<DOC>
[Hinds Precedents -- Volume IV]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access]
[DOCID: f:hinds_c.wais]

 
                               Chapter C.

    HISTORY AND JURISDICTION OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES--Continued.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

    1. The Committee on Banking and Currency. Sections 4082-4089.
    2. The Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures. Sections 
     4090-4095.
    3. The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. Sections 
     4096-4117.\1\
    4. The Committee on Rivers and Harbors. Sections 4118-4128.\2\
    5. The Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries. Sections 
     4129-4148.
    6. The Committee on Agriculture. Sections 4149-4161.
    7. The Committee on Foreign Affairs. Sections 4162-4178.
    8. The Committee on Military Affairs. Sections 4179-4188.
    9. The Committee on Naval Affairs. Section 4189.
   10. The Committee on Post-Office and Post-Roads. Sections 4190-
     4193.
   11. The Committee on Public Lands. Sections 4194-4203.
   12. The Committee on Indian Affairs. Sections 4204-4207.
   13. The Committee on Territories. Sections 4208-4212.
   14. The Committee on Insular Affairs. Sections 4213-4216.
   15. The Committee on Railways and Canals. Sections 4217-4220.
   16. The Committee on Manufactures. Sections 4221, 4222.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

  4082. The creation and history of the Committee on Banking and 
Currency, section 5 of Rule XI.
  The rule assigns to the Committee on Banking and Currency 
jurisdiction of subjects relating to ``banking and currency.''
  Section 5 of Rule XI provides for the reference of subjects 
relating--

to banking and currency: to the Committee on Banking and Currency.

  This committee is composed of eighteen Members.
  The form of rule dates from the revision of 1880,\3\ but the 
committee itself was established on March 2, 1865,\4\ to assume some of 
the burdens of the Ways and Means Committee.\5\
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ See also sections 4135, 4137, 4144, 4146 of this volume.
  \2\ See also sections 4036, 4165, 4219 of this volume.
  \3\ Second session Forty-sixth Congress, Record, p. 205.
  \4\ Second session Thirty-eighth Congress, Globe, pp. 1312-1317.
  \5\ See also section 4020 of this volume.
Sec. 4083
  4083. The Committee on Banking and Currency has reported generally on 
the subject of national banks, and also on the subject of current 
deposit of public moneys.--In 1906 \1\ the Committee on Banking and 
Currency reported on the following subjects:
  Current deposit of public moneys, national-bank loans, redemption of 
national bank notes, and verification of papers by national banks.
  4084. The strengthening of public credit, issues of notes and 
taxation, redemption, etc., thereof, and authorization of bond issues 
in connection therewith have been considered by the Committee on 
Banking and Currency.--The Committee on Banking and Currency has 
reported on the following subjects:
  In 1898,\2\ the bill (H. R. 10289) to strengthen the public credit, 
relieve the United States Treasury, and to amend the national-banking 
laws.
  In 1895,\3\ the bill (H. R. 8705) to authorize the Secretary of the 
Treasury to issue bonds to maintain a sufficient gold reserve and to 
redeem and retire United States notes.
  In 1888,\4\ in relation to a limit to the issue of United States 
notes.
  In 1893,\5\ on State bank failures.
  In 1891 \6\ and 1894,\7\ on State taxation of United States notes.
  4085. The Committee on Banking and Currency has jurisdiction of 
subjects relating to the Freedman's Bank.--The Committee on Banking and 
Currency has reported bills as follows:
  In 1888,\8\ the bill (S. 1138) to reimburse the depositors of the 
Freedman's Savings and Trust Company.
  In 1898,\9\ the bill (H. R. 7343) authorizing the commissioner of the 
Freedman's Savings and Trust Company to pay certain dividends.
  4086. A bill to incorporate an international bank was reported by the 
Committee on Banking and Currency.--The Committee on Banking and 
Currency in 1890,\10\ and several succeeding years reported bills 
providing for the incorporation of an International American Bank.
  4087. The jurisdiction of the subject of the issue of silver 
certificates as currency was given to the Committee on Banking and 
Currency.--On January 9, 1882,\11\ the House was considering in 
Committee of the Whole the resolutions distributing the President's 
message, among which was the following:

  That so much as relates to refunding the public debt, to the national 
finances, to the abolition of internal-revenue taxes, and to the issue 
of silver certificates be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Reports Nos. 1109, 1835, 
2284, 3349, 3617, 5043.
  \2\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 1575.
  \3\ Third session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1749.
  \4\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report, No. 115.
  \5\ First session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 147.
  \6\ Second session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 3277.
  \7\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 862.
  \8\ First session Fiftieth Congress, House Report No. 3139.
  \9\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, House Report No. 1641.
  \10\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 2561; second 
session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 3054; second session Fifty-
fifth Congress, Report No. 1627.
  \11\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Journal, p. 247; Record, 
pp. 297-299.
                                                            Sec. 4088
  Mr. James B. Belford, of Colorado, at once raised a question that the 
portions of the message relating to ``the issue of silver 
certificates'' should be referred to the Committee on Coinage, Weights, 
and Measures. Mr. Aylett H. Buckner, of Missouri, made the point that 
the subject more properly belonged to the Committee on Banking and 
Currency. During the debate the Ways and Means Committee abandoned all 
pretensions to jurisdiction, and the question was taken as between the 
Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures and the Committee on 
Banking and Currency. On the vote the Committee on Banking and Currency 
won the jurisdiction by a vote of ayes 106, noes 45. The resolution was 
agreed to by the House as amended.
  4088. On December 6, 1882,\1\ during the consideration of the 
resolutions distributing the President's message, Mr. Richard P. Bland, 
of Missouri, took exceptions to the resolution referring the subject of 
the ``issue of silver certificates'' to the Committee on Banking and 
Currency, and moved to substitute instead the Committee on Coinage, 
Weights, and Measures. The amendment was disagreed to, ayes 51, noes 
92, on a vote by tellers.
  In 1888 \2\ the Committee on Banking and Currency reported the bill 
(H. R. 8004) authorizing the issue of fractional silver 
certificates.\3\
  4089. A legislative proposition to maintain the parity of the money 
of the United States was reported by the Committee on Banking and 
Currency.--On January 29, 1901,\4\ the Committee on Banking and 
Currency reported the bill (H. R. 13769) ``to maintain the parity of 
the money of the United States.'' This bill provided for the exchange 
of gold coin for standard silver dollars at the Treasury.
  4090. The creation and history of the Committee on Coinage, Weights, 
and Measures, section 6 of Rule XI.
  The rule gives to the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures 
jurisdiction of the subject of ``coinage, weights, and measures.''
  Section 6 of Rule XI provides for the reference of subjects 
relating--

to coinage, weights, and measures: to the Committee on Coinage, 
Weights, and Measures.

  This committee consists of seventeen Members and one Delegate.
  The form of the rule was made in the revision of 1880.\5\ The 
committee was established \6\ as a standing committee January 21, 
1864,\7\ when it was called ``Com-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Second session Forty-seventh Congress, Record, p. 58.
  \2\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 838.
  \3\ It is to be noted that in 1884 (first session Forty-eighth 
Congress, Report No. 1730) the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and 
Measures reported the bill (H. R. 7232) to retire the low denominations 
of Treasury notes and exchange the silver certificates of large 
denominations for ones of smaller denominations.
  \4\ Second session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 2535.
  \5\ Second session Forty-sixth Congress, Record, p. 205.
  \6\ In earlier days the subject was considered by select committees. 
Thus, on December 7, 1825, a Select Committee on Weights and Measures 
was appointed. (First session Nineteenth Congress, Journal, p. 30.)
  \7\ First session Thirty-eighth Congress, Globe, p. 297.
Sec. 4091
mittee on a Uniform System of Coinage, Weights, and Measures.'' On 
March 2, 1867, on motion of Mr. John A. Kasson, of Iowa, the name was 
changed to the present form.\1\
  4091. Bills for the establishment of a standardizing bureau and the 
adoption of the metric system have been reported by the Committee on 
Coinage, Weights, and Measures.--The Committee on Coinage, Weights, and 
Measures have reported:
  In 1900 \2\ the bill (H. R. 11350) to establish a national 
standardizing bureau.
  In 1898 \3\ a bill to fix the standard of weights and measures by the 
adoption of the metric system.
  4092. A bill relating to Hawaiian coinage was reported by the 
Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures.--In 1892,\4\ the Committee 
on) Coinage, Weights, and Measures reported a bill relating to Hawaiian 
silver coinage and silver certificates.
  4093. Subjects relating to the coinage of silver and purchase of 
bullion have been within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Coinage, 
Weights, and Measures.--On November 3. 1877,\5\ Mr. Aylett H. Buckner, 
of Missouri, introduced a bill (H. R. 905) to authorize the free 
coinage of the standard silver dollar and to restore its legal tender 
character. He moved that the bill be referred to the Committee on 
Banking and Currency. Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, raised the 
question of order that the bill should, under the rules, go to the 
Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures.
  The Speaker \6\ stated that when there was a dispute as to reference 
it was the custom of the Chair to submit the question to the House.
  The House, after debate, in which the precedent of 1873 was cited as 
a case where the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures reported a 
bill providing for the coinage of a special kind of silver dollar, the 
House voted, ayes 126, noes 34, that the bill should go to the 
Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures.
  On February 12, 1884,\7\ on motion of Mr. Richard P. Bland, of 
Missouri, and by a vote of ayes 84, noes 34, the House transferred from 
the Committee on Banking and Currency to the Committee on Coinage, 
Weights, and Measures the bill (H. R. 3356) to provide for the 
retirement of the trade dollar.
  On December 10, 1890,\8\ the resolutions distributing the President's 
message provided for the reference of so much as referred to the 
``purchase and coinage of silver'' to the Committee on Coinage, 
Weights, and Measures.
  This committee also have reported:
  In 1886 \9\ (adversely), the bill (H. R. 5690) for the free coinage 
of silver.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Second session Thirty-ninth Congress, Journal, p. 601.
  \2\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 1452.
  \3\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 1597.
  \4\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Reports Nos. 260, 1180.
  \5\ First session Forty-fifth Congress, Journal, p. 128; Record, pp. 
232, 233.
  \6\ Samuel J. Randall, of Pennsylvania, Speaker.
  \7\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Record, pp. 1057, 1058.
  \8\ Second session Fifty-first Congress, Journal, p. 43; Record, p. 
303.
  \9\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 524.
                                                            Sec. 4094
  In 1892,\1\ on the subject of the free coinage of silver.
  In 1891,\2\ on the subject of silver bullion deposits, the bill (H. 
R. 5381) authorizing the issue of Treasury notes on deposits of silver 
bullion.
  In 1884,\3\ the bill (H. R. 4976) to retire and recoin the trade 
dollar.
  4094. Subjects relating to mints and assay offices are within the 
jurisdiction of the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures.--On 
December 6, 1882,\4\ the resolutions distributing the President's 
message referred to the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures 
subjects relating to the mints of the United States.
  The committee has reported:
  In 1902,\5\ on the subject of a branch mint at Omaha, Nebr.
  In 1884,\6\ the bill (H. R. 1689) to establish an assay office at 
Deadwood, S. Dak.
  In 1898,\7\ as to an assay office at Seattle, Wash.
  4095. Bills for defining and fixing the standard of value and 
regulating coinage and exchange of coin are within the jurisdiction of 
the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures.--In 1899,\8\ the 
Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures reported the bill (H. R. 
11917) to define and fix the standard of value and to regulate coinage 
and provide for redemption thereunder.
  The committee also reported:
  In 1891 \9\ and 1900 \10\ bills relating to exchange of gold coin for 
gold bars at the mints.
  In 1888,\11\ the bill (H. R. 7214) concerning the coinage of three-
dollar gold pieces.
  In 1888,\12\ the bill (H. R. 7933) concerning the exchange of 
mutilated coin.
  In 1887,\13\ the bill (H. Res. 255) relating to supplies of 
subsidiary coin; and also the bill (H. R. 11107) relating to the issue 
and redemption of minor coin.
  4096. The creation and history of the Committee on Interstate and 
Foreign Commerce, section 7 of Rule XI.
  The rule gives to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce 
jurisdiction of subjects relating to ``commerce, Life-Saving Service, 
and light-houses,'' but not including appropriations therefor.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report Nos. 249, 1839.
  \2\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 1086.
  \3\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 324.
  \4\ Second session Forty-seventh Congress, Journal, p. 40; Record, p. 
56. Also in a later Congress similar action was taken. (Second session 
Fifty-fifth Congress, Record, p. 26.)
  \5\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 2703.
  \6\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 969.
  \7\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 1110.
  \8\ Third session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 1876.
  \9\ Second session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 3330.
  \10\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 1513.
  \11\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 781.
  \12\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 780.
  \13\ Second session Forty-ninth Congress, Reports Nos. 3968, 3969.
Sec. 4097
  Section 7 of Rule XI provides for the reference of subjects 
relating--

to commerce, Life-Saving Service, and light-houses, other than 
appropriations for Life-Saving Service and light-houses, to the 
Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.

  This committee has eighteen members.
  It dates from December 14, 1795, when the number of standing 
committees was increased from two to four, ``Commerce and 
Manufactures'' and ``Revisal and Unfinished Business'' being added to 
``Elections'' and ``Claims.''\1\ In 1819 the subjects of Commerce and 
Manufactures were separated.\2\ In early times the committee was 
sometimes in conflict with the Ways and Means over the jurisdiction of 
subjects relating to duties.\3\ In the revision of 1880 the Committee 
on Rules reported in favor of restoring to the Appropriations Committee 
the river and harbor bill, which had more recently been reported from 
the Committee on Commerce, allowing the Committee on Commerce to frame 
the bill, but requiring it to be reported to the Committee on 
Appropriations.\4\
  The House dissented from this plan, and after long debate agreed to a 
rule \5\ in this form:

  To commerce, Life-Saving Service, and light-houses, other than 
appropriations for Life-Saving Service and light-houses: to the 
Committee on Commerce. And the Committee on Commerce shall have the 
same privileges in reporting bills making appropriations for the 
improvement of rivers and harbors as is accorded to the Committee on 
Appropriations in reporting general appropriation bills.

  On December 19, 1883, the Committee on Rivers and Harbors was 
established, and took the jurisdiction of the river and harbor bill, 
with its privileges.\6\ In 1892 the present name of ``Interstate and 
Foreign Commerce'' \7\ was adopted.\8\
  4097. The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce has 
jurisdiction of bills affecting domestic and foreign commerce, except 
such as may affect the revenue.--The jurisdiction of the Committee on 
Interstate and Foreign Commerce includes ``subjects relating to the 
commerce of the United States, domestic and foreign, except so far as 
it affects the revenue.'' \9\
  4098. Bills establishing the Department of Commerce and Labor and 
relating to the Interstate Commerce Commission were reported by the 
Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.--In 1903,\10\ the 
Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce reported the bill 
establishing the Department of Commerce and Labor; and in 1906 \11\ on 
the Interstate Commerce Commission.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Third and Fourth Congress, Journal, p. 375 (Gales and Seaton 
ed.).
  \2\ See Journal, first session Sixteenth Congress, pp. 9, 22; Annals, 
pp. 708, 709. (See also sec. 4221 of this volume.)
  \3\ First session Seventeenth Congress, Annals of Congress, Vol. I, 
p. 530.
  \4\ Second session Forty-sixth Congress, Record, p. 200.
  \5\ Second session Forty-sixth Congress, Record, pp. 663, 1261.
  \6\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Record, pp. 196, 214.
  \7\ On December 14, 1847 (First session Thirtieth Congress, Journal, 
pp. 76, 82; Globe, pp. 25, 27-30), a proposition was made to divide the 
old Committee on Commerce into two committees, one to have interstate 
commerce and the other foreign commerce; but it was not acted on at 
that time.
  \8\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Record, p. 653.
  \9\ Resolutions distributing the President's message (third session 
Fifty-fifth Congress, Record, p. 25).
  \9\ Second session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 2970.
  \10\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 591.
  \11\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 591.
                                                            Sec. 4099
  4099. Legislation relating to the construction of bridges over 
navigable waters belongs to the jurisdiction of the Committee on 
Interstate and Foreign Commerce.--On April 1, 1884,\1\ the Committee on 
Commerce \2\ reported the bill (H. R. 6100) making general provisions 
of law in regard to the erection of bridges over navigable waters; and 
the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce has exercised 
continuously jurisdiction on this subject, both for general and special 
bills.\3\
  In 1898 \4\ the committee reported a resolution of inquiry relating 
to obstructions in Niagara River which might have a bearing on a 
pending proposition for the authorization of a bridge.
  4100. The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce considers 
bills relating to dams in navigable streams unless they are related to 
improvements under jurisdiction of the Committee on Rivers and 
Harbors.--On April 15, 1884,\5\ the Committee on Commerce \6\ reported 
the bill (H. R. 6657) authorizing the construction of a dam across the 
Mississippi River at St. Cloud, Minn. And this general jurisdiction of 
the subject of dams across navigable rivers has remained with the 
Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce and has been exercised 
with great frequency.\7\
  On December 11, 1902,\8\ on motion of Mr. Theodore E. Burton, of 
Ohio, chairman of the Committee on Rivers and Harbors, the reference of 
House bills 15605 and 15606, providing, respectively, for the 
construction of a lock or locks and a dam in Bayou Vermilion and the 
Mermentau River, in the State of Louisiana, was changed from the 
Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce to the Committee on Rivers 
and Harbors. But Mr. William P. Hepburn, of Iowa, chairman of the 
Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, said:

  I do not want to consent by this action to the idea that jurisdiction 
ordinarily in cases of this kind is lodged with the Committee on Rivers 
and Harbors, but in this instance, this stream being now in process of 
improvement and being the subject of appropriation, I think it would be 
better that the subject of this bill should be considered by that 
committee.

