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Show In lms IN TIUMESS? Aii B1UB3 Question in the House, but Much Harder in th6 Senate. PRESIDENTIAL POWER OVERAWES OPPOSITION Straggles Fierce to Push Forward For-ward and to Fight Off the Flood of Hills. WASHINGTON, Jan. G. The first H few days after the holiday recess arc HH not productive of much in the way or HH legislation. They are not Intended to be. Tlic date of reassembling vvns fixed H for January 4. instead of January s. because it would not look well to have Hj such a long holiday. The latter date H might have been selected for actual re- H suits, for nothing has been done since Hj the members came together that was Hj absolutely necessary or In fact of any H importflin i Still, these days have glv- H en them an opportunity to tell of their H holiday times, to unload another flood H of accumulated bills, and to get set- H tied down into the harness again li H has been a sort of preparatory week, H also, among chairmen of committees. H More than 10(000 bills were introduced H before the re ess and these must re- H celve some slight consideration. They H must be sorted and arranged In the H various committee rooms, so that they H may receive attention If any one cares Hj to take the trouble to call them up. H There have been numerous conferences m among the Congressional leaders as to I l he method of procedure, during which as much attention has been given to the best way of "how not to do It." as "how to do It " As usual, there are a number of measures for which a majority ma-jority would vote if a vote could be learned. It requires as much skill to prevent a vote as to secure one. and some of the astute minds of both houses of Congress have been occupied during the recess in devising ways to sidetrack undesirable bills In the main their leader will be successful, and In most cares they are right In holding up measures which ought to be carefully considered and very much modified before be-fore being put upon the statute books. Political Canards. The noliday recess, like the long summer sum-mer days when Congress is not hen-are hen-are prolific producers, of startling political po-litical stories The New York Speakership Speaker-ship contest furnished the basis of a story that President Roosevelt was Peeking; to gain control of several States Which he would use for the advancement advance-ment of his own political fortunes or those of his favorites. It was a really w onderful discovery, w Hen you come to consider the fact that no man ever had Htch control of every State as Roosevelt. Besides all the Federal office-holders, besides those who hope to be Federal office-holders and those who desire to control appointments, fill of whom are anxious to do his biddintr. there are millions of the people who believe impllclty In Roosevelt. And doesn't he know It? Of course, and It Is idle to talk of the President ask-Hj ask-Hj Ing to gain control. In the language of H the colored brother "he's done got It." I heard a statement made the other day and while it may be somewhat ex-j ex-j aggerated. it shows the feeling con- ' rnlng the President It was to the H effect that "Roosevelt could go into H any State where his party Is in con-trol con-trol and defeat any man for j thr United stater Senate." That j j shows the fear w hich somo ! j men have of the power of the Hj present administration, also goes to Hj prove im assertion that Roosevelt has all the political power now that he I needs, consequently the unreasonable yarn ibout his "going In to gain control con-trol of a number of States," might have been reserved for the days when people do not expect anything more stable In the way of political gossip Presidential Power. Tins tremendous power of the President Presi-dent 8 often a subject of discussion among prominent men and the hold he has upon Congress and the people Is compared to the administrations of Harrison, Cleveland and MeKlnh-y Next to Roosevelt, McKlnley was the most powerful of later days. President Presi-dent McKlnley not have the confidence con-fidence of the people to such a degree as Roosevelt, but his power in Congress Con-gress was very great. He consulted men in Congress to a much greater extent ex-tent and his policies were seldom formulated form-ulated without an understanding with the chief men of his party In both hOUSe.s 1 ioOSCVell depends 11,01 i Upon his own Judgment and that of his advisers, ad-visers, and has a way of getting what he wants from Congress though differing dif-fering materially from the methods of his prcdef r-SSCi) . Cleveland e"d not pretend to control Congress b such methods. He knew the power of patronage, and used it. He also knew that Congress could not stand up and fight uti administration Tf It Wat light, he v as w illing knowing know-ing that In a contest between the Executive Ex-ecutive and the Legislative branches the people are with the President. Probably Roosevelt p als.. aware of this fact. Harrison did not lour have control of Congress. No man had the faculty of doing the? right thing in the wrong way as did this fearless and able man. It did not take him long to turn his party against him, arid he I never had an support among his opponents, op-ponents, as did Cleveland; McKlnley and Roosevelt. It was Perry S Heath, intimately acquainted with Harrison who perpetrated a paradox aptly de-riblng de-riblng him. Harrison once- made a clever pi iech bristling with good points and fH humor. "I ay. Perry, ' remarked some one, "your