Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1897 — BILLS THAT FAILED. [ARTICLE]

BILLS THAT FAILED.

WORK FOR THE EXTRA SESSION OF CONGRESS. Chicago and Illinois Affected by the Delay in Usual Legislation—Sundry Civil Bill Was Pocket-Vetoed-Riv* era and Harbors Left Out. For Immediate Attention. Washington correspondence: When the sundry civil bill was pocketed by President Cleveland moat of the important Government appropriations in Illinois for the next fiscal year fell to the ground, and if Congress should fail to pass a new bill before the Ist of July some people now in the employ of the Government will have to go out of business or take their compensation on tick. ' This big appropriation bill is the catchall for things not regularly included under (he departments, and it provides the money for an infinite variety of things tvhich hare no apparent relation to each pther. President McKinley himself would be personally affected, for one of the Items vetoed by his predecessor is that which provides for beating and lighting the executive mansion and its grounds* and it is to be presumed the family of the new President will not care to go to bed in the dark after t.’.c Ist of July. Col. Bill Morrison of the interstate Commerce Commission would find himself without a salary, and the Government would be unable to print any more greenbacks if a nelv law were not enacted. The appropriation in which Chicago is most interest is that of SII3.<XX) for the improvement of the river. More important than the amount of the money itself is the paragraph which was inserted in the Senate, and only accepted by the House after a hard light, construing the item in the river and harbor bill so that the money to be expended on the Chicago river can be paid for other work than dredging, as is now held to be the law. All of the river and harbor items fail, and among the number are $1,000,000 for the Hennepin canal, $673,333 for the improvement of the Mississippi from the mouth of the Ohio to the mouth of the Missouri, aud $826,666 from the Missouri to St. Paul, in both of which Illinois is deeply interested. Rock Island would suffer severely because items of $12,500 for the bridge and $48,000 for the arsenal are involved. The Chicago public building is not affected, because, under the original appropriation contracts may be entered into, and there is money enough to keep up the construction until the regular session. Unless a new law is enacted there will be no money to pay the keepers of the lighthouses or the life-saving stations at Chicago and Evanston or elsewhere on the lakes. The appropriation of $200,000 for the completion of the two new revenue cutters has also gone by the board. There is now no provision for paying the rental of the Government offices in the RandMcNally building after July 1, although the annual rental is $19,345. Wash Hearing would find things uncomfortable at the postoffiee if Congress did not step in to help him, because the appropriation for fuel, lights and water for public buildings concerns the temporary structure on the lake front, and it has failed with the other items. The Federal Court in Chicago will be without money after July 1, and the»marshal, district attorney, commissioners, clerks and their subordinates will become the creditors of the Government unless Uncle Joe Cannon starts the ball rolling once more and pushes through another appropriation bill sufficiently free from jobs to secure the approval of the President. The new soldiers’ home at Danville, for which $200,000 was appropriated in the House and the amount cut down to $150,000 in the Senate, also went by the board. One of the important items which failed to be enacted into law was the appropriation of $150,000 for making the preliminary surveys looking toward the creation of a deep waterway from Chicago and Duluth to the Atlantic seaboard, as recommended by the commission of which Engineer Cooley was the expert member. The work of improving the channels of the great lakes from Chicago to Buffalo is now in progress, and to continue this the sum of $1,000,000 was provided by the bill which failed to become a law. Such of these items as are deserving will, of course, be included in the new appropriation bill, and there is not much ground to fear that the Government employes will not get their money. There is, however, a much more pressing urgency irt regard to the appropriations carried by the deficiency bill. This measure was hungup in conference. President Cleveland did not veto this measure, but undoubtedly would have done so if it had been presented to him. It carries among other things a lump appropriation, $1,200,000, which is a deficiency in the amount previously provided for collecting the customs revenues. If immediate action is not taken every employe of the custom house in Chicago will find his salary withheld after April 1 until July 1, for the treasury has no money to pay ordinary customs expenses after that time. There is no doubt that speedy action will be taken to re-enact all the appropriation bills which failed to become laws. For instance, the agricultural bill, which President Cleveland pocketed because of its seed appropriations, which he has always refused to approve of, carries with it the salary of the secretary of the department, and, of course, “Tama Jim" Wilson of lowa would hardly care to keep up his end in Washington social life without his expected stipend of SB,OOO per annum. President McKinley is particularly anxious that the passage of the belated appropriation bills shall not interfere with the tariff measure which he hopes to have enacted into law at an early date.