The Washington herald., 1912-08-11
BLAME HOUSE
COMMITTEE FOR
CONGRESS SNUB
Contained from Pare One.

information from insurance companies
applying for licenses
H. r. 1913, improving the status OF
crossing policemen.
s. 2z92. defining accident. health and life
Insurance companies In the District.
g. 1881. providing penalties for tne iar-
ceny Of property from the workhouse.
g. 6yn, comforting concurrent turisdic-
tion with the District Supreme Court on
the police court In certain cases.
This is the sum total of District bills
which have been enacted into law by the
present Congress. taken from the caien-
dar of District business compiled and
maintained by the Senate COMMITTEES.
Two Bills I'm Conference.
Two bills are now in conference, the
loan shark measure and bill regulating
the operation of the Sixteenth Street
herdic line One of the most important
bills which has been introduced this
Congress, the measure providing ade-
quate pensions for police and firemen Of
the District. passed the House, was
amended in the Senate and is dying a
natural death because of the failure Of
the House to ask for conference.
Although there are, necessarily. a
great many bills in the Senate District
Committee, there are almost no i'm
passed and which the Senate Committee
has failed to report OF the bills passed
by the House only thirteen still remain
in the Senate District Committee. Among
these were the following: To give the
District the right Of appeal to the United
States Supreme Court in patent cases;
to regulate the assignment OF wages.
salaries, and earnings in the District OF
Columbia: to amend the pharmacy act
ta a "a
practice of osteopathy.
The other House bills in the Senate
Committee are either OF doubtful pro-
priety or OF only local importance
Senate Bills Buried.
Contrasted with the small number and
comparative unimportance of the House
bills which the Senate Committee has
failed to act upon is the list OF important
Senate bills buried In the House Com
mittee, thirty-eight in all.
Among these are the following meas
ures:
s. 2s, to authorize the acceptance by
the United States Of the Nathan Straus
Pasteurized Milk Laboratory.
s. IA. providing for the renewal OF Ice
and snow from the paved sidewalks Of
the District OF Columbia
S. 1852, to receive arrearages of taxes due
the District of Columbia. to July l. 1905,
at per cent interest per annum. in
lieu OF penalties, and costs
s. los7. to provide for the more efficient
registration of births In the District
s. a60o authorizing the Commissioners
to prevent the exhibition of lewd pictures
In public places OF amusement in the Dis
trict
g. ss12, creating a public utilities COM
mission.
minded children in the District.
S. 6Si5. removing certain restrictions
from notaries public In the District.
s. 546l, the works-Jones liquor bill.
s. es72 to authorize the extension Of the
gas main In Conduit Road to the District
line.
In senate Committee.
The Senate bills, which have not been
acted upon by the Senate District Com
mittee including measures creating a
teachers retirement fund; making drunk
enness a misdemeanor, amending the act
requiring the registration of tuberculosis
cases. regulating the production and sale
Of milk cream. and ice cream in the
District: creating a board OF accountancy
for the District, providing for the pur-
chase of land for a girls reform school.
providing for an addition to the court
house for the Juvenile and municipal
courts, providing for a hospital for in
ebriates. and regulating the practice OF
midwifery in the District.
There are only seven District bills on
the Senate calendar. The only ones
among these Of general Importance to the
District are the Bristow bill, providing
for preferential Presidential primaries,
and a measure providing against the
abandonment of destitute. infirm. or aged
parents. There are virtually no bills OF
general Importance to the District on
the House calendar. because none has
been reported out by the House District
Committee.
This summary does not give the impor-
tant bills which have been introduced in
the House and buried through the inac-
ton Of the District Committee of the
House. Their name Is legion. their doom
sealed.
Members Stayed Away.
Chairman Johnson made numerous ef-
forts in April. May. and June to assem-
BILE his committee. From the time the
Jones-works liquor bill was passed in
the Senate and referred to the House
District Committee he invariably failed
to obtain the presence OF a quorum or
his committee In time to transact busi-
ness before the, noon meeting of the
House To the extent OF his efforts to
bring his committee together he deserves
credit, but for his failure to resort to
measures W ,ich might have brought the
committee together he deserves con-
demnation.
1t was current report at the time that
number of members remained away
from the committee meetings because
they did not wish to consider the excise
bill this summer. Being human. they
hardly can be blamed for their un-
willingness to open up subject which
might hurt them in their Congressional
districts in a year when they come up
for reelection. In the cases of some,
with strong liquor and anti-liquor fac
tions in their districts, their vote on the
liquor bill, whether for or against, would
have precipitated trouble
johnson Failed to Act.
Chairman johnson could not but credit
tc some extent the reports that the
Jcnes-works measure was blocking all
progress in his committee. Whether he
believed this to be true he should have
made the attempt to prove or disproye
the report. This he could have done by
calling special meetings of his commit
tee to consider specified measures. He
could have called a meeting to consider
the utilities measure. for instance, a
measure which was ready for report by
his committee in substantially the same
form as IL passed the Senate, and which
would almost certainly have been enacted
into law il II had left the House COM
mittee. Mr.. johnson, although such a
course was suggested to him as far back