  On May 22, 1906,\9\ on motion of Mr. Frederick C. Stevens, of 
Minnesota, by direction of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign 
Commerce, the reference of the following bill was changed from that 
committee to the Committee on Rivers and Harbors:

  A bill (H. R. 17138) to provide for a commission to examine and 
report concerning the use by the United States of the waters of the 
Mississippi River going over the dams between St. Paul and Minneapolis, 
Minn.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1041.
  \2\ The name of the committee has been changed since that date.
  \3\ See index of Journal for first session Fifty-ninth Congress, p. 
1366, for illustration of this.
  \4\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 663.
  \5\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1303.
  \6\ This was before the change of name of the committee.
  \7\ See especially index of Journal, first session Fifty-ninth 
Congress, p. 1366. (Reports Nos. 337, 2177, 3396, etc.)
  \8\ Second session Fifty-seventh Congress, Record, p. 246.
  \9\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Record, p. 7236.
Sec. 4101
  In 1906,\1\ under the same principle of jurisdiction, the Committee 
on Rivers and Harbors reported the bill relating to a dam \2\ across 
Rock River, Illinois.
  4101. Bills declaring as to whether or not streams are navigable and 
for preventing hindrances to navigation are reported by the Committee 
on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.--On January 23, 1902,\3\ the bill 
(H. R. 9213) declaring the St. Joseph River to be not a navigable 
stream was, by order of the House, referred from the Committee on 
Rivers and Harbors to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.
  The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce reported in 1894 \4\ 
on bill relating to licenses for persons residing on boats on navigable 
rivers.
  4102. The regulation of harbors, and the placing of works likely to 
be obstructive to navigation, such as pipes and tunnels, are subjects 
within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign 
Commerce.--The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce has 
reported as follows:
  In 1888,\5\ the bill (H. R. 3333) to enable the city of Chicago to 
construct a crib in the navigable waters of Lake Michigan in order to 
get a city water supply.
  In 1891,\6\ a bill relating to the crib work of Chicago water works 
in Lake Michigan.
  In 1890,\7\ on bills relating to a tunnel under the Detroit River; 
also bill relating to a tunnel under New York Harbor between Long 
Island and Staten Island.
  In 1891,\8\ a bill relating to pipes under navigable rivers.
  In 1902 \9\ and 1903,\10\ on the tunnels under Chicago River; and in 
1906 \11\ on a tunnel under Lake Erie and Niagara River.
  In 1900,\12\ the bill (H. R. 8777) to confer certain powers on 
supervisor of New York Harbor.
  In 1893,\13\ a bill relating to anchorage of vessels in Chicago 
Harbor.
  In 1906,\14\ on movements and anchorage of vessels in Hampton Roads, 
Virginia.
  4103. The subject of a canal between the Atlantic and Pacific, and to 
a limited extent the general subject of canals in the United States, 
have been considered by the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Com-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 692.
  \2\ Occasional instances are found where the Committee on Rivers and 
Harbors have reported bins which more properly belonged to the 
jurisdiction of the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee as to 
dams. See instances in 1892 and 1893. (First session Fifty-second 
Congress, Report No. 557; second session Fifty-second Congress, Report 
No. 2555.)
  \3\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Journal, p. 256.
  \4\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1211.
  \5\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 729.
  \6\ Second session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 3659.
  \7\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Reports Nos. 786, 1977, 3221.
  \8\ Second session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 3354.
  \9\ Second session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 3746.
  \10\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1855.
  \11\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 4981.
  \12\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 478.
  \13\ Second session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 2373.
  \14\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 5020.
                                                            Sec. 4104
merce.--In 1888 \1\ and 1890,\2\ the Committee on Interstate and 
Foreign Commerce reported generally on the subject of the proposed 
Nicaragua Canal, to connect the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific 
oceans. On April 28, 1894,\3\ the reference of the bill (H. R. 6053) to 
amend the act incorporating the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua was 
changed from the Committee on Foreign Affairs to the Committee on 
Interstate and Foreign Commerce. In 1899,\4\ in the resolutions 
distributing the President's message, the jurisdiction was confirmed, 
and in 1900 \5\ the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce 
reported on the Nicaragua and other oceanic canals.
  In 1886,\6\ this committee reported a resolution relating to progress 
on the Panama Canal, and in 1906 \7\ on the general subject of this 
canal.
  In 1886,\8\ also, this committee reported the bill (H. R. 5885) 
relating to the Atlantic and Pacific Ship Railway Company and 
government encouragement thereto.
  The committee has also reported on the subject of canals within the 
United States: \9\
  In 1901,\10\ on the subject of the Duluth Canal.
  In 1895,\11\ the subject of canals to connect the Great Lakes with 
the Atlantic Ocean.
  In 1892,\12\ on the Welland and St. Lawrence canals.
  In 1893,\13\ the subject of a ship canal between Lakes Union and 
Washington and Puget Sound.
  4104. Bills establishing light-houses and fog signals and authorizing 
light-ships are reported by the Committee on Interstate and Foreign 
Commerce.--The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce has 
reported legislative bills relating to certain aids to navigation, as 
follows:
  In 1882 \14\ on bills relating to marine lights and fog signals.
  In 1884 \15\ bills establishing lights; and in 1906,\16\ bills 
establishing a light-ship at Brunswick, Ga., lights in Hawaii, and 
light-houses, light stations, and fog signals generally.
  In 1884,\17\ the bill (H. R. 3890) to establish a signal station on 
Nantucket Island and submarine cable communication with the mainland.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 530.
  \2\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 3035.
  \3\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Record, p. 4228.
  \4\ Third session Fifty-fifth Congress, Record, p. 25.
  \5\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 351.
  \6\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Record, p. 4137.
  \7\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 5017.
  \8\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 717.
  \9\ See, however, jurisdiction of Committee on Railways and Canals, 
section 4217 of this volume.
  \10\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 33.
  \11\ Third session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1840.
  \12\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 185.
  \13\ Second session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 2395.
  \14\ Forty-seventh Congress, first session, Report No. 682; second 
session, Reports Nos. 1944, 1972, 1973.
  \15\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Reports Nos. 197-199.
  \16\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Reports Nos. 158, 159, 1560, 
2279, 4251.
  \17\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1301.
Sec. 4105
  4105. Bills relating to ocean derelicts, lumber rafts, and 
hydrographic office charts have been reported by the Committee on 
Interstate and Foreign Commerce.--The Committee on Interstate and 
Foreign Commerce has exercised a general jurisdiction as to certain 
obstructions to navigation, and has reported:
  In 1895,\1\ 1905,\2\ and 1906,\3\ bills relating to the removal of 
derelict craft in the ocean.
  In 1891 \4\ and 1893,\5\ bills on the subject of lumber rafts on the 
Great Lakes.
  In 1884,\6\ the resolution (H. Res. 134) for the distribution of the 
charts and other publications of the hydrographic office.
  4106. Bills relating to ocean cables have been reported by the 
Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.--The Committee on 
Interstate and Foreign Commerce has reported:
  In 1900,\7\ the bill (S. 2) for the establishment of a trans-Pacific 
cable.
  In 1902,\8\ on a submarine cable to Hawaii, Guam, and Philippine 
Islands.
  In 1898,\9\ a bill authorizing the Postmaster-General to make a 
perpetual contract with the Pacific Cable Company.
  4107. Bills relating to the Life-Saving Service and refuge stations 
in the Arctics have been reported by the Committee on Interstate and 
Foreign Commerce.--The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce has 
exercised general jurisdiction of the Life-Saving Service, and has 
reported as follows:
  In 1889,\10\ bills in relation to life-saving stations.
  In 1887,\11\ the bill (H. R. 10996) providing for the establishment 
of a life-saving station at Kewaunee, Wis.
  In 1892,\12\ a bill providing for Virginia coast telephone service 
for assistance to Life-Saving Service.
  In 1902,\13\ a bill relating to a life-saving station at Nome, 
Alaska.
  In 1902,\14\ a bill relating to pensions for officers and men of 
Life-Saving Service.
  In 1889,\15\ the bill (H. R. 12215) to establish a refuge station at 
Point Barrow, Alaska.
  In 1899,\16\ the bill (S. 5144) donating life-saving apparatus to the 
Imperial Japanese Society for Saving Life from Shipwreck.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 125.
  \2\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2515.
  \3\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3589.
  \4\ Second session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 3759.
  \5\ Second session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 2353.
  \6\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 325.
  \7\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 1114.
  \8\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 568.
  \9\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 664.
  \10\ Second session Fiftieth Congress, Reports Nos. 3988, 4108.
  \11\ Second session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 4034.
  \12\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 1044,
  \13\ Third session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 4801.
  \14\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 2646.
  \15\ Second session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 3751.
  \16\ Third session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 2053.
                                                            Sec. 4108
  4108. Bills authorizing the construction of revenue cutters and 
auxiliary craft of the Customs Service are reported by the Committee on 
Interstate and Foreign Commerce.--The Committee on Interstate and 
Foreign Commerce has general jurisdiction of the Revenue-Cutter 
Service, and auxiliary craft for the Customs Service, and has reported:
  In 1882,\1\ 1889,\2\ 1902,\3\ and 1906 \4\ on bills relating to the 
organization and efficiency of the Revenue-Cutter Service.
  In 1884 \5\ and 1902,\6\ bills authorizing the construction of 
revenue cutters for waters of the United States, including Alaska.
  In 1890,\7\ a bill providing for the Revenue Service a boarding 
vessel for Chicago Harbor.
  In 1896,\8\ 1900,\9\ and 1902,\10\ bills providing steam launches for 
various customs collection districts.
  In 1890,\11\ a bill providing a steamer for use of the civil 
government of Alaska.
  4109. The general subjects of quarantine and the establishment of 
quarantine stations are within the jurisdiction of the Committee on 
Interstate and Foreign Commerce.--The Committee on Interstate and 
Foreign Commerce has reported bills relating to the subject of 
quarantine \12\ and regulation and establishment of quarantine 
stations,\13\ and also, in 1888,\14\ on the bill (H. R. 1526) to 
establish a bureau of public health and prevent the importation of 
infectious diseases into the United States.
  4110. Bills authorizing the construction of marine hospitals and the 
acquisition of sites therefor are reported by the Committee on 
Interstate and Foreign Commerce.--Since 1880,\15\ the Committee on 
Interstate and Foreign Commerce has exercised jurisdiction over bills 
authorizing the construction of marine hospitals, and the acquisition 
of sites \16\ for the same.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Report No. 926.
  \2\ Third session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 2100.
  \3\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 622.
  \4\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Reports Nos. 4902, 2749.
  \5\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 802.
  \6\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Reports Nos. 67, 253, 103, 
1317.
  \7\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 2861.
  \8\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 1545.
  \9\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Reports Nos. 481, 1220.
  \10\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 130.
  \11\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 1203.
  \12\ Second session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 2210; first 
session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3161.
  \13\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Report No. 50; second 
session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3998; second session Fifty-
fifth Congress, Report No. 626; second session Fifty-eighth Congress, 
Report No. 1391; first session Fifty-ninth Congress, Reports Nos. 2277, 
2341.
  \14\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 498.
  \15\ First session Forty-sixth Congress, bill H. R. 1607; first 
session Forty-seventh Congress, Reports Nos. 48, 396, 400, 759, 1211; 
first session Fifty-first Congress, Reports Nos. 246, 1400, 2498; first 
session Fifty-sixth Congress, Reports Nos. 186, 1649; first session 
Fifty-seventh Congress, Reports Nos. 270, 548, 948.
  \16\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Report No. 399; first 
session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1039; first session Fiftieth 
Congress, Report No. 1235.
Sec. 4111
  4111. Subjects relating to health, spread of leprosy, and other 
contagious diseases, international congress of hygiene, etc., have been 
considered by the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.--The 
Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, probably in consideration 
of the fact that it has jurisdiction of legislation relating to the 
Marine-Hospital Service, has also exercised a broad jurisdiction over 
bills relating to the subject of health generally. Thus it has 
reported--
  In 1904 \1\ and 1907 \2\ on the International Congress of Hygiene and 
Demography.\3\
  In 1886,\4\ 1889,\5\ 1890,\6\ and 1897 \7\ on bills for the 
prevention of the introduction and spread of contagious and infectious 
diseases.
  In 1886 \8\ on the bill (H. R. 1730) providing for a commission to 
investigate inoculation for yellow fever.
  In 1898 \9\ and 1899 \10\ on the investigation of leprosy, and in 
1905 \11\ on the subject of establishing a leprosarium.
  4112. Bills to prevent the adulteration, misbranding, etc., of foods 
and drugs have been reported by the Committee on Interstate and Foreign 
Commerce.--On March 4, 1882,\12\ the Committee on Commerce reported the 
bill (H. R. 4789) to prevent adulterated foods and drugs from being 
shipped from abroad into this country, and to prevent the manufacture 
and sale of such drugs in the District of Columbia and the Territories.
  In 1900 \13\ the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce 
reported the bill (H. R. 9677) for preventing the adulteration, 
misbranding, and imitation of foods, beverages, candies, drugs, and 
condiments in the District of Columbia and the Territories, and for 
regulating interstate traffic therein.
  Also in 1900 \14\ and 1902,\15\ bills to prevent false branding of 
food and dairy products.
  And in 1902,\16\ 1904,\17\ and 1906,\18\ bills relating to purity of 
foods and drugs.
  In 1900 \19\ the committee reported the bill (H. R. 5) to appoint a 
commission for the investigation of water supplies.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Third session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 4208.
  \2\ Second session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 8020.
  \3\ See, however, section 4177 of this volume.
  \4\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 1230.
  \5\ Second session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 3587.
  \6\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 539.
  \7\ Second session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 3047.
  \8\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 2914.
  \9\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 1215.
  \10\ Third session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 1759.
  \11\ Third session Fifty-eighth Congress, Reports Nos. 4599, 4624.
  \12\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Report No. 634.
  \13\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 1426.
  \14\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 872.
  \15\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 258.
  \16\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 1319.
  \17\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 381.
  \18\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 2118.
  \19\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 89.
                                                            Sec. 4113
  4113. The regulation of exportation of live stock, meat, and other 
agricultural products has been to a certain extent within the 
jurisdiction of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.--On 
February 14, 1894,\1\ the Committee on Agriculture was discharged from 
the consideration of the bill (H. R. 88) to prohibit monopoly in the 
transportation of cattle to foreign countries, and it was referred to 
the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.
  The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce has also reported as 
follows:
  In 1886 \2\ and 1891 \3\ on bills providing for the inspection of 
live stock and meats for foreign shipment.
  In 1884 \4\ and 1887 \5\ on bills providing for inspection of live 
stock and meats for exportation, prohibiting the importation of 
adulterated articles of food and drink.
  In 1891 \6\ on the subject of inspection of vessels engaged in 
exportation of animals.
  In 1882 \7\ and 1884 \8\ a bill regulating the exportation of 
imitation butter and cheese.
  4114. The regulation of railroads through the relation which they 
bear to interstate commerce is within the jurisdiction of the Committee 
on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.--The Committee on Interstate and 
Foreign Commerce has exercised a broad jurisdiction over the subject of 
railroads.\9\ The subjects of intercolonial and interstate railways 
have been given to this committee by resolutions distributing the 
message of the President.\10\ It also has reported--
  In 1888 \11\ the bill (H. R. 8367) for the regulation of railway 
companies chartered by the United States; also the same year on a 
resolution requesting the Interstate Commerce Commission to investigate 
the strike on the Reading Railroad.
  In 1889 \12\ a resolution in relation to a meeting of railroad 
presidents.
  In 1893 \13\ as to an investigation of alleged coal combination among 
certain railroads.\14\
  In 1895 \15\ on railroad train wrecking.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Record, p. 2183.
  \2\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 1644.
  \3\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 2985.
  \4\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1036.
  \5\ Second session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3777.
  \6\ Second session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 3752.
  \7\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Report No. 1706.
  \8\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1669.
  \9\ The Committee on Railways and Canals has in fact retained little 
if any jurisdiction over this subject in recent years.
  \10\ See second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Record, p. 26, and 
third session, Record, p. 25.
  \11\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Reports Nos. 2514 and 170.
  \12\ Second session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 4092.
  \13\ Second session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 2278.
  \14\ But the subject of State jurisdiction over railroads was 
reported in 1896 by the Committee on the Judiciary. First session 
Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 102.
  \15\ Third session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1726.
Sec. 4115
  In 1891 \1\ on a bill relating to rates of fare for commercial 
travelers; and in 1897 \2\ and 1898 \3\ on bills relating to ticket 
brokerage.
  In 1896,\4\ 1900,\5\ 1902,\6\ and 1904,\7\ on bills to provide for 
the safety of railroad employees by requiring common carriers engaged 
in interstate commerce to equip their cars with couplers and brakes of 
a certain kind.\8\
  In 1906,\9\ the railroad rate bill, which became a law; and on the 
subject of railroad discriminations and monopolies.
  4115. Bills relating to commercial travelers as agents of interstate 
commerce and the branding of articles going into such commerce have 
been considered by the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.--
The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce in 1886,\10\ 1888,\11\ 
and 1892,\12\ reported bills on the subject of license fees required by 
States of commercial travelers or agents of interstate commercial 
transactions.
  In 1906,\13\ a bill, which became a law, relating to the misbranding 
of merchandise made of gold and silver and entering into interstate 
commerce.
  4116. Bills to prevent the carriage from one State to another of 
indecent or harmful pictures or literature have been reported by the 
Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.--The Committee on 
Interstate and Foreign Commerce reported, in 1896,\14\ a bill relating 
to the carrying of obscene literature and articles designed for 
indecent and immoral use from one State to another; also, in 1904,\15\ 
a similar bill.
  In 1897,\16\ the bill (H. R. 10369) to forbid the transmission by 
mail or interstate commerce of any picture or description of a prize 
fight.
  4117. The subject of protection of game through prohibition of 
interstate transportation has been considered by the Committee on 
Interstate and Foreign Commerce.--In 1900 \17\ the Committee on 
Interstate and Foreign Commerce reported the bill (H. R. 6634) to 
enlarge the powers of the Department of Agriculture and prohibit the 
transportation by interstate commerce of game killed in violation of 
local laws.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Second session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 3600.
  \2\ Second session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 2586.
  \3\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 232.
  \4\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 727.
  \5\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 1757.
  \6\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 2563.
  \7\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2605.
  \8\ In 1894 (first session Forty-eighth Congress) the Committee on 
Railways and Canals reported the bill (H. R. 313) to regulate the 
coupling of cars on railroads in the United States (Report No. 950); 
also in 1890 (first, session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 3014); 
and in 1884 the bill (H. R. 312) to establish a uniform code of signals 
for the railroads of the United States (Report No. 951).
  \9\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Reports Nos. 591, 1557, 2274.
  \10\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 1762.
  \11\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 1310.
  \12\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 186.
  \13\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 2402.
  \14\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 1363.
  \15\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 383.
  \16\ Second session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 3046.
  \17\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 474.
                                                            Sec. 4118
  4118. The creation and history of the Committee on Rivers and 
Harbors, section 8 of Rule XL.
  The rule gives to the Committee on Rivers and Harbors the 
jurisdiction of subjects relating ``to the improvement of rivers and 
harbors.''
  Section 8 of Rule XI provides for the reference of subjects 
relating--

to the improvements of rivers and harbors: to the Committee on Rivers 
and Harbors.

  This committee has eighteen Members.
  It was authorized as a standing committee on December 19, 1883,\1\ 
with the same privilege for reporting the river and harbor bill \2\ 
that had been enjoyed by the Committee on Commerce.\3\ This privilege 
still remains, being provided for in section 61 of Rule XI.\4\
  4119. A subject of which the River and Harbor Committee has 
jurisdiction may be reported in the river and harbor bill.--On February 
23, 1905,\5\ the river and harbor appropriation bill was under 
consideration in Committee of the Whole House on the state of the 
Union, when this paragraph was read:

  Upon the completion of the dredging of said Snake River and the 
construction of the bulkheads and jetties, so as to form a channel from 
the ocean into Snake River not less than 50 feet wide and 6 feet deep 
at mean low tide, the said Nome Improvement Company shall have the 
right, during the time it may maintain the channel aforesaid, to 
collect as toll on freight and passengers entering or leaving the mouth 
of the jetties so constructed, as follows: On all freight carried in or 
out, $1 per ton; passengers, 25 cents each; horses and cattle, $1 per 
head; hogs and sheep, 25 cents each: Provided, however, That these 
rates of toll and any wharfage rates charged or imposed by the said 
company may be revised, modified, or changed by the Secretary of War 
whenever he becomes satisfied that the same are unreasonable or 
oppressive: Provided, further, That all native Indians and Eskimos 
shall have the right of free ingress and egress through said channel 
and jetties to and from Snake River with their boats, provisions, and 
personal effects.

  Mr. James R. Mann, of Illinois, raised a question of order.

  Mr. Chairman, this is a bill which is reported originally by the 
Committee on Rivers and Harbors, not a bill which has been referred to 
that committee by the House, and anything in the bill which they have 
not authority to report as a privileged matter under the rules is 
subject to a point of order. Under the rules they are permitted to 
report at any time bills relating to the improvement of rivers and 
harbors. This paragraph has nothing whatever to do with the improvement 
of either a river or a harbor. It is a paragraph granting a franchise 
to a company and authorizing the company to collect tolls on freights 
and passengers, and is not related to the improvement of the river and 
harbor at Nome at all. It contains a large number of provisions in 
reference to wharfage rates, not one of which, I contend, is within the 
jurisdiction of the committee to report in this bill. * * * This bill 
is a privileged bill under the rule--a bill which they can call up as a 
privileged matter under the rule with a right to report it at any time. 
Now, clearly, the Committee on Rivers and Harbors, if it had a Senate 
bill referred to it--and which it has already reported, by the way, and 
which is within the jurisdiction of that committee--clearly that bill 
was not subject to be called up at any time.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Record, pp. 196, 214.
  \2\ For an exhaustive discussion of the jurisdiction over river and 
harbor bills from the foundation of the Government, see Congressional 
Record of December 4, 1877 (second session Forty-fifth Congress, pp. 
18, 20, 21, etc.).
  \3\ See section 4096 of this volume.
  \4\ See section 4621 of this volume.
  \5\ Third session Fifty-eighth Congress, Record, pp. 3225, 3226.
Sec. 4120
  That bill would go on the Union Calendar, or whatever calendar it 
goes onto, and be subject to the rules. Now, giving the committee this 
jurisdiction to report at anytime upon one kind of a proposition would 
not enable it to insert in the bill which it reports some other 
proposition which is not privileged and have that considered in that 
bill.

  The Chairman \1\ said:

  The question is upon the point of order raised by the gentleman from 
Illinois. In the opinion of the Chair, the fact having been established 
by the statement of the gentleman from Ohio that this legislation 
contained in the Senate bill was referred to the Committee on Rivers 
and Harbors, leads the Chair to believe that that committee has 
acquired jurisdiction, and the point of order is not well taken.
  * * * The Chair will call the attention of the gentleman from Iowa to 
the rule which says that the bills may be reported at any time--
clearly.
  * * * This is clearly a provision coming from the River and Harbor 
Committee, and if the committee has jurisdiction of the subject-matter 
they may report it to the House.
  * * * The gentleman from Illinois is wrong. The tolls provided for by 
this section are intended to be for the improvement.

