Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1901-02-08
PAssEDBY THEHOUSE
THE GREAT RIVER AND HARBoR
MEASURE GOES THROUGH.
Shipping Bill Involves the Same zrin-
:iplc, Yet the Amount of Subsidy
Asked Is but One-sixth of that Voted
the River AMI Harbor Measure.


Washington correspondence:
The situation i'll Congress is very
much the same at this time that it WAS
Il week ago, except that the progress of
public business III the House end of the
capitol is up to the standard that
branch set for itself ut the opening of
the present session. and which it has
lived up to most admirably. The river
and harbor Improvement bill was
passed in the House on Wednesday,
The river and harLor Improvement bill
is always Il !nost important measure
but never more so than at the present
session, since its total appropriations
aggregate about sixty millions of dol
lars.
That these expenditures are reaching
an aggregate of colossal proportions is
not 10 be doubted. and ii they grow
during the succeeding twenty years as
rapidly as they have during the past
twenty. their total will by that time
have exceeded the annual expenditures
on account of pensions, and that the
latter fall but little short of $15O, ,OOU,-
600 annually will forcibly bring before
the mind the magnitude OF the work
involved in these river and harbor I'M
provcments. Much significance lies in
the fact that the bill, as finally pre-
pared i'll the House committee, provid-
ed for an appropriation aggregating
about eighty millions. which was sum
marily and ruthlessly cut down to u
little under sixty.
When all of the myriad items COM
posing this great measure are submit
ted to the scrutiny of the Senate Com
mittee on Commerce, to which it will
be referred as soon as it reaches the
Senate. it will be apparent that much
time will he occupied in such eNamin-
alton, no matter how rapidly the men,
herS of the Senate Commerce Commit
tee dispose of the items. Right here it
is proper 10 say that the river and har-
Sor Improvement bill has occupied the
attention of the House committee
which had ii in charge almost continu-
ously for the past eighteen months.
Before the last session of Congress be-
gan. all during that session, and much
of the time during recess, the subject
had been under detailed consideration
by various members of the committee.
They have heard delegations, they
have visited important places where
improvements are sought all over the
country. they have threshed out the
matter in committee for weeks. and
have devoted Il weell-which is a phe-
holnehal amount of time in that body
to its consideration in the House.
When 1t reaches the Senate, and by
that body is referred to its commerce
committee, many of the items. il not all
OF them. Will be new to the members of
that COMMITTEES: they will be compelled
to give proper attention to each one. to
be Informed just what considerations
Justify the appropriation, what it will
accomplish i'll promoting and in cheap
ening the carriage of our vast domestic
ana foreign commerce. and what it will
involve in probable future expenditures,
once the government becomes commit
ted to new proposition. Considering
that the bill is Il great volume in itself,
and considering that each apDropria-
tion must be explained in a report ac--
companyins it, the scrutiny of the
items and the preparation of the report
involve an immense amount of detailed
work that to be accurate must be thor
ough.
This great subsidy to the nations
commerce, it will be apparent, perhaps
involving an expenditure of seventy
five millions of dollars before it is final
ly acted upon, seems to provoke little or
no opposition throughout the country.
There is something very strange in the
fact, of great significance in this con-
nectinn. that the subsidy proposed for
our shipping. and involving but nine
millions. where the other is ut least
sixty, should provoke so much and such
bitter opposition. And it is possible
that while the Senate Commerce Com
mittee is examining the hugest of sub
sidy measures-that for our rivers and
harbors-it may be able to discover the
real reasons for the opposition to the
other. because, in fact, they so together.