Year: 1873

The two houses of Congress having ad-
journed over to Monday, the 5th of January,
1874 the record of their doings for this month
of December is before tae country 1t does
not amount to much, and it warns the country
to prepare for long, exhausting and COM
paratively profitless session. Five millions Of
money have been voted to complete the re-
pairs commenced by the Secretary of the
Navy on our available ships of war; miser-
able apology in the shape of q modification of
the increased salary and back pay grab of the
last Congress has been passed by the House;
also general amnesty bill and halfway re-
construction of the Bankrupt laval of which
have been hung up to dry in the Senate. A
bill providing for the redemption of the loan
of 1858 (sixteen millions) has passed both
houses, and this recapitulation covers the
legislative work of the two houses since the
first Monday in December.


1t may be contended, however, that COM
pared with the first month of most of our
Congresses of the last forty years, this is not
discouraging report; that the first month of
a new Congress is necessarily absorbed in the
organization of the two houses, in the ap-
pointment of the regular committees of each,
in the preparation and introduction of bills
and resolutions and in the general work of
clearing the field for business. 1t may be
further contended that in these needful pre-
liminaries for active business operations tho
five or six hundred bills and resolutions intro
i,, fIo fyrn cipoa bo IL 80
this month are evidence of an industrious
opening, and indicate conscientious appre-
citation by the members of the House and the
Senate of the work before them and of the
wants and expectations of the country.


We find, however, that of these numerous
bills introduced in the two houses, while COM
paratively few are intended for the relief of
the Treasury or the financial embarrassments
of the country, an unusually large proportion
are bills making lavish appropriations of the
public money, the public lands and the public
credit, to internal improvements of all sorts,
for national universities and all the various
schemes and jobs ofa powerful, organized and
expectant lobby. These preliminaries for the
business of the session are not encouraging.
Nor is the confusion of ideas developed in the
numerous conflicting schemes proposed for
the relief of the Treasury and the country from
our existing financial difficulties. The con-
fusion of ideas and quack prescriptions pre-
sented on this subject are very discouraging
particularly when the dominating idea and
purpose of the responsible party in Congress
70 ha ,pAo Al
currency, disposition to shirk the respon-
sibilities of the present time and to leave the
consequences to take care of themselves
Possibly within the next ten days,
during which most of the members of the
two houses will be among their constituents,
our Congressional Solons may pick up some
useful information in reference to the WAYS
and means required to supply the deficiencies
of the Treasury and to relieve the country of
this financial pressure without imposing upon
the people new burdens of taxation.


The prevailing idea among the people is
that, ifassured of the continuance of peace with
foreign Powers, the policy of Congress and the
administration should be the policy of econo-
my, retrenchment and reform and here in the
application from the House committees on
the subject to the executive departments for
a general reduction of their estimates for the
ensuing fiscal year, we have movement which,
we trust, will not be abandoned Not inAa-
ton nor increased taxation, but reduced ex-
penditures, is the only safe rule Of action for
this session of Congress.





A Nrru L.