  4120. To a bill providing generally for the improvement of rivers and 
harbors an amendment providing for an additional harbor was held to be 
germane.--On February 1, 1899,\2\ the river and harbor bill (H. R. 
11795) was under consideration in Committee of the Whole House on the 
state of the Union, and the following paragraph had been reached:

  Improving harbor at Milwaukee, Wis.: For maintenance, $14,000.

  To this Mr. Theobold Otjen, of Wisconsin, proposed this amendment:

  After the word ``dollars,'' insert ``improving the harbor of South 
Milwaukee, Wis., $10,000.''

  Mr. Theodore E. Burton, of Ohio, made a point of order against this 
amendment.

  The Chairman \3\ held:

  The Chair desires to state to the gentleman in charge of the bill 
[Mr. Burton] that, in the opinion of the Chair, the point made that it 
is not germane is not well taken, and the Chair will overrule that; and 
if there is no further debate, the Chair will put the motion.

  4121. A proposition to improve the harbor of a foreign country was 
held not to be germane to the river and harbor bill.--On March 20, 
1902,\4\ while the river and harbor appropriation bill was under 
consideration in Committee of the Whole House on the state of the 
Union, Mr. Samuel M. Robertson, of Louisiana, proposed the following 
amendment:

  Between lines 2 and 3 on page 52 insert: ``For improving the harbor 
of Habana, Cuba, to be expended under the supervision of the Secretary 
of War, $2,500,000.''

  Mr. Theodore E. Burton, of Ohio, having raised a question of order, 
the Chairman \5\ said:

  The Chair is of the opinion that the amendment is not germane to that 
part of the bill to which it is offered, and also is of opinion that it 
is not germane to the bill at all, and therefore sustains the point of 
order.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ William A. Smith, of Michigan, Chairman.
  \2\ Third session Fifty-fifth Congress, Record, p. 1364.
  \3\ Albert J. Hopkins, of Illinois, Chairman.
  \4\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Record, p. 3093.
  \5\ Marlin E. Olmsted, of Pennsylvania, Chairman.
                                                            Sec. 4122
  4122. River and harbor improvements not authorized or placed under 
contract may not be appropriated for in the sundry civil appropriation 
bill.--On May 5, 1900,\1\ the sundry civil appropriation bill was under 
consideration in Committee of the Whole House on the state of the 
Union, and Mr. D. W. Shackleford, of Missouri, offered this amendment:

  ``Improving Missouri River at Jefferson City, Mo.: Continuing 
improvement, $50,000; and at Overton, Mo., continuing improvement, 
$50,000.''

  Mr. Joseph G. Cannon, of Illinois, made a point of order against the 
proposed amendment, which did not relate to a work authorized by 
existing law and under contract.
  The Chairman \2\ sustained the point of order.
  4123. On February 12, 1903 \3\ the sundry civil appropriation bill 
was under consideration in Committee of the Whole House on the state of 
the Union, when Mr. Charles Curtis, of Kansas, proposed the following 
amendment:

  Insert in line 13, page 108, after the word ``dollars,'' the 
following:
  ``To continue the work of repairing and renewing the revetments on 
the Kansas bank of the Missouri River, in Elwood and Belmont bends, 
near the city of St. Joseph, Mo., the sum of $40,000, or so much 
thereof as may be necessary, to be immediately available.''

  Mr. Theodore E. Burton, of Ohio, made the point of order that the 
matter was not within the jurisdiction of the committee reporting this 
bill, and that it was not authorized by law.
  After debate the Chairman \4\ held:

  The Chair is ready to rule. Upon the facts conceded in the discussion 
on this point of order it is clear to the Chair that if the item 
proposed in this amendment had been originally included in the pending 
appropriation bill as it came from the Committee on Appropriations it 
would not have been in order, on the ground that the Committee on 
Appropriations under the rules of the House has no jurisdiction of the 
subject-matter of this amendment. The Chair therefore sustains the 
point of order.

  4124. On March 30, 1904,\5\ during consideration of the sundry civil 
appropriation bill in Committee of the Whole House on the state of the 
Union, the Clerk read:

  Improving harbor at Toledo, Ohio: For continuing improvement, 
$70,000.

  Mr. R. B. Scarborough, of South Carolina, offered the following 
amendment:

  Amend line 6, page 100, by inserting:
  ``Improving Waccamaw River, South Carolina: For special improvement 
of Waccamaw River, South Carolina, between Conway and Bucksville, in 
Horry County, $15,000.''

  Mr. James A. Hemenway, of Indiana, made the point of order that the 
proposition was not authorized by law.
  In the debate it was shown that the proposed work had not been 
authorized by law.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Record, pp. 5198, 5199.
  \2\ John Dalzell, of Pennsylvania, Chairman.
  \3\ Second session Fifty-seventh Congress, Record, pp. 2081-2083.
  \4\ James A. Tawney, of Minnesota, Chairman.
  \5\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Record, p. 4000.
Sec. 4125
  The Chairman \1\ held:

  The river and harbor bill alone provides for authorizations of 
appropriations for rivers and harbors. The sundry civil bill simply 
makes provision for such improvements as are authorized and placed 
under contract by the river and harbor bill.

  4125. The preservation of public works for the benefit of navigation 
and the use of water power on improved streams have been within the 
jurisdiction of the Committee on Rivers and Harbors.--As an incident of 
its function of improving the rivers and harbors the Committee on 
Rivers and Harbors has sometimes reported on bills as to related 
subjects. Thus it reported:

  In 1890 \2\ a bill to prevent the obstruction of navigable waters and 
to protect public works from injury.
  In 1891 \3\ on the use of surplus water in the Kentucky River for 
industries, and the same year on certain commercial statistics.
  In 1900 \4\ the bills (H. R. 11876) regulating the construction and 
operation of a water power canal at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.; (H. R. 
9542) extending the time for completion of the works of the Muscle 
Shoals Power Company of Alabama; \5\ (H. R. 9824) relating to the 
floating loose timber and logs and rafts in navigable streams.
  4126. The Committee on Rivers and Harbors has reported on the subject 
of an international arrangement as to the use of water at the outlet of 
the Great Lakes.--The Committee on Rivers and Harbors has exercised 
jurisdiction over legislation inviting the Government of Great Britain 
to join in the formation of an international commission to investigate 
into the conditions and uses of the waters on the boundary line whose 
outlet is the St. Lawrence River, and as to the advisability of 
locating a dam at the outlet of Lake Erie.\6\
  4127. An amendment prohibiting the employment of nonresident 
foreigners, on certain river and harbor works was held not to be 
germane to the river and harbor bill.--On January 16, 1901,\7\ the 
river and harbor bill (H. R. 13189) was under consideration in 
Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, and Mr. John B. 
Corliss, of Michigan, offered this amendment:

  That all persons hereafter employed by the United States or by any 
contractor or subcontractor, under and by virtue of the authority 
hereby granted and appropriations hereby made, shall be bona fide 
residents or citizens of the United States; and all contracts or 
subcontracts made for the expenditure of the moneys hereby appropriated 
shall expressly prohibit the employment of nonresident foreigners in 
the execution of said public improvements. A violation of said 
provision by any contractor or subcontractor shall render such contract 
or subcontract null and void.

  Mr. Theodore E. Burton, of Ohio, made the point of order that the 
subject of the proposed amendment was not germane to the bill.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Theodore E. Burton, of Ohio, Chairman.
  \2\ First session Fifty-first Congress (Report No. 1635).
  \3\ Second session Fifty-first Congress, Reports Nos. 3278, 3460.
  \4\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Reports Nos. 731, 1759, 1816.
  \5\ In 1906 the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce reported 
on the subject of the dam at Muscle Shoals, Ala. (First session Fifty-
ninth Congress, Report No. 1350.)
  \6\ River and harbor act of 1902. (32 Stat. L., p. 373.) The river 
and harbor act of 1906 also contained legislation on this subject. This 
jurisdiction must be regarded as exceptional, however, as ordinarily it 
would belong to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. (See sec. 4165 of 
this volume.)
  \7\ Second session Fifty-sixth Congress, Record, pp. 1095, 1096.
                                                            Sec. 4128
  After debate the Chairman \1\ held:

  The Chair will state that in the judgment of the Chair this is a 
separate and independent proposition, without reference to what may be 
its merits, and the Chair must hold that it is not germane to the 
purposes of the bill, and sustains the point of order.

  4128. An amendment providing for a system of irrigating arid lands 
was held not to be germane to the river and harbor bill.--On January 
15, 1901,\2\ the river and harbor bill (H. R. 13189) was under 
consideration in Committee of the Whole House on the state of the 
Union, when Mr. William H. King, of Utah, offered an amendment 
providing for a plan of irrigating arid public lands.
  Mr. Theodore E. Burton, of Ohio, made the point of order that the 
amendment was not germane.
  The Chairman \1\ said:

  The Chair holds that it is neither germane to the purpose of the 
bill, nor does the Committee on Rivers and Harbors have jurisdiction of 
the subject-matter contained in the amendment.

  4129. The creation and history of the Committee on Merchant Marine 
and Fisheries, section 9 of Rule XI.
  The jurisdiction of subjects relating to the ``merchant marine and 
fisheries'' is given by the rule to the Committee on Merchant Marine 
and Fisheries.
  Section 9 of Rule XI provides for the reference of subjects 
relating--

to the merchant marine and fisheries: to the Committee on the Merchant 
Marine and Fisheries.

  This committee has eighteen members.
  It dates from December 21, 1887,\3\ when it was established to take 
the place of the old Select Committee on American Shipbuilding and 
Shipowning Interests.
  4130. The subjects of navigation and the navigation laws and 
regulation of shipping in Hawaii and even in the Philippines have been 
considered by the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries.--The 
Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries has general jurisdiction 
over bills relating to navigation and the navigation laws.\4\ It has 
also reported:
  In 1899 \5\ and 1900 \6\ bills extending the laws relating to 
commerce, navigation, and merchant seamen over the Hawaiian Islands.
  In 1904 \7\ the bill to regulate shipping between the United States 
and the Philippine Archipelago and between ports and places in the 
Philippine Archipelago. Two years later the Committee on Insular 
Affairs reported a bill on the same subject, but not without a protest 
on the part of the Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries.\8\
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Albert J. Hopkins, of Illinois, Chairman.
  \2\ Second session Fifty-sixth Congress, Record, pp. 1057, 1058.
  \3\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Record, p. 146.
  \4\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 69; second session 
Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 441.
  \5\ Third session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 1694.
  \6\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 375.
  \7\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1904.
  \8\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Record, p. 5337.
Sec. 4131
  In 1884 \1\ the bill (H. R. 3056) to constitute a bureau of 
navigation was reported by the old Select Committee on American 
Shipbuilding and Shipowning Interests.
  4131. The subjects of tonnage taxes and fines and penalties on 
vessels are within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Merchant Marine 
and Fisheries.--The subject of tonnage dues is within the jurisdiction 
of the Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries; \2\ and in 1898 
\3\ and 1902 \4\ this committee has reported bills relating to tonnage 
taxes. It also reported in 1894 \5\ on the subject of fines and 
penalties on vessels.\6\
  4132. The naming and measuring of vessels are subjects within the 
jurisdiction of the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries.--The 
Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries has reported:
  In 1890 \7\ a bill to change the law in relation to marking the names 
of vessels.
  In 1896 \8\ on vessels' names and draft.
  In 1906 \9\ on the subject of changes of the names of sailing 
vessels.
  In 1895 \10\ on the subject of the measurement of vessels.
  4133. The inspection of steam vessels, as to hulls and boilers, is 
generally within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Merchant Marine 
and Fisheries.--The Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries 
reported, in 1904 \11\ and 1906,\12\ bills relating to the inspection 
of steam vessels; and in 1898 \13\ on the subject of steamboat 
inspectors in Alaska.
  This committee has also reported:
  In 1900 \14\ a bill creating a new inspection district for inspectors 
of hulls and boilers in the vicinity of Toledo.
  In 1901 \15\ the bill (H. R. 13782) relating to the inspection of 
hulls and boilers.
  In 1902 \16\ on the subject of certificates as to boiler 
inspection.\17\
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 281.
  \2\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Record p. 301.
  \3\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 760.
  \4\ Second session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 2966.
  \5\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1381.
  \6\ Before the creation of the Committee on the Merchant Marine and 
Fisheries the Select Committee on American Shipbuilding and Shipowning 
Interests, in 1885 (second session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 
2381), reported a bill to remove certain burdens on the American 
merchant marine, and in 1884 (first session Forty-eighth Congress, 
Report No. 1443) the Committee on Commerce reported a bill relating to 
fees levied on vessels in domestic commerce.
  \7\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 1974.
  \8\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 1867.
  \9\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3397.
  \10\ Third session Fifty-third Congress, Reports Nos. 1515, 1780.
  \11\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2471.
  \12\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 1347.
  \13\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 566.
  \14\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 2642.
  \15\ Second session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 2642.
  \16\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 432.
  \17\ While the subject of inspection of hulls and boilers logically 
belongs to the classification of subjects within the jurisdiction of 
the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, and the recent practice 
has largely been in harmony therewith, yet the subject belonged to the 
old Committee on Commerce before the creation of the Committee on 
Merchant Marine and Fisheries (see second session Forty-eighth
                                                            Sec. 4134
  4134. The general subjects of shipbuilding, admission of foreign 
built ships, registering and licensing of vessels are within the 
jurisdiction of the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries.--On 
December 3, 1878,\1\ a question arose as to the jurisdiction over the 
bill (H. R. 5299) to authorize the purchase of foreign-built ships by 
citizens of the United States. Mr. Fernando Wood, of New York, on 
behalf of the Committee on Ways and Means, claimed the jurisdiction; 
but the House denied this claim, ayes 66, noes 91, and referred the 
bill to the Committee on Commerce. In 1884 \2\ the Select Committee on 
American Shipbuilding and Shipowning Interests took jurisdiction of 
this subject and reported the bill (H. R. 3230) to authorize the 
purchase of foreign-built ships by citizens of the United States for 
use in the foreign carrying trade.
  In 1887 the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries was created; 
and in 1888,\3\ and again in 1892,\4\ the new committee reported bills 
to authorize the purchase of foreign-built ships by citizens of the 
United States.
  The Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries has also reported:

  In 1894,\5\ and 1902,\6\ on vessel registers and licenses.
  In 1890,\7\ 1901,\8\ and 1902,\9\ on bills to admit vessels, some 
specifically mentioned, to American registry; \10\ and in 1906,\11\ on 
registry of repaired foreign wrecks.
  Also this committee has reported on the general subject of 
shipbuilding.\12\
  4135. The subject of rules to prevent collisions at sea and 
international arrangements therefor have been reported by the Committee 
on Merchant Marine and Fisheries.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Congress, Reports Nos. 2179, 2365, and first session Forty-eighth 
Congress, Report No. 1967), and from time to time bills on this subject 
have found their way to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign 
Commerce and been reported therefrom. Thus, in 1898, the bill (H. R. 
5640) relating to the salaries of inspectors of hulls and boilers in 
the customs districts of the United States (first session Fiftieth 
Congress, Report No. 1136); and similar bills in 1890 (first session 
Fifty-first Congress, Reports Nos. 540, 638) and 1894 (second session 
Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 456); and as late as 1906 a bill on 
the inspection of hulls and boilers. (First session Fifty-ninth 
Congress, Report No. 2754.) In 1893 also this committee reported a bill 
relating to inspection of steam-boiler plates. (First session Fifty-
third Congress, Report No. 25.)
  \1\ Third session Forty-fifth Congress, Record, pp. 22, 23.
  \2\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 750.
  \3\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 1874.
  \4\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 966.
  \5\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1451.
  \6\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 1099.
  \7\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Reports Nos. 1820, 3158.
  \8\ Second session Fifty-sixth Congress, Reports Nos. 2619, 2734, 
2962.
  \9\ Second session Fifty-seventh Congress, Reports Nos. 3771, 3784.
  \10\ The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce has reported, 
however, in 1885, before Merchant Marine and Fisheries was created, the 
bill (H. R. 6662) to authorize the registration of certain steamships 
(Report No. 2611, second session Forty-eighth Congress); and as an 
exceptional instance in 1892 a bill relating to admission of foreign-
built vessels to American registry. (First session Fifty-second 
Congress, Report No. 966.)
  \11\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 926.
  \12\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Reports Nos. 927, 1634; 
second session Fifty-third Congress, Reports Nos. 148, 1272.
Sec. 4136
  Lights and signals on vessels are subjects that have been considered 
both by the Committees on Merchant Marine and Fisheries and Interstate 
and Foreign Commerce.
  The Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries has reported:
  In 1890 \1\ and 1894 \2\ bills relating to an international marine 
conference.\3\
  In 1890,\4\ 1895,\5\ and 1896,\6\ bills for adoption of rules to 
prevent collisions at sea.\7\
  In 1895,\8\ on subject of lights on vessels.
  In 1894,\9\ on lights on fishing vessels.
  But in 1893 \10\ a bill relating to lights on vessels, barges, etc., 
in tow was reported by the Committee on Interstate and Foreign 
Commerce, and in the same year the same committee reported a bill for 
protection of distinguishing flags and signals for vessels. But in 1900 
\11\ the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries reported a bill 
relating to lights on steam pilot vessels.\12\
  4136. The Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries has jurisdiction 
of the subject of pilotage.--In 1888,\13\ 1890,\14\ and 1906 \15\ the 
Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries reported bills exempting 
American coastwise sailing vessels from obligations to pay State 
pilots.
  In 1901,\16\ the bill (H. R. 5462) to regulate pilots.\17\
  4137. Bills of lading, liability of shipowners, and entering and 
clearing of vessels are subjects which have been within the 
jurisdiction of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.--
While the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries has a wide 
jurisdiction over the subject of the merchant marine, yet on certain 
branches of the general subject the Committee on Interstate and Foreign 
Commerce has jurisdiction. In 1884,\18\ before the creation of the 
Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, the Committee on Commerce
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 3208.
  \2\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Reports Nos. 110, 150.
  \3\ In 1901 (first session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 2581), 
however, the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce reported on 
an international commission of congresses of navigation.
  \4\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 2551.
  \5\ Third session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1911.
  \6\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 2134.
  \7\ In 1884 (first session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 731), 
before the creation of the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 
the Committee on Commerce reported on international regulations to 
prevent collisions at sea.
  \8\ Third session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1615.
  \9\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1271.
  \10\ Second session Fifty-second Congress, Reports Nos. 2491, 2167.
  \11\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 197.
  \12\ In 1895 the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce 
reported on the subject of international signals on the Great Lakes. 
(Third session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1682.)
  \13\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 956.
  \14\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 38.
  \15\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 1482.
  \16\ Second session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 2027.
  \17\ In 1884 the Select Committee on American Shipbuilding and Ship-
owning interests had reported a similar bill. (First session Forty-
eighth Congress, Report No. 791.)
  \18\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1665.
                                                            Sec. 4138
  reported the bill (H. R. 7163) to regulate the forms of bills of 
lading and the duties and liabilities of shipowners and others; and in 
1901 \1\ the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce reported on 
the navigation of vessels and bills of lading.
  The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce also reported:
  In 1889,\2\ the bill (H. R. 12414) authorizing the collector at 
Sabine Pass to enter and clear vessels.
  In 1900,\3\ the bill (S. 4615) to facilitate the entry of steamships 
engaged in the coasting trade between Porto Rico and the Territory of 
Hawaii and the United States.
  In 1894,\4\ on the subject of the entry of steamships.
  4138. Bills to extend and increase the merchant marine, even when 
including the subject of a naval reserve, have been reported by the 
Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries.--On December 10, 1890,\5\ 
the resolutions distributing the President's message provided for the 
reference of so much as related to ``the development of American 
steamship lines and the extension of the merchant marine'' to the 
Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries.
  In 1889 \6\ and 1900 \7\ this committee reported bills to increase 
the commerce of the United States and provide auxiliary cruisers for 
Government use when needed, by the granting of subsidies.
  In 1906,\8\ the bill ``to promote the national defense, to create a 
naval reserve, to establish American ocean mail lines \9\ to foreign 
markets, and to promote commerce.''
  In 1890,\10\ the bill ``to place the American merchant marine engaged 
in the foreign trade upon an equality with that of other nations.''
  In 1896,\11\ a bill to improve the merchant marine engineer service, 
and thereby increase the efficiency of the naval reserve.
  4139. Bills relating to the titles, conduct, and licensing of 
officers of vessels, under the more recent practice, have been 
considered by the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries.--The 
Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries has reported--
  In 1901,\12\ on bills relating to the titles of officers of vessels, 
and the conduct of officers of steam vessels.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 739.
  \2\ Second session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 3994.
  \3\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 1641.
  \4\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Reports Nos. 829, 994.
  \5\ Second session Fifty-first Congress, Journal, p. 43; Record, p. 
303.
  \6\ Third session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 1866.
  \7\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 890.
  \8\ Second session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 6442.
  \9\ In 1884 the Select Committee on American Shipbuilding and Ship-
owning Interests reported the bill (H. R. 4987) for the encouragement 
of the American merchant marine in relation to carrying the mails. 
(First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 363.)
  \10\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 1210.
  \11\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 728.
  \12\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Reports Nos. 2336, 2357, 
2359, 2360.
Sec. 4140
  In 1900,\1\ on a bill to prevent fraud in obtaining licenses as 
officers of steam vessels.\2\
  In 1906,\3\ a bill on the subject of licensed officers of vessels.
  4140. The shipping, wages, treatment, and protection of seamen are 
subjects within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Merchant Marine 
and Fisheries.--The Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries has 
reported on subjects as follows:
  In 1890,\4\ a bill to amend the law relating to duties of shipping 
commissioners \5\ in shipment of seamen.
  In 1896,\6\ a bill relating to the amelioration of the condition of 
American seamen; also on the subject of wages of seamen.
  In 1901,\7\ on the subject of hens for mariners' wages.
  In 1900,\8\ the bill (H. R. 5067) relating to the boarding of vessels 
by persons having designs against the sailors.\9\
  In 1906,\10\ on the subject of shanghaiing.
  4141. Protection from fire on vessels is a subject which, under the 
later practice, has been considered by the Committee on Merchant Marine 
and Fisheries.
  Conditions relating to the health of seamen are within the 
jurisdiction of the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries.
  The Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries reported in 1906 \11\ 
a bill relating to the use of fire pumps and hose on steam vessels; and 
on April 18, 1894,\12\ the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce 
was discharged from the consideration of the bill (H. R. 6667) to 
require that vessels engaged in the fruit trade should be manned by 
acclimated seamen, and it was referred to the Committee on Merchant 
Marine and Fisheries.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 71.
  \2\ Before the establishment of the Committee on Merchant Marine and 
Fisheries, the Committee on Commerce, in 1882 (first session Forty-
seventh Congress, Reports Nos. 50 and 51), reported on license fees of 
officers of vessels, and in 1884 (first session Forty-eighth Congress, 
Report No. 801) on a bill to authorize the employment of certain aliens 
as engineers and pilots. And as late as 1894, after the establishment 
of Merchant Marine and Fisheries, the Committee on Interstate and 
Foreign Commerce reported a bill relating to mates on passenger 
steamers. (Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 489.)
  \3\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 4993.
  \4\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 2071.
  \5\ In 1884 and 1885 bills relating to shipping commissioners had 
been reported by the Select Committee on American Shipbuilding and 
Ship-owning Interests. (First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 
362; second session, Report No. 2494.)
  \6\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report Nos. 1034, 1868.
  \7\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report Nos. 2352-2355.
  \8\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 301.
  \9\ In 1885, before the establishment of the Committee on Merchant 
Marine and Fisheries, the Committee on Commerce reported the bill (H. 
R. 4691) to authorize the purchase of snug harbors for disabled seamen. 
(Second session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2390.)
  \10\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 4267.
  \11\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 4446.
  \12\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Record, p. 3822.
                                                            Sec. 4146
  On the subject of life-saving appliances on steam vessels \1\ and the 
safety of passengers on excursion steamers,\2\ however, the 
jurisdiction has been exercised by the Committee on Interstate and 
Foreign Commerce; but later than any of these reports, on January 12, 
1905,\3\ the House changed the reference of the following bills from 
the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce to the Committee on 
Merchant Marine and Fisheries:

