Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-03-07
Washington Resting After
The Busy Days.
Adjournment Measures in Which
Maine Had an Interest.
The Pension Agencies And The
White Mountain Survey.

action; feather busters are fylng,
darkies are cleaning the cuspidors.
Heavily laden trains are snorting out
OF the depots in Washington, bearing
the Senators ana members cf the late
departed Fifty ninth. Most Of them
are now Senators and members Of the
Sixtieth, some Of them lame ducks.
Washington is recovering from the
hurry burly. The city will get back on
an even keel, as it always does when
there is sufficient quiet in the Capitol
to allow ones footballs to echo i'll the
corridors. Theodore Roosevelt. PEeSi-
dent. with just two years q his term
remaining. is glad Of the quiet. Ifc
Will not keep his eye on the Capitol
any more for the present. 1t il not
known. outside Of a few Of his friends.
that the President is tircd-cxcecding-
" tired, Vigorous as he looks
physically, fun Of cn"rgy. cheerful, aG-
srcssive in the execution OF his plans,
the President ncVcIthe less is begin
ming to feel the strain. If there Were
no other reason for his declining
another term, he would Go so because
he is tired Of his strenuous career rs
President. lie will not pause. There
are twenty-fuur months more Of mis-
executive career ami Re must !~iFc
through a lot Of measures bnIor' he
yields 70 his successor. But ne il t!r.l
in the way that comes only from pro-
longcd effort. effort SO enthusiastic
that one does not stop to think how
exhaustive it is and realizes only Of
sudden when the WEAKNESS Of every
fiber of the body becomes apparent
The strenuous work Of the recent SEES
sion has brought the President to a
realization Of this.
Representative Littlcficld has been
engaged in a slight whrl with sons
Virginia Democrats who have tired to
diecredit his report as chairman or the
House committee on expenses i'll the
Department Of Agriculture. Mr.. Lit
tlefield conducted an exhaustive in
vestigation Of that Department and
found some things t. criticize. cspcci-
ally the manner in which Prof. Willis
J.. Moore has built a research institu-
ton" at Mount Weather. Va. over
S150,00O has been spent on that station,
although Congress never gave til" De-
partmcnt Of Agriculture any specific
authority to build H. MI. LittlcH'll
hauled Prof. Moore over the Goals for
that proceeding ami had tho approval
Of Speaker Cannon ana other authori-
ties for what he dill. Iiut the Virginia
Democrats resented il as an attack up
ON an institution within their borders.
II It had been in any Northern state
they would have chdrIctcriZcd the pro-
ceedinE in anything but complimentary
terms. But the old dominion was
getting the benefits of some Of tn" APP
preparations and that made it a diff
ferent story.
Representative Hal Flood. who re-
presents the valley Of Virginia district
is member Of Mr.. Iittlcticld'S COM
mittcc He is 4 sharp politician ana
started out 10 make trouble. He got
his fellow Democrats together and
drew a report that contradictcd the re-
port made by Mr.. Littlciield. giving
Prof. Moore a clean bill Of health and
announcing that what he had done was
entirely lawful and commentaries
Representatives Burleigh and Little
field had a hand in getting the ap
prevail of the House Saturday to an
appropriation of SIS. 1000 for a survey Of
the White Mountains. with n view to
having forest reserve there. for the
protection of the watershed that would
be of benefit to several New England
states. New Hampshire and Massa
chusetts would profit chiefly but the
Maine men took hold in the fight be-
cause il was New England fight and
there is always n disposition in tn"
House to kill anything that New Eng
land wants.
The New England and the southern
members Joined forces in securing the
appropriation which the Senate had
approved Speaker Cannon was OPP
posing il bitterly but the item went
through on the Agricultural Appro-
priation bill. much 10 the disgust Of
the Middle Western Republicans who
have no extensive forests and do not
care to help New England protect hers.
The action in the House means that
eventually an appropriation will be
made to purchase extensive tracts Of
land in the White Mountains. which
will result in the conservation of
waters in the Merrimac. and ConneCti-
cut Rivers and also i'll some rivers in
which Maine is interested on the
Western border The SouthcrnCrS are
interes ted in a like project in the APP
palachian Mountains. covering three
or four states.
The Maine members have been in
strumental in having the pension
agencies restored to the Pension APP
pripriaton Bill Senator Hale saw to
it that the item for Augusta, which the
House voted out, was put back. and
the Maine men. especially ex-Gover-
nors Powers and Burleigh were work
ing on the matter at their end of the
Capitol. so that when the bill got back
there for concurrence they had plenty
Of strength to have the appropriations
for the agencies restored. 1t Will mean
a lot to Augusta and to the pensioners
of Maine, as under the service pension
act the number of pensioners viii be
considerably increased and the amount
of work in getting the checks to the
old soldiers will be greater than ever.
Governor Burleigh has been at the
War Department inquiring about the
prospects for the further improve
ments to the Kennebec River. as
authorized on the recent River and
L.