The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-09-29
READY FOR WORK
Not Necessary for Congress TO
Meet in Extra Session.
PRESIDENT DOES NOT WISH II
Congress in Session is a
Burden.
Many Bills Have Already Been Pre-
sented-Annexation to be
Discussed Soon.
PRESIDENT DOES NOT WISH 1T

The Philadelphia Records Washing
ton correspondent writes as follows OF
the present status of affairs while Con-
gress waits for regular session: Presi-
dent Mckinley no more enjoys having
Congress on his hands than did Presl-
dent Cleveland, or any OF his other
predecessors, so that there is no pos
sibiIity that he will ever call Congress
to meet in extra session unless he Is
forced to do so by what he regards as
urgent necessity. Moreover, he realizes
that the country has come to prefer
that Congress should not be IN session,
except when it is absolutely necessary
to do something which it wants done,
and while his 20 years of service in
Congress gave him better opinion OF
it than outsiders generally have, he
would not like to needlessly stir up
the country by bringing Congress to-
gether here before it's regular meeting
time.
demanded and the Republican party
certainly required the passage OF the
new tariff act at the earliest possible
day under the new Administration, and
therefore the extra session of the
spring was eminently necessary, but
there is no general and imperative ap-
peal for any other act of Legislation
and no prospect that any Will arise dur
ing the present Administration, so that
nothing but a question OF our foreign
relations involving imminent danger Oh
war will give him occasion for again
considering the propriety of calling an
extra session OF Congress.
And whenever he does have to con-
slider il, the thought of bringing Sen
ators and Representatives within call
ing distance of the White Hocse for
weeks or months at a time will act as
a restraining influence; for, while there
is unprecedented good feeling be-
tween President Mckinley and Sena-
tors and Representative of all parties,
il is much more convenient for PreSl-
dent Mckinley to have Senators and
Representatives at home, rather than
in Washington.
III the Japanese had attempted to
seize Honolulu, President Mckinley
might have been obliged to call Con-
gress in extra session this fall to con-
slider what should be done about 1T,
but the Japanese did nothing OF the
kind. If General Woodford should ut
terly fail in his negotiations with the
Spanish Government to bring about
peace in Cuba at an early day, and
should, instead, bring about crisis in
our relations with Spain, it might be-
come necessary for President Mckinley
to summon Congress here before De-
cember; but there is no expectation on
the part of the members of the Ad-
ministration that such situation VIII
arrive. No other diplomatic question
is pending which has any threat of war
in il. such as would make it the posi-
BILE cause of an extra session this fall.
SPEEDY ADJOURNMENT.
Congress. then, in all probability will
gog~meet again until the 9th of De-
cember. the day fixed by the Constitu-
ton for the assembling of the regular
session. 1t will meet, thanks to the
extra session, thoroughly organized
and ready for business. 1t will save the
weeks of delay which have usually
been consumed at the opening OF the
regular session in the work of organlz-
ing the committees of the House, and
therefore ought TO be able to end the
first regular session at an unus-
uaIIy early day. An adjournment
by the first of May would be quite pos
sible. since there is no prospect of any
thing coming before Congress which
absolutely and imperatively must be
disposed of in the way of legislation,
except the regular appropriation bills,
and the foreign questions pending in
the Senate executive sessions could GER
tainIy be answered in five months.
The House will meet with its mem
bers all sworn in and assigned to desks,
its Speaker and other officers all elect
ed. and their subordinates chosen and
its committees appointed, and the Sen
ate will meet with it's officers in their
DIaces and its committees ready for
work. Even the calendar Of business
of the Senate is already in print, dated
Monday, December 6, 1897 containing
the lists of several hundred bills re-
ported by its committees to the Senate
at the extra session and not disposed
Of
Both the Senators and the Represen-
tatfyes introduced in the extra session
the great majority of the bills of the
present Congress and will have compar-
atively few to add to them at the COM
ing session. In the Senate 2,502 bills,
Sc Joint resolutions requiring concur
renee by the House and approval by the
President, II concurrent resolutions re
curing simply concurrence by the
House and ia Senate resolutions re-
curing only action by the Senate were
introduced at the extra session and