The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1901-02-07
Ispec,al correspondeaee.1
Washington, D. G,

Washington, D. C., Feb. 4
In every short session of congress, about
the LIST of February, gossip about extra
session always springs up This year is no
exception to the rule. The Philippine sitla
alton and the Cuban constitution are ths
provoking causes in this case The presi-
dent and cabinet DESTROYS that the re-
quired legislation in regard to these subjects
should be speedily perfected, and every
body knows that there Is not time for 1t be-
fore the 4th of March. Hence the en- ter
prising reporters have jumped to the conclu'
sion that there must be and viii be an e1.
ira session, but nevertheless it is dollars to
doughnuts that there will not be.
Here and there senator. or representa-
tive is reported opining that such seS
sion is proba BILE But most of the old
timers will have none of it, 1T is all news
paper talk says Representative Payne, of
New York, the leader of the houes- And
the veteran Senator Hoar, when informed
by youthful scribe that there was a great
deal of extra session talk in the air, beamed
upon him graciously through his spectacles
and calmly inquired: amy more than
usua1?''
The fact is, that though there is great
deal of unfinished business in both houses,
usual the work of the session is far more
advanced than commonly in the short seS
sions. To be sure, there are, aside from
the appropriation bills, two three i'm
portant measures which the majority de-
sire to pass before congress adjourns, and
which still in the early stages of devel-
opment. Most prominent among these is
the pending shipping bill for the develop
ment of a new American merchant marine.
According to the custom of the senate, this
bill has been taken up and laid aside half a
dozen times already this winter, suffering
repeated postpon ements at the request OF
other interests, but its managers now have
cleared the decks for action and announce
their intention of keeping at it without
yielding to anybody until it is disposed of
The shipping bill has been greatly misun.
derstood in many quarters, and has thus en-
countered much unreasonable opposition,
most of which, in the light of better knowl-
edge of the subject, has now been with
drawn. At first a great ny thought that
the bill was simply intended to give lot
of public money to few big corpora atoms
which are already comfortably supplied
with funds, like the American line of steam
ships, the Pacific Mail company, the Penn
sylvania Railroad company, and what Sen
stor Vest alluded to in his recent speech
against the bill that poor, emaciated
starving corporation, the Standard Oil
company In point of fact the bill grants
comparatively very little aid to the larger
and richer existing companies. It's chiei
benefits will go to the owners of 1owpower
freight steamers of large cargo capacity, and
to the farmers, miners, metal-workers,
merchants, manufacturers and industrial
artisans generally, whose business or wages
viii be greatly enhanced by the new ship
building and comm ercial activity engendered
by the bill
The democrats in congress making q
dead set against the bill, but their attitude
viewed from a dsinterested outside
standpoint, is rather comical- In the frs!
place, great many democrats all over the
country, and including the southern states
are known to be strongly in favor of thu
bill, which, they see, would enlarge theil
business, and would be especially advan
tageous to cotton-growers- This is the posi-
ton of the most important southern bust
ness organ the Manufacturers Record o.
Baltimore. Again, it is curious to the
democrats making much fuss about the
expenditure of SO, Oo0, 600 called for by the
bill, when they make no such combined op
position to the $145, COG, 600 for pensions, the
SO DOC, 900 for the navy, or the $50, 900, OOt
for rivers and harbors. Indeed, the demo
Gratis from the Mississippi river valley
| which is the chief beneficiary of the big rivel
and harbor bill, it is thought may reient
| little from their piti,ess hostility to the So,
| 100000 shipping bill if they find that un
| less they do relent their pet $50, COG, 900 ap
| preparation may be endangered
| Commander briggs, executive officer o
! the auxiliary cruiser St Louis during tn
| Spanish war, remarked with emphasis tn
| other day. in conversation the practica
merits of the shipping bill, that ACCORDING
| to his experience "the actual value of tn
| ST. Louis to the navy in the war was NOR
than the total amount of the proposed sub
| sidy during the whole Is years of its opera
ton The st, Louis, it viii be remem
| bered, Is of the swift steamships of tn
| American line which was used aux
| Hilary cruiser in the Command
briggs explained further that If the Span
| Iards had not known that the ST Louis an.
| her sister ships of the American line wer
| in active service as warships, they woult
| have sent some of their Spanish vessels u
| to our Atlantic coast to devastate sea
| board cities, according to their original in
| tention; but they were deferred by the con
| sideration that they had no vessels whicl
| could cope with such speedy and powerful
| cruisers the St. Louis, ST. Paul, Yale am
| Harvard And yet Senator Vest declares
| the other day that such auxiliary cruisers
| drawn from the merchant marine, would b.
of to the navy or to the country, an,
that all the talk about them was "a subter
| fuge'' and "a mere glamour
Most citizens, and most congressman, vii
| be inclined TO think that ounce of approx
| -. h md n