ir.an Hayrison is great. That was s mighty clevi r hi ch I didn't know that It was in him " "Oh. he's all right when he stands up," replied Perry, "It's onlv when he sits down that he falls down." A little Plangy. but true. it wa8 when Harrison was Bitting al bis desk in the White House that he made those mistakes that nearly cost him a re- nomlnatinn and w hich materially on- trlbuted to hi- defeat (V.nd yet they were not mistakes of administration of puhiic policy, They wen mistakes in the waj of treating people. Harrison would confei a fax or so as to make the man receiving It Wish he had never asked It, and would deiiv a request In n manner to leave a sting and bitterness bitter-ness Bui he left behind him a good Presidential record. Precedence of Measures. Tt Is mo early In the session to have those conflicts over precedence if different dif-ferent measures ,. hi'-h usually enliven B fhOft session about this time. In the House the precedence of measures Is quickly arranged The Speaker says whit shall Ke. aml K,s. There Ir. onlv one mind to be made up in this case, .md a mind like Mi Cannon's Ik not difficult i" manage. In the senate many leaders bave to he consulted nd although I have a pretty good Idea as to the leadership In the Senate, then are plenty of men who would differ with me. T might say there were but live or six, nnd I have no doubt that OUtStde of that group I would find a I lozen who would under pressure ac- j know ledge that they were also leaders ffijt now we are confronted with only one bill of prominence Senator Oal-linger Oal-linger ha slipped bin ship subaldj bill into the notch of unfinished business This means that it will come up at 2 o'clock every day, and crowd everything every-thing else out of the way If Us friends press Iti consideration it Is not going to be very long, however, jntll Senator Beverldgx gets on the inxlous seat and Insists that hla joint Statehood hill must he given a hearing, Senator Hepburn Hep-burn has already reported his pure 1 1 bill, and It Is No. I on the calendar, calen-dar, it may be put forward ere long, for th- Idaho Senator is an aggreatlva mar. and tho-jght the pure food bill was given scant courtesy In the Senate In thi' last Congress He will demand a hearing for his bill, and a vote. I have : a suspicion that two bills are to be used as "buffers" to keep out till other measures sae those marked "must." j One Is the subsidy bill and the other the Joint Statehood measure. Thev Will nerve as topics of conversations until tin- needful measures are brought forward. for-ward. Ladies' Waiting Rocia I must not fenget to record a matter of stuperdous magnitude which has 00 cupled the mind of Speaker Cannon during the holiday recess. "Where shall the last ladies have a waiting-room waiting-room -" When the fair ones visit the House wing of the Capitol and send their cards to members, where shall they repair and compose themselves while the doorkeeper searches for the member? Just before the holiday adjournment ad-journment there was a discussion In the House about a Janitor for a room that had been created out of an entrance en-trance to the House wing and where the ladies were to have a reception-room reception-room Yeais ago the beautiful statuary statu-ary hill was marred by having In one corner a dozen chairs where ladies went who desired to call on members of the House. Mere man stands In the corridor when he wants to see a member. He sends in a card and Is Jostled and pushed and crowded by the pressing throngs until the member comes out or the doorkeeper returns and announces an-nounces that he cannot be found Of course women cannot be treated in any such discourteous manner. The have the right to call upon members md thej should he treated with tour-tesy. tour-tesy. Neither th. entrance to the House nor the statuary hall Is p satisfactory satis-factory place. Speaker Cannon has onsulted the minority leaders and his Republican associates In an effort to solve this difficult problem The bright. sunnj 1 nristmas holidays have brought but t; I chi ei arid happiness, which he would have enjoyed to the fullest xt'-nt were it not for this cloud lowering low-ering about his head. Could Uncle Joe but find a place for the ladles, a place which would compare with the dignity of the Hnus and th- comfort of the fair ones, which would not crowd the already crowded space about the IIiu.-. his fUp of happiness would not only be full, it would run over. Philippine Tariff. This reduction of the duty on Phillp-I Phillp-I ' ; 1 1 1 goods, no mar the heart of Secretary Secre-tary Taft, what is to be clone about It? The opposition Is aggressive and de-t. de-t. rmlned and what is more to the point Is glowing every day. It Is doubtful 11" the bill canspass even with a strong pressure from the administration. And that recalls remarks passing between Speaker Cannon and Representative De Armond, second in command on the. minority side. "If you don't give the Philippines free trade are you going to cut loose from them?" asked De Armond 'Sometime," replied Cannon, "sometime; "some-time; oh, away in the distant future your partv will come into power and you will find the Philippines on your hands " Does that mean that you are going to nail them so fast they can never get away?" asked De Armond. "No matter what we may do. o- if we let them stay as they are you will take thern and hold on to them.' was the Speaker's reply Aftei a lull De Armond asked this iiuestlon: "When are you going to give us a show at the tariff "" The Speaker advanced a few steps to-ward to-ward He Missouri leader and placing hi hand beside his mouth as if conveying con-veying a great secret which no one -hiiuld luar. he rem. u keel m a tone to everybody present. "When you people come into power " Tired of the Philippines, iking of the Philippines, do you know that there are g lot of people In this country w ho would like to be rid of them? A group of Republicans were disc us ing the subject and they said that the iimls.