The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-12

decided, should be considered at this
session. Thus, near the midnight hour,
that proposition was given a stunning
blow between the eyes and entered
upon a long sleep. The labor dele
gates, who haunt the corridor, in front
of the main entrance, continued in
succeeding days to repeat their warn
ings that the party had yet to reckon
with their followers at the polls, but
the Republicans in the House never
theless breathed easier. Everyone was
getting SO tired. It was a relief to
have something settled, whether it
were settled rightly or wrongly.
The President kept applying the
prod. He was applying the prod Sat-
urday, when the mortuary groans of
the Sixtieth Congress were appalling
indeed. It looked for a while like
Sunday session, but late Saturday
evening Senate and House recessed till
Monday and the President was stin
applying the prod. He wanted cur
rency legislation. He did not like the
idea, after there had been so much
advertisement for months and months,
of Congress expiring without having
done something on currency. The plan
for a commission of nine members
from the House and of nine members
from the Senate, to study the whole
question during the summer and
autumn, did not suit him, any more
than it suited Speaker Cannon, who
felt that the Senate had thrown him
down hard. 1t is as good as settled,
so very sage men say, that the COM
mission which was all the Senate and
House conferees could agree upon, is
bluff to fool the country, that it can
accomplish nothing, that the Senate
and its leading Republican members,
who will dominate the commission, are
welded to the bond secured currency
idea and are determined that no leg
islation whatever shall pass unless it
embodies that feature. The House
leaders, on the other hand, are just as
vigorously opposed to the idea of bond
secured currency. They want some--
thing like the Vreeland bill, that
smacks of asset currency because it
would authorize the organization of
clearing house commissions and per-
nit them to issue emergency notes,
backed by their assets.
1nere are cT1IDlfldllOIlS anu T6cTIin-
nations. 1.-THE Senate is in league
with the bond houses and the corpor-
ations,' say the heated members of
the House. why were they so I'M
yielding. Their plan, of course, would
create a better market for bonds,
which is just what J. Pierpont Nor
gan, who came to hear the debate on
the Aldrich bill, wants. They shall
never have it, never, never, never!"
And one hears over the Senate way:
Those House ideas about currency
legislation are so wild, so dangerous,
so subversive of all banking and finan
cial principles, that we can never ac-
cept them. Let them harp away about
the dangers of another panic that
would put the Republican party in
the hole, That sort of talk won't
make us bulge in the slightest"
And so it has gone on through a long
category. Congress in fighting mood
during its expiring moments and able
to fight effectively, although with ex-
IRENE WEAKNESS. The President, al
ways fresh as a daisy, ready for any
effort, in high feather over what he
has secured, hopeful every morning of
securing a little something more. ter
rifying the Senators and the Represen-
tatives by assertions of what he was
going to do, making them wish with
every breath that they were out of
this sultry old town and back on the
farm or in the little village where they
came from.
The great, fat, vote-compelling omni-
bus public building bill, carrying $685.
600 600 for hundreds of new postoffices,
customhouses, courthouses, sites there
for and repairs for old postoffices, GUS
tomhOuses etc, was an example. That
was finally worked through" both
houses. Every Republican in a doubt
full congressional district grabbed off a
slice of pork which he could flourish
before his constituents during the
summer and autumn and thereupon
eXclaim in effect: See what a great
man you have representing you down
at Washington! Better keep him in
another term. hadn't you? Steen thou
sand dollars for a postoffice at Squee-
dunk! Only close and patriotic per-
Torrance of duty could bring about
such a recognition by Congress of our
grand old town of Squeedunk."
OF course. Congress could pass a
bill of that kind over the Presidents
veto. Every mothers son in Congress
was certain of that. But. none the
less, men We're constantly bearing
messages from the President. that he
night or he might not veto that great
measure for which SO, GOT, 600 were pray
ng. 1t was tantalizing. They might
not have a chance TO pass it over his
veto. That was agonizing.
ha y;
held up till the very end OF the ses-
'ion- Representatives in the National
House have short memories, but they