  H. R. 15613. A bill for the better protection against fire on steam 
vessels carrying passengers and for the protection of life thereon.
  H. R. 16789. A bill for the prevention of fire from electrical 
apparatus on steam vessels carrying passengers.

  4142. The regulation of small vessels propelled by naphtha, etc., and 
the transportation of inflammable substances on passenger vessels are 
generally but not exclusively reported by the Committee on Merchant 
Marine and Fisheries.--The Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries 
has reported:
  In 1890,\4\ a bill relating to restrictions on use of small vessels 
propelled by steam, gas, or fluid.
  In 1902,\5\ on subject of vessels propelled by gas, fluid, naphtha, 
or electric motors.\6\
  In 1906 \7\ on a bill to permit the transportation by vessels not 
carrying passengers for hire of gasoline or any of the products of 
petroleum for use as a source of motive power for the motor boats or 
launches of such vessels.
  In 1906 \8\ a bill relating to the carrying of dangerous articles on 
passenger steamers.
  4143. The licensing, registering, etc., of pleasure yachts are 
subjects within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Merchant Marine 
and Fisheries.--The Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries has 
exercised a jurisdiction over legislation relating to yachts. Thus, it 
reported:
  In 1896,\9\ a bill (H. R. 8038) to give certain advantages in 
entering and leaving ports to yachts built in American yards.
  In 1888,\10\ a bill relating to licensing pleasure yachts.\11\
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 773; second session 
Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 3464; second session Fifty-third 
Congress, Report No. 455; first session Fifty-fourth Congress, Record, 
p. 834.
  \2\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 1679.
  \3\ Third session Fifty-eighth Congress, Record, p. 764.
  \4\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 1251.
  \5\ Second session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 3780.
  \6\ This jurisdiction was exercised also by the Committee on 
Interstate and Foreign Commerce for a time, and that committee reported 
in 1894 (Third session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 454) and in 
1896 (First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 726) bills 
relating to inspection of small craft propelled by gasoline, etc.; and 
in 1901 (Second session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 2565) on a 
bill permitting steamboats to transport automobiles carrying gasoline.
  \7\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Record, p. 7204.
  \8\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Reports Nos. 3354, 4261.
  \9\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 1451.
  \10\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 1468.
  \11\ Prior to the creation of the Committee on Merchant Marine and 
Fisheries, the Committee on Commerce had reported a bill of this kind. 
(First session Forty-seventh Congress, Report No. 15.)
Sec. 4144
  In 1889,\1\ a bill providing register for a steam yacht.
  4144. The privileges of foreign vessels in American ports, bills of 
lading, contracts in export trade, and wrecks in international waters 
have been reported on generally by the Committee on Interstate and 
Foreign Commerce.--While in 1902 \2\ the Committee on Merchant Marine 
and Fisheries reported a joint resolution to establish a joint 
commission on the subject of the policy of international navigation; 
and the old Select Committee on American Shipbuilding and Shipowning 
Interests considered somewhat and reported on the subject of foreign 
port charges in 1884,\3\ yet the general jurisdiction of this class of 
subjects has been with the Committee on Interstate and Foreign 
Commerce, which has reported:
  In 1886,\4\ the bill (H. R. 9210) allowing the President to exclude 
from commercial privileges vessels of nations that discriminate against 
United States vessels.
  In 1892,\5\ relating to bills of lading, contracts of common carriers 
in foreign export trade.
  In 1892,\6\ and 1896 \7\ the bill (S. 661) to provide sufficient time 
for vessels from foreign ports to discharge their cargoes.
  In 1893,\8\ on subject of coastwise transportation by foreign 
vessels.
  In 1890,\9\ a bill relating to aid to vessels wrecked \10\ in waters 
between the United States and Canada.
  4145. Bills of lading as evidence, bonds in admiralty cases, willful 
destruction of vessels, mutiny, etc., are subjects within the 
jurisdiction of the Committee on the Judiciary.--Both before and since 
the establishment of the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries a 
certain class of bins which might seem to fall within its jurisdiction 
have been considered by the Committee on the Judiciary, which has 
reported:
  In 1884,\11\ and 1888 \12\ bills making bills of lading conclusive 
evidence in certain cases.
  In 1888,\13\ a bill relating to willful destruction of vessels on the 
high seas.
  In 1893 \14\ and 1894,\15\ bills relating to punishment for mutiny 
and riot and other offenses on vessels on the high seas.
  In 1899,\16\ the bill (H. R. 11178) relating to bonds in admiralty 
cases.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Second session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 3798.
  \2\ Second session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 3854.
  \3\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Record, p. 2871.
  \4\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3361.
  \5\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 1988.
  \6\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 1129.
  \7\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 295.
  \8\ Second session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 2288.
  \9\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 1111.
  \10\ See, however, section 4166 of this chapter.
  \11\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1259.
  \12\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 84.
  \13\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 226.
  \14\ Second session Fifty-second Congress, Reports Nos. 2187, 2521.
  \15\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 467.
  \16\ Third session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 1691.
                                                            Sec. 4146
  4146. Collisions, coasting districts, marine schools, etc., are 
subjects of doubtful jurisdiction between the Committees on Merchant 
Marine and Fisheries and Interstate and Foreign Commerce.--On a certain 
class of subjects the line of jurisdiction has not been marked 
definitely. Thus, in 1906,\1\ the Committee on Merchant Marine and 
Fisheries reported on the subject of collisions in inland waters; and 
also on the subject of great coasting districts, while the Committee on 
Interstate and Foreign Commerce at the same time reported on the 
anchorage and movement of vessels in St. Marys River.\2\
  In 1892,\3\ however, the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce 
reported on statistics of the coasting trade in the Great Lakes; and in 
1902 \4\ on the subject of public marine schools.
  4147. The authorization of fish-culture stations and the regulation 
of fisheries generally are within the jurisdiction of the Committee on 
Merchant Marine and Fisheries.--The Committee on Merchant Marine and 
Fisheries has reported generally bills for the establishment of fish-
hatching and fish culture stations.\5\ It also reported in 1890 \6\ a 
bill for the protection of fish in the Potomac River in the District of 
Columbia; \7\ also in 1892 \8\ on District of Columbia fisheries.
  But in 1886,\9\ before the creation of the Committee on Merchant 
Marine and Fisheries, the Committee on Judiciary reported the bill (H. 
R. 4690) relating to the rights of citizens of the several States to 
fish in the navigable waters of each State, the question involving the 
title to the lakes and waters referred to.
  In 1901 \10\ Merchant Marine and Fisheries reported on the Pacific 
Coast fisheries, and in 1889 \11\ and 1904 \12\ on the Alaska seal \13\ 
and salmon \14\ fisheries.
  4148. A bill for the protection of game and other birds, through the 
instrumentality of the Fish Commission, was reported by the Committee 
on Merchant Marine and Fisheries.--The Committee on Merchant Marine and 
Fisheries reported in 1898 \15\ a bill (H. R. 3589) relating to the 
protection of game birds and other wild birds, through the 
instrumentality of the Fish Commission.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Reports Nos. 3798, 4903.
  \2\ Report No. 2823.
  \3\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 688.
  \4\ Second session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 3420.
  \5\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 2467; first 
session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 2246; but in 1891 Interstate 
and Foreign Commerce reported several such bills. (See second session 
Fifty-first Congress, Reports Nos. 3654, 3285, 3606, 3630.)
  \6\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 2288.
  \7\ See, however, section 4282 of this volume.
  \8\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 1953.
  \9\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 2385.
  \10\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 1873.
  \11\ Second session Fiftieth Congress, Reports Nos. 3883, 4126.
  \12\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2099.
  \13\ The fur seals generally have been under jurisdiction of Ways and 
Means. (See sec. 4025 of this volume.)
  \14\ The Committee on Territories, however, has more often exercised 
this jurisdiction. (See sec. 4211 of this volume.)
  \15\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 522.
Sec. 4149
  4149. The creation and history of the Committee on Agriculture, 
section 10 of Rule XI.
  The rules give to the Committee on Agriculture the jurisdiction of 
subjects relating ``to agriculture and forestry'' and the 
appropriations for the Department of Agriculture.
  Section 10 of Rule XI provides for the reference of subjects 
relating--

to agriculture and forestry: to the Committee on Agriculture, who shall 
receive the estimates and report the appropriations for the 
Agricultural Department.

  This committee has eighteen Members and one Delegate.
  It was first established as a standing committee on May 3, 1820, by a 
resolution offered by Mr. Lewis Williams, of North Carolina.\1\ In the 
revision of 1880 the Committee on Rules proposed the simple rule ``to 
agriculture: to the Committee on Agriculture.'' But during 
consideration by the House the words ``and forestry'' \2\ were inserted 
on motion of Mr. Mark H. Dunnell, of Minnesota, who said that bills 
relating to tree culture had formerly gone to the Public Lands 
Committee, but more recently had gone to the Agriculture Committee. 
More important still was an amendment offered by Mr. D. Wyatt Aiken, of 
South Carolina, adding these words: ``who shall receive the estimates 
and report the appropriations for the Agricultural Department.'' \3\
  This committee may report at any time its appropriation bill.\4\
  4150. Bills for establishing the Department of Agriculture and for 
transferring certain bureaus to it were reported by the Committee on 
Agriculture.--On January 23, 1884,\5\ the Committee on Agriculture 
reported the bill (H. R. 1457) for the establishment of a Department of 
Agriculture.
  This committee also reported, in 1896,\6\ a bill providing for the 
transfer of the Fish Commission and Geological Survey to the 
Agricultural Department.
  4151. Legislation relating to the Weather Bureau is within the 
jurisdiction of the Committee on Agriculture.--Subjects relating to the 
Weather Bureau, including appropriations therefor, have, by resolutions 
distributing the President's message, been placed within the 
jurisdiction of the Committee on Agriculture.\7\ This committee also 
reported, in 1900,\8\ the bill (H. R. 3988) to reorganize and improve 
the United States Weather Bureau.\9\
  4152. The subject of agricultural colleges \10\ and experiment 
stations is within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Agriculture.--
The Committee on Agriculture has reported:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Sixteenth Congress, Journal, p. 479; Annals, p. 
2179.
  \2\ Second session Forty-sixth Congress, Record, p. 694.
  \3\ Second session Forty-sixth Congress, Record, pp. 684-686.
  \4\ See section 4621 of this work.
  \5\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 100.
  \5\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 863.
  \7\ Third session Fifty-fifth Congress, Record, p. 25.
  \8\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 125.
  \9\ In 1890 the Committee on Agriculture reported a bill relating to 
the Signal Service, the predecessor of the Weather Bureau. (First 
session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 1043.)
  \10\ See, however, section 4243 of this volume.
                                                            Sec. 4153
  In 1895 \1\ on agricultural colleges.
  In 1894 \2\ on agricultural experiment stations in Alaska.
  4153. The subject of a highway commission has been considered by the 
Committee on Agriculture.--The Committee on Agriculture reported, in 
1896 \3\ on the subject of a highway commission.
  4154. The animal industry, inspection of live-stock and meat 
products, and diseases of animals are subjects within the jurisdiction 
of the Committee on Agriculture.--In 1888 \4\ the Committee on 
Agriculture reported the bill (H. R. 10320) to provide for the 
inspection of all slaughtered live stock intended for human consumption 
in any State or Territory other than that in which slaughtered or for 
exportation to foreign countries; to prohibit the introduction of 
adulterated or misbranded food \5\ or drugs into any State or Territory 
or the District of Columbia from any other State or Territory or 
foreign country, and to provide through the Department of Agriculture 
for carrying out the regulations.
  The Committee on Agriculture also has jurisdiction of subjects 
relating to ``the destruction and eradication of diseases of domestic 
animals, and to the inspection of cattle and pork products intended for 
shipment to foreign countries.'' \6\
  The Committee on Agriculture has had jurisdiction of the subject of 
animal industry in the United States, and reported bills:
  In 1896,\7\ on the Bureau of Animal Industry, and on cattle 
importation regulations of Great Britain.
  In 1890,\8\ 1891,\9\ 1894,\10\ and 1897,\11\ on the subjects of meat 
inspection, the inspection of live stock, and the export trade in 
cattle.
  In 1903,\12\ on diseases of animals; and in 1905 \13\ on quarantine 
districts for cattle.
  4155. The Committee on Agriculture has reported as to export 
bounties, regulation of importation of trees, shrubs, etc., and as to 
the effects of the tariff on agriculture.--The Committee on Agriculture 
has reported on the following subjects:
  In 1888,\14\ the bill (H. R. 6109) for an export bounty on 
agricultural products exported from the United States. (Adversely.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Third session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1997.
  \2\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 880.
  \3\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 1439.
  \4\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 3341.
  \5\ The subject of pure food, in the later practice of the House, has 
been within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign 
Commerce (see sec. 4112 of this volume); although in 1892 and 1897 the 
Committee on Agriculture reported on this subject. (First session 
Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 914; second session, Fifty-third 
Congress, Report No. 1397.)
  \6\ Congressional Record, third session Fifty-third Congress, p. 71; 
first session Fifty-fourth Congress p. 301.
  \7\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Reports Nos. 1031, 1670.
  \8\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 1792.
  \9\ Second session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 3761.
  \10\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Reports Nos. 846, 1443.
  \11\ Second session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 2868.
  \12\ Second session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 2819.
  \13\ Third session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 4200.
  \14\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 1305.
Sec. 4156
  In 1898 \1\ and 1900,\2\ bills to provide regulations governing the 
importation of shrubs, trees, plants, grafts, cuttings, and to provide 
regulations for the inspection of such articles grown in the United 
States, and the subject of interstate commerce.
  In 1892,\3\ a resolution of inquiry relating to the effect of the 
existing tariff on agriculture; also a report on the subject of the 
tariff and agriculture.
  In 1905,\4\ on the subject of the use of alcohol in the arts.
  4156. Bills imposing an internal-revenue tax on oleomargarine are, by 
action of the House, included within the jurisdiction of the Committee 
on Agriculture.
  The Committee on Agriculture has exercised a general, but not 
exclusive, jurisdiction of legislation relating to imitation dairy 
products, manufacture of lard, etc.
  In 1886,\5\ the Committee on Agriculture reported the bill (H. R. 
8328) to prevent the sale of imitations of dairy products. This bill, 
or rather a similar bill for which this was reported as a substitute, 
was presented in the House on March 8, and by a vote of 67 to 40 
referred to the Committee on Agriculture, although Mr. Speaker Carlisle 
said that it belonged to the Committee on Ways and Means under the 
rules of the House, as it proposed an internal-revenue tax.
  And this jurisdiction continued with this committee, which reported 
bills on the subject of oleomargarine, several involving the internal-
revenue tax feature, in 1892,\6\ 1894,\7\ 1896,\8\ 1900,\9\ and 
1902.\10\
  In 1890,\11\ a bill subjecting oleomargarine to the laws of the 
several States was reported by the Committee on Commerce.
  In 1888 \12\ and 1890 \13\ the Committee on Agriculture reported 
bills to regulate the manufacture and sale of counterfeited lard.
  4157. The adulteration of seeds, insect pests, protection of birds 
and animals in forest reserves, grading of grain, etc., are subjects 
within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Agriculture.--The Committee 
on Agriculture has exercised jurisdiction over several subjects related 
more or less closely to the general interests of agriculture. Thus, in 
1904 \14\ and 1906 \15\ it reported on the subject
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 456.
  \2\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 304.
  \3\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Reports Nos. 191, 2114.
  \4\ Third session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 4791.
  \5\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 2028, Record, p. 
2193. Previously in 1884 (first session Forty-eighth Congress, Report 
No. 251) this committee had reported on a proposition to investigate 
the subject of oleomargarine or imitation butter.
  \6\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 913.
  \7\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1398.
  \8\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 1015.
  \9\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 1854.
  \10\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Reports Nos. 255, 1602.
  \11\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 2187.
  \12\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 3082.
  \13\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Reports Nos. 970, 2857.
  \14\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1842.
  \15\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3337.
                                                            Sec. 4158
of the adulteration of grass seed; \1\ in 1902 \2\ on protection of the 
eggs of game birds, and in 1906 \3\ on the protection of animals, 
birds, and fish in forest reserves; in 1905 \4\ on insect pests; in 
1902 \5\ on nursery stock.