-don of one sentence to the cablegram Bent to Dewey had caused ut a great deal of trouble That message mes-sage read: "Capture or destroy the Spanish fleet.'! it was agreed that another an-other sentence should have said "Do nothing more but return to the United States." If we had to vote on that peace treaty," remarked one of the best in. formed Republican senators, 'it would not get twenty-five otea." Rut it makes 110 difference about by-goners. by-goners. The Philippines are with us and w can't let o Prhaps Mr. Hry-an. Hry-an. who Is now In the islands. will bring back a solution of th problem And tills leads me to another' observation: observa-tion: It has been often asserted that the treaty of Paris could nqt have been ratified If Bryan had not left his regiment, came to Washington and urged Democratic Senators to vote lor it. I do not believe Bryan Influenced a single- Democratic vote. 1 was pret-tj pret-tj famlllai with the methods adopted to secure the ratification of that treaty and doubtful votes were ned determined by the representations of Col Bryan In looking over the list of Democratic Si nators who voted for the treaty I cannot find any that 1 believe were Influenced In-fluenced by Mr. Bryan. Supreme Court Workers. "Many people have an entirely w rong Impression of the Supreme court." re marked a prominent officer Of that august au-gust tribunal recently. ' They seem to think that the court has very little to do except to listen to the arguments of counsel They think (hut th recesses mean pla spells when as a matter of fact they have a deal of drudgery to do. They cannot let n clerk look up nnd Study the law points. They must do that for themselves They have to dig hard They- cannot afford to overlook anything In the statutes or discussions bearing on the c ave which they are to decide No, Indeed, the Supreme court Justice does not have a life ol ease." A Discount Acceptable. The claim that Lllluokalanl, former Queen of Hawaii has made against the Government is for $10,000,000, but it Is more than probable that. Hhe would be satisfied with a small fraction of that amount. In her petition she recites history , I he story of the overturning Of the monarchy and the establishment of a provisional Government, The story Of the overthrow of 1 ,11 1 uokalp.nl Is not unlike that bv which the Isthmus of Panama was separated from the Colombian Co-lombian Government. United states forces played a very Conspicuous part In that enterprise. The deposed Queen says that for Beventy-flve years the 11 irchy of Hawaii existed, but that mi January it. 1803 a fen foreign citizens, cit-izens, aided by John L Stevens, then Minister from the United States to- gethei with Capt G. G. Wlltse of the cruiser Boston completed the overthrow over-throw of the Government, The Queen claims citizenship In the United States; also that she Is a loyal and obedient subject After reciting the loss of her revenues the 1 rown lands of Hawaii, etc she makes her demand and closes by saying Finally reiving upon such settlement settle-ment as ought to be based upon the principles of right and Justice, she now submits her case to the Congress of the United States of America, trusting that It shall render equity. Justice and right in the premises with reasonable dispatch. dis-patch. "Petitioner comes now before your honorable body without the aid of an attorney -at-law for the reason that she Is without means to pa v for further legal advice or services, having already paid out large sums of money in that respect. (But t ought not to take a legal talent or mind to gain the attention atten-tion of your Kxcellenc v the President of the United States or of the Congress of the United Sta'es of Americ a.) Petitioner Pe-titioner prays that It may please your Excellency the President and the Congress Con-gress of the United States of America to look favorably on this petition." Public Building Bills Hundreds of public building bills have been Introduced already but there Is yet no indication that they will receive re-ceive consideration. Senator Scott of West Virginia, chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, expects to confer with Chairman Chair-man Bartholdt of the House committee to discuss the feasibility of passing an omnibus bill providing for quite a large number of buildings In different parts of the country. But the consent of the Speaker has not yet been obtained, and It is quite necessary that he should approve ap-prove the scheme In order to have It go through Whatever else may be done It Is quite certain that a number of bills will pais the Senate In fact, nearly every one that is Introduced and reported can get through, but In the House It will require a combination, an omnibus measure with a sufficient number num-ber of States "taken care of" to secure a majority of the members. That Is th way river and harbor bills and man) i ialm bills are put through The contest for public buildings Is always an Interesting feature of every session. ARTHUR W DUNN. |