Daily Kennebec journal., 1905-12-25
Thousands Already Intro
duced in Congress.
In House the Average Is
Twenty for Each Member.
Pensions Lead the List Of Bills IL
Both Branches Of the House.


gress to date, and senators and rep
resentatives begin their holiday vaca-
tion with the satisfaction that all the
wants, real and imaginary, of the ma
ton at large and their constituents in
particular have been throughly cover
ed. About 9400 of these bills come
from representatives, making an aV-
erage of nearly twenty for each af the
1856. In proportion the Senate has peen
more active, having about 24OO bills 10
It's credit. 1t is estimated that tWo-
thirds of these are of the pensions and
claims classes. About HOO have al
ready been filed with the private PEN
sions committee and it's docket is not
yet complete. Allowing for the vacan-
cies in the upper chamber the general
average for each senator is nearly ~
Pensions hold the honors in both
branches of Congress. Six thousand
had already been referred to the lnVai-
Id Pensions Committee of the House
Tuesday afternoon, with more to FOL
low. The rush of work in connection
with the wholesale introduction had put
the employees Of the filing-room be-
hind in their work and it Will take sew
eral days Of the recess to catch up.
Doubtless the number of bills already
referred to this committee will total
over 1000 when the records are brought
up to date.
Presuming that no more pension
bills will be introduced. though hum
dreds may be expected. Speaker Cannon
would establish a new record i'll rapid
fire legislation of this sort if he could
clear the committees docket. The
House under its rules devotes Friday
Of each week to pension and claim
bills. But this programme is often set
aside by unanimous consent in order
to consider legislation occupying the
attention Of the members when Fridays
come. Allowing for no breaks of this
kind and with a continuous session
from January to the end of June would
give twenty-five possible Fridays.
Eliminating the consideration of sew
eral hundred claims for damages that
will be reported for favorable action.
the House must pass $50 private pen
sion hills on each of those days. No
special pension day is allotted in the
Senate where this legislation proceeds
more calmly, such bills being taken up
at the convenience of other plans for
legislation supposing, however, that
some time was allowed in each of the
twenty-five weeks, the Senate would
have A private pension measures as
each weeks batch. This scheme
would give 324 as the instalment for
the House and Senate, and as bills
passed by one body must also go
through the formalities of the other it
would mean 6lS special acts for each
week. When it is understood that not
uearlv so much time will be given and
several hundred of these bills cannot
possibly be considered by the commit
tee. 1t will be evident even to those di-
rectly interested that many hopeful
constituent must meet disappointment
OF bills commonly designated rs pub
lic' approximately 1900 have been intro
duced In the House and 1900 in the Senate.
They cover the wide range of Federal leg
iSlation and matters of general or local
interest. Ii is figured that nearly five
hundred bills asking appropriations for
public buildings or for the purchase of
building sites have already oecn intro
duced. The omnibus building bill last
year would have lcgislatcd some $40. 600 90
out of the United States Treasury. If
$4,000 each which is absurdly low. and
all were included in an omnibus bill it
would call for the appropriation Of So
OOO,0O0-nOt a small amount to be scattered
in the regions where patronage of such
tangible proportions is appreciated.
''Punxsutawney" Smith. thus designated
by his Pennsylvania home address to dis
tinguish him from the eight other Smiths
in the House. is determined to be upon
the safe side so far as town rivalry in his
district IS concerned He has introduced
bills providing for public buildings in each
town in his district that boasts a presi-
dental post office and is not now under
Government roof.
Delays appal entity needless often cause
the failure of Il meritorious measure and
this is where the presence of pcople di-
reetly interested in it is desirable. One
lobby. ever present to watch over its own
interests, is the corps Of Capitol en-
ployees. Its cmissaries arc close uron
the heels of sympathetic congressman
when the clause appropriating Il month $
extra pay all around ut the end of th,
session must be inserted in a late appro-
priat!on bill. The Capitol employees
never tire Of pay days. and welcome hav-
lng tnose days set earlier in any month,
especially at Christmas time. it was Il
question last week whether these active
people would get a real Merry Christ
mas. Legislation is necessary in order
10 aayance pay days at the Capitol. ard
according to custom the employees
wanted their December money before the
adjournment. Preliminary action was
taken oy The House, and the matter was
reierreo TO the Committee on Enrolled
Bills; presided over by Representative
achter OF Baltimore. He was absent
from washington several davs last week
ana fearful lest he should fail to assem-
PIE ms committee to determine whether
the christmas bill" was properlv en-
rolled. delegation of employees called at
nus ms nome on Saturday. He was not in
ana an urgent message was left. on Sun
gay another delegation made the iourney
ITO ttom aMas MMashlngton to Baltimore and saw
tne absent Wachter personally. Whether
he was disturbed in his S,1ndov ,sI,ei r,naitt,
t. IONS Is not explained. but those who sa w
hin hi.h say say there was u disturbing glitter in
ms eyes when he assured the deIeration
tnat ne would be on hand Monday morn.
ing: nc kept his promise and the Christ
nas advances have been properly made
An interesting trial made in England q,
= can ,aIm I'm near Biggleswade shows tn" fie,d. ii.
thn thn, pe SO Illuminated by acesylcne a's gn
al sttar n,na harvesting may be easily carried or
a,,.t,g. az mght. In this test two mowers ,ot u,
- cutting six-foot swatb wara e, eacr