Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1906-06-28
WORK OF CONGRESS-
REVIEW OF WORK ACCOMPLISH.
ED BY SENATE AND HOUSE.

I0 DI SGNAIE AND HOUSE.
important Measures Extending Fed.
eraI Regulation and Control Enact.
ed-Appropriations Held Down to
$eoo,ooo,o oo-canaI Legislation.
Washington, June 25.-Important
measures extending federal regula.
bon and control have been enacted at
1.-The first session of the fifty-ninth con.
1kgress, now rapidly drawing to close.
The railroad rate and the meat in.
spection bills will soon become laws,
and before adjournment of congress
both houses will have passed pure
food bills, which, though dissimilar in
terms, are both based on the same
principle of federal control. 1t is the
i present intention to try and adjust
these differences before adjournment.
Besides branching off into this new
field of legislative endeavor, the pres
ent session of congress has made
itself important in other ways. 1t has
added one and perhaps two new states
posed of four territories.
Great results to the people are ex.
pected from the removal of the tax
on denatured alcohol, and if predic.
tions are fulfilled, light and power are
to be supplied by alcohol made from
the cornfields of the country, from
sugar beets and sugar cane, from
fruitc opd ofnor vooototior
BY deft turn of legislative points
of view, the questions which have per.
picked congress for some time regard.
!, ing the Panama canal have been set.
tied. The president may dig lock
canal as fast as he pleases. A joint
resolution was agreed to requiring
canal supplies to be American made.
Congress has not dwelt with the
foreign situation to any extent. An
act making much-needed reorganiza
ton of the consular service was
passed. Nothing was done in the
Santo Domingo controversy and the
legislation affecting our colonial pos.
sessions was meager and unimportant,
although tariff revision for the Phil
ippines received the attention and ap.
proval of the house, and an act was
passed revising the tariff collected by
the Philippine government. A coinage
act for the islands also was passed.
Tariff Talk Breaks Record.
But congress talked about our own
tariff law. 1t broke the record for
words. Thousands and hundreds of
thousands more than have been ut
tered at any other one session of con-
sional records. Not only on the floors
of the two houses has the word record
been heavy, but the publications re-
= sulting from committee investigations
of subjects are larger and more nu-
merous than at any previous session.
A large number Of bills were intro
duced in the two houses. The cal
endar records show that the number
, has reached nearly 20,50O-more than
were introduced during the entire
three sessions of the last congress.
Before discussing the number of
acts passed it is interesting to note
that all the strenuous exertions of an
appropriations committee in the house
with a new chairman-Represen
Tawney-it has been impossible to
hold the appropriations down to much
less than $900,000,0Oo, although econ
omy was the watchword from the start.
Organized labor has succeeded in
its requests of the present session of
congress to the extent of securing
the enactment Of what is known as
the Employers Liability Bill" This
enactment will make it possible for an
employe to secure damages for his
injury notwithstanding his own negli-
gence. Another demand which will
doubtless become law before the end
!. of the session is that limiting the
\ hours of continuous service of railway
e trainmen to sixteen consecutive
hours work, to be followed by ten
hours rest. The much-agitated eight
hour day bill received favorable
vote from the labor committee of the
house, but too late to secure action at
the hands of congress.
One of the novel features of the
law-making was the enactment of a
measure to preserve the scenic beauty
of Niagara falls.
Enthusiasts for the greatest
navy" regarded the legislation of the
session as inimical to the proper
growth of that arm of the fighting
force. The record shows that con-
gress authorized the construction of
the biggest battleship afloat," with
the provision that the plans of the
ship must be submitted to congress at
its next session.
Senator Hale expresses confidence
in the final adjournment of congress
before the close of the present week.
The only two appropriation bills
which have not passed the senate are
the general deficiency bill and the ON.
nibus public building bill, but the sun
dry civil, the naval and the agricul-
tural bill are still in conference. OF
. these, none is expected to require
much time, except the agricultural