Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1901-01-21
BECOMES UNFINISHED BUSINESS
 IN THE SENATE TODAY.
Senator Hanna Threatens to Hold Up the River and Harbor Bill Until
 His Pet Measure is Passed.
Special Correspondence.

ished business in the Senate on Jan of the session. In these six weeks. the Senate must pass 13 big appropri- ation bills For the subsidy bill to become a law, ction by the House will be necessary and it is doubtful whether this can be obtained without radical amendments. Indeed, care full investigation has led to the asser- ton that the bill, as at present drawn, would be defeated in both the Senate and the House on a square test vote. This assertion as to the House, how ever, may be taken with a grain of salt, as the Republicans so well un- derstand the methods of forcing their men to vote for legislation to which they are really opposed.
 The latest plan to force the bill to vote is the threat to hold up the river and harbor bill until after the subsidy bill has been passed. While in talk ative mood today one of the gentle men most prominently identified with the bill, unguardedly stated that it was the purpose of his friends to use the river and harbor bill as a club. Yes" he said, i've are hearing that the Democrats of the South, as we'll as a few of our friends in the North, are opposed to the shipping bill, but wait until the river and harbor bill reaches the Senate, and you will then see them change their attitude. When they know that unless the subsidy bill is passed there will be no river and harbor bill their opposition to the former will not be so strong As matter of fact, however, any delay in the river and harbor bill will hurt the friends of the subsidy bill quite as much as it's enemis.
 A more effective plan is acknowl- edged to be that of tacking the sub sidy to the river and harbor bill. Ac- tion of this class is admitted to be al- together vicous and is absolutely for bidden by the rules of the House. The senate, however, can do what it pleases and if it should adopt the plan mentioned, the House would have to consider it's action The chances. however, are that the secret Republi- can enemies of the project in the Sen ate would block such an attempt while claiming to favor the subsidy
 Meanwhile, desperate efforts are be- ing made by Senator Hanna to create sentiment throughout the country that will be favorable to the bill. In this city press bureau has been or ganlzed for the purpose of supplying newspaper correspondents with infor- nation bearing on it's progress. | Another has been mailing by the ton literature faVoring it, and a third has been directly in correspondence with leading mebers of business, financial and commercial exchanges urging ac- ton In it's support.
 Where the money for this work comes from is not stated. Such bureaus cost enormously, and there is much curiosity to know what disinter- ested citizens are financing it. Sen ator Hanna, it will be remembered declared recently that the only organ lzed body in reference to the bill was that of the foreign steamship com panies, which he alleged had raised a large sum to defeat it.
 However, one must be cautious in casting insinuations against Senator Hanna's good faith in the matter. he having recently issued pronuncia- mento in which he threatens to prose cute any evil-minded persons who at. tribute unworthy motives to him be- cause of his earnest advocacy of the bill It is not impossible that as the Twentieth century grows older we may have a law in the United States. as in Germany, providing stern pun 1shment for those guilty of lese ma | jeste
 Meantlme Republican newspapers which have not yet been overawed continue to publish disagreeable criti- clsms of some of the provisions of the subsidy scheme. The New York Press. for instance. quotes from a let ter written by Senator Frye to the | New York Tribune, in which the Sen. atof states with refreshing frankness that the pending subsidy bill will en- able the American company to pay a dividend of 1-2 per cent" The Press observes that to figure up a 8 1-2