The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1907-03-08
A DRAMATIC CONGRESS.

ident Roosevelts administration. Sci
dom has a congress given rise to SO
much discussion. Seldom has one sent
out so many newspaper columns OF
enacted so many laws whose effect has
been felt the length and breadth of
the land. 1t has been n dramatic con.
gress of conflicts which have placed
men usually calm and deliberate, in
drastic and impassloned roles. 1t has
been a congress that has kept the gal
leries filled with interested spectators
and at times the fray became so fu.
rious that the galleries were cleared
The lie has been passed frequently
and sparks have flashed There has
been the clash of steel and some of
the duels have left still gaping
wounds. And with the battles excite
ment cleared away, the country finds
the statute books loaded with many
laws that were not there before-laws
that are charged with the power of dy-
Mantle and which are vastly sweeping
In their power.
Among the most conspicuous laws
enacted by the Fifty-ninth congress
may be mentioned the railroad rate
bill, the pure food bill, the meat in
spection law, Japanese exclusion, i'm
migration bill, increased pay for men,
bers of congress, cabinet members,
postal clerks and carriers, the remis-
sion of tax on denatured alcohol, the
law restricting the hours of labor for
railway employees, the Aldrich bill
providing for a reissue of currency in
lower denominations, the appropria-
ton of $50 100000 for rivers and har-
bors, and many others.
Bills of greatest local interest in this
section have been the Nebraska fed
| eral judicial division bill, the Trip
county land opening bill and the graz
| ing land lease law.
In the more conspicuous measures
ment has become apparent in greater
Capitalization of authority. The rail
way rate law, the pure food law and
the meat inspection law have all taken
certain powers which states formerly
thought they owned, and given them
to the nation. Capitalization of DOW
err, first advocated strongly by Hamil-
ton when the constitution was being
framed, has never arrived at the point
now known in this country.
The railway rate law, regulating in
terstate commerce, is almost unlimited
in its donation of authority to the fed
eral government. 1t has given to the
interstate commerce commission the
right to regulate railroad rates for
interstate commerce and to fix such
rates as the commission shall deem
| reasonable and just" There is most
extraordinary power, therefore, given
to the commission. The chief object
sought in the passage of this law,
President Roosevelt says, was the cor
rection of determinations and not the
lowering of rates. Under their new
power, the interstate commerce com
mission are investigating various cas-
es of alleged discrimination. In a To-
cal way people of all states have felt
the effect of this law with regard to
nc xxyhi 60, III,
were prohibited by this law-excepting
in the cases of a considerable class of
citizens, who are specifically excluded
from the anti-pass provisions. This
law has been supplemented in. Ne
braska and other states by similar
anti-pass laws and by the creation of
railway commissions which, acting as
the interstate commerce commission
does in interstate commerce, shall
regulate rates for intrastate COM
merce. Newspapers and magazines,
which formerly exchanged advertising
space for railroad mileage, have been
prohibited from making such contracts
under the new laws and the constitu-
tionality of this ruling by the inter-
state commerce commission is now
being tested by a friendly case intro
duced by the Monon railroad in ILL
nois. This case, it is believed, was in
troduced by the federal government,
which holds a receivership over the
road that owns the Monon, in order
to determine the solidity of this inter-
probation of the laws.
Ambassador Bryce, who has just
been sent to Washington by Great
Britain, once wrote a book in which
he dealt humorously with Americas
attitude toward their federal govern
ment. He said that the federal gov
eminent was something looked upon
here as a sort of foreign affairs de-
partment. Mr. Bryce returns tn find