Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1912-08-29
Leaders Announce AppTopTia-
lions Of Recent Congress-.
TOTAL is s1,o19,636,14 1885
Session Proves Long on Debate and
the Printed Record Will Embrace
About 2e,ooo,oo o Words.

NoSAAASIOA, aug. IT. fAlOCuSI Ull-
lion dollar session of congress has
passed into history. Despite promises
of retrenchment in public expenditures
the Democratic house, in conjunction
with the Republican senate, managed
to run up appropriations in excess of
the billion dollar mark. At the last
session of congress, with the Repub-
leans in control of both branches, ex-
penditures footed up to $1,026,0 900, 900.
The total appropriations for the
fiscal year 1918, which began July 1,
1912, amount to $1,019,636,143.66, as
given to the senate and house by
Senator Warren and Representative
Fitzgerald, respectively, the chairmen
of the two appropriation committees.
1t is conceded by both of these lead
ers that this is S7,O46, 900 less than the
nations budget of 1912, but it re-
NAMED for former Speaker Cannon, in
behalf of the Republican forces of the
house, to produce figures to show that
the present Democratic congress act
ually had appropriated more for gen.
eral purposes than did the preceding
Republican congress.
Representative Cannon declared that
out of the general total should be
taken all expenditures made for the
Panama canal. With such deductions,
he said, the total appropriations for
1913 would be S990,656, 143, as com.
pared with a total of 1891, 122,SS ap-
propriated for general purposes last
year..
The session vas long on conversa-
ton. The printed record will embrace
about 100000 900 words, covering 49,
900 pages. The senators and repre-
sentatives who compose the present
house and senate will go down in his
tory as the most verbose statesmen of
all time. The nearest competitor was
the first session of the Fiftieth con-
gress, whose members contributed
100000 words that filled 5000 pages.
Record Number of Bills.
The session was also a record break.
er in the number of bills presented.
Over $4,000 bills of various sorts were
introduced. A great proportion of
these bills slumber in committee
rooms and will never be heard from
again.
With the exception of the bill pro.
viding q form of government for the
Panama canal zone and prescribing
regulations for the conduct of the
waterway the session has been devoid
Of constructive legislation on a large
scale. Big issues have been debated,
but without result. This was due in
large part to the fact that the house
and the senate are antagonistic politi.
cally. Accordingly, the better part of
the session since the day of assem-
bling in December last has been de-
voted to jockeying for position in the
presidential ace of 1912.
Much of the time of the house was
devoted to the consideration Of tariff
bills prepared by the Democrats. Six
such bills were put through the house.
They were all passed by the senate.
None of them reached the statute
books. With the veto Of the wool
and steel bills the Democrats aban-
doned hope of tariff revision. Presi-
dent Taft has set his face against
revision where revision does not con-
form with conclusions based on scien-
tifc inquiry in advance.
The house passed several bills af-
fecting labor which failed of consid-
GRAFTON in the senate. Chief among
these is the Clayton bill providing for
jury trials in cases of indirect con-
tempt, the Clayton an%ti-injunction and
the Sulzer bill proposing the creation
Of a department of labor.
The session was prolific of vetoes
by the president. He wrote his dis
approval over twelve bills, including
the wool and steel tariff bills and the
legislative bill, which was vetoed
twice.