The San Francisco call., 1898-02-26
First Strike at Oakland liar bOr to Establish a
 Precedent.
DEFEAT IN THE HOUSE,
Both Items Remain in the River and Harbor Appropriation
 Bill.
Special Dispatch to The Call.
Call Office. Riggs House

call Of1lce, RlSSS House Washington, D. C., Feb. 20.
 There was a hot fight in the House this afternoon against making appro- priations for river and harbor improve ments, provided for by existing law, for which no contracts have yet been made. It was evident from the begin ming that the principal purpose of the fight was to strike out the appropria- ton for San Pedro harbor.
 The fight was opened with Parker S motion to strike out the appropriation for Oakland harbor ($133,000) on the ground that no contract had yet been made for the work. The friends of c. P. Huntington promptly rallied to the support of Parker, not because they were opposed to the appropriation for Oakland harbor, but because the defeat of Oakland harbor on the ground stated would be a precedent for defeating the appropriation for San Pedro.
 That the real assault was on the ap- propriation for San Pedro harbor was soon made apparent by the speech of General Grosvenor of Ohio, attacking that appropriation on the grounds that
 
 unwiSe: that it would cost more than the amount limited by law; that no contract had yet been made for the work, and that an excellent harbor in that vicinity was to be constructed by private enterprise and turned over to the Government without cost, provid- ed the Government should not proceed with the improvement of San Pedro harbor, and asserting that an offer in writing to this effect had been filed with the Secretary of War by persons of unquestionable responsibility. This statement of GrosvenorS is understood of course to refer to Huntington s proposition to improve Santa Monica harbor at the expense of his own com pany, but an investigation has failed to elicit the fact that any such propo- sition has been filed with the Secretary of War.
 MT. Cannon, replying to Grosvenor, practically declared that he was not in favor of going on with the improve ment of San Pedro harbor and rather shocked the members of the California delegation by intimating that there was little joker connected with the S400,000 appropriation in the bill. He declared that advertisement for con tracts for work on San Pedro called only for the construction of break water, while the appropriation and the law under which it was made required the construction of a deep-water har- bor. He therefore thought the courts might hold (contrary to the Attorney Generals opinion) that the appropria- tion could not be used for the construc- tion of breakwater.
 A long colloquy followed this sugges- nf inn in ,inh M guire, Cannon, Barlow, Hepburn and Northway participated.
 Mcguire took the position that Can- non and others had confounded the in- ner and outer harbor projects, which he said were entirely distinct; that the act of 1898 contemplated only the inn provement of the outer Cor deep water) harbor, already deep enough for com- mercial purposes and a refuge for the largest vessels afioat, provided only that it be protected from heavy seas and from the shoaling of it's entrance by the deposit of sediment, both of which purposes would be accomplished substantially by the building of a breakwater.
 Cooper (R) of Wisconsin came to the support of the Californians with a clear and powerful ten-minute speech in favor of the appropriation.
 lie Sdlu 1c Wluld idlllcl SSc CNCl other appropriation in the sundry civil bill fail than witness the national hu- initiation involved in allowing the pri- .vate owners of Santa Monica harbor to further their personal interests by defeating the appropriation for San Pedro
 At the close of Cooper's speech the opposition to San Pedro was practically abandoned and the appropriation passed without division. It was re- marked that throughout the debate Hooker of New York, chairman of the Committee on Rivers and Harbors who was such an earnest champion of Santa Monica in the Fifty-fourth Con- gress, sat behind General Grosvenor prompting and advising him but talk ing no direct part in the discussion.
 Ever since the sundry civil bill was reported to the House last week Hunt ington's man Friday Otherwise called John Boyd) has been buttonholine members of Congress.
 The result of this fight adds another to the list of MT. Huntington's failures to control legislation in Congress where he was once thought to be om nipotent.
 Tho attarpt tO strike the Oakland