast piles of
stuff. There are, take it one year with
another, 40, 600 claims filed, and some
OF them have become standing jokes,
while others are of really pathetic in
terest There, for instance, is tho old,
old claim of Margaret Kennedy. on
whose property Fort Sedgwick was
| built during the war, tho result being