  The Committee on Agriculture reported in 1896 \6\ on a bill providing 
for the extermination of the gypsy moth.
  The Committee on Agriculture reported in 1892 \7\ the bill (S. 797) 
fixing a uniform standard of classification of grading of wheat, corn, 
rye, oats, etc.
  4158. The subject of improving the breed of horses, even with the 
improvement of the Cavalry as an object, belongs to the jurisdiction of 
the Committee on Agriculture.--On January 18, 1906,\8\ by action of the 
House, the Committee on Military Affairs was discharged from the 
further consideration of the bill (H. R. 10707) to provide for the 
improvement in breeding of horses for general purpose uses, and to 
enable the United States to procure better remounts for the Cavalry and 
Artillery service, and the same was referred to the Committee on 
Agriculture.
  4159. Bills to incorporate certain agricultural societies have been 
reported by the Committee on Agriculture.--In 1892,\9\ 1894,\10\ and 
1898,\11\ the Committee on Agriculture reported bills to incorporate 
the Society of American Florists; and in 1893 \12\ on a bill relating 
to the Holstein-Friesian Cattle Association.
  4160. The Committee on Agriculture has jurisdiction of subjects 
relating to timber, and forest reserves other than those created from 
the public domain.--The Committee on Agriculture has exercised 
jurisdiction over the subject of forest reserves other than those 
created from the public lands, and has reported bills:
  In 1906,\13\ the bills to create the Appalachian and White Mountain 
Forest reserves; and also in 1902 \14\ on the bill to create the 
National Appalachian Forest Reserve.
  The Committee on Agriculture reported:
  In 1892,\15\ on the subject of the necessity for and condition of 
forest reservations in California.
  In 1894,\16\ on bill (S. 313) appropriating funds for investigations 
and tests of American timber.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ But in 1884 the Committee on Commerce reported on a bill for 
fixing the tare on hops and standard weight of hop bailing. (First 
session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1974.)
  \2\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 4401.
  \3\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 2494.
  \4\ Third session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 4401.
  \5\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 557.
  \6\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 709.
  \7\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 1232.
  \8\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Record, p. 1265.
  \9\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 476.
  \10\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 408.
  \11\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 1258.
  \12\ Second session Fifty-second Congress, Reports Nos. 2379, 2511.
  \13\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 4399.
  \14\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 1547.
  \15\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 2096.
  \16\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1442.
Sec. 4161
  4161. Bills to discourage fictitious and gambling transactions in 
farm products have been considered within the jurisdiction of the 
Committee on Agriculture, even when an internal-revenue question was 
included.--On February 17, 1888,\1\ Mr. William H. Hatch, of Missouri, 
called attention to the fact that the bill (H. R. 7051) ``to prohibit 
fictitious and gambling transactions on the price of articles produced 
by American farm industry'' had been referred to the Committee on the 
Judiciary. He moved that the reference be changed to the Committee on 
Agriculture, and this motion was agreed to by the House, although Mr. 
Speaker Carlisle expressed the opinion that the jurisdiction belonged 
to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  In 1894,\2\ a bill relating to the sale of options on agricultural 
products was at first referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, as 
it provided for affixing internal-revenue stamps to the contracts; but 
the House changed the reference to the Committee on Agriculture.
  And bills on this general subject were reported by the Committee on 
Agriculture in 1889,\3\ 1890,\4\ 1892,\5\ and 1894.\6\
  4162. The creation and history of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 
section 11 of Rule XI.
  The rules give to the Committee on Foreign Affairs jurisdiction of 
``the relations of the United States with foreign nations, including 
appropriations therefor.''
  Section 11 of Rule XI provides for the reference of subjects 
relating--

  To the relations of the United States with foreign nations, including 
appropriations therefor; to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

  The committee consists of 18 Members.
  It was made a standing Committee \7\ on March 13, 1822.\8\ The 
present form, excepting the words ``including appropriations 
therefor,'' was made in the revision of 1880.\9\ The words relating to 
the appropriations were added in 1885.\10\
  This committee may report its appropriation bill at any time.\11\
  4163. The general affairs of the consular service and the acquisition 
of land and buildings for legations in foreign capitals are within the 
jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.--In 1906 the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs reported on subjects as follows:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Record, p. 1308.
  \2\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Record, p. 2423.
  \3\ Second session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 4141.
  \4\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 1321.
  \5\ First session Fifty-second Congress Report No. 969.
  \6\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 845.
  \7\ On December 7, 1815 (first session Fourteenth Congress, Journal, 
p. 29; Annals, p. 380) such a committee had been proposed by Mr. 
Richard H. Wilde, of Georgia.
  \8\ First session Seventeenth Congress, Journal, p. 351. Before this 
select committees on foreign relations had been appointed (first 
session Eleventh Congress, Annals, p. 90).
  \9\ Second session Forty-sixth Congress, Record, p. 205.
  \10\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Congressional Record, pp. 
168, 196, 278.
  \11\ See section 4621 of this volume.
                                                            Sec. 4164
  Acquisition of land or buildings for United States embassies or 
legations in foreign capitals.\1\
  Consulates in the Orient.\2\
  Reorganization of the consular service.\3\
  4164. Resolutions of intervention abroad and declarations of war are 
within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.--In 
1898,\4\ the Committee on Foreign Affairs reported the resolution (H. 
Res. 233) recognizing the independence of the people of Cuba, and 
directing Spain to withdraw her forces from the island; also the bill 
(H. R. 10086) declaring war with Spain.
  4165. A provision relating to a commission to investigate the 
conditions and uses of waters adjacent to an international boundary 
line was ruled out of the river and harbor bill as not being within the 
jurisdiction of the Committee on Rivers and Harbors.\5\--On February 7, 
1907,\6\ the river and harbor appropriation bill was under 
consideration in Committee of the Whole House on the state of the 
Union, when the Clerk read:

  Sec. 6. That those members of the International Waterways Commission, 
created in accordance with section 4 of the river and harbor act of 
June 13, 1902, who represent the United States shall have power, and it 
shall be their duty, to investigate and report upon the conditions and 
uses of the waters adjacent to the boundary lines between the United 
States and Canada, and of waters flowing from the United States into 
Canada or from Canada into the United States, and of the tributaries of 
such waters; also upon the maintenance and regulation of suitable 
levels; and also upon the effect upon the shores of these waters and 
the structures thereon and upon the interests of navigation by reason 
of the diversion of these waters from or change in their natural flow; 
and, further, to report upon the necessary measures to regulate such 
diversion, and to make such recommendations for improvements and 
regulations as shall best subserve the interests of the two Governments 
in said waters. They shall, upon the order of the Secretary of War, 
locate the boundary line upon international waters between Canada and 
the United States as heretofore established, wherever the same is not 
clearly defined or wherever for any other reason a relocation is 
desirable, and shall prepare a series of modern charts upon which it 
shall be delineated; they shall also recommend the erection of such 
monuments as they may deem necessary to enable such boundary line to be 
accurately ascertained, etc.

  Mr. James R. Mann, of Illinois, made a point of order against the 
section.
  The Chairman \7\ held:

  The Chair has not examined the section very closely, but the Chair 
feels very certain that a proposition to give power to a boundary line 
commission on an international water course is not within the 
jurisdiction of the committee. If the chairman of the committee desires 
to offer an amendment, the Chair will first recognize him.

  4166. The boundaries between the United States and foreign nations, 
and naval strength, bridges, and dams on waters along such boundaries 
are subjects within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs.--On February 4, 1882,\8\ the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
reported the bill (H. R. 2929)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 1345.
  \2\ Report No. 2168.
  \3\ Report No. 2281.
  \4\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Reports Nos. 1071, 1173.
  \5\ See also section 4126 of this volume.
  \6\ Second session Fifty-ninth Congress, Record, p. 2469.
  \7\ Frank D. Currier, of New Hampshire, Chairman.
  \8\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Report No. 234.
Sec. 4167
in relation to the navigation and bridging of certain rivers which 
constitute the boundary line between the United States and Canada.
  In 1904,\1\ on the subject of a clam and reservoir on the Rio Grande.
  In 1900,\2\ on a resolution requesting of the Secretary of State 
information as to the status of the agreement with Great Britain in 
regard to war vessels on the Great Lakes.
  In 1888,\3\ on the bill (H. R. 8063) relating to vessels wrecked \4\ 
in American and Canadian waters, and their relief; and the same year 
\5\ on the resolution (H. Res. 112) for the creation of an 
international commission to settle the Mexican boundary question.
  In 1902,\6\ on the subjects of the Alaskan boundary, and a dam across 
the St. Lawrence River.
  4167. Bills creating courts of the United States in foreign countries 
are within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.--On 
March 26, 1906,\7\ the House changed the reference of the bill (H. R. 
17345) creating a United States district court for China, and 
prescribing the jurisdiction thereof, from the Committee on the 
Judiciary to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and on April 7 \8\ the 
House also changed from the Committee on the Judiciary to the Committee 
on Foreign Affairs a bill (H. R. 17297) providing for the establishment 
of a district court of the United States for China and Korea.
  In 1886 \9\ the Committee on Foreign Affairs reported the bill (H. R. 
333) providing a more perfect system of courts and a body of law for 
the protection of American citizens residing in places where pagan or 
Mohammedan law prevails.
  4168. The Committee on Foreign Affairs has exercised a general but 
not exclusive jurisdiction over projects of general legislation 
relating to claims having international relations.--The Committee on 
Foreign Affairs has exercised jurisdiction of general legislation as to 
claims having international relation, and has reported--
  In 1882,\10\ the bill (H. R. 5885) to provide for the adjudication of 
the French spoliation claims by the Court of Claims.
  In 1884,\11\ the bill (H. R. 745) referring the French spoliation 
claims to the Court of Claims.
  In 1887,\12\ the bill (H. R. 10241) to authorize a commission to 
investigate losses sustained by American citizens engaged in the 
fisheries in regions included within the provisions of the treaty with 
Great Britain.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Third session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 3990.
  \2\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 44.
  \3\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 1812.
  \4\ See, however, section 4144 of this volume.
  \5\ Report No. 1008.
  \6\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Reports Nos. 1531, 1888.
  \7\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Record, p. 4309.
  \8\ Record, p. 4899, Report No. 4432.
  \9\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 864.
  \10\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Report No. 1067.
  \11\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 109.
  \12\ Second session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3648.
                                                            Sec. 4169
  In 1882,\1\ the bill (H. R. 1052) to provide for the return to Japan 
of a portion of the Japanese indemnity fund.
  In 1884,\2\ the bill (H. R. 1062) authorizing the adjustment of 
claims of foreign steamship companies for tonnage dues, said claims 
arising out of certain treaty stipulations.
  On December 6, 1888,\3\ the resolutions distributing the President's 
message sent to the Committee on Foreign Affairs ``Chilean war claims 
of American citizens,'' and similarly, in 1889,\4\ the subject of 
Spanish and Venezuelan claims was referred to the same committee.
  In 1885,\5\ a resolution empowering the President to negotiate in 
reference to the Venezuelan awards was reported by the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs; and in 1893 \6\ and 1894 \7\ the same committee 
reported bills for the application of the Venezuelan awards of 1868 to 
new awards of 1889 and 1890.
  This committee also reported, in 1893,\8\ the bill to carry into 
effect the Chileans convention for the settlement of claims; in 
1894,\9\ the bill for the disposal of interest on the Virginus 
indemnity fund; and in 1892,\10\ a bill to distribute the awards under 
the convention of 1868 with Mexico.
  4169. Questions relating to the protection of American citizens 
abroad and expatriation belong to the jurisdiction of the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs.--In general the Committee on Foreign Affairs has 
jurisdiction of the status and protection of American citizens abroad, 
and has reported--
  In 1899,\11\ a resolution of inquiry relating to outrages on American 
citizens in China.
  In 1900,\12\ a bill providing for the protection of the estates of 
Americans dying abroad.
  In 1906,\13\ a bill relating to citizenship, expatriation, and 
protection abroad.
  4170. The enforcement of treaty regulations as to the protection of 
the fur seals has been considered by the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs.--The Committee on Foreign Affairs has exercised jurisdiction 
over the following subjects:

  In 1893,\14\ a bill (S. 3629) to give the Executive power to enforce 
regulation under the convention between the United States and Great 
Britain for the protection of the fur seals.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Report No. 138.
  \2\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1568.
  \3\ Second session Fiftieth Congress, Journal, p. 53; Record, p. 68.
  \4\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Record, p. 188.
  \5\ Second session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2610.
  \6\ Second session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 2341.
  \7\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1360.
  \8\ Second session Fifty-second Congress, Report Nos. 2367.
  \9\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 963.
  \10\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Reports Nos. 1142, 1143. 
Also in 1892, on refundment of moneys to Mexico (first session Fifty-
seventh Congress, Report No. 420).
  \11\ Third session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 1671.
  \12\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 1451.
  \13\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 4784.
  \14\ Second session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 2355.
Sec. 4171
  In 1894,\1\ a resolution calling on the Secretary of State for 
correspondence relating to damages to Great Britain for seizures of 
sealing vessels in Bering Sea.
  In 1903,\2\ the subject of the fur seals in the North Pacific Ocean 
and Bering Sea.\3\
  4171. The treaty rights of American fishermen in waters adjacent to 
foreign shores are within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs.--The Committee on Foreign Affairs has exercised jurisdiction 
of subjects relating to the rights of American fishermen under treaties 
with foreign nations, and has reported:

  In 1886,\4\ a resolution making inquiry of the President in relation 
to the treatment of American fishermen in Canadian waters.
  In 1887,\5\ the bill (S. 3173) to authorize the President, by 
nonintercourse measures, to defend the rights of American fishermen.
  In 1888,\6\ the bill (H. R. 11309) relating to the protection of the 
rights of American fishermen.
  In 1890,\7\ the resolutions distributing the President's message 
referred the subject of the Canadian fisheries to Foreign Affairs.
  4172. The subject of immigration of Chinese and Japanese is within 
the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.--The first 
legislation in relation to Chinese immigration was in 1875, when an act 
was passed prohibiting the bringing in of Orientals for immoral 
purposes. This bill (H. R. 4747), supplemental to several acts in 
relation to immigration, was reported from the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs \8\ and became a law.\9\
  In 1879,\10\ the first general exclusion act as to the Chinese was 
passed by Congress and vetoed by President Hayes. This bill was 
reported from the Committee on Education and Labor.\11\
  The act of 1882,\12\ to execute certain treaty stipulations with 
China, which was in fact an exclusion act, was, as the bill H. R. 5804, 
referred in the House, on April 6, 1882,\13\ to the Committee on 
Education and Labor. Other similar bills were referred to the same 
committee.
  In the next Congress, however, on January 9, 1884,\14\ the 
resolutions referring the President's message referred to the Committee 
on Foreign Affairs subjects relating to the violation of the laws 
regarding Chinese immigration and pauper immi-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Third session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1500.
  \2\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1500.
  \3\ The Committee on Ways and Means also has a jurisdiction over this 
branch of the subject. (See sec. 4025 of this volume.)
  \4\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Record, p. 3563.
  \5\ Second session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 4087.
  \6\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 3373.
  \7\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Record, p. 188.
  \8\ Second session Forty-third Congress, Journal, p. 487.
  \9\ 18 Stat. L., p. 477. The Committee on Immigration and 
Naturalization had not been created at this time. (See sec. 4309 of 
this volume.)
  \10\ Third session Forty-Fifth Congress, Record, p. 791.
  \11\ This committee has since been divided into two committees, 
Education and Labor. (See secs. 4242, 4244 of this volume.)
  \12\ 22 Stat. L., p. 58.
  \13\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Record, p. 2678.
  \14\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Journal, p. 256; Record, p. 
319.
                                                            Sec. 4173
gration from Great Britain; and at this session a bill was introduced 
to amend the act of 1882. It was the bill H. R. 1798, reported from the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs,\1\ and became a law.\2\
  At this session also the Committee on Foreign Affairs reported \3\ 
the bill (H. R. 614) to execute certain treaty stipulations in relation 
to Chinese exclusion.
  In 1886,\4\ during the next Congress, the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs reported a bill (H. R. 171) supplementary to the act regulating 
the coming of Chinese.
  In 1888 \5\ the Committee on Foreign Affairs reported the bill (H. R. 
10605) to prohibit the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States. 
This bill did not become a law, but a bill (H. R. 11336) presented from 
the floor without reference to any committee was enacted.
  The jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, being thus 
established as to this subject, was not disturbed by the creation of 
the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization on December 20, 
1889,\6\ for at that session several bills to prohibit immigration of 
Chinese were introduced and referred to the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs. A bill (H. R. 11657) to absolutely prohibit the incoming of 
Chinese was reported \7\ by that committee.
  In the next Congress the bill (H. R. 6185) to absolutely prohibit the 
coming of Chinese persons into the United States was reported \8\ from 
the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and became a law.\9\
  And the same jurisdiction has continued in 1893,\10\ 1898,\11\ and 
1901.\12\
  In 1900 \13\ the Committee on Foreign Affairs reported on a 
resolution relating to the immigration of Japanese laborers, and the 
House acted on it. A similar resolution was referred also to 
Immigration and Naturalization, and was reported back adversely after 
the House had acted on the report from Foreign Affairs.
  4173. The incorporation of the American National Red Cross and the 
protection of its insignia are subjects within the jurisdiction of the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs.--In 1892,\14\ 1894,\15\ and 1898 \16\ the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs reported bills to protect the insignia of 
the Red Cross; and in 1900 \17\ and 1904 \18\ bills to incorporate the 
American National Red Cross.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Journal, p. 737.
  \2\ 23 Stat. L., p. 115.
  \3\ Report No. 614.
  \4\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 2043.
  \5\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Journal, p. 2196; Record, p. 
8226; Report No. 2727.
  \6\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Record, p. 336.
  \7\ Reports Nos. 1925, 2915; Record, p. 977.
  \8\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 407.
  \9\ 27 Stat. L., p. 325. (See also Report No. 1231, first session 
Fifty-seventh Congress.
  \10\ Second session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 2549; first 
session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 70.
  \11\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 1628.
  \12\ Second session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 2503.
  \13\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Reports Nos. 1425, 1569.
  \14\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 1790.
  \15\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 477.
  \16\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 1135.
  \17\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 758.
  \18\ Third session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 3146.
Sec. 4174
  4174. The Committee on Foreign Affairs has exercised jurisdiction of 
the subjects of commercial treaties and reciprocal arrangements.--On 
December 6, 1882,\1\ the resolutions distributing the President's 
message contained the following:

  To the revenue provisions of the reciprocity treaty with Hawaii and 
to commercial relations with foreign countries having connection with 
revenue questions to be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.\2\

