The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-02-14
TIE HOUSE

THE HOUSE
Washington, February 13.lThe raging
blizzard caused practically a suspension OF
business in the house today. The place
looked like a snow palace. Lodges and par
apets were banked with snow on the drives,
and on the plaza in front of the building
the snow had drffted into great pillows, in
some places ten feet deep
Not a car line approached the building
but few members of the house managed
to reach the capitol IN sleighs and car
riRges, and tie employees trudRed and la
bored through the deep snow and binding
storm 70 reach their posts Of duty. The hall
of the house was ~ dark az a cellar. The
STOW banked up on the ground-glass CELL
inge shut out the hight, and half an hour
bsfors noon, u hour for the honae 30 eon-
ysns, the lights were turned on to relieve
the gloom. Tia coIamttae meetings, with
but one OF two exceptions. were not he'd
The few nszshers Of tbs hoass who ar
rived had no thoalsht far anything save the
weather. fAsy stsea AAsut ths waathAr
map IN the lobby IN rhe Sear of the ball,
diseussins te<npeFatuseS aaA snowfall and
Tscord-AfeaAiAg tsa.pssatuFes in al parts u
the country, AID was the unanimous YER
DICT Of The el1Ast AaEzAAss b The Grosp thai
nothing approaching the present cold spen
and snow fan had been known in washing
ton in their expeFienes The nearest ap-
proaeh to 1t was the bEzzaTd of 1aa, which
cut washington of for a woek from COM
munieation by railway and telegraph.
Resd VISA Not There
Speaker Reed dio not appear at the CAPT.
toll but sent word to hss neutenants that in
his opinion 1t was inadyisable 10 hold a
session OF the house today, and after con-
sultlng several members of the majority,
General Henderson, of Iowa, who had
braved the storm, decided 1t would be best
80, t1I.v
Several members had engagements to speak
In various e but owing to irregularity
OF trains coI.- ot get away. Some OF the
republican leaders were disposed to go
anead with a session today, and an attempt
was made to communicate with the speaker,
but he could not be reached at his home
by telephone.
At 12:05 Clerk Mcdowell called the house
to order. There were about sixty members
on the floor. Mr. Payne moved that the
house adjourn, but there were cries of
NO" from the little circle of members,
most of whom held in their hands bills
which they hoped TO pass by unanimous
consent The motion was voted downs
to "A.
On motion Of Mr.. Grosvenor (rep., o.,
Mr.. Payne, of New York, was elected
speaker pro TEN amid outbursts of ap-
| plause- District day was postponed until
| Thursday and the house, on Mr.. Cnnnons
| motion, then went into COMMITTEES Of the
whole, Mr.. Hopkins, Of Illinois, IN the
| chair, and resumed the consideration Of
| the sundry civil bill. Ar. Cannon asked
unanimous consent that Mr. Hepburn be
| allowed to offer the Eicarasla canal bin
| amendment at such point In the bill a. he
| should sec Mt, all points of erdar 70 Be 70
| served. He EIDE the request, h said, IN
| order that there might be full houce whom
| the amendDsnt was considered.
| Mr.. Coriiss made a similar request re-
earaiax tia Paeiae sAbas kAl, whfssNpon
Nj. Cannon withdrew n
| Rsessp<s aaa M-psshssros
A resumption of the discussion Ct Ire fe-
| cefpts and expenditures OF the treasury,
which attracted eenssnsrAble etsuntton last
| week was again prscpftatea by Mr.. Sui
ger td~m- n. ", who offoredsseno figures
| as to the cost of the steamship subsidy
bill.
Mr.. Cannon reiterated his stnseznent Of
| last week regarding the ship 1ubsidy bill
| and the Nicaraguzn canal bill.
Mr.. PAYNE, chairman of the committee
which reported the subsidy bill. said he well
coined any Information that would throw
| light upon the bill, but he protested against
| alarming statements az 10 the deficiencies
| In advance Estimates dh not always CO.
| incide with appropriations. As an fflustra-
| ton he cited the fact that the estimates
| for the army Bill had ranged as high as
| s145 oco co. whereas the military committee
had prepared O. Dill carrying less tnan $751;
600 Co., He asked why Mr.. Cannon had not
| thrown his influence against the public
building bills few days ago. Those bills,
| he said, would take more money from the
| treasury next year than both the subsidy
| and canal birls together.
| Mr. Cannon declared that II the army bin
! carried but $50 400 there would be de-
felt on the account Of s145oO0 600.
Mr Berry Oem., Kentucky. made
spirited speech, scoring some of the econo-
mists of the house who were shouting for
| economy and reaching their hands into the
| treael1ry at every opportunity He attack
| ed the steamship subsidy bill, characters
ing that the decay of our merchant marine
was attributable to the ruinous protective
policy of the republican party.
Mr.. Williams Oem., MissississippD, de-
clared that the dream of eastern empire
| was already failure. With the ratifica-
ton of the peace treaty, peace and com
| mercial expansion were to come. Instead,
there was war. the prospect being for
long bloody and expensive war. and now,
owing to the great expenditure involved in
the east, the construction of the Nicara-
guam canal which would furnish a real ba-
sis for commercial expansion will be pro-
duced.
The committee rose and at 4:45 the house
adjourned.