The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1906-06-30
WORK OF CONGRESS
REVIEW OF SESSION nov NEAR
ADJOURNMENT.

ANS8 ~s0SsOAAD SvAS0s
Inspection, Panama Canal,
Statehood and Alaska Delegate
Among the More Important
Measures Passed.
Washington, June 25.-Senator
Hale, who in the absense of Senator
Allison, is acting as chairman of the
senate committee on appropriations,
expresses confidence in the final ad.
journment of congress before the close
OF the present week.
His program will be to urge the con.
sfderation of appropriation bills and
conference reports to the exclusion OF
all other matters, and with the supply
bills finally passed there Is no mea.
sure, unless it be the railroad rate
bill, that can hold congress together.
Ihe Maine senator is of the opinion
that the work can all be concluded by
Friday, but says that in no event will
it 60 beyond Saturday.
Federal Regulation
Important measures extending fed.
eral regulation and control have been
enacted at the first session Of the Fiji
ty-ninth congress. The railroad rate
and meat inspection bills will soon be.
come laws, and before adjournment
both houses will have passed pure food
bills, which, though dissimilar in
terms, are both based on the same
principle of federal control. It is the
present intention to try to adjust the
differences before adjournment.
There has been no marked division
on party lines in efecting the above
results, the differences being only as
to ways and means rather than as ia
policy.
Besides branching off into a new
field of executive endeavor, the pres.
emit congress has made itself impor.
tant in other ways. It has added one,
and perhaps two, new states to the
Union, and by go doing disposed of
four territories.
Great results to the people are ex-
pected 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 cornflelds of the country, from
sugar beets and sugar cane, from fruits
and other vegetation.
Panama Canal
BY deft turn of legislative points
of view, the questions that have per-
picked congress for some time regard
ing the Panama canal have been set
tied.
The president may dig q look canal
as fast as he pleases. A joint resolu-
tion was agreed to requiring canal sup
pliess to te of American manufacture.
Congress has not dealt with the for
eign situation to any extent. An act
making a much needed reorganization
of tine consular service, was passed.
Nothing was done in The Santo Do
mingo controversy, and the legislation
affecting our colonial possessions was
megear and unimportant, although
tariff revision for the Philippines re-
ceived the attention and approval Of
the house and an act was passed revis-
ing the tariff collected by the Philip
pine government. A coinage act for
the islands was also passed.
But congress talked about our own
tariff law. It broke the record for
words. Thousands and hundreds Of
thousands more than have been ut
tered at any other session were COM
piled In the congressional record. Not
only on the. floors Of the two houses
has the word record been heavy but
the publications resulting from com.
mittee sessions are larger and more
numerous than at any previous ses.
sion.
A large number Of bills were intro
duced in the two houses. The calen-
dar records that the number reached
nearly 20, 500 more than we're intro
duced during the entire sessions of the
last congress-.
Nine Hundred Millions
Before discussing the number of acts
passed, it is interesting to note that
with all the strenuous exertions of an
appropriations committee In the house
with q new acknowledgements
Tawney-it has been impossible to
hold the appropriations down to
much less than $500, O0O, 900, although
ECONOMY" has been the watchword
from the start.
One of the important features OF the
session has been the careful scrutiny
with which the demands Of the differ.
emit government departments have re.
ceived at the hands of the house ap-
propriations committee. The hearings
accorded to government officials. ask.
| ing for money to run their depart.
ments and bureaus have been more OK
haustiye than ever before. The result
has been the enactment of restraining
Liquidation on nearly every appropria'
ton bill which it is intended will have
beneficial effect hereafter.
Permanent Annual Charges
Il Although there has been an effort *
l ~-1n~vAvnont ~ vnhat n