  After debate, this was amended so as to refer the subject of the 
revenue provisions of the Hawaiian treaty to the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs.\3\
  And the Committee on Foreign Affairs has reported legislation as 
follows:
  In 1884,\4\ the resolution (H. Res. 32) requesting the President to 
negotiate for the renewal of the Canadian reciprocity treaty.
  In 1886,\5\ the bill (H. R. 7884) authorizing the President to 
arrange for a conference to promote arbitration and commercial 
relations of a reciprocal nature with the other American nations.
  In 1888,\6\ the bill (H. R. 1473) to arrange a conference to promote 
reciprocity and arbitration with the other nations of America and the 
bill (H. R. 129) to promote commercial union with Canada.
  In 1890,\7\ a resolution recommending the negotiation of reciprocity 
treaties and a resolution relating to the promotion of commercial union 
with Canada. Again, in 1892,\8\ on the same subject.
  In 1892 \9\ and 1894,\10\ on the subject of reciprocity with Mexico.
  4175. Measures for fostering commercial intercourse with foreign 
nations and for safeguarding American business interests abroad have 
been considered by the Committee on Foreign Affairs.--On June 20, 
1882,\11\ the Committee on Foreign Affairs reported the bill (H. R. 
6023) to authorize the appointment of a special commissioner to promote 
commercial intercourse with the nations of Central and South America.
  In 1890,\12\ the resolutions distributing the President's message 
referred to Foreign Affairs the subject of West India trade.
  The Committee on Foreign Affairs also reported:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Second session Forty-seventh Congress, Journal, p. 41; Record, p. 
58.
  \2\ It should be noted. however, that the legislation to carry into 
effect the reciprocity treaty with Cuba in 1903 was reported from the 
Committee on Ways and Means. (First session Fifty-eighth Congress, 
Report No. 1.)
  \3\ The Committee on Ways and Means has exercised this jurisdiction, 
however. (See sec. 4021 of this chapter.)
  \4\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2149.
  \5\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 1648.
  \6\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Reports Nos. 369, 1183.
  \7\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Reports Nos. 1827, 1870.
  \8\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 1957.
  \9\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 1145.
  \10\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 878.
  \11\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Report No. 1457.
  \12\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Record, p. 188.
                                                            Sec. 4176
  In 1884,\1\ the bill (H. R. 6926) to authorize the appointment of a 
special commissioner for promoting commercial intercourse with the 
countries of Central and South America.\2\
  In 1886,\3\ the resolution (H. Res. 14) requesting the President to 
invite the cooperation of the governments of American nations in 
securing the establishment of free commercial intercourse and an 
American customs union.
  On December 10, 1890,\4\ the resolutions for the distribution of the 
President's message provided for the reference of subjects relating to 
``extension of commercial and banking facilities with Mexico, South and 
Central America'' to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
  Foreign Affairs reported--
  In 1890,\5\ on the subject of an intercontinental railway.
  In 1885,\6\ on the subject of discrimination against American 
products by the German Empire.
  In 1896,\7\ on the exclusion of American life insurance companies 
from Germany.
  4176. Preliminary jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Affairs as 
to the canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.\8\--In certain of 
the steps preliminary to the undertaking of a canal between the waters 
of the Atlantic and Pacific the Committee on Foreign Affairs exercised 
jurisdiction, and reported:
  In 1882,\9\ the bill (H.R. 6799) relating to the Nicaragua Canal.
  In 1889,\10\ the resolution (S. Res. 122) declaring the sense of the 
United States Government in respect to the connection of European 
governments with ocean canals at the isthmus of Darien and in Central 
America; and the bill (S. 3949) for the relief of laborers on the 
Panama Canal.
  In 1890,\11\ the resolutions distributing the President's message 
referred the subject of ``Isthmian transit'' to Foreign Affairs.
  4177. The Committee on Foreign Affairs has general jurisdiction of 
the subject of international conferences and congresses.\12\--On 
December 6, 1882,\13\ the resolutions distributing the President's 
message provided for the reference to the Foreign Affairs Committee 
subjects relating to legislation touching the sending
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1445.
  \2\ In 1900, however, the Committee on Interstate and Foreign 
Commerce reported the bill (S. 1939) authorizing the President to 
appoint a commission to study trade conditions in China and Japan. 
(First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Reports Nos. 484, 878.)
  \3\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 1645.
  \4\ Second session Fifty-first Congress, Journal, p. 42; Record, p. 
303.
  \5\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 2243.
  \6\ Second session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2682.
  \7\ Second session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 215.
  \8\ This subject generally belongs, however, to the jurisdiction of 
the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. See section 4103 of 
this volume.
  \9\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Reports Nos. 1698, 4167.
  \10\ Second session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 3869, Record, p. 
1936.
  \11\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Record, p. 188.
  \12\ See, however, section 4111 of this volume for instances wherein 
this jurisdiction was shared by the Committee on Interstate and Foreign 
Commerce; and section 4255 for instance of exercise of the jurisdiction 
by the Committee on Patents.
  \13\ Second session Forty-seventh Congress, Journal, p. 40; Record, 
p. 56.
Sec. 4178
of delegates to represent the United States at international 
conventions to consider matters of common interest to civilized 
nations; to the holding of a peace congress at Washington, D.C., to be 
composed of representatives of the countries constituting the American 
continents; to the centennial celebration of the birth of Bolivar, the 
founder of South American independence, to be held in July, 1883, at 
the city of Caracas, Venezuela.
  Similarly, in 1889,\1\ subjects relating to the Pan-American Congress 
and the International Maritime Congress were referred to Foreign 
Affairs.
  The Committee on Foreign Affairs has reported:
  In 1884,\2\ the resolution (H. Res. 225) to authorize the President 
to appoint a commissioner to the International Prison Congress.
  In 1888,\3\ the bill (H. R. 6554) to provide for an international 
marine conference--
  In 1890,\4\ on the subject of the International American Conference.
  In 1892,\5\ on the subject of the Pan-American Medical Congress.
  In 1906,\6\ on the subject of an international conference relative to 
immigration.
  4178. Bills to carry out the stipulations of treaties are often 
reported by the Committee on Foreign Affairs.--The Committee on Foreign 
Affairs has jurisdiction of matters of international concern, and has 
reported--
  In 1886 \7\ and 1891,\8\ on bills to carry out a treaty or convention 
for the protection of submarine cables, and as to the Pacific Cable 
Company.
  In 1887,\9\ the bill (S. 3044) to provide for the execution of the 
treaty with China in relation to the importation of opium.
  In 1899,\10\ the resolution relating to correspondence with other 
nations to obtain an agreement to exempt from capture private property 
on the sea.
  On January 9, 1882,\11\ in the distribution of the President's 
message, so much as referred ``to legislation to carry into effect 
treaties recently negotiated between the United States and China and 
the United States and Japan,'' were referred to the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs.
  4178a. The subjects of extradition with foreign nations, 
international arbitration, and violation of neutrality have been within 
the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.--The Committee on 
Foreign Affairs reported in 1889 \12\ on the subject of enlargement of 
extradition with Great Britain.
  The Committee on Foreign Affairs also has reported:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Record, p. 188.
  \2\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1339.
  \3\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 361.
  \4\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 627.
  \5\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 1791.
  \6\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3400.
  \7\ Flint session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3198.
  \8\ Second session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 3774.
  \9\ Second session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3691.
  \10\ Third session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 1874.
  \11\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Journal, p. 246; Record, 
p. 297.
  \12\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Record, p. 188.
                                                            Sec. 4179
  In 1886,\1\ recommending that the subject of appropriating for the 
ceremonies of inauguration of the Bartholdi statue, as well as the 
appropriation for establishing it as a light, be referred to the 
Committee on Appropriations.
  In 1892,\2\ on international arbitration.
  In 1901,\3\ a resolution relating to the violation of the neutrality 
laws by the shipment of horses and mules to South Africa.
  4179. The creation and history of the Committee on Military Affairs, 
section 12 of Rule XI.
  The rules give to the Committee on Military Affairs jurisdiction of 
subjects relating ``to the military establishment and the public 
defense.''
  Appropriations for the military establishment and the public defense, 
including the Military Academy, are by rule placed within the 
jurisdiction of the Committee on Military Affairs.
  Section 12 of Rule XI provides for the reference of subjects 
relating--

  To the military establishment and the public defense, including the 
appropriations for its support.\4\ and for that of the Military Academy 
to the Committee on Military Affairs.

  This committee consists of eighteen Members and one Delegate.
  It was added to the list of standing committees \5\ on March 13, 
1822.\6\ When the rules were revised in 1880,\7\ its jurisdiction was 
defined:

  To the military establishment and the public defense, other than the 
appropriations for its support, to the Committee on Military Affairs.

  In 1885, when the appropriation bills were distributed, the present 
form was adopted.\8\
  The committee may report at any time its general appropriation 
bills.\9\
  4180. The Committee on Military Affairs reports two general 
appropriation bills, one for the Army and the other for the Military 
Academy.--The Committee on Military Affairs reports not only the 
general appropriation bill for the support of the Army, but also the 
general appropriation bill for the support of the Military Academy.\10\
  4181. The Committee on Military Affairs has jurisdiction over 
legislative propositions relating to the War Department, but does not 
report appropriations for salaries therein.--In 1906 \11\ the Committee 
on Military
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 2899.
  \2\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 1897.
  \3\ Second session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 2912.
  \4\ See, however, sections 4042-4049 of this volume for exceptions to 
this rule.
  \5\ On December 7, 1815 (First session Fourteenth Congress, Journal, 
p. 29; Annals p. 380), such a committee had been proposed by Mr. 
Richard H. Wilde, of Georgia.
  \6\ First session Seventeenth Congress, Journal, p. 357.
  \7\ Second session Forty-sixth Congress, Record, p. 205.
  \8\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Record, pp. 168, 196, 278.
  \9\ See section 4621 of this volume.
  \10\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 1445; first 
session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3169.
  \11\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 2663.
Sec. 4182
Affairs reported on a subject relating to the Bureau of Insular Affairs 
in the War Department,\1\ in accordance with its legislative \2\ 
jurisdiction over the War Department.
  4182. Appropriations for clerks in the office of the Chief of Staff 
belong to the army bill.--On January 23, 1904,\3\ the army 
appropriation bill was under consideration in Committee of the Whole 
House on the state of the Union, when the Clerk read the paragraph 
headed:

     PAY TO CLERKS AND MESSENGERS AT HEADQUARTERS OF DIVISION AND 
             DEPARTMENTS AND OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF.

  One chief clerk, $2,000.
  Four clerks, at $1,800 each per annum, etc.

  And concluding:

  And said clerks and messengers shall be employed and assigned by the 
Secretary of War to the offices and positions in which they are to 
serve.

  Mr. Oscar W. Underwood, of Alabama, made the point of order that the 
subjects of this paragraph were within the jurisdiction of the 
Committee on Appropriations.
  After debate the Chairman \4\ held:

  This paragraph appropriates for ``pay to clerks and messengers at 
headquarters of division and departments and office of the Chief of 
Staff.'' The point of order of the gentleman from Alabama, as the Chair 
understands it, is that because this paragraph includes an 
appropriation for clerks in the office of the Chief of Staff, therefore 
it is in effect an appropriation for one of the Executive Departments 
of the Government at Washington, and therefore should not be included 
in this army appropriation bill, which comes from the Committee on 
Military Affairs, but should be covered by the legislative, executive, 
and judicial appropriation, which is within the jurisdiction of a 
different committee. We have a statute which provides that--
  ``Each head of a Department is authorized to employ in his Department 
such number of clerks of the several classes recognized by law, and 
such messengers, assistant messengers, copyists, watchmen, laborers, 
and other employees, and at such rates of compensation, respectively, 
as may be appropriated for by Congress from year to year.''
  Salaries for such clerks and employees are properly carried in the 
executive and not in the army bill. As to what constitutes a 
``Department,'' the Chair calls attention to an opinion of the 
Attorney-General of the United States directly in point. It is found in 
Opinions of the Attorney-General, volume 15, page 267, and reads as 
follows:
  ``The several Executive Departments are by law established at the 
seat of government. They have no existence elsewhere. Only those 
bureaus and offices can be deemed bureaus or offices in any of these 
Departments which are constituted such by the law of its organization. 
The Department, with its bureaus or offices, is in contemplation of the 
law an establishment distinct from the branches of the public service 
and the offices thereof, which are under its supervision. Thus the 
office of postmaster, or of collector of internal revenue, or of 
pension agents, or of consuls, is not properly a departmental office--
not an office in a Department having supervision over the branch of the 
public service to which
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ The Committee on Insular Affairs has an exclusive jurisdiction 
over Porto Rico and the Philippines as to all subjects except 
appropriations. (See sec. 4213 of this work.)
  \2\ While the Committee on Military Affairs has legislative 
jurisdiction over the War Department, the appropriations for salaries 
of the Secretary, chiefs of divisions, and clerks in Washington are 
carried in the legislative bill, which is reported from the Committee 
on Appropriations.
  \3\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Record, pp. 1084-1087.
  \4\ Marlin E. Olmsted, of Pennsylvania, Chairman.
                                                            Sec. 4183
it belongs. True, an official relation exists here between the office 
and the Department, one, moreover, of subordination of the former to 
the latter, but this does not make the office a part of the 
Department.''
  The Chair thinks that ruling very applicable to the case in hand. 
Referring to the act of February 14, 1903, entitled ``An act to 
increase the efficiency of the Army,'' being the act whereby this 
office of Chief of Staff is created, it does not appear that there is 
any provision that he shall be established or even have his 
headquarters at Washington. He may be in the field. He may be anywhere 
the necessities of the service require. He is, among other things, to 
``have supervision of all troops of the line'' and to ``perform such 
other military duties'' as may be lawfully assigned him by the 
President. The Chair is of the opinion that he is not the head of a 
``Department'' within the meaning of the law and ruling of the 
Attorney-General, but his relation to the War Department, so far as the 
bill is concerned, is of a character similar to that formerly sustained 
by the Lieutenant-General. The words embraced in lines 13, 14, and 15, 
on page 8, ``And said clerks and messengers shall be employed and 
assigned by the Secretary of War to the offices and positions in which 
they are to serve,'' would, if introduced for the first time in this 
bill, be open to objection, but it appears to be the identical language 
which is in the existing law, the army appropriation bill of last year. 
It is a mere reaffirmation of law. The Chair, therefore, overrules the 
point of order.

  4183. Legislative authorization for construction of buildings for use 
of the Army and provisions for the control thereof are generally within 
the jurisdiction of the Committee on Military Affairs.--The Committee 
on Military Affairs has jurisdiction of authorizations of law as to 
buildings for use of the Army, as in the case of the quartermaster's 
warehouse at Omaha, Nebr.; \1\ and as to the control of army posts, as 
in the case of the bill relating to the sale of liquor in canteens at 
army posts.\2\
  4184. Fire control and direction apparatus for field artillery comes 
within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Military Affairs.
  The acts of the Executive Departments in submitting estimates are not 
of effect in determining questions of jurisdiction.
  On February 27, 1906,\3\ the army appropriation bill was under 
consideration in Committee of the Whole House on the state of the 
Union, when a paragraph of appropriation was read including the 
following:

  Fire control and direction apparatus and material for field 
artillery.

  Mr. Lucius N. Littauer, of New York, made the point of order that the 
jurisdiction of this item belonged to the Committee on Appropriations 
and not to the Committee on Military Affairs.
  In the course of the debate Mr. Richard Wayne Parker, of New Jersey, 
explained as follows:

  Mr. Chairman, General Greely has stated this matter with some care, 
on pages 1 and 2 of the hearing.
  He states generally that the Signal Corps have to manage this 
arrangement by which guns shall be pointed in the field; I have seen it 
in actual work within the past two months, and I think perhaps the 
Chairman will be enlightened by a statement of how it is done.
  Suppose it is desired to shoot at an enemy who is seen from the top 
of a hill. The guns are not brought to the top of the hill, because 
then they would be a mark instantly for the enemy. They are placed in a 
hollow behind where the gunners can shoot over the hill, but can not 
see the mark at which they are to shoot. Instantly the Signal Corps, 
who now ask this appropriation, lay a telegraph line which operates by 
telephone from the battery of guns up to the observing point on the top 
of the hill,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 1920.
  \2\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 1701.
  \3\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Record, pp. 3071-3080.
Sec. 4184
where the Signal Corps have taken their stand. There they have an 
instrument, a small spyglass, that is leveled like a transit, by which 
they can take sight on the object to be shot at; and likewise we will 
say on a steeple in the rear, and they thus get the angle between the 
line of fire from the point on the top of the hill and the line back to 
the steeple. Then they know, or measure the distance, from that 
observation point to the gun's at one side in the hollow. They then 
calculate upon that distance that the lines to the steeple and to the 
enemy will make a certain different angle at the gun from what they did 
at the top of the hill, and so the man down the hill having a small 
instrument, a telescope or transit like that used at the top of the 
hill, sights back upon the steeple and forward at the angle that he is 
directed to take by telephone, shoots over the hill at that angle, and 
without seeing his mark, hits that mark.
  It is those instruments which are used by the Signal Service in the 
field which gentlemen here say belong to the fortifications 
appropriation. In fortifications all that work is done by fixed 
telescopes, instruments put in houses or at fixed points, and managed 
by the artillery. In the field that direction is given by the Signal 
Corps and by no other corps, and this provision, as explained by 
General Greely, is to allow the Signal Corps to provide themselves not 
with fortification artillery, but with telescopic sights fitted with 
small graduated circles, which will tell them how to direct the guns in 
the field, how to shoot, and with the like sights to be put upon the 
guns or set near the guns, which will enable them to fulfill those 
directions.

  At the conclusion of the debate the Chairman \1\ ruled:

