Middletown transcript., 1900-12-15
Washington Letter.

,, 8 washington LCttCT. 8
d ooooooocoooooooooooooooooo
. THE House set rapid pace during the
I first week of the session and it has
+ started the second week with the evident
intention of keeping it up. The army
reorganization was passed by the House
substantially as reported, except the
; amendment prohibiting the sale of in
toxlcants at army posts, and is now in
: the hands of the Senate Military Commit
. tee, which promises to push it along.
The Grout Oleomargarine bill was passed
by vote of 1913 to 92 The programme
for this week includes the passage of the
legislative, executive and judicial appro-
priation bill, which was taken up to-day.
and the Revenue Reduction bill. While
the Senate has not accomplished as much
In the way of actual legislation as the
House, it has by no means been idle, al
though it followed its usual custom of ad-
journing from Thursday until Monday.
1t made the Ship Subsidy bill the regular
business, which operated to prevent the
taking up of the Nicaragua Canal bill to-
day, as provided for by a resolution
adopted at the last session, but what will
not result in delaying action on the Canal
bill, which would, in any event have had
to wait for the disposition of the Hay
Pauncefote treaty. The Democrats have
so far shown no disposition to retard leg
islation.
| That there is to be no delay by the Sem
ate in disposing of the Hay-Pauncefote
treaty, which many friends of the Nicara-
qua Canal Bill wish to see ratified before
that measure is taken up by the Senate,
was shown by the ease with which un-
animous consent was secured to vote on
the Davis amendment to the treaty on
Thursday of this week. This amend
ment, written by the late Senator Davis,
merely declares that nothing in the treaty
shall apply to anything this government
may see fit to do to protect its interests or
to maintain order, is certain to be adopted,
and it is believed that the ratification of
the amended treaty will speedily follow.
~
Secretary Long was right in declaring
the opening of bids for the construction
of six armored cruisers and five battle
ships, at the Navy Department, the great
est industrial event that this or any other
country, had ever seen, involving as it
will, the expenditure of sum aggrega-
ting in round figures $50,OO0,0O0. 1t
spoke volumes for the industrial progress
of this country and especially the
progress of ship-building, that there
should have been quite number of
bidders for these contracts. In no
country outside of Great Britain are
there as many establishments equipped
for the construction OF these big fighting
vessels. Most of the bids were we'll with
in the amount appropriated by Congress
for the ships.
~
The bill providing for the appointment
and retirement of Representative Boutelle
of Me-, as a captain in the Navy, has
been favorably reported to the House.
Mr.. Boutelle has, in consequence of con-
tinued ill-health, resigned the chairman
ship of the House Committee on Naval
Affairs, and Representative Foss, of ILL.,,
who has been acting chairman, has been
unanimously elected chairman by the
committee. In the case of the death OF a
Chairman of the Committee, the Speaker
has authority to appoint his successor,
but when Oh airman resigns, a commit
tee fills the vacancy.
~
Chairman Payne presented the report
of the Ways and Means Committee on
the revenue reduction bill, now before the
House, which cuts off about $40 00O,OO0a
year of the taxes imposed at the opening
of the war with Spain. The report says
'1n making the reduction, the Committee
have sought to remove the more annoy
ing taxes, by the entire abolition of those
which we're most vexatious, and by re-
duction of those which seemed to have
proved great burden upon the several
branches of trade to which they are ap-
piled" OF the net reduction of 25 cents
barrel on the beer tax, the report says:
"The Committee recognize that the manu-
factures of beer have some claim in the
general reduction of the war revenue, and
they believe that the bill gives them all the
relief to which they are entitled" 1t adds
of the reduction of sixty cents thousand
on cigars: SIT has been impossible to dis
tribute any Of this sixty cents in making
price to the consumer, and the factories
have had to bear the entire tax of over
three million dollars last year." The
bill will be promptly passed by the House
this week.
Representative Taylor, of Ohio, who
led the fight on Roberts, has introduced
in the House measure for a constitutional
amendment prohibiting polygamy and
providing for uniform system of Federal
marriage and divorce laws. This matter
is being actively agitated in Washington.
Yesterday, public anti-polygamy meet
ing was held under the auspices OF the
Woman's Interdenominational Union,
for the purpose of working up sentiment
in favor of the proposed constitutional
amendment. Among the speakers were
DR.. Josiah Strong, President of the
League for social service, of New York,
and DR.. Sarah ]. Elliott, of Utah.
~
The fact that ex-Congressman Towne
should have been willing to accept the
appointments as Senator to succeed the
late Senator Davis, whose successor will
be elected by the Minnesota legislature in
January, indicates that he was waiting
for any old fhinO that rn;Otk oome along,