The Hawaiian gazette., 1907-01-01
TIE SHIP SUBSIDY BILL
HAS HARD Fight TO WIN

WASHINGTON, December ia aps
ou nsht over ship subsidies is In prog
'"e mouse. IL 10 quite as
p'i.eu as IN the earlier days when
senator Frye OF Name and the late
senator hanna or ohio were battling
'or the principle OF SUBSIDIES. and the
senate debated almost day and night
~ Ns eHorts to reach vote. The
muse was even more skepticaI than
the senate In those days. IL remains
skeptical now, apparently does nor
want TO be convinced-perhaps win nor
De convinced. There are standnatters
galore IN the house, grim old lerisla i.
1--WE veterans who have personat
knowledge OF all the important CON
gressional legislation of the last fifteen
years, since the time when Thomas u
reed, then In the prime of his career
hrst took up the House gavel. They
are tremendously interested in keepinp
Inc tariff schedules where thev are hut
those who come from the Middle West
90 not care plcayune about protect
Ing ships, for that is what subsidies
amount to-
The Senate fought the question out
III the course of long debates, the SUBJ
sidy bill passed there, with Senator
Frye at the helm, and passed again
ana again, but the House has remain
ed -obdurate, and now the battle IL to
De fought out there. The preliminary
ana also the very important part OF
the fight Is being waged in the House
committee on Merchant Marine and
Fisheries, which is deep down in the
bowels of the Capitol-"down under the
terrace" in the vernacular of the Cap
itol, where one must have a guide to
find his way.
Maine has long been a foremost state
in pressing for ship subsidy, and
whether the numerous ship subsidy
bills of the last quarter of a century
nave been before the Senate or the
House, some prominent Maine man has
been actively championing them. In
the Senate 1t has generally been Mr..
Frye, because he has long been the
chairman of the Senate Committee on
Commerce, where subsidy bills are
framed. but Mr.. Hale of Maine, now
the floor leader of the Senate, has been
quite as active in pressing for such
legislation. over in the House the late
Nelson Dingley of Maine was at one
time chairman of the Merchant Marine
champion. Now his successor in Con-
Committee and an active subsidy
gress, Representative Charles e. Little
field, is a member of the committee
and one of the foremost champions
of the pending bill. Mr.. Littlefield
dives down into that terrace commit,
tee room every little while to wrestle
anew with the opposition and when he
comes up again to the corridors sur
rounding the House he has a woeful
look. He fears the worst for the ship
subsidy bill, but still fights on.
The present trouble Is of Speaker
making. Be it known that he
comes from the Middle West, where
there are no oceans, no rockbound
coasts, no seafaring population, no
ships. Astute in generalship, Mr.. Can
nor last year packed" the committee.
He did not pack it in the interest of
subvention to ships: he packed 1t In
opposition. And there are now four
Republican members of that commit
tee from the Middle West, every man
of them ready to fight ship subsidies
to a finality.
There is one notable exception, Rep !
Charles H. Grosvenor of ,
Ohio, the chairman. He is the most
of ship subsidy advo-
Gates. He would vote an appropriation
for about anything that the big ocean
liners want. That hurts the cause. 1t
also hurts the cause that Gen. eros.
venor is down and out politically. He
lost a denomination and therefore a
reelection. and members of the House
men in other callings to following
dead one" The committee meetings
are tempestuous. Gen. Grosvenor,
his burden of seventy-three
years and with two decades of House
service behind him, .reproaches the Re-
publican members, half his years, for
They retort with spirit. +!
Littlefield, full of en-
thusiasm for the legislation, strives to
act as mediator, but thus far to lit- |