The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1907-03-02
AT end OF congress.
LEGISLATIVE CONGESTION Said TO
BE GREATER THAN USUAL.

ing Measures Remain Unpassed
an Extra Session WILDE Need
ed-Night Sessions Have Be-
gun.
Washington, Feb. 25.-The dan.
gers that accompany a congestion OF
legislation confron- congress. Mem.
bers of both houses fully realize the
grave embarrassment of the situation
and they are exerting every possible
effort to expedite publ business. SEN
ator Hale, acting for the chairman OF
the appropriations committee, openly
counseled his colleagues Saturday to
"get their houses in ORDER" so that
they could attend night sessions, be.
ginning tonight.
The house of representatives, with
the passage Saturday night of the sun
dry civil bill, has cleared up all but
one of the big supply measures. The
senate has yet to clear five of them.
Indeed, with the exception of the post
Office bill, three of these measures
have yet to go before the senate COM
mittees for their action before being
reached.
Postoffice Bill Pending
The postof1ce bill was reported as a
dummy" to the senate late Saturday
90 40, hot hoy tho
mittee reports consideration Of it,
which will be sometime today, it can
be printed and ready for the senate
without delay.
The agricultural appropriation bill,
which has logged along for a week,
was Saturday forced over for final &C.
tino by reason of strong fight made
by Western senators against the gov.
ernment's forest reserve policy.
The congestion of business is in a
way satisfactory to senate leaders, be-
cause it will force from the appropria.
tion bills special legislation which is
steadily increasing and against which
the leaders have been fighting.
The time has come in the life OF
this congress when no private or pub
lie bill against which strong opposi
ton develops, can pass. Hostility tt
special items in an appropriation bill
is now sufficient to kill the drovisior
lift cannot be so modified as to meet
the wishes of the DIRECTORS.
Good Laws in Danger
But the danger of all this lies in the
fact that meritorius legislation now
can be easily defeated. It will require
almost every minute of the time of the
senate from now until noon of March
4 to consider and pass the supply bills
the failure of any one of which would
require an extra session. The Aldrict
financial bill and the agricultural
bank bills are among those measures
which the leaders desire passed.
The greatest bone of contention il
in conference. All these measures
that the senate is to act upon must
60 there for the purpose of having ad
justed the differences between the
two hoses. Then these reports must
be sbmitted in detail to senate anc
house for adoption.
Important legislation has not fol
years been known to be as congestec
as it is today. Both senators and rep
resentatives are beginning to show ev'
idence of the high tension and heavy
strain under which they have beer
laboring for the last few weeks.
No Canteen for Old Soldiers
At Saturday nights session, and fol
lowing sharp debate, by vote of 81
to SO, an amendment offered by Rep
resentative Bowersock, of Kansas, ex
Guiding the canteen from the national
soldiers homes was adopted. The
galleries were crowded at the time by
| temperance advocates from all ove1
the country.
j. Sloat Fassett, Republican, Of
New York, former candidate for gov
ernor of his state and a temperance
advocate, made speech in favor o.
the canteen, which electrified thu
house. It was not pleasant to be there
to be confused with the representative
of greed, lust and rum, but he knew
what experience had taught him il
the case of the old soldiers. No one
he said, had asked these men whether
they drank poison or rum when they
offered their lives to the country. HI
said it was not a question of legislat
ing to make these men moral in the
evening OF their lives, for that would
be as useless as to legislate to max.
them intelligent, but it was practical
question Of administering to the com
fort and happiness Of these men.
Big SUM IS STOLEN
| FR0M SIfR.TREASIIRY