The age-herald., 1900-12-02
LOTS OF WORK FOR
 THE SHORT SESSION
Many Measures Will Come Be-
 fore Congress
WILL CONVENE TOMORROW
Hepburn Bill For Construction of the Isthmian Canal Will Come Up In >1 Senate-other Bills of Import
 ance-Expected Legislation.

Washington, D. G., December 1.-(spe- cial. )-When the Fifty-sixth Congress meets on Monday next for its final session it will find enough to do to occupy it's working hours in the short span of legislative life remaining to it. Of vital importance are the regular appropria- ton bills which carry the money necessary to keep in operation the various depart ments, legislative, executive and judicial, of the government. @ Money makes the mare gop' says the homely proverb, and money makes the government go. With out 1t the government would die of inani- tion. Besides the regular appropriation bills there will probably be river and har- Dor bill passed at this session, the last ses- sion having let this important measure go over Money for governmental purposes has to be raised by taxation before 1t can be appropriated, unless 1t be secured by borrowing One of the questions of most general interest that Congress will be call ed upon to decide at the coming session is what reduction can be made in internal rev. enue taxation. Chairman Payne has called the Committee on Ways and Means to
 meet November 20 to begin the work of framing bill to reduce this class of taxes. The brewers and the proprietary medicine men are strenuous in their demands for a reduction of taxation on their products, but before their wishes will be complied with the committee will prefer to give relief to the public in gneral by repeating the stamp taxes on telegraphic dispatches, express packages, commercial paper, deeds, mort gages and bank checks and drafts. It will probably be found necessary to let the rest of the taxation remain as it is for a season, owing n the entaila6 the government by the troubles in China and other abnormal conditions.
 
 The Hepburn bill to provide for the con- structon of a canal connecting the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans (the Nicaraguan canaD, which passed the House at the last session, will come up for con sideration in the Senate under a special order on Monday, December 10, at o'clock D. m. It will come before the Senate every
 day at that hour until it is disposed of. There is no need to dwell upon the far reaching, worldwide importance of this measure. Its passage is assured if it can
 reach a vote. A bill to provide for the construction of this great waterway con meeting the two greatest oceans would have passed long ago had it not been for the de- lays caused by the sending of fone commits sion after another to examine and report
 upon routes, work that has been done many times before. The House acted with out waiting for the report of the latest of these time-consuming commissions, and the Senate will not delay action for 1t. Therefore it is understood that the report of the Walker commission, as the latest Is called, will be forthcoming promptly upon the assembling of Congress. It will not ill., fuence the Senate, but its submission and printing will "save the face" of the com mission, to borrow a phrase from our
 friends the diplomats It will require long time to construct the canal after Con- gress has authorized it, but let us hope not
 so long a time as has been consumed In passing the bill.
 In the House the first measure to be ta- ken up under special order will be the Grout bill to tax colored oleomargarine ten cents pound, while the uncolored article escapes with the existing tax of two cents a pound. It is not proposed to tax colored butter. Chairman Wadsworth of the com- mittee agriculture is opposed to the Grout bill Mr. Wadsworth proposes to let the tax on oleomargarine and other butter substitutes remain where 1t Is now. two cents pound, but to require those articles ito be put up for sale in packages of not less than pound or half-pound, each pack age bearing its appropriate revenue stamp, and to be sold only in such original stamp ed packages exactly as smoking tobacco IS sold the covering of each package to bear a correct description of-the article it con- tains. The Grout bill is a special order for Thursday December 6, and 1t will be dis posed of in the House that week the first of the session. A very stiff fight will be made against the. Grout bill, which will find its greatest strength probably in an