Birmingham state herald., 1896-06-03
HOUSE SAYS T SHALL GO River and Harbor Bill Passed
 Over the Veto. TEXT OF COMMITTEE REPORT In Which Some of the srtiOns of the Presi-
 dent Are ;s 'peached." HENDERSON gf ON THE GAG And the vote,sS,~yas Taken With Mildly Pathetic SSsotest From MT. Cookery. Senate Passes the Probibitory
 Bond Bill.

Washington, June 2-Mr. Henderson reported from the committee on rules an order making the hour of meeting for the remainder of the session II o'clock a. m. It was agreed to.
 MT. Dingley, chairman of the commit tee on ways and means, called the atten- ton of the members to the necessity of maintaining quorum in attendance in order that the business of the house might be successfully prosecuted. Sev- en of the appropriation bills, he said were still in conference, with several matters of difference between the two houses likely to cause friction, and upon which yea and nay votes would doubtless be demanded before they were settled. In order to close up the business of the house he warned members proposing to leave that the presence of a quorum was absolutely necessary. If a quorum be broken, Mr. Dingley said, he desired to warn members that 1t would be nec- essary to send for them.
 MT. Cannon, chairman of the commit tee on appropriations, stated that in his Judgment there was no possibility that the present session of congress would end before Wednesday of next week. probably not before Friday or Saturday. MT. Henderson-That depends upon quorum remaining.
 MT. Cannon-Oh, yes certainly. With out quorum the session would run along for a month.
 The speaker-The speaker expresses the hope that quorum keeping will begin promptly at II o'clock.
 The report of the committee on rivers and harbors, recommending the passage of the river and harbor appropria tion bill, the objections of the president to the contrary notwithstanding, was pre- sented by MT. Hooker. republican, of New York, chairman, and read.
 The report states that of the AT items of appropriations in the bill all except twenty-seven are for projects contained In bills which have heretofore become laws, and which have been for years in process of construction by the govern ment. No new projects were added to the bill of 1894. It will thus be seen. the report says, that the principal work of the committee has been the investiga ton and examination of improvements of which congress has repeatedly committed itself. The river and harbor bill of 1890 appropriated $25, ,O00,0 ,000 and placed cer- tain works under the contract system which involved the additional expendi- ture of $15,0OO,000. It appears, therefore that by far the greater number of pro- jects appropriated for in ths bill were also appropriated for in the bill of 1S90 and which are not yet completed.
 The report explains that the bill was referred to General Casey, then chief of the United States engineers, who report ed to President Harrison that only eight of the items seemed to be of limited or To- cal benefit. The gross amount appro- priated for those items was $72000 From this it will be seen, the report con- tinues, that the larger part of the pro- jects contained in the present bill passed the scrutiny and received the approval of General Casey and have gone unchal- lenged until now The bills of 1890-92 were approved by President Harrison and the bill of 1894 was permitted by the present executive to become a law by lin- itation.
 The committee mpeach the presidents declaration that many of the objects for which the money was appropriated are not related to the public welfare. They assert that the bill was carefully prepar- ed after exhaustive hearings, and that they scrupulously avoided making appro- priations not in the interest of commerce.
 Referring to the presidents criticism that not few of the improvements have been so improvidently planned and pros- ecuted, that after an unwise expenditure of millions of dollars new experiments for their accomplishment have been en- tered upon, the committee say that it has often occurred after a project has been adopted in accordance with certain defined plans submitted by the engineers that the interests of commerce required that a greater and more effective inn provement than that first contemplated should be made. In such cases 1t had long been the custom of congress to or der from time to time new estimates to be made with view to enlarging the scope of the projects. In making appro- priationS for these enlarged projects the bill often directed that the money appro- priated should be expended in accord ance with the notifications of the en- Qjnaarq The committee balinVaS fhara- fore that the president may have inferred from the language so used that the origi- nal plans had been improvident and i'll advised and the money wasted when the money expended upon the original plans was judiciously expended and would have been expended even if the modified plans had been originally adopted. An instance of these notifications is found in the case of the harbors at Baltimore, Portland, New York, Wilmington, Del Savannah and other places. A careful examination of the bill warrants the committee in asserting that there Is no foundation for the presidents statement that the bill carries appropriations for work which private parties have actually agreed with the government to do in con- sideratlon of their occupancy of public property.
 Referring to the presidents further criticism that the bill contemplates an immediate cash expenditure of nearly $17,O0O, 900. including $3,0O0,0O0 carried in the sundry civil appropriation bill for contract work, the committee asserts that the president is in error and that only $12,621 ,000 are to be. expended during the two fiscal years ending June 30, 1898. The statement is also made that the bill does not appropriate $62. 100000 for con- tract work, but only $59, ,616, ,00O. It is also shown that if all the contracts authoriz- ed by the bill are promptly entered into by the secretary of war the maximum ,vf ho n ha haI in year is $16,612 000, and not $20, 900, 900, as the president asserts.
 Referring to thu presidents further cHiticism that the appropriations for the smaller schemes not covered by con tracts which will fan due two years