The citizen., 1910-07-01
WASHINGTON.
Legislative and Cen
eral Topics from
the Capital.
June IS, 1910.

I une IS, 1910.
With the adjournment of Congress. a
brief review of what legislation has been
accomplished will be in place, and it will
be found that the record of the present
Congress has seldom, if ever, been ex-
celled in the number and in the import
ance of the bills passed. Thirty-six
thousand bills were offered during the
session-twenty-seve thousand by the
! House and nine thousand by the Senate,
to say nothing of hundreds of resolutions
on variety of subjects. In no previous
session have SO many bills been pre-
sented.
With reference to those reform move
ments which have become known as the
bills of the Presidents program. there
are many instances of accomplishment.
Perhaps first in importance is the es-
tablishment of postal savings banks.
Then a revision of the railroad laws
| involving the creation of a commission
court
The admission of the States of New
Mexico and Arizona as separate States.
raising the number of sovereign States in
the Union to forty-eight.
A very important bill was that giving
|
withdraw public lands for conservation
purposes. Under this act the President
was granted power to withhold lands
from settlement, and to conserve the
water power, and at the same time the
act provided Tor the agricultural entry
of coal lands, which will open to settle
ment it is said, as much as sixty million
acres, reserving at the same time the
coal right to the government.
The increase of the navy, while not
including many ships of the first-class,
was significant in the fact that there was
appropriations for two battleships of
27,ooo tons each. These are to be armed
with I4-inch guns, which it is said will
make them more formidable than any bait
tleships on the seas. There were appro-
priations also for four torpedo boat
destroyers, two coliers and four subma-
rines, and an increase of three thousand
seamen was provided for in the bill
The Publicity Campaign Bill is consid-
cred one of great importance, in that can
didates must within a short time after
election publish the amount of campaign
contributions.
A bill authorizing an appropriation of
twenty millions in certificates ofindebted-
ness to continue reclamation projects was
passed.
Also bill creating Bureau of Mines.
A bill appropriating $3.50, 900 for the
support of Tariff Board was another of
the Presidents bills that had much oppo-
sition before it was finally passed.
Bills looking to the suppression of
traffic in white slaves; providing a new
tariff system for the Philippine Islands;
promoting prohibition in the Hawaiian
Islands; creating commission to con-
slider economics in the management of
the National Government, were other
important enactments.
About $500, 900 was appropriated for
the raising and removal of the wrecked
batteship Maine in Havana Harbor,
Cuba
Among the measures which failed to
pass, although it was well known that
the President favored them, was a Ship
Subsidy Bill; an anti-Inuncton Bill; a
bill for new form of government in
Alaska and also in Panama; also bills to
create Bureau of Health; providing in
creased rates of postage for second-class
mail matter and to establish the Appa-
lachian Forest Reserve.
Taken all in ALL this has been a re-
markably strenuous Congress, and there
is no doubt but that record has been set
which will be a stimulating example to
succeeding Congresses. Apart from the
reformative and progressive legislation
above referred to, Congress has in a con-
spicuous way reformed itself as a delib,
erative and parliamentary bo1y. 1t has
taken power from the Speaker 1t has
reformed its system of conducting bust
ness, and its organization for work is
more effective now than it was at the
beginning of the session. The Speaker
has been removed from the Committee
on Rules, and new rule has been
adopted which, it is thought will prevent
Withholding bills by committees when
such bills have the approval Of the ma
iority of the House of Representatives,
without regard to party.