The times., 1899-03-01
you refuse you will certainly lose one and

you refuse you VIII lOst OlIt
may lose both" --ar-~'ei z
This argument worked splendidly until
the friends OF the canal came TO understand
| it. The public buildings were taken up
within twenty minutes after the House
met yesterday and were pushed from the
| beginning. For a while Representatives
| Dockery and Maddox. both opponents of
/ the canal and Of public buildings, at
| tempted a fflibuster. but were crushed by
! repeated defeats. Speaker Reed, anxious
| 10 keep his side of the canal understanding,
expedited matters with all his power, even
| inaugurating a new ruling to the effect
that when bills had been approved in
/ Committee of the Whole the reading Of
! the reports and of the bills themselves
| could not be demanded in the House. The
| reading of the engrossed bills could be
| called for, but during this last week. bills
! can be engrossed by hand instead of by
printing. thus preventing the usual delay
at that point.
When the first five bills had been disposed
of some one, it is said, told Mr.. Dockery of
! the canal agreement. and that the House
I would certainly grant further time II the
bills were not all passed by O'Clock.
Hence Mr.. Dockery, recognizing the futllity
Of further opposition and recognizing fur
ther that the public buildings would cost
much less than the canal, withdrew his
opposition and let the bills go through.
| Thirty-nine of them were passed by 2
o'clock exhausting the list OF frst-class
Offices custom houses, and Federal courts
At this point the friends of the canal
again picked up courage and set out TO un-
dercut part of the support of the anti
canal project by opposing the remaining
public building bills, with the idea that
the friends of these bills would then re-
turn to the canal. No doubt many mem
bers who Joined in the filibuster did so be-
cause of the inherent badness of most OF
the twenty-three bills remaining. Two OF
these bills were carried through against
strong opposition and a healthy filibuster
was begun against the third proposition.
AT this point Mr.. Loud of California re-
marked that he thought the House would
have a good deal of trouble, and proceeded
to call up the conference report on the
Postoffice appropriation bill, a privileged
; matter.
Mr. Richardson of Tennessee made q
point of order against the action of Mr.
Loud, but General Henderson, who was in
the chair, decided that the report was
r privileged. For this he was quickly
2 turned out of the chair by Speaker Reed
e who resumed his place In a vain effort tc
2 hurry through the conference report
( In this he failed. The report was de-
= bated for one hour, while the hands of III,
clock spun faster and faster toward
o'clock when the special order would eX'
pire The railway mail subsidy came NJ
and inspired an excited debate. Finally
at $3.50. the House voted in favor of agree
: ing to the Senate amendments. Then MIR
Greene of Nebraska called for the yea!
and nays, which occupied another hal
hour.
The building bills were then taken VI
r again and all but one of them were passed
some of them against serious opposition.
q But meanwhile another phase of the ca
A nal question had developed.
Senator White OF California was credit
c ed with the positive assertion that a cana
Z bill must pass in some shape, whether
with or without an appropriation, or tina
#, he would defeat one or more appropria
a tion bills and compel an extra session
which would pass one.
The announcement of this purpose
= brought over from the Senate to the Hous
= by Representative Barham of California
> one OF the most enthusiastic friends o
the canal, startled Chairman Burton o
the River and Harbor Committee con
y siderably. He notified Chairman Frye, O
the Senate Commerce Committee, and TN
, latter hurried over to the House. wher
= the two chairmen went into executive ses
II sion in the River and Harbor room. Wha
!, conclusion they reached could not b
learned.
Preyiousto this Mr. Burton had givei
:, out the following interview upon the bill
. I'm my opinion 1t is better that the en-
=. tire River, and Harbor bill should suffe
defeat than TO have 1t made the vehicle 70
y carrying through a vast project involving
s115, 100000 with only few hours con
e sideration in the House. Serious as III
defeat of the River and Harbor bill woul
be 1t would be merely the choice of tn
u lesser Of two evils. ~
n so far as ] am personally concerned
N regard other amendments added by III
Senate as very Objectionable. When tn
s. bill left the House 1t carried less tina
~ 10000 900. It returns to us with appro
N priations or authorizations for $I5S. 900, ,00O
with implied appropriations by commits
ID to certain projects and partial appropria
IN tions for them amounting In S2b, 600 60
F. more. It will thus appear that our b
returns to US increased in amc0t five Q