Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-12-23
CAPITAL CHAT.
important Work Of Senator
Frye's Committee.
Familiar Bills That Come Up Each
Session Of Congress.
Many Members Spending Holiday Re-
cess in Washington.

No committee of the Senate has
turned on. more work in the two sill. rt
weeks of the extra session than the
committees on Commerce, of which
Senator Frye is chairman. Quite a
score of bills have already been re-
ported and placed upon the Senate
calendar. It is true that some of them
are bills, which were before the last
Congress and failed. Not a few of
them are comparatively bills Of minor
Importance but which have been thor
oughly considered in years gone b.
and therefore require no special con-
sideration now.
Nevertheless Senator Frye likes to
dispatch his committee work promptly
and so, as soon as possible after the
regular session of Congress began, he
set his men to work on different
measures. Meetings were speedily
called and the different subjects were
taken up and disposed of. Very soon
the work of getting these bills passed
in the Senate was begun. It will be
continued at every available opportun-
ity as soon as Congress assemblies
again. All these bills from Senator
merce. They are bills regarding the
revenue cutter service, the light house
service, and other topics that arise in
connection with the navigation of the
seas and oceans.
Some of these bills call for legisla-
ton, which Senator Frye has been
seeking for many years. In such cases
he has the bills introduced and sees
that they get favorable report from
his committee and later, if possible
pass the Senate early at the first ses-
sion of Congress. Then he has done
his duty and can do all possible to urge
the legislation at the other end of the
Capitol. This was the case with the
bill. now law, to place officers of the
revenue cutter service en- the retired
list. Mr.. Frye converted the Senate to
his way of thinking a long time be-
fore the House was willing to legis-
late. His bill was passed by the Sem
ate by different Congresses in success
sion before it become 4 law.
1t sometimes happens, of course, that
Mr.. Frye proposes legislation in the
Senate which is the subject of contro-
versy. Then, with the kind of bills
that come from the Commerce COM
mittee, it is by no means easy to Sc
cure an enactment at that end of the
Capitol. 1t is also to be remembered
that, with the smaller number Of men
in the Senate, it is always easier to
secure legislation on 4 given measure
there than it is Oh the House side.
With many OF these matters cleared
up, Mr.. Frye, as the session grows old,
will have much less to do and can con-
fine himself more closely to the duties
of presiding office.
There are good many old friends
that bob up every year on the calen-
OARS of Senate and House. Some of
these have passed the gauntlet of leg
islation in one branch, usually the Sem
ate. every Congress for a decade. It
sometimes happens that these meas
ures are entirely worthy but for some
reason ar another or for no reason at
all can not get through both houses.
selection Of site in Washington for a
statue of Henry Wordsworth Long
fellow, a son of Maine, whose literary
fame survives him the world over. The
Longfellow Memorial Association has
provided the statue, it only asks Con-
gress to name a commission which
shall have authority to select a site on
some of the government reservations
here and to appropriate $4,000 to pay
for the site.
Time and again the bill has passed
the Senate and has seemed on the
point of becoming law when something
untow2rd interviewed. The project is
regarded as a commendable one as a
statue of Longfellow in Washington
is entirely appropriate. There have
been several prominent Maine people
connected with the Association, among
them the present Chief Justice. Mr..
Fuller, and the late Thomas b. Reed.
But on the House side there is pretty
strong objection to the autho citation
of too many statues for the District
of Columbia. Every Congress a few
are allowed but it is difficult to get the
Speakers consent to call such bills up.
Then there is another interesting condi-
ton about the erection of statues of dis
tingushed men in Washington. The
most desirable sites seem to be we'll nigh
taken. There is a long standing rule.
which is regarded as a good one, that
no statues shall be erected upon the
Capitol Grounds. If that were once begun
there is no telling where it would stop.
the city are numerous reser-
vations, chiefly at the places where ave
nues intcrsect the rectangular plan of
streets and in circles and squares de-
signed by the original plan of the city.
The circles that are desirable for statues
have all been taken. Gen. Thomas Gen.
Scott Gen. Mcpherson. Gen. Washing
ton and other famous military heroes are
by statues. the first two
on circles in the fashionable residential
section. Lately q statue of Gen. Sherman
was unveiled south of the Treasury and
at the head of Pennsylvania Avenue-one
Of the most desirable of all the sites for
such a monument.
Now there is commission seeking Il
site for grand monument to Gen. Grant.
His service to the Republic plainly merit
as fine a site as the city affords, but
there is great difficulty in getting a 10
cation in every way desirable. But me-
MORALS or statues have been authorized
by Congress not only for Grant but for
Lincoln and Mcclellan and all will be of
size and design. BY the time
these three are placed it will be no easy
matter to locate statues of the future
statesmen and heroes of the Republic.