The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-25
Many Notable Measures Enact-
 ed by Present Congress
WIDE RANGE OF SUBJECTS
Appropriations Will Probably Go As High As $9oo,o00, ,oo0-Curb is Placed on the Executive
 Departments.

Washington, June 24-Important meas ures extending federal regulation and control have been enacted at the first session of the Fifty-ninth Congress now rapidly drawing to close. The railroad rate and the meat inspection bills will soon become laws, and before adjourn ment of Congress both houses will have passed pure food bills, which though dis similar in terms, are both based on the same principle of federal control. It is the present intention to try to adjust these differences before adjournment.
 There has been no marked division on party lines in effectng the above re- suits, the differences being only as to ways and means, rather than as to policy
 Besides branching off into this new field of legislative endeavor the present ses- sion of Congress has made itself iNport- ant in other ways. It has added one and perhaps two new states to the union and by so doing has disposed of four terri tories. Great results to the people are expected from the removal of the tax on denatured alcohol, and if predictions are fulfilled heat light and power are to be supplied by alcohol made from the corn fields of the country, from sugar heets and sugar cane, from fruits and other vegetation.
 May Dig Canal Untrammeled.
 By q different turn of legislative points of view. the questions which have per- plexed Congress for some time regarding the Panama canal have been settled. The President may dig lock canal fast as he pleases. A joint resolution was agreed to requiring canal supplies to be of American manufacture
 Congress has not dealt with the foreign relations to any extent An act making a much needed reorganization of the consularl servlce was passed. Nothing was done in the Santo Domingo controversy and the legislation affecting colonial possessions was meagre and unimport- ant, although tariff revision for the Phil ippines received the approval of the house and an act was passed revising the tariff collected by the Philippine government. A coinage act for the islands was also pass ed. But Congress talked about our own tariff law. It broke the record for words. Thousands and hundreds of thousands more than have been uttered at any other one session of Congress were com piled in the Record
 Nearly 2o,ooo Bills Passed.
 large number of bills were adopted in the two houses. The calendar records that the number has reached nearly 10000, five hundred more than were introduced dur ing the entire three sessions of the last Congress. Before discussing the number of acts passed 1t is interesting to note that with all the strenuous exertions of an appropriations committee in the House with the new chairman, Representative Tawney, it has been impossible to hold the appropriations down to much less than 5000, GOO, although economy was the watchword from the start. One of the important features of the session has been the careful scrutiny with which de- mands of the different government de- partments have been received by the House appropriations committee.
 The result has been the enactment of restraining legislation on nearly every ap- propration bill which it is intended will have a beneficial effect hereafter.
 Executive Departments Curbed.
 First in this class is undoubtedly that requiring the heads of all executive de-
 
 they receive into equal parts to avoid de- ficiencies. This Is to be done under pen alty. The only excuse that can be offer ed is the happening of some unforeseen event of emergency. Unless this can be shown the head of a department asking for deficiency appropriation shall be sum- marily removed and lays himself liable in the future to a fine and Imprisonment
 Another requirement on the executive departments intended to bring the matter of appropriation directly into the hands of Congress is that contained in the eXecu- tive appropriation act and that makes it necessary for each department to sub- init all of it's estimates for appropriations in the book of estimates sent to Con gress at the beginning of each session. Still another matter of economy Is the taking away from the government clerk the right to secure a transfer to another department at higher salary until he has served three years in the position he wishes to abandon. The prompt turn ing into the treasury of all moneys col lected by heads of departments gov ernment revenues is another safeguard against extravaganza. It was found that during the past year one department had collected revenue to the amount of $73o,- 000 and disbursed it without authority of law. A strict accounting is hereafter to be received from all United States court clerks
 Although there has been an effort to prevent the enlargement of what Is known as the permanent annual approprd- tions, this character of expense has in- creased during the session to the extent of nearly five million dollars making a total permanent annual appropriation of more than S140.00o. GOO.
 The meat inspection bill carried a per manent annual appropriation of s3 GOO OOO and the same day the House passed the bill adding s1000,000 to a like amount an nually for the support of the state militia
 .'ctory for Organized Labor
 Organized labor has succeeded in it's requests to the present session of Con gress to the extent of securing the enact ment of what is know as the employers liability bill" This enactment will make 1t possible for an employe to secure dam ages for his injury notwithstanding his own negligence may have been in part re- sponsible for that injury
 Another bill which has received the ap- proval of the Senate and will doubtless become law before the end of the se5- sion. Is that limiting the hours of con tinuous service of railway trainmen to aixteen consecutive hosrs' work to be fol-