The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1910-03-10
WASHINGTON
From our Regular Correspondent.

Washington, d. c., Mar. d, 1910.
Congress has now been in session
for three months, and the ambitious
legislative program announced in
the beginning has been considera.
bly, modified. There was a long
conference at the Executive Man.
sion when the President, Speaker
Cannon, Senators Aldrich, Crane,
and the Attorney General decided
upon a narrower program which
they will endeavor to carry out at
this session of Congress. The
President aud both Houses of Con-
gress through the leaders of the
House and Senate will endeavor to
get a postal savings bank bill, a
railroad bill, and perhaps one or
two conservation bills through Con-
gress. An anti-iujunction bill is
also on the program, but the pas
sage of this is quite doubtful. A
measure for different form of gov
ernment in Alaska las been aban-
doned for this session. The ma
tional incorporation bill has gone
by the board, unless the Supreme
Court shall make such a decision
in the Tobacco Trust Case as will
promote the enactment of the ma
tional incorporation measure The
bills for the admission of New Mex
ico and Arizona have little prospect
OF being passed, 1t will be seen
from this statement that the Presi-
dent will get at this session but
small part of the legislation fore
ShalOwed i'll his recent message to
Congress. But he has been only
one year in office, and if there Shall
be an uninterrupted majority bo h
i'll the Senate and in the House, es-
peclally of Legislators favorable to
the Roosevelt policies as interpreted
by President Taft, more may be
accomplished during the remaining
three-fourths of his presidential
term. The Republican leaders
have not only opposed the P-esi-
dent, but they have shown decided
GOODNESS to mach that he has rec
ommended.
***
The national food inquiry COM
mittee in the Senate, of which SEN
ator Lodge of Massac husetts is
chairman and Senators Smoot, Gal
linger, Crawford, McCumber and
Johnston the five Republicans, and
Senators Clark and Simmons, the
two Democrats, have so far devot.
ed their attention entirely to the
surface of the field of investigation
which they propose to cover. They
have outlined their course and an.
nounce themselves ready to get
down to the facts. There appears
to be an immense amount of palaver
by learned Senators on subject
with which men, women and chill
dren are pretty well acquainted.
The data over whi Ii they are so
gravely paving has been in exist
ence for a long time, and why
should they 60 through the pom
derous forInalities of calling on for.
elgn representatives abroad for in
formation as to conditions there,
when the question is one when
concerns the immediate homes of |
the people of the United States If
conditions abroad played any i'm
portant part in the increased costs,
we would have known of it long
before our consuls had been order
ed to investigate. This solemn,
gin-horse, pretense of progress by
congressional investigating COM
mlttees is one of the things that is
contempt and distrust of
Congress.
~
So far as known, Washington is
the only city in the United States
that has concluded its incubation
on the subject of high cost of liv-
ing. The city Chamber of Com
merce has probed the problem, and
its verdict is that high prices are
not due to local causes. When it
is remembered that this Chamber
OF Commerce consists largely of To-
cal groceis, commission men, butch
ers and bakers who have sat with
themselves on themselves and eX-
themselves, the result of
their investigation will be ediiying,
but not surprising. 1t has been
said, and l believe with truth, that
the costs of foods in Washington
are on an average twenty per cent
higher than in Philadelphia, New
York, Boston, and other eastern
cities.