The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1901-02-14
Latest Intelligence Concerning I'm.
portant Measures Now Be-
fore Congress. 4
PRESENT ASPECT or the sHlpPlNs BILL.
There Ia But Little Probability OF an
Extra session7WOrk ON the More
Important Bills Well Advanced
-Merits OF the ship subsidy Meas.
ure.
Especial Correspondence.]
Washington. d. C., Feb. 4.

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 desirous 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 seq
sion is probable. But most of the old.
timers will have none Of it. ut 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 great
deal of extra session talk in the air, beamed
upon him graciously through his spectacles
and calmly inquired: "Any more than
usual?"
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-
sioDs. 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 adjourns, and
which are still in the early stages of devel.
opment. Most prominent among these u
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 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 great many thought that
the bill was simply intended to give lot
Of 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 grant.
comparatively very little aid to the larger
and richer existing. companies. Its chic
benefits will go to the owners of low-powel
freight steamers of large cargo capacity, and
to the farmers, miners, metal-workers
merchants, manufacturers and industria
artisans generally, whose business or wage
will be greatly enhanced by the new ship
building and commercial activity engenderet
by the bill.
The democrats in congress are making
dead set against the BILL but their attitude
as viewed from Gisinterested outsid,
standpoint, is rather comical. In the frs
place, a great many democrats all over tn,
country, and including the southern states
are known to be strongly in favor OF tn
bill, which, they see, would enlarge thei
business, and would be especially advan
tageous to cotton growers. This is the posi-
tion of the most important southern busi
ness organ, the Manufacturers Record o
Baltimore. Again, it is curious to see tn
democrats making so much fuss about tn,
expenditure of $9,OOO,OOO called for by tn
bill, when they make no such combined op
position to the $l45, 200, 900 for pensions, tn
s70,OO0,0O0 for the navy, or the $6O,0OO,O ,O0
for rivers and harbors. Indeed, the demo
Gratis from the Mississippi river valley
which is the chief beneficiary of the big rive
and harbor bill, it is thought may relent
little from their pitless hostility to the SO,
10000 shipping bill if they find that un
less they do relent their pet sec, ,OOO, 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 on the practice
merits of the shipping bill, that accordin
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 opers
tion." The St, Louis, it will be remem
bered, 10 one of the swift steamships of tn
American line which was used a. an auz
iliary cruiser in the war Commando
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 woul'
have sent some of their Spanish vessels Vi
10 our Atlantic coast to devastate our Sc,
board cities, according to their original in
tention; but they were deferred BY the cor
sideration that they had no vessels whicl
could cope with such speedy and powerful
cruisers as the st. Louis, St. Paul, Yale an,
Harvard. And yet Senator Vest declared
the other day that such auxiliary cruisers
drawn from the merchant marine. would b.
of no use to the navy or to the country, an,
that all the talk about them was "a subteE
fuge" and "a mere glamour"
Most citizens, and most congressman, vii
be inclined to think that an ounce of approx
al from naval expert is worth pound 0
criticism from q political theorist.