The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-02-02
Hepburn Attacks Method of the
House Committee.
OHIO GETS LIONS SHARE
CHAIRMAN's OWN STATE GIVEN
FOUR MILLIONS.
One-seventh Of the Entire Amount
ACCOMPLISHMENTS of a Mil
lion For an Ohio Scheme In Tex
as-Symmetrical Method of Franz
ing the Bill.

Washington, Feb. 1.-The house en-
tered upon the consideration of the
river and harbor bill today, and made
rapid progress. Fifty of the eight
eight pages of the bill had been COM
pleted when the house adjourned. The
bill appropriateS directly about ST.
500, 900, and authorizes contracts to the
extent OF $4,000, 600 additional. The
general debate was unusually brief. It's
feature was a speech in opposition to
the bill by Mr.. Hepburn of Iowa, who
has fought every river and harbOr bill
for the last six years.
Mr.. Burton (Rep., o., chairman of
the river and harbOr committee, opened
the debate with a general statement of
the necessity Of continuing the river
and harbor work. This country, he
said, was now entering upon an era or
commercial expansion. The vast
amount of our exports as well as their
excess over imports. was the marvel Of
the commercial world. The greatest
factor in this expansion was the i'm
prove1ment of our rivers and nar5ors in
order to cheaper the cost CT transpor-
tation. We had expended in all $500 O00,-
900 in river and harbor work. The esti-
mates upon which this bill was based
aggregated 5000, 00O, 600. The committee
recommended a little over $50. 900. 000
The bill, he said, was symmetrical as
far as it went, and he begged mem
berS not to press amendments.
Mr.. Perkins (Rep., Ia protested
against the refusal of the committee to
recommend an appropriation fer the
improvement of the upper Missouri
river. except $4,000 fer snagging. He
admitted that the commerce of the
river had been greatly reduced owing
m raj h1rr hot
the existence of the river served as a
constant check on railroad rates.
DENOUNCED BY HEPBURN.
Mr. Hepburn (Rep.. la severely de-
nounced the development of river and
harbor appropriation bills. 1t had been
the developed practice to conceal the
grand aggregate OF the appropriations.
He was opposed to useless expenditures.
He called attention TO the fact that
Ohio, the state of the chairman of the
committee, got 81 600, 900 in this bill. He
spoke of some Ohio gentlemen who had
gone down TO Texas City, Tex, and
after locating a compress there had de-
manded for Improvement $3.50, 600. an
amount several times in excess Of the
aggregate assessed value of the whole
city.
In conclusion he said he knew it was
useless for him to oppose the bill. The
votes to pass il had been arranged. and
the symmetry the gentleman from
Ohio had spoken of was the distribu-
ton which brought to this measure the
support necessary to make it a sue
cess.
The general debate closed, and the
bill was read for amendment under the
fiveminute rule.
Mr.. Hepburn again attacked the Gal
weston and Buffalo bayou channel sec
ton. Mr.. Burton offered an amend
ment to the paragraph approp-iating
S250O00 for the channel from Galveston
to Texas City, Tex, which provided
that nothing should be done under this
paragraph until a favorable report had
been received from the chief engineers
as TO the feasibility of the project.
Mr.. Hawley Rep.. Tex.) offered as
substitute for the paragraph provis-
ion for d survey and estimate Of the
cost of the proposed project. He COM
planned that he had been ignored il the
Of the bill. In view of Mr.
Hawley's statement, Mr.. Burton moved
to strike out the whole paragraph, say
ing, as he did So that the opposition to
this project might arise from friendship
for Galveston and the Brazos riye-, pro-
ject. The latter motion prevailed, and
the whole paragraph went out of the
bill.
At sos p. m. the house adjourned.