Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-03-16
CAPITAL GOSSIP.
Continued from Page One.)

career to get this embargo oil Maine
sailing vessels in Southern ports re-
| moved
| But he is also giving A lot of time
| 10 hearings before the House judiciary
committee. That committee is made I'D
solely of lawyers, who have every WIN
ter a bunch Of bills involving consti-
tutional and legal questions to con-
slider Nothing is more vigorously
contested than legal point, of course
and so the battles surge back and forth
IN that committee room all winter and
every week there are hearings galore
MI Little1ield takes a very active part
IN most OF these hearings, including the
antl-lnJlnCtion bills and the bills to
subject original packages to the laws
o1 the states where they are sent for
delivery. The latter, of course, strikes
at the interstate transportation of in
.toNicating liquors
Representative Burleigh'S committees
have not been conducting any exhaus-
TIVE Investigations this winter TO date
Inc census committee. however, of
which ne is a member, framed up Il bill
authorizing preparations for the taking
Of the next census. That Involved
some work and not a little consultation
with tn" officials at the Census Bureau.
Then the bin was projected into the
House, debated at intervals for several
days. and finally laid over till the
House has more leisure. There is some
opposition To the measure, but it will
have the support Of the House and will
PROBABLY become law within a few
weeks.
Now. Gov. Purleish's other commit
tee, that on public buildings and
grounds. is quickening into life with
the prospects that there will be an
omnibus public building bin toward
the close of the session. That will
probably ncceSSilate some hearings, at
least there will he needed ii lot of
work by al! the members Of the COM
mttec. sorting out projects, scrutin-
iZin@ the conditions of public business
III different localities, and getting
things into shape for making up the
omnibus bill eXpeditiOusly Much of
the preparatory work has been done
in advance but meeting after meeting
OF the committee. is necessary after
the sub committees have reported, to
cut the garment according to the CLOTH
In other words, there are public build
ing bills pending that would take more
than $100,O00,000 out of the United
States treasury. Nothing like as much
as that can be appropriated. The bill
probably will .nOt exceed a total of $l5,-
100000 Or $20,O00,0 00 So many of the in
diVidual bills must be discarded alto
geIher and others can be approved on
~ in part.
Representative Amos L. Allen of the
LIST district mas good Rig job off his
hands With the completion by the
House of the Indian appropriation bill.
For weeks the committee on Indian
affairs sat. conducting hearings. sitt-
ms items and making up the large APP
preparations for the support and MAIN
tcnance of the Red Men of many tribes
the country over. That bill has now
passed the Senate and House and is in
conference. The task now rests upon
the three senior members Of the Sen
ate and House committees respectively
to arrange an agreement.
Representative Powers of the 4th
District has prominent part in the
deliberations over n currency bill ic
<thc House banking committee. 1t held
extended hearings and also had ex-
tended deliberations so that the Maine
man and the other members could
have something with which to occupy
themselves if they wished. Their task.
however, is in considerable part ahead
of them when the Aldrich bill reaches
the House and an effort must be made
20 reconcile it with the Fowler cur
rency bill. 1t looks like Il long, hard
fight, which may not be concluded uni
til the very closing days of the session.
Gov Powers committee on terrific
RIGS, which usually gives him plenty
of work to do, has been running on a
short day schedule this session. It has
many bills pending covering a wide
variety of subjects. but as there was
little or no prospect of securing con-
s0eration for them there has been no
special effort to hasten the prepara-
ton of bills for the House calendar
Therefore, the record for industry
among the Maine members. all things
considered has been pretty high this
session. Most of the House committees
are shut down most of the time. In
some OF them not a wheel is turning.
Only those committees that have the
preparation Of appropriation bills have
been running full time. The only Maine |
member of the House belonging to one
of the committees that prepare appro- |
priation bills is Representative Allen. |
And vet all four of the Maine men
have had fair amount of legislative
employment. although somewhat less
than it normally should have been.