Cañon City record., 1900-07-05
WHAT CONGRESS HAS DONE.


acted seems in place at this time,
Few congresses have assembled with
larger task confronting them than
the one whose session has just closed.
The regular appropriation bills. in q
country which is growing as fast as
ours, demand an increasingly large
amount of attention. The demands Of
the public service are increasing, and
the Congress must provide for efficient
service, seeing that no great interest is
neglected, while at the same time it
must take care that the aggregate
amount of the appropriations falls
within the annual revenue, and that
none of the peoples money is spent
wastefully or improperly.
In addition to the regular appropria-
tion bills, this Congress had before it
two tasks of great magnitude and diff
ficulty: the enactment of n financial
bill, and the enactment of laws for the
government of some of our new pos
sessions. The government of Alaska,
where the conditions have changed
tremendously since the discovery of
gold and the great influx of gold-seek-
ers, had to be revised to meet the new
conditions; system of government
for the Hawaiian islands had to be
provided, and also system of gov
conditions were entirely different from
those in Hawaii.
All of these were matters of great
moment requiring not only knowledge
also broad comprehension of consti-
tutional principles, and the application
of these to conditions entirely new,
and not contemplated by the original
trainers of our government
All of these matters have been dis
posed Of in the session just closed.
The disposal of them has involved de-
bate on the fundamental principles
and on the proper Interpretation of our
constitution; it has involved consid-
eratiop of local conditions which are
strange ID an American Congress; and
it has involved an adaptation of means
to the ends to be secured which needed
the largest wisdom.
The provisions of the financial bill
are so well known that 1t is unneces-
sary to state them further in detail.
The bill provides for the absolute
parity of our financial obligations, in
creases the banking facilities of the
country, provides for n larger use Of
silver and silver certificates, puts an
troubled Secretary Carlisle SO griev-
ously, and reduces the rate of interest
on the public debt. 1t has already
been in operation for several months,
seem to have been altogether good up
to the present time.
The Alaskan code provides COM
plete system of civil laws for the gov
ernment of that territory, creates
new judicial district there, and in gen.
eral meets the new conditions which
have arisen since the great gold dis
coveries on the Klondike
The act for the government of Ha-
wall provides for n system of govern
ment very like that of our other terri
tories, with n governor appointed by
the President. and a Legislature elect
ed by the people. Voters are obliged
to know how to write and read either
the English or the Hawaiian language.
This act aroused very little partisan
debate.
dissension, and gave rise to the most
bitter partisan opposition, was that
for the government of Puerto Rico 1t
provides a complete system of civil
government for the island, including
as great measure OF self government
as the inhabitants are prepared to ex-
ercise; and provides also n temporary
revenue, until the island Legislature
can provide for revenue of its own, by
means of a small duty of from five to
seven per cent on about half the ar
ticles of import and export from and
to the United States.
In addition TO these necessary meas
ures, both House and Senate found
time for legislation on other highly i'm
portant matters. The House passed a
bill providing for the construction of
the Nicaragua canal by our govern
ment, and this is a special order for
consideration by the Senate early in
December. The Senate passed a bill
for the construction of a cable to Ha-
wall and beyond, which will be taken
up by the House at the next session.
Both houses passed bill providing
for the extradition of offenders from
our new possessions-a bill which cov
ers cases like that Of Neely, the Cuban
defaulter.
Among the measures which were de-
bated at some length, but were not
enacted into law, were an army re-
organization bill, and shipping sub
sidy bill. Both of these Will no doubt
come up at the next session. The
army reorganization BILL Is designed to
meet the new conditions under which
our army finds itself; and the ship
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