The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1901-01-17
W SHINGTON LETTER.
THE HOUSE DISPOSING OF I'M
PORTANT LEGISLATION.

nn0 Scents Defeat.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 16.-The house Of
representatives is keeping up its record
for businesslike promptness in dispos-
ing of important legislation, and the
number of bills accommodating in the
senate that have passed the house has
already become appalling. The house
| has disposed of the new apportionment
by fixing a basis of representation that
will result in a membership of 1856 in
the house of representatives in the Eff
| ty-eighth congress to be elected in 1902.
1t is not expected that this bill will
provoke any discussion in the senate
when it reaches there, as it is purely q
| house affair.
e.
| The river and harbor improvement
| bill is also under way in the house, ana
vote upon it will doubtless have been
taken before this reaches the eyes of
it's readers. This bill, carrying appro-
priations for nearly $70,000,0O0 as
subsidy to the nations commerce, may
be amended in the senate either by re-
auctions or increases. The improve
ment of our rivers and harbors is be-
coming a colossal work, and few peo-
pie realize that as much money has
been spent in that work during the
closing decade of the last century as
was spent in all the years of our gov
ernment's existence preceding that Gee
ade. 1t cannot be doubted, however,
that the nation reaps benefits from the
| improvements far in excess of eXpend-
| itures in the accommodation of rivers
and harbors to larger craft that carry
freight at reduced rates.
80
While the river and harbCr improve
ments are a benefit to the shipping or
all the world, not dollar OF taxes
being collected from shipping to help
bear the enormous expense of the I'M
provements, such Improvements new
ertheless are in the most emphatic
sense direct government aid to COM
merce and industry. River and harbor
| improvements by the government es-
cape the odious word subsidy as
characterization, and hence the aid is
not offensive to many people who OPP
pose government aid when the name
applied to the latter takes the form or
expression Of subsidy" or Of bounty"
The only real difference in the govern
ment expenditures for river and har-
Dor improvements and those for the
building up Of it's own merchant ship
ping is that the first benefit is the ship
ping of all the world alike, while the
benefits of the other are confined only
to American craft.
s"*
While the shipping bill is not under
consideration in either branch Of con-
gress at the present time it is never
theless one of the most absorbing top
les in political and in private converse
tons at the capital. It occupies an
amount of space in the dispatches sent
out from here to the newspapers of the
country fully equal to that enjoyed by
those measures that are actually under
discussion and in process of passage.
Not only are members finding that the
country is deeply interested in the
passage Of the measure in question,
but the direct and urgent requests
they are receiving from their constit-
uents in favor of it's passage are hav-
ing a most favorable effect. The enc
mics of the bill concede that if it can be
brought to a vote in the senate it's
passage is assured. They are natural
ly, therefore, bending every energy and
straining every nerve in order to pre-
vent vote in the senate.
a**
Ever since the Sd of January the SEN
ate has been almost absorbed in it's
discussion of the army reorganization
bill, and no man is able to predict the
end At the present writing vote
has not been arranged for, and, al
though there are those who look for the
end during the week just closing, it
would not be at all remarkable if it ex-
tended we'll into the next week if not
beyond Meanwhile as the flibusters
expect, appropriations bills are &C
cumulating, and all other business is
suspended in the senate until provision
is made for the army necessary to en-
able the president to carry out the law
in our territorial possessions.
80
One Of the most significant things Of
the times is the efforts that are being
made by the antishipping bill lobby,
representing foreign shipping inter
ests here, to prove that there is not the
least bit of need for any legislation.
The lobby is getting frightened at the
awakened newspaper demand for the
immediate passage of the bill, and the
fact has at last been widely published
that new American ships means reduc
ed ocean freight rates with direct bene-
fits to our farmers and manufacturers.
This truth, once it sinks deeply into
the public mind, will result in an agi-
tation SO strong and so widespread
that congress will find it utterly impos-
sible to postpone further legislation.
Meanwhile the opposition to the ship
ping bill is 6lling its organs with state
ments that there is no shortage Of
ocean tonnage, that there are more