Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1901-02-06
Latest Intelligence Concerning I'M
portant Measures Now Be-
fore Congress.
PRESENT ASPECT OF The SHIPPING BILL.
There Is But Little Probability of an
Extra SessfOn-WOrk on the More
Important Bills Well Advanced
Merits of the Ship Subsidy Meas
ure.
Especial Correspondence
Washington, d. c., Feb. 7.

Washington, ID. o., Feb. 7.
In every short session of congress, about
the LIST of February, gossip about an extra
session always springs up. This year is no
exception to the rule. The Philippine stu
alton and the Cuban constitution are the
provoking causes in this case. The presi-
dent and cabinet are 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 it be-
fore the 4th of March. Hence the enter
prising reporters have jumped to the conclu-
sion that there must be and will be an ex-
ira session, but nevertheless it is dollars to
doughnuts that there will not be-
Here and there senator or representa-
tive is reported as opining that such a ses-
sion is probable. But most of the old
timers will have none of it. ct 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: "Any more than
usuai?'
The fact is, that though there is great
deal of unfinished business in both houses,
as 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 or three i'm
portant measures which the majority de-
sire to pass before congress a6journs, and
u-hiob cti1l IN tho WV cto of 1eupl-
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
dozen times already this winter, suffering
repeated postponements 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 many thought that
the bill was simply intended to give lot
CT public money to few big corporations
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
ator Vest alluded to in his recent speech
against the bill as 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. Its chief
benefits viii go to the owners of low power
freight steamers of large cargo capacity, and
to the farmers, miners, metal-workers,
merchants, manufacturers and industrial
artisans generally, whose business or wages
will be greatly enhanced by the new ship
building and commercial activity engendered
by the bill.
The democrats in congress are making q
dead set against the bill, but their attitude,
as viewed from disinterested outside
standpoint, is rather comical In the first
place, great many democrats all over the
country, and including the southern states,
are known to be strongly in favor of the
bill, which, they see, would enlarge their
tageous to cotton growers. This is the posi-
ton of the most important southern bust
ness organ, the Manufacturers Record of
Baltimore. Again, it is curious to see the
democrats making so much fuss about the
expenditure of 100000 called for by the
bill, when they make no such combined OPP
position to the $l45, 600, 900 for pensions, the
$70,000,000 for the navy, or the 100000, 600
for rivers and harbors. Indeed, the demo
Gratis from the Mississippi river valley.
which is the chief beneficiary of the big river
and harbor bill, it is thought may recent
little from their pitiless hostility to the &c.
900 shipping bill if they find that un-
less they do relent their pet $50, 900, 900 ap-
preparation may be endangered.
Commander briggs, executive officer of
the auxiliary cruiser St. Louis during the
Spanish war, remarked with emphasis the
other day, in conversation on the practical
merits of the shipping bill, that according
to his experience "the actual value of the
St. Louis to the navy in the war was more
than the total amount of the proposed SUBJ
sidy during the whole Is years of its opera
ton The St, Louis, it will be remem-
bered, is one of the swift steamships of tho
American line which was used as an aux
iliary cruiser in the war. Commander
briggs explained further that if the Span
iards had not known that the St. Louis and
her sister ships of the American line were
in active service as warships, they would
have sent some of their Spanish vessels up
to our Atlantic coast to devastate our sea-
board cities, according to their original in
tention; but they were deferred by the con-
sderation that they had no vessels which
could cope with such speedy and powerful
cruisers as the St. Louis, St. Paul, Yale and
Harvard And yet Senator Vest declared
the other day that such auxiliary cruisers,
drawn from the merchant marine, would be
Of no use to the navy or to the country, and
that all the talk about them was "a subter-
fuge" and "a mere glamour"
Most citizens, and most congressman, will
be inclined to think that an ounce of approx
al from naval expert is worth a pound OF