  The gentleman from New York [Mr. Littauer] makes the point of order 
against the words ``fire control and direction apparatus and material 
for field artillery,'' in lines 1 and 2, on page 5 of the bill, 
contending that this item of appropriation belongs to the Appropriation 
Committee and not to the Committee on Military Affairs. This raises the 
square question of jurisdiction between these two committees. It is a 
question which has been before the Committee of the Whole and before 
the House ever since division of the appropriations, in the Forty-ninth 
Congress, between the various committees now reporting appropriation 
bills. This is an extremely important question, and the Chair has found 
it a very delicate one to pass upon, involving not only an 
interpretation of the rules and the precedents of the House, but also a 
review of the practice of the committees dating back for many years.
  The Chair will state, in the first place, that he does not think the 
occupant of this chair in Committee of the Whole is called upon to 
consider, in passing upon such a question as this, the attitude of the 
Executive Departments toward the various committees of the House.
  It appears that an item similar to this has been carried for the past 
three years in appropriation bills coming from the Committee on 
Appropriations, and that no point of order has been made against those 
items. The present occupant of the chair, however, is compelled to find 
that the Chair ought not to seek shelter behind the undisputed action 
of the House or committee when he is called upon to decide a point of 
order according to the law and the precedents.
  This question brings before us the history of the separation of the 
jurisdiction of the Appropriation Committees of the House, and the 
present occupant of the chair has undertaken to look into it with as 
much care and as fully as time permitted.
  Prior to the Forty-ninth Congress all appropriation bills were framed 
by the Appropriations Committee, and matters relating to military 
affairs were scattered, at first apparently indiscriminately, between 
the sundry civil bill, the military bill, the fortification bill, and, 
of course, the various deficiency bills. Prior to the Forty-ninth 
Congress the rules under which authority was given to the 
Appropriations Committee and the Military Committee were as follows: 
The rules provided that matters relating to appropriations of the 
revenue for the support of the Government should go to the Committee on 
Appropriations, while matters relating to the military establishment 
and the public defense, other than appropriations for its support, 
should go to the Committee on Military Affairs. When the subdivision 
and distribution of matters going to the various appropriation 
committees were made, they were made effective by the rules of the 
House which have prevailed down to the present time, which were as 
follows:
  ``Matters relating to appropriation of the revenue for the support of 
the Government as herein provided, namely, for legislative, executive, 
and judicial expenses, for sundry civil expenses, for forti-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Henry S. Boutell, of Illinois, Chairman.
                                                            Sec. 4184
fications and coast defense, for the District of Columbia, for 
pensions, and for all deficiencies, to the Committee on Appropriations.
  ``Matters relating to the military establishment and the public 
defense, including appropriations for its support, and that of the 
Military Academy, to the Committee on Military Affairs.''
  The language in the latter rule, it will be seen, is sufficiently 
broad, if standing by itself, to cover all appropriations relating to 
the military establishment. In order, therefore, to find out what items 
are not given to the Military Committee, we must determine what is 
meant by the language in the rule conferring jurisdiction on the 
Appropriation Committee, which says: ``For fortifications and for coast 
defense.''
  The gentleman from Iowa who last addressed the Chair has suggested 
that in this division of authority the Committee on Military Affairs 
took only those subjects which the military bill carried under the 
Appropriation Committee when that committee had charge of all the 
bills. According to this line of reasoning, then, it would be true, of 
course, that the Appropriations Committee, under the language, ``for 
fortifications and for coast defense,'' retains jurisdiction of only 
those items which previous to the separation had been carried in the 
fortification bill. This was a matter which so interested the Chair 
that he took occasion to look through all of the fortification acts 
from 1885 back to the civil war, that he might discover whether the 
fortification bills ever carried any items other than those directly 
connected with the fortifications and with the heavy guns of the coast 
defenses. But for twenty years prior to the division of jurisdiction 
the fortification bill carried no items except such as were directly 
connected with fortifications and coast defenses. Therefore the Chair 
sought to discover on what theory field guns were given to the 
Appropriations Committee after the division of jurisdiction and were 
covered in the fortification bill.
  The last decision upon this question was made as late as 1898, on 
February 5 of that year, the fortification bill then being under 
consideration in Committee of the Whole. When this paragraph was read, 
``For steel field guns, $30,000,'' Mr. Hull, of Iowa, then chairman of 
the Committee on Military Affairs, made the point of order that this 
provision belonged to the Committee on Military Affairs and not to the 
Committee on Appropriations. After considerable debate the chairman of 
the committee, Mr. Hopkins, of Illinois, held that the point of order 
was not well taken, and that the item ``for steel field guns, 
$30,000,'' belonged to the fortification bill. He referred to certain 
precedents which the Chair will allude to. On March 31, 1890, the House 
being in Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, and 
considering the army appropriation bill, a paragraph for metallic 
cartridges for field gun batteries and steel shell and shrapnel for 
artillery guns was under consideration, was read, and Air. Marcus 
Brewer, of Michigan, made the point of order that those items were not 
properly in the army bill, since they belonged to fortifications and 
coast defense, and that they belonged to the jurisdiction of the 
Committee on Appropriations. After debate Mr. Payson, of Illinois,\1\ 
being in the chair, said:
  ``The question presented is of great difficulty and the discussion 
has not been sufficiently full to entirely satisfy the Chair about the 
precedents, but the exigencies of the work before the House will not 
permit further delay. The practice of the House for the last twenty 
years preceding the last six years in large part has obtained under 
different conditions as between committees from those which now exist, 
and the Chair will confine himself strictly to the rule as he 
understands it.''
  He then read the rule prevailing at that time--which still prevails--
which the Chair had previously read, and then said:
  ``As the Chair understands this rule, the Committee on Appropriations 
in this matter is confined strictly to that which pertains to 
fortifications and coast defenses. The Chair holds that the provision 
of the bill providing for steel field guns and carriages for the same 
not used in fortifications nor made for fortifications nor for coast 
defenses properly goes to the Committee on Military Affairs, and he 
therefore overrules the point of order.''
  Immediately, on motion of Mr. Joseph G. Cannon, of Illinois, then 
chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, the committee struck out 
the paragraphs in question from the military bill by a vote of 91 ayes 
to 57 noes.
  On the next day, on April 1, 1890, the Committee of the Whole House 
had under consideration the fortifications appropriation bill. The item 
in that bill against which the point of order was made
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Mr. Allen, of Michigan, not Mr. Payson, was in the Chair. See 
section 4042 of this volume.
Sec. 4184
(and I call the attention of the members of the committee especially to 
these items as enumerated) was for steel field guns, 3.2 caliber, 
metallic cartridges for field-gun batteries, and steel shell or 
shrapnel for field guns.
  Mr. Cutcheon, of Michigan, made the point of order against the 
paragraph, and Mr. Payson, of Illinois, decided that the point of order 
was not well taken and overruled it, as he said, in conformity with the 
uniform decisions of the House.
  The Chair found upon more careful examination a similar decision on 
the 19th of January, 1899, when Mr. Blount, of Georgia, was in the 
chair, and a point of order was made by Mr. Cutcheon against this 
provision for steel forgings for not less than twenty-four 3.6-inch 
field guns, $24,000. Another point of order on the same bill was made 
by Mr. Cutcheon against the following paragraph:
  ``One thousand steel shrapnel for field guns; 4,800 projectiles, cast 
iron, for field guns.''
  These were on the fortifications bill. The Chair overruled the points 
of order.
  Still the present occupant of the chair was unable to find the reason 
why these field guns were appropriated for in the fortifications bill 
from the Appropriations Committee. But by further reference he found 
that on February 9, 1887, this matter came before the House and not 
before the Committee of the Whole. On that day the Speaker laid before 
the House Senate bill 662, to encourage the manufacture of steel for 
modern army ordnance, armor, and other purposes; to provide heavy 
ordnance adapted to modern army warfare, and for other purposes. Mr. 
McAdoo said:
  ``Mr. Speaker, I make the same point of order with reference to this 
bill that the gentleman from Michigan made with regard to the preceding 
bill-that under clause 11 of the eleventh rule, which provides that all 
proposed legislation relating to the military establishment and the 
public defense, including the appropriations for its support and for 
that of the Military Academy, should be referred to the Committee on 
Military Affairs, and that this bill should be so referred.''
  The occupant of the chair at that time was Mr. Speaker Carlisle. The 
colloquy which followed, as shown by the Record, was participated in by 
his great successor as Speaker of the House, the late Speaker Reed. It 
appears from the colloquy preceding the reference of the bill that both 
Speaker Carlisle and Mr. Reed, the leader of the minority on the floor, 
acquiesced in the sending of this bill to the Appropriations Committee.
  This occurred in 1887, very soon after the division of bills had been 
made and matters relating to the military establishment taken from the 
Appropriations Committee, with the exception of fortifications and 
coast defenses, and from the provisions of the bill then under 
consideration it seems very clear to the present occupant of the chair 
that the reason why Speaker Carlisle and Mr. Reed held that such bills 
should go to the Appropriations Committee to be considered in the 
fortifications bill was because the heavy siege guns and the field 
artillery were both manufactured by the same arsenal. The only ground 
on which the Appropriations Committee secured authority to appropriate 
for the field guns was not under the rule, but under the interpretation 
of the rule and by the decisions of the Speaker of the House and by the 
Chairmen of the Committee of the Whole. That is as nearly as the Chair 
has been able to analyze this subject and the disputes between the two 
committees.
  There was no logical reason why field guns should not have been given 
to the Military Committee under that rule. They could not have been 
covered in fortifications and coast defenses under the language of the 
rule. It was only by an interpretation of the rule and by the 
decisions, as I have said, of the Speaker and of the various Chairmen. 
Now, if we go back and examine these items that have come before the 
committee and before the House, we will find that they cover, first, 
the guns themselves, and, second, those matters necessarily appurtenant 
to the guns, as carriages, shot, and ammunition. The Chair has been 
referred to no precedent which has held that equipment not appurtenant 
to the field guns, but connected with their operation, could go to the 
Appropriations Committee. The Chair has given due weight to the fact 
that this item has been carried in other Congresses in fortification 
bills, but the point has never been raised against them, and there are 
no rulings to guide the judgment of the Chair.
  The Chair also gives very great weight to the point so ably made by 
the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Smith], that fortification bills have 
uniformly carried similar items for the coast defenses and for 
fortifications, and right here is where the Chair thinks is the 
dividing line and why it seems to the Chair that this is such a 
delicate question. The fire control for guns in the coast defense are 
instrumentalities appurtenant to the coast defense. Fire control, on 
the other hand, for mobile guns in the field are instrumentalities 
appurtenant to the Army in its military operations and are not a part 
of the gun.
                                                            Sec. 4185
  The Chair is confirmed in his general opinion by the very exhaustive 
history referred to by the gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Tawney] 
setting forth the way in which jurisdiction was given to the Committee 
on Military Affairs, and by the ruling of the late Speaker Henderson 
following the able arguments made by the late Representative Moody, at 
that time serving on the Appropriations Committee and now Attorney-
General, and the present chairman of the Military Affairs Committee. In 
ruling upon the items that were submitted to him the Speaker said:
  ``The Chair therefore holds that the appropriations for the 
manufacture of small arms and equipments for the infantry, cavalry, and 
artillery at the armories and arsenals are within the jurisdiction of 
the Committee on Military Affairs.''
  As the Chair is informed, respecting the character of this fire-
control apparatus, he regards it as an equipment of the artillery 
establishment and not as connected with or appurtenant to the gun. And 
therefore this item should not go to the Appropriations Committee, 
which has jurisdiction of the manufacture of field guns and 
appurtenances, but to the Military Committee, which takes all those 
things which are appurtenant to the Army and the public defense. After 
giving the subject as thorough consideration as the time permitted, and 
after studying the history of the conflict of jurisdiction involved, 
the Chair feels constrained to overrule the point of order.

  Mr. Walter I. Smith, of Iowa, then stated that in view of the fact 
that this item had already been placed in the fortifications bill, he 
would move to strike it out of this bill.
  After debate this motion was disagreed to, ayes 38, noes 62.
  4185. Legislation relating to the National Soldiers' Homes is within 
the jurisdiction of the Committee on Military Affairs.--The Committee 
on Military Affairs exercises jurisdiction over legislation \1\ 
relating to the National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, and has 
reported:
  In 1900,\2\ a joint resolution (H. J. Res. 216) appointing three 
members on the Board of Managers of the National Home for Disabled 
Volunteer Soldiers; and also other bills relating to National Homes.
  Again, in 1906,\3\ as to the board of managers; \4\ and also as to a 
temporary Home for Union soldiers and sailors.
  4186. Legislation relating to the national cemeteries is within the 
jurisdiction of the Committee on Military Affairs.--The Committee on 
Military Affairs has general jurisdiction of legislation relating to 
national cemeteries,\5\ except appropriations therefor, which are 
carried in the sundry civil bill, within the jurisdiction of the 
Committee on Appropriations.
  In 1901 \6\ the Committee on Military Affairs reported the bill to 
extend the Loudon Park National Cemetery; and in 1906 \7\ on the 
national cemetery at Greenville, Tenn.
  On April 27, 1882,\8\ the Committee on Military Affairs reported the 
bill (H. R. 6011) to improve the public road to the Arlington National 
Cemetery; and has reported similar bills since that time.\9\
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ The Committee on Appropriations exercises jurisdiction over 
appropriations for these Homes, reporting therefor in the sundry civil 
bill.
  \2\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Reports Nos. 312, 469, 777, 
1851.
  \3\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Reports Nos. 3588, 2336.
  \4\ See, however, section 4052 of this volume.
  \5\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Reports Nos. 875, 878.
  \6\ Second session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 2529.
  \7\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 2667.
  \8\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Report No. 6011.
  \9\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3718.
Sec. 4187
  4187. Legislation relating to military parks and battlefields is 
within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Military Affairs.--The 
Committee on Military Affairs has jurisdiction over legislation 
relating to military parks and battlefields,\1\ and has reported:

  In 1893 \2\ and 1906,\3\ as to the battlefield of Gettysburg and the 
improvements thereon.
  In 1906,\4\ as to the park commission for the battlefield of 
Petersburg, Va.
  In 1901,\5\ as to the national military park commission.
  4188. In a few instances the Committee on Military Affairs has 
reported general bills providing for the adjustment of claims arising 
out of war.--On March 18, 1884,\6\ the Committee on Military Affairs 
reported the resolution (H. Res. 172) relating to the settlement of the 
claims of western States and Territories for expenditures on account of 
Indian hostilities. The report also shows that a prior act on this 
subject was reported from this committee.
  In 1899 \7\ this committee reported the bill (H. R. 12020) to 
reimburse the governments of States and Territories for expenses 
incurred in the war with Spain.
  4189. The creation and history of the Committee on Naval Affairs, 
section 13 of Rule XI.
  The rule gives to the Committee on Naval Affairs jurisdiction of 
subjects relating ``to the naval establishment, including the 
appropriations for its support.''
  Section 13 of Rule XI provides for the reference of subjects 
relating--

  To the naval establishment, including the appropriations for its 
support; to the Committee on Naval Affairs.

  The Committee on Naval Affairs has eighteen members.
  It was made a standing committee \8\ on March 13, 1822.\9\ The form 
of the present rule is that of the revision of 1880 \10\ as modified by 
that of 1885,\11\ when the naval appropriation bill was taken from the 
Appropriations Committee and given to this committee, with the 
privilege of reporting it at any time.\12\
  This committee not only has entire jurisdiction of legislation 
relating to the Navy, Marine Corps, and Naval Academy, but also has 
jurisdiction of an appropriations therefor, except only those for the 
salaries, etc., of the Secretary of the Navy and the chief of divisions 
and clerks in the Department in Washington, which
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Appropriations for these objects are carried in the sundry civil 
appropriation bill, which is within the jurisdiction of the Committee 
on Appropriations.
  \2\ Second session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 2188.
  \3\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 4252.
  \4\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 2469.
  \5\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 2043.
  \6\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 807.
  \7\ Third session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 2176.
  \8\ On December 7, 1815 (first session Fourteenth Congress, Journal, 
p. 29; Annals, p. 380), such a committee had been proposed by Mr. 
Richard H. Wilde, of Georgia.
  \9\ First session Seventeenth Congress, Journal, p. 351.
  \10\ Second session Forty-sixth Congress, Record, p. 205.
  \11\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Record, pp. 168, 196, 278.
  \12\ See section 4621 of this volume.
                                                            Sec. 4190
are carried in the legislative appropriation bill, reported by the 
Committee on Appropriations.
  4190. The creation and history of the Committee on Post-Office and 
Post-Roads, section 14 of Rule XI.
  The rule gives to the Committee on Post-Office and Post-Roads 
jurisdiction of subjects relating ``to the post-office and post-roads, 
including appropriations for their support.''
  Section 14 of Rule XI provides for the reference of subjects 
relating--

  To the post-office and post-roads, including appropriations for their 
support; to the Committee on the Post-Office and Post-Roads.

  This committee has eighteen Members and one Delegate.
  It first became a standing committee on November 9, 1808,\1\ on 
motion of Mr. John Rhea, of Tennessee, who became its first chairman. 
At that time it was composed of one Member from each State. A rule 
defining its jurisdiction was reported and adopted in 1811.\2\ The 
present rule is in the form of the revision of 1880 \3\ as modified by 
that of 1885,\4\ when the clause relating to appropriations was 
inserted. The committee may report its appropriation bill at any 
time.\5\
  4191. The appropriation for officers and clerks in the Railway Mail 
Service belongs to the jurisdiction of the Committee on the Post-Office 
and Post-Roads.--On March 29, 1906,\6\ the legislative appropriation 
bill was under consideration in Committee of the Whole House on the 
state of the Union, under the terms of a special order which made it 
impossible to raise a question of order against any provision reported 
in the bill; and the following paragraph was read:

  Division of Railway Mail Service: For the following now authorized 
and being paid from appropriations for the postal service, namely: 
General Superintendent, $4,000; Assistant General Superintendent, 
$3,500; chief clerk, $2,500; assistant chief clerk, $1,800; five clerks 
of class 3; six clerks of class 2; five clerks of class 1; three 
clerks, at $1,000 each; two clerks, at $900 each; in all, $39,000.

  Mr. Jesse Overstreet, of Indiana, raised a question that this 
paragraph was within the jurisdiction of the Post-Office appropriation 
bill, and moved to strike it out.
  After debate the motion was agreed to, ayes 58, noes 22.
  4192. The jurisdiction of the Committee on Post-Office and Post-Roads 
extends to the Railway Mail Service, ocean mail service, pneumatic-tube 
service, etc.--The Committee on Post-Office and Post-Roads has general 
legislative jurisdiction of subjects relating to the postal service,\7\ 
as well as
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Second session Tenth Congress, Journal, p. 345.
  \2\ See Report No. 38, first session Twelfth Congress.
  \3\ Second session Forty-sixth Congress, Record, p. 205.
  \4\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Record, pp. 168, 196, 278.
  \5\ See section 4621 of this volume.
  \6\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Record, pp. 4473, 4477.
  \7\ The authorization of buildings for post-offices is within the 
jurisdiction of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, and 
appropriations therefor are within the jurisdiction of the Committee on 
Appropriations and are reported in the sundry civil bill.
Sec. 4193
jurisdiction of appropriations therefor, including the Railway Mail 
Service,\1\ ocean mail service,\2\ pneumatic tube service; \3\ and in 
1901 \4\ reported a bill codifying the postal laws. The appropriations 
for salaries, etc., of the Postmaster-General and heads of divisions 
and clerks in the Department at Washington are reported in the 
legislative appropriation bill, which is within the jurisdiction of the 
Committee on Appropriations.
  4193. Subjects relating to postal savings bank and postal telegraphy 
are within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Post-Office and Post-
Roads.--The Committee on Post-Office and Post-Roads has also exercised 
jurisdiction as follows:
  In 1991,\5\ on the subject of postal savings banks.
  In 1886,\6\ a resolution relating to an inquiry as to a monopoly of 
telegraph facilities.
  In 1887,\7\ the bill (H. R. 10398) relating to telegraph lines, 
especially the landgrant telegraph lines.
  On January 9, 1884,\8\ the resolutions distributing the President's 
message referred subjects relating to postal telegraphy to the 
Committee on Post-Office and Post-Roads.
  4194. The creation and history of the Committee on Public Lands, 
section 16 of Rule XI.
  The rule gives to the Committee on Public Lands jurisdiction of 
subjects relating ``to the lands of the United States.''
  Section 15 of Rule XI provides for the reference of subjects 
relating--

  To the lands of the United States; to the Committee on the Public 
Lands.

  This committee is composed of fifteen Members and one Delegate.
  It dates from December 17, 1805,\9\ when Mr. William Findley, of 
Pennsylvania, proposed to add to the standing committees of the House 
``a committee respecting the lands of the United States.'' It was 
opposed on the ground that a standing committee would gain too great an 
ascendancy over the sentiments and decisions of the House. On the other 
hand, it was contended that the business of the House would be greatly 
facilitated by the institution of a standing committee whose decisions 
would be uniform, and who would from long experience become more 
enlightened than a select committee.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ For reports on this subject see first session Fifty-first 
Congress, Report No. 375; second session Fifty-third Congress, Report 
No. 501.
  \2\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 699.
  \3\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 1256.
  \4\ Second session Fifty sixth Congress, Report No. 2272.
  \5\ Second session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 4002.
  \6\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Record, p. 1704.
  \7\ Second session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3501.
  \8\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Journal, p. 256; Record, p. 
319.
  \9\ First session Ninth Congress, Annals, pp. 285, 286. The committee 
had been first proposed January 3, 1805 (second session Eighth 
Congress, Journal, p. 76; Annals, p. 870), but the House had declined 
to authorize it.
                                                            Sec. 4195
  The present form of the rule dates from the revision of 1880.\1\ The 
committee may report certain classes of business at any time.\2\
  4195. The Committee on Public Lands exercised a preliminary 
jurisdiction over the subject of irrigation.--In 1886 \3\ the Committee 
on Public Lands reported the bill (S. 1092) granting right of way 
through the public lands for irrigation purposes; and in 1905 \4\ on 
lands for reservoir sites
  Generally, however, since 1901,\5\ matters affecting irrigation, 
which had gone to public lands because they affected the national 
domain, began to be considered exclusively by the Committee on 
Irrigation of Arid Lands.
  4196. The Committee on Public Lands has exercised jurisdiction over 
the public lands of Alaska, including grants to public service 
corporations.--The Committee on Public Lands have jurisdiction as to 
the public lands of Alaska, and the committee reported generally on 
that subject in 1890; \6\ in 1896 \7\ on the subject of a surveyor-
general for Alaska; in 1902,\8\ on land offices there; in 1905 \9\ on 
Alaska coal-land laws; in 1906,\10\ on allotment of homesteads to 
natives of Alaska; and in 1900,\11\ on various bills relating to 
homestead laws, timber and stone lands, mining claims, and placer-
mining laws in Alaska.
  As to railways in Alaska, as generally they have been encouraged by 
grants of land, the Committee on Public Lands has maintained a certain 
jurisdiction, having reported bills:
  In 1901,\12\ relating to homestead laws and railroad rights of way.
  In 1905,\13\ relating to the Alaska Central Railway.
  In 1906,\14\ bills relating to the Alaska Central and Alaska Short 
Line railways.
  The Committee on Territories, however, had also shared the 
jurisdiction as to Alaska railways.
  Public Lands in 1901,\15\ reported on rights of way for telephone and 
telegraph lines in Alaska.
  4197. The Committee on Public Lands exercises jurisdiction as to such 
forest reserves as are created out of the public domain.--The forest 
reserves created by setting aside portions of the public lands \16\ 
are, so far as legisla-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Second session Forty-sixth Congress, Record, p. 205.
  \2\ See section 4621 of this volume.
  \3\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 2038.
  \4\ Third session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 4503.
  \5\ Second session Fifty-sixth Congress, Reports Nos. 2904, 2927, 
2934.
  \6\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 2450.
  \7\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 901.
  \8\ First session, Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 42.
  \9\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1298.
  \10\ First session, Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3295.
  \11\ First session, Fifty-sixth Congress, Reports Nos. 561, 568, 569, 
571, 572. But in 1886 (first session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 
3232), the Committee on Territories reported a bill extending the 
homestead laws to the Territory of Alaska.
  \12\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 778.
  \13\ Third session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 4821.
  \14\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report Nos. 4983, 5009.
  \15\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 2460.
  \16\ Forest reserves on lands not a portion of the public domain are 
within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Agriculture. (See sec. 4160 
of this volume.)
Sec. 4195
tion--distinguished from appropriation--is concerned within the 
jurisdiction of the Committee on Public Lands, and that committee has 
reported:
  In 1898,\1\ a bill authorizing the leasing of portions of forest 
reserves.
  In 1894 \2\ and 1899,\3\ bills relating to forest reservations.
  In 1900,\4\ a bill preserving the rights of persons who have had 
unperfected land titles in regions included within forest reservations.
  In 1903,\5\ on the subject of game animals, birds, and fish in forest 
reserves.
  In 1894,\6\ in relation to timber on the public lands
  In 1900,\7\ on the bill (H. R. 10590) setting aside a preserve for 
the American bison.
  4198. The Committee on Public Lands has jurisdiction over subjects 
relating to those national parks created out of the public domain.--The 
Committee on Public Lands has jurisdiction over legislation (but not of 
appropriation), relating to the national parks created out of portions 
of the public domain, and has reported bills relating to the 
Yellowstone,\8\ Yosemite,\9\ Wind Cave,\10\ and also on the proposed 
Petrified Forest National Park.\11\
  4199. Bills relating to the preservation of prehistoric ruins and 
natural objects of interest on the public lands have been reported by 
the Committee on Public Lands.--The Committee on Public Lands has 
reported bills of the following class:

  In 1905,\12\ relating to aboriginal monuments and ruins.
  In 1900,\13\ the resolution (H. Res. 170) providing for negotiating 
for or bonding the groves of Sequoia Gigantea, or big trees, in 
Calaveras and Tuolume counties, California; the bill (H. R. 10451) for 
the preservation of the prehistoric monuments and ruins on public 
lands; and the bill (H. R. 9634) to set aside certain lands to be known 
as the Petrified Forest National Park of Arizona.
  In 1901,\14\ the bill (H. R. 13071) to set apart certain lands in New 
Mexico to be known as the Cliff Dwellers' Park.
  In 1906,\15\ on the subject of American antiquities.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 942.
  \2\ Third session Fifty-fifth Congress, Record, p. 919.
  \3\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 897.
  \4\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 1700.
  \5\ Second session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 3862; first 
session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 4907.
  \6\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Reports Nos. 241, 1204, 
1400.
  \7\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 985.
  \8\ First session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 3071; second session 
Fifty-third Congress, Reports Nos. 380, 658, 1386, 1387.
  \9\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Reports Nos. 559, 1315, 
1547; second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2576.
  \10\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Reports Nos. 2606, 2676.
  \11\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 4638. In 1885 
(second session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2383) the Committee 
on Territories reported a bill setting aside a tract of land for the 
Yellowstone National Park.
  \12\ Third session Fifty-eighth Congress, Reports Nos. 3703-3705.
  \13\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Reports Nos. 436, 879, 1104
  \14\ Second session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 2427.
  \15\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 2224.
                                                            Sec. 4200
  4200. Subjects relating to Arkansas Hot Springs Reservation are 
within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Public Lands.--The Hot 
Springs Reservation in Arkansas, is within the jurisdiction of the 
Committee on Public Lands,\1\ together with the regulation of the 
hotels and bath houses connected therewith. \2\
  4201. The forfeiture of land grants and alien ownership of land have 
been considered by the Public Lands Committee, although the Judiciary 
Committee also has participated in the jurisdiction of certain land 
questions.--On January 20, 1885,\3\ the Committee on Public Lands 
reported the bill (H. R. 2308) to prohibit aliens and foreigners from 
acquiring or owning lands within the United States.
  In 1886 \4\ the Committee on the Judiciary submitted a report setting 
forth that the forfeiture of lands granted to corporations was a 
subject belonging to the jurisdiction of the Committee on Public Lands, 
and declining to take jurisdiction.
  On June 16, 1882,\5\ the Judiciary Committee reported the bill (H. R. 
6520) relating to land patents in the Virginia military district of 
Ohio, a question arising out of the cession of the territory northwest 
of the Ohio by Virginia; and in 1887 \6\ the Judiciary Committee also 
reported the bill (H. R. 5556) making it a misdemeanor to set fires on 
the public lands of the United States.
  4202. The Committee on Public Lands has exercised a general but not 
exclusive jurisdiction over the public lands in relation to the 
minerals contained therein, and has reported bills to establish schools 
of mines.--The Committee on Public Lands has exercised jurisdiction 
over the subject of public lands as related to the minerals contained 
therein, and has reported:
  In 1894 \7\ bills relating to assessment work on mining claims; to 
mineral land laws in reservations; on Minnesota gold and silver lands.
  In 1896,\8\ on examination of mineral lands in California.
  In 1894,\9\ 1896,\10\ and 1906,\11\ on bills relating to the 
establishment of schools of mines.\12\
  4203. The Committee on Public Lands has reported projects of general 
legislation relating to various classes of land claims, as related both
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Third session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 2088; third 
session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 4215.
  \2\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2039.
  \3\ Second session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2308.
  \4\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 2027. But in the 
Forty-seventh Congress (first session, Record, p. 6852, Reports Nos. 
1205, 1283) the Judiciary Committee had reported very important bills 
of this nature.
  \5\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Report No. 1414.
  \6\ Second session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 4107.
  \7\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Reports Nos. 262, 382, 1381.
  \8\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 317.
  \9\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Reports Nos. 381, 410, 413.
  \10\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Reports Nos. 50, 140.
  \11\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 1685.
  \12\ The Committee on Mines and Mining has also reported on the 
subject of schools of mines. (See sec. 4226 of this volume.)
Sec. 4204
to States and individuals.--The Committee on Public Lands has reported 
general legislation--as distinguished from private and special--on 
these subjects:
  In 1891,\1\ the subject of Arkansas indebtedness.
  In 1892,\2\ on the Arkansas swamp land claims.
  In 1898,\3\ on a bill (H. R. 10170) for the relief of homestead 
claimants who served in the war with Spain.
  4204. The creation and history of the Committee on Indian Affairs, 
section 16 of Rule XI.
  The rule gives to the Committee on Indian Affairs jurisdiction of 
subjects relating ``to the relations of the United States with the 
Indians and the Indian tribes, including appropriations therefor.''
  Section 16 of Rule XI provides for the reference of subjects 
relating--

to the relations of the United States with the Indians and the Indian 
tribes, including appropriations therefor; to the Committee on Indian 
Affairs.

  This committee consists of eighteen Members and one Delegate.
  It was established as a standing committee on December 17, 1821 \4\ 
by a resolution moved by Mr. Samuel Moore, of Pennsylvania, who became 
its first chairman. The present form of the rule dates from the 
revision of 1880,\5\ as modified by the distribution of the 
appropriation bills in 1885.\6\ The committee may report its 
appropriation bill at any time.\7\
  4205. The Committee on Indian Affairs has a broad jurisdiction of 
subjects relating to the care, education, and management of the 
Indians, including the care and allotment of their lands.--On December 
6, 1888,\8\ the resolutions distributing the President's message used 
this language relating to the jurisdiction of the Committee on Indian 
Affairs, giving to that committee so much ``as relates to the care, 
education, and management of the Indians.'' This language had been used 
for a long time in these resolutions; and the committee has exercised a 
broad jurisdiction as to the care of Indians on the reservations, and 
in Indian Territory while that reserve existed as a separate territory, 
and also as to the care and preservation of Indian lands and the 
allotment in severalty.\9\
  4206. The Committee on Indian Affairs has jurisdiction of both 
general and special bills as to claims which are paid out of Indian 
funds.--On January 18 and 19, 1882, the House,\10\ after consideration, 
determined that bills for the payment of Indian depredation claims out 
of Indian funds should go to the Committee on Indian Affairs and not to 
the Committee on Claims.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Second session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 3314.
  \2\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 1571.
  \3\ Second session Fifty-fifth Congress, Report No. 1343.
  \4\ First session Seventeenth Congress, Journal, pp. 57, 62; Annals, 
p. 553.
  \5\ Second session Forty-sixth Congress, Record, p. 205.
  \6\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Record, pp. 168, 196, 278.
  \7\ See section 4621 of this volume.
  \8\ Second session Fiftieth Congress, Journal, p. 53.
  \9\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 1558.
  \10\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Record, pp. 484, 517.
                                                            Sec. 4207
  The Committee on Indian Affairs reported in 1903 \1\ on the subject 
of Indian depredation claims, and in 1891 \2\ on the Miami Indian 
claims.
  4207. As to jurisdiction in relation to overdue bonds of certain 
States held in the Treasury as part of Indian trust funds.--A question 
has frequently arisen as to certain overdue bonds and stocks of certain 
States, formerly belonging to an Indian trust fund and held in the 
Treasury of the United States, and the jurisdiction of the subject has 
sometimes been with the Committee on Indian Affairs \3\ and sometimes 
with the Committee on Ways and Means.\4\
  4208. The creation and the history of the Committee on the 
Territories, section 17 of Rule XI.
  The Committee on the Territories has, by rule, jurisdiction of 
subjects relating ``to Territorial legislation, the revision thereof, 
and affecting Territories or the admission of States.''
  Section 17 of Rule XI provides for the reference of subjects 
relating--

to Territorial legislation, the revision thereof, and affecting 
Territories or the admission of States; to the Committee on the 
Territories.

  This committee consists of sixteen Members and two Delegates.
  The jurisdiction given the committee on December 13, 1825,\5\ when it 
was established, was as follows:

  It shall be the duty of the Committee on Territories to examine into 
the legislative, civil, and criminal proceedings of the Territories, 
and to devise and report to the House such means as, in their opinion, 
may be necessary to secure the rights and privileges of residents and 
nonresidents.

  The present form of the rule dates from the revision of 1880.\6\ The 
committee may report at any time bills for the admission of new 
States.\7\
  4209. The Committee on the Territories has jurisdiction of 
legislation relating to the general affairs of the Territories, and has 
even reported bills relating to the courts.--The Committee on 
Territories has general jurisdiction of subjects relating to the 
Territories within what has been termed continental United States, and 
has reported on a wide range of bills:
  In 1906 \8\ a bill to ratify and confirm the act of the legislative 
assembly of the Territory of Oklahoma, passed in the year 1901, 
authorizing the board of county commissioners of Kay County, Okla., to 
change the course of Spring Creek; and similar bills.
  In 1886 \9\ the bill (H. R. 2163) relating to the sale of 
intoxicating liquors in the Territories.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2854.
  \2\ Second session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 3852.
  \3\ Thus, by the Indian appropriation act of 1894 (28 Stat. L., p. 
311) the Secretary of the Treasury was directed to place these bonds 
and stocks on the books of the Treasury to the credit of the Indians.
  \4\ Second session Forty-first Congress, Globe, p. 1689.
  \5\ First session Nineteenth Congress, Journal, p. 46.
  \6\ Second session Forty-sixth Congress, Record, p. 205.
  \7\ See section 4621 of this volume.
  \8\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3929.
  \9\ First session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 2444.
Sec. 4210
  In 1887 \1\ the bill (H. R. 3750) relating to the power of 
Territorial legislatures to create corporations.
  In 1904 \2\ on a bill relating to the Arizona Asylum for the Insane.
  In 1884 \3\ this committee reported as to jurisdiction of justices of 
the peace, and also as to courts and judicial proceedings, and in 1887 
\4\ as to the fees of marshals and attorneys, and even as to the 
creation of an additional justice for a Territorial supreme court, 
although in general this jurisdiction belongs to the Judiciary 
Committee.
  4210. The Committee on the Territories has jurisdiction of general 
subjects relating to the district of Alaska.--Although a Territorial 
government has not been created for Alaska, the Committee on 
Territories has exercised a general jurisdiction over subjects relating 
to that region, and has reported:
  On the subject of representation in Congress by a Delegate;\5\
  The laws of the Territory; \6\
  Construction and maintenance of roads; \7\
  Municipal corporations; \8\
  Sale of intoxicating liquors in; \9\
  Care of the insane; \10\
  As to justices of the peace and constables.\11\
  4211. The Committee on Territories has exercised a general but not 
exclusive jurisdiction as to game and fish in Alaska, including the 
salmon fisheries.--The Committee on Territories has exercised a general 
although not exclusive jurisdiction as to the salmon fisheries of 
Alaska, and has reported several bills \12\ on that subject, and on May 
28, 1902,\13\ the reference of a bill on this subject was changed from 
Merchant Marine and Fisheries to Territories, although later the former 
committee reported a bill on the same subject.\14\ In 1906,\15\ 
however, the Committee on Territories reported on the subject of 
fisheries in Alaska, and on a bill prohibiting aliens from taking fish 
in those waters.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Second session Forty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3750.
  \2\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1021.
  \3\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Reports Nos. 254, 1056.
  \4\ Second session Forty-ninth Congress, Reports Nos. 3486, 3739, 
3751.
  \5\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Report No. 1306; First 
session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 1472.
  \6\ Third session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1607.
  \7\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2235.
  \8\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2742.
  \9\ Third session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1616.
  \10\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2743.
  \11\ Third session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1649.
  \12\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Reports Nos. 871, 1452; 
first session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 2062.
  \13\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress.
  \14\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2099. See 
section 4147 of this volume.
  \15\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Reports Nos. 2657, 2485.
                                                            Sec. 4212
  The Committee on Territories has also reported on the subject of game 
\1\ and wild fowl \2\ in Alaska, although legislation relating to the 
reindeer \3\ has been reported from the Committee on Agriculture.
  4212. The Committee on Territories has general jurisdiction of 
subjects relating to the Territory of Hawaii.--The Committee on 
Territories exercises a general jurisdiction of subjects relating to 
the Territory of Hawaii:
  Laws relating to election of Delegate; \4\
  Fuel and gas supply in Honolulu; \5\
  Fund for public works in Hawaii; \6\
  Quarantine station at Honolulu.\7\
  In 1900 \8\ this committee reported a bill reserving certain lands at 
Oahu, Hawaiian Islands, which were a part of the public domain; and 
this year \9\ and the next year the committee reported bills relating 
to Hawaiian coinage, although the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and 
Measures protested.
  In 1901,\10\ also, the Committee on Territories reported a bill 
relating to subports of entry and delivery in Hawaii.
  4213. The creation and history of the Committee on Insular Affairs, 
section 18 of Rule XI.
  The rule gives to Insular Affairs jurisdiction of all subjects, other 
than revenue and appropriations, relating to the islands which came to 
the United States by the Spanish treaty of 1899.
  The rule creating the Committee on Insular Affairs gave to it 
jurisdiction of subjects relating to Cuba.
  Section 18 of Rule XI provides that the Committee on Insular Affairs 
shall have jurisdiction of:

  All matters (excepting those affecting the revenue and the 
appropriations) pertaining to the islands which came to the United 
States through the treaty of 1899 with Spain, and to Cuba.

  This committee consists of eighteen Members and the Resident 
Commissioner of Puerto Rico.
  On December 5, 1899,\11\ Mr. James A. Tawney, of Minnesota, 
introduced a resolution providing for a Committee on Insular Affairs; 
and on December 8 \12\ Mr. John Dalzell, of Pennsylvania, reported from 
the Committee on Rules a resolution creating the committee. This 
resolution was on that day agreed to by the House.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 951.
  \2\ Third session Fifty-third Congress, Record, p. 2957.
  \3\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 1093.
  \4\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3704.
  \5\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Report No. 1634.
  \6\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 2743.
  \7\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 1113.
  \8\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 778.
  \9\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 831; second 
session, Report No. 2941.
  \10\ Second session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 2463.
  \11\ First session Fifty-sixth Congress, Record, p. 60.
  \12\ Record, p. 159.
Sec. 4214
  4214. The Committee on Insular Affairs exercises practically an 
exclusive jurisdiction over the affairs of the islands ceded by the 
treaty of 1899, except as to matters of revenue and appropriation.--The 
Committee on Insular Affairs, both by the terms of the rule defining 
its jurisdiction and in practice, exercises a broad jurisdiction over 
matters relating to the island possessions, without regard generally to 
the facts that the subjects would be such as ordinarily would fall 
within the jurisdiction of other committees.\1\ Thus, it has reported:
  In 1903,\2\ on the Philippine coinage; and on removal of persons 
accused of crime to and from the Philippine Islands.
  In 1904,\3\ on the construction of harbors and establishment of 
agricultural experiment stations in Porto Rico; and on the issue of 
bonds for municipal improvements in the Philippines.
  In 1906,\4\ on Batan Island military reservation in the Philippines; 
on construction of wharves and piers in Porto Rico; exemption of Porto 
Rican bonds from taxation; loan of naval vessel to Philippine 
government; Philippine coinage system; Phillippine shipping trade; 
qualifications of jurors and temporary substitute for a district judge 
in Porto Rico.
  In 1907,\5\ a bill to provide for the establishment of an 
agricultural bank in the Philippines.
  4215. Although there is a specific rule giving to Insular Affairs the 
jurisdiction of matters relating to Cuba, the House has decided that 
they belong rather to Foreign Affairs.--On December 20, 1906,\6\ House 
Resolution No. 647, distributing the President's message, was 
considered in the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the 
Union, when this clause was considered:

  That so much as relates to the islands which came to the United 
States through the treaty of eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, with 
Spain [and to Cuba] (except so much as relates to the revenue and the 
appropriations), be referred to the Committee on Insular Affairs.

  Mr. Sereno E. Payne, of New York, in explaining the amendment which 
the Ways and Means Committee had recommended, to strike out the words 
``and to Cuba,'' saying that as Cuba had become a foreign country the 
provision of the rules of the House giving jurisdiction to the Insular 
Affairs Committee had become inapplicable, and such matters would now 
be referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
  Considerable debate arose about taking the subject from the Committee 
on Insular Affairs, but Mr. Payne explained that the House had taken 
similar action the year before.
  The amendment was agreed to.
  4216. A proposition to establish a system for dealing with a certain 
class of claims in the Philippines was referred by the House to the 
Committee on Insular Affairs.
  Instance wherein the House referred a message of the President.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Of course exception is made by rule of matters relating to 
revenue and appropriations.
  \2\ Second session Fifty-seventh Congress, Reports Nos. 3023, 3478, 
3542, 3834.
  \3\ Second session Fifty-eighth Congress, Reports Nos. 2227, 2717.
  \4\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Reports Nos. 3214, 3629, 
4214, 4216, 4218, 4665, 4879, 4923.
  \5\ Second session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 8115.
  \6\ Second session Fifty-ninth Congress, Record, pp. 602-604.
                                                            Sec. 4217
  On December 5, 1906,\1\ the Speaker laid before the House the 
following message from the President of the United States:

To the Senate and House of Representatives:
  I herewith submit to the Congress the report of the Secretary of War 
and of the Judge-Advocate-General in reference to the claims presented 
by the representatives of the Roman Catholic Church for amounts due 
from the United States to the various Roman Catholic churches in the 
islands for use and occupation by troops of the United States, and for 
damages during such occupation. I cordially indorse all that is said in 
these reports, and earnestly hope that the amount recommended by the 
board will be immediately appropriated, in order to do what is really 
an act of substantial justice to the Roman Catholic churches of the 
Philippines, in accordance with the suggestion of the Secretary of War. 
It is not only a matter of equity that we should pay this sum, but for 
the reasons set forth by the Secretary of War it is very greatly to the 
interest of the people of the Philippine Islands that it should be 
paid. I have accordingly approved the action of the Secretary of War in 
directing that the same board be reconvened, or another convened, to 
report on the advisability of paying additional sum to the Roman 
Catholic churches in the islands, in view of the damages inflicted upon 
them by reason of the war and by the insurrectos. I feel that this is 
peculiarly a case where, in the interest of the Philippine people 
themselves, it would be wise for the Congress to exercise a large 
liberality.
                                               Theodore Roosevelt.
  The White House, December 5, 1906.

  The Speaker \2\ said, after the reading of the message:

  The Chair is in doubt as to the proper reference of this message. 
Offhand, perhaps, under the rules, the proper reference would be to the 
Committee on War Claims; but from a broader view, touching the 
Philippines, the Chair is inclined to think possibly the substance of 
the rules would be more fully met by its reference to the Committee on 
Insular Affairs. If the House has a preference as to its reference----

  Mr. Sereno E. Payne, of New York, interrupting, said:

  Mr. Speaker, if it is in order, I move that it be referred to the 
Committee on Insular Affairs.

  The question was taken; and the motion was agreed to
  So the message was referred to the Committee on Insular Affairs.
  4217. The creation and history of the Committee on Railways and 
Canals, section 19 of Rule XI.
  The rule gives to the Committee on Railways and Canals jurisdiction 
of subjects relating ``to railways and canals, other than Pacific 
railroads.''
  Early arguments for and against the creation of standing committees.
  Section 19 of Rule XI provides for the reference of subjects 
relating--

to railways and canals, other than Pacific railroads: to the Committee 
on Railways and Canals.

  This committee consists of fourteen Members.
  It was established as a standing committee on December 15, 1831,\3\ 
on motion of Mr. Charles F. Mercer, of Virginia, who named it the 
``Committee on Roads and Canals.'' A committee of this name had been 
proposed, however, as early as December 7, 1815,\4\ by Mr. Richard H. 
Wilde, of Georgia. Mr. Mercer's motion in 1831 was agreed to by a vote 
of 96 to 90, there having been strong opposition to
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Second session Fifty-ninth Congress, Record, pp. 73, 74.
  \2\ Joseph G. Cannon, of Illinois, Speaker.
  \3\ First session Twenty-second Congress, Journal, p. 59; Annals, pp. 
1438, 1442.
  \4\ First session Fourteenth Congress, Journal, p. 29; Annals, p. 
380.
Sec. 4218
making it a standing committee\1\ lest it should be construed as an 
indorsement of an elaborate system of internal improvement. On the 
other hand, it was urged that there had already been special committees 
on the subject, and that such a standing committee had existed in the 
Senate for many years. It was provided at that time that the committee 
should have jurisdiction of matters ``relating to railways and canals 
and the improvement of the navigation of rivers.'' On January 10, 
1834,\2\ Mr. Mercer proposed to add ``harbors'' to the jurisdiction of 
the committee, but the House disagreed to the proposition. While the 
clause of the rule relating to ``the improvement of the navigation of 
rivers'' remained until the revision of the rules in 1880,\3\ it was to 
a large extent obsolete, since from 1831 