Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1907 — WORK OF CONGRESS [ARTICLE]

WORK OF CONGRESS

Senator* Tillman’s speech was the chief subject of interest of the Senate session Monday. Seuator Culberson introduced a resolution calling for a congressional investigation of the present financial stringency, /hot it was allowed to go over. Oklahoma's new Senators were sworn in and a number of bills were, introduced. Speaker Cannon announced'the appointment of the committee on appropriations. Most of the time was taken up with the introduction of bills. Announcement of the appointment of the various committees was made at the opening of the Senate session Tuesday. Senator Newlamls of Nevada spoke for two hours on his bill providing for the appointment of an inland waterways commission and for the improvement of the inland waterways of the country* The resolution of Senator Dick of Ohio e::time allowed, to the various State militia Organizations to make the changes necessary in order that they may take advantage of government appropriations were adopted. Seuator Culberson's resolution;,for an investigation of the present financial stringency was allowed to lie - on the tabic. The House was not in session. Resolutions /’were introduced in the Senate Wednesday by Senator Tillman asking the interstate commerce commit?- • sion to report whether any corporation engaged in interstate commerce was the owner of the stock of any other corporation transporting passengers and freight and calling upon the interstate commerce commission HPdefine the authority Of the federal government and of the States i,n respect to the control of the liquor traffic through the operation of the interstate commerce law. Seuator Culberson Spoke on his resolution calling on the committee on finance to -investigate and report upon the cause of the present financial stringency. The resolution was referred to the committee on finance. The House was not in session. The Senate was not in session Thursday. Prime interest in the -session of the House centered in the announcement by Speaker Cannon of the appointment of the various committees. Many bdls of importance were introduced. An unsuccessful effort was made to block the erection of th# statue to Gen. Grant at the expense of a number of historic trees. Adjournment was taken until Saturday. NATIONAL CAPITAL NOTES. Tlie President sent to the Senate the nomination of Frederick 11. Magdeburg to be pension agent at Milwaukee. Representative Ansberry of Ohio introduced a bill providing for the survey of a ship canal to connect Toledo and Chicago. A bill making it a felony for a national bank or any of its officers to speculate with the funds of the bank ?yaif introduced by Representative De Armond of Missouri. The commissimfer of Indian affairs, in his annual report? urged that laws be passed giving the more progressive Indians greater freedom in the management of their affairs. - - ’ Secretary Metcalf sent a letter of reproof to Justice Delacy of the Juvenile Court, who recently discharged a boy accused of theft on condition that he enlist in the navy. The Ohlson-Mahoney Lumber Company of San Francisco was the lowest bidder on 6,000,000 feet of lumber for the Isthmian canal commission, offering to deliver It for $124,372. Representative Perkins of New York reintroduced his inheritance tax bill so amended that one-half of the tax collected should go to the State and the other to the government. Word was received from Pensacola, Fla., that Senator Mallory, who is seriously ill there, would not be a candidate for re-election, and planned to retire from public life on account of his health. Robert L. Owen and Thomas P. Gore, the two new Senators from Oklahoma, were sworn in the other day. Senatoj| Owen, by lot, secured the six-year term, and Senator Gore the two-year term. Oct. 12 will be a national holiday, known as “Discovery day,” in honor of the discovery of America Oct. 12, 1492, if a bill introduced in the House of Representative Goulden of New York becomes a law. Representative Burgess of Texas introduced a resolution calling for the appointment by the President of ft banking and currency commission to hold public hearings in New York, Chicago and other large cities. Representative McKinley of Illinois introduced a bill appropriating $30,000 a yiar for each of the land grant colleges maintaining schools of engineering, in addition to the $0.7,000 annually now given to the agricultural experiment stations. A resolution charging the Secretary of Agriculture with inaccuracy in estimating this year's cotton crop, and calling on him to furnish to Congress “the figures and the information upon which he based ins estimate,” was introduced in the House. A bill creating in the Department of Commerce and Labor a bureau of transportation to take off the shoulders of the interstate commerce commission all save the larger matters requiring the exercise of the judicial function wns introduced by Representative Stevens of Minnesota. \ Representative John Sharp Williams of Mississippi introduced the old Binine hill to admit into all ports of the United States free of duty all product* of the American hemisphere upon which no export duties ore imimsed, whenever such nation shall,admit to its ports free certain United Stages products. Pittsburg had a SIOO,OOO fire. Graff ft Co., stove manufacturers; Joint Flocklor & Co-„ropc dealers; Seeley & I/card, wholesale hat dealers, and 11. W. Johns, dealer in railway supplies, were the principal losers.