The San Francisco call., 1904-04-09
HOUSE PASSES
SHIPPING BILL
American Vessels Given Spe-
cial Rights Between United
States and the Philippines
EFFECTIVE JULY, 1906
Act Appropriating $470,000
in Aid of Lewis and Clark
Exposition Is Adopted

WASHINGTON, April S.-The House
to-day passed a large number of bills,
including the bill appropriating $40, 900
in aid of the Lewis and Clark Centen-
nial Exposition to be held in Portland,
Or, in 1905, and the Philippine shipping
bill The only amendment made was
one extending until July l, 1906, the
time when the law shall become opera
tive. The bill provides that no mer-
chandise or passengers. except supplies
for the army or navy, shall be trans
ported by sea under penalty Of for
feiture between the ports Of the United
States and the Philippine archipelago
directly or by way of port or for
any part Of the voyage in any except
vessels of the United States. 1t does
not prohibit. however, the sailing of any
foreign vessel between the United
States and the Philippines nor between
ports or places in the Philippines. The
tonnage taxes now in force on foreign
vessels coming into the United States
are levied on such vessels coming from
the Philippines. The Philippine Com
mission is authorized to issue licenses
TO engage in lighterage or other exclu-
sively harbor vessels to vessels or craft
actually engaged in such business at
the date stated and to vessels or other
craft built in the Philippines or in the
United States and owned by citizens
Of the United States or inhabitants Of
the Philippines. The law does not i'm
pair or affect any privilege guaranteed
10 Spanish ships and merchandise by
the Paris treaty of peace
The House took up the bill TO pro-
vide for a delegate in Congress from
Alaska In the debate which ensued
Bowers Of Mississippi answered some
statements recently made by Glllett
regarding violation Of statutes Of some
Of the States with respect TO negro
suffrage. He declared that the negro
was as safe in the hands of the Cover
nor OF Mississippi as in those of the
Governor of Massachusetts.
The only State in which lynching had
been prevented by the swift and timely
interposition Of the law was in Mis-
sissippi, and this, he said, was due to
the personal acton of the Governor.
Bowers made a comparison of the
criminal statistics of Massachusetts
and Mississippi, and said these showed
that the negro in the latter State was
six times better than those of Massa
chusetts. In Mississippi, he said, every
avenue Of labor was open TO the negro.
He pointed with pride, he said. to the
fact that in his State the ratio of mu-
latto to the colored population and to
the whole population was less to-day
than at anytime since the war.
Bowers asserted that the negro in
politics simply served parties and that
his political baptism was in the aid of
Republican ascendency. He believed
that race purity could be preserved
absolutely by the utter segregation of
the race in every scholastic relation.
The right Of intermingling, he declared,
was fraught with peril He said that
the negro was not fit for self-govern-
ment, and he was greeted with Demo-
cratic applause when he said the negro
should be eliminated as a political fac
tor.
The Alaskan bill was then laid aside
and a bill was passed providing for
the cession of 120 acres of land in Yuma
County. Colorado. to the Beecher ISL
and Battle Memorial Association. A
Joint resolution was passed providing
that the provisional act for the relief
of certain settlers on public lands shall
be construed to abolish the necessity
for proof in the cases mentioned in said
act