The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-03
TUSSLES AHEAD IN CONGRESS-
OVER RIVER AND H4RBOR AND
SHIP SUBSIDY BILLS.
Uncle Joe Not Likely TO Let the subsidy
nm Get Out Of Committed
Ready 10 Prune River aud HarbOr Plum
Tree I'm Retaliation -4shOrt session.

WASHINGTON. Dec. 2.-The second SEES
sion Of the Fifty ninth Congress will open
at noon tomorrow. All during the past
week senators and members Of the House
have been arriving in Washington prepara-
tory to taking up the work OF legislation.
Tonight the hotel corridors and the apart
ment houses are crowded with Solons,
private secretaries, clerks and the vast
horde Of satellites which are drawn here by
reason OF the assembling Of the national
lawmakers.
IL the plans OF the leaders do not mis-
carry, and usually they do not, this will
out many frills and little to excite the at
tention OF the country at large. There will
be nc railroad rate bill or Statehood meas
ure to absorb attention, as was the case at
the first session Of the present Congress,
for Congress intends that the Hepburn act
shall nave an opportunity to demonstrate
its worth or lack Of worth before any at
tempts are mad to remedy any defects,
and there is no possibility Of Statehood for
New Mexico and Arizona being considered.
Everything is in readiness to start the
wheels Of legislation in motion, and as the
session is short no time will be lost in getting
down to work.. sFor the last ten days or
two weeks the House Committee on APP
preparations has been hard at work on the
Legislative Appropriation bill and now
L.. - H.aat.aanur Communicated mill hn
reported either tomorrow or Tuesday.
This will afford opportunity for the takers
to talk until something else is ready to be
acted upon.
There is promise Of a lively scrap over the
river and harbor bill, the ground work OF
which was laid by Representative Burton
and his committee last session. Tile o
which it will carry will depend to a large
extent upon the appropriation for increase
in the navy and perhaps upon whether
or not the ship subsidy bill is to become
a law. 1t will be large if the increase in the
navy is small Inc the shipping bill is allowed
to die in Representative Grosvenor's COM
mittee, and comparatively small if the pos
sibility of war with Japan frightens men,
bers into complying with the Presidents
demand for a larger navy and If the ship
ping bill is not passed.
The prospects are that Speaker Cannon
will not permit the Gsllinger subsidy bill
to come out OF the Committee on Merchant
Marine and Fisheri es. The Speaker has
never been friendly TO the proposition,
and il there is to be a large appropriation
for rivers and harbors and another Dread
nought authorized the shipping bill will
stand a mighty poor how Of enactment,
despite the threat Of Senator Gallinger
inc others that they will knife the River
and Hsrbor bill if the subsidy measure does
not meet with favorable consideration.
The Speaker is not easily bluHed by the
Senate, as has been shown upon several
occasions, and is not inclined to back down
and yield upon a measure which he has all
along opposed as he has the subsidy bill.
Still the friends OF that measure profess to
have some hopes for it this winter.
Probably the most interesting topic in
the Senate this winter will be the Smoot
case. Senator Burrows, the chairman of
the Committee on Privileges and Elections,
has declared that it is his intention to call
up the matter early in the session and
press il TO a vote.
Senator Gallinger of New Hampshire
arrived in Washington tonight in a COM
paratively happy mood. In reply to the
threat of Representative Burton Of Ohio,
chairman Of the House Committee on Rivers
and Hsrbors, that he would oppose the
passage of the ship subsidy bill this winter,
he promptly served notice on the Ohio Con-
gresham that if the shipping bill were
blocked in the House the River and Harbor
bill would be cut into ribbons when it
reached the Senate Senator Gallinger said:
Mr.. Burton should understand from the
beginning that il he interposes N obstacle
in the way Of the shipping bill, there will
be some men in the Senate who will carefully
scrutinize the provisions Of the River and
Harbor bill. There is no logical reason
why we should expend hundreds of millions
TO improve the highways OF commerce. for
the benefit of foreign shipping and refuse
TO appropriate a mere pittance for the re-
Mobilization of the American merchant
marine"