Show THE DYING CONGRESS Remarkable for What it Failed to Accomplish RECORDBREAKER ON BILLS NOT A SINGLE BILL FOR PUBLIC BUILDINGS This Was Due to the Pactat Speaker Reed at the Outset Put Himself Squarely Against the Expenditure of Money in That Direction Had it Not Been for the Czar Utah Would Have Been Among the States Benefited Washington Feb 25The fiftyfourth congress which will expire at noon on Thursday will be held remarkable principally for what It has failed to accomplish ac-complish la one respect In the number of bills and resolutions introduced was a recordbreaker In the house alone over 10400 bills and 3100 resolutions were Intro duced and referred to various commit tees Only a fraction of these passed the house and fewer still became laws PRINCIPAL BUSINESS The principal business of the congress aside irom the passage of the appropria lion bills was limited to the Hrst session the net results of which were the enact ment Into law of the bills creating the commission to determine the true divi sional line between Venezuela and British Guiana prohibiting prize ightlng In the territories permitting appointments In tha army and navy of former United States officers who served in the reoel army In the rebellion making one years residence In a territory necessary nec-essary to obtain a divorce incorporating in-corporating the national society of the Daughters of the Revolution defining the penalty for interference with railway trains and persons riding thereon and substituting salaries for fees to United States marshals and district attorneys Aside from the foregoing measures tho remaining bills excepting the Immlgru ton bill and the Joint resolution for an International monetary conference passed at the second session were of no general Interest V Included In these were 700 prf vale pension bills an unprecedented number WAS REMARKABLE In another respect the fiftyfourth congress con-gress was remarkable This was its failure fail-ure to pass a single bill providing for public buildings The house calendar contained 100 bills of this class Including the senate bill for a custom house In New York City Speaker Reed however In his determination determi-nation to reduce the expenditures to the lowest limit consistent with the necessities necessi-ties of the government get his face sternly against all legislation of this character Notwithstanding this circumstances cir-cumstances the present congress is the third In American history in which the appropriations have exceeded a billion dollars If It Is claimed these approprift k lions be deducted from the sum totalX the aggregate for the past two years A ould be little In excess of one billion dollars A number of important measures which were reported to the house last session and were expected to receive favorable consideration during the present session were either defeated or were left on the calendar The bill to settle the indebtedness of the bondaided railways to the govern meat which was a legacy from the last session suffered a crushing defeat in January last The substitute measure prepared by Mr Harrison of Alabama to adjust these claims through the medium of a cabinet commission was not permitted by the committee on rules to come before the house the house leaving it an open question before thesupporters arid opponents of the measure what Its fate would have been In the preceding session upwards of 50 bills bearing upon the Cuban Insurrection were introduced although but one passed the house During Dur-ing the present session the Cuban resolutions reso-lutions Introduced have been few in number num-ber TERRITORIES SNUBBED No effort was made at the present session ses-sion to call up the bills admitting Arizona Ari-zona New Mexico and Oklahoma to statehood state-hood The sound money men In the house were a unit against the admission of any territories which were likely to send advocates of free silver to the senate sen-ate Among the bills which passed the house but have not been acted upon In the senate sen-ate are the Morse bill to prevent the selling of liquor In the capitol the Broslus bill permitting the establishment of national banks with a capital of J20 COO In towns of 4000 inhabitants and the Loud bill to reclassify second class mII latter 15 The ways and means committee gad t a series of hearings during the early weeks of the session and the remainder of the time was occupied by the Republican Re-publican members In formulating a new tariff bill This will follow the general lines of the McKinley law of 1S30 and will be reported to the house at the beginning of the extra session of the congress AH of the contested election cases 31 In number num-ber have been disposed of OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS Much of the time of the senate has been consumed In the discussion of questions ques-tions relating to our foreign relations and while no positive action of any kind has been taken many columns of the congressional con-gressional record have been filled with speeches on these topics Cuban resolutions have been introduced and pressed for action by the score bit beyond precipitating debate nothing bus been accomplished A treaty with Japan has been ratified putting into Immediate operation the clause of the treaty of commerce and navigation negotiated two years ago The general treaty of arbitration with Great Britain after being fruitlessly considered con-sidered for two weeks went over until the V next session The Alaska boundary treaty with Great Britain has not even I been considered In committee The NIcaraguan canal bill which was debated for several weeks was on the point of final passage with a comfortable majority In front of It when the protest of the minister representing the Greater Central American republics was recelveO The house will do nothing for the next three days except to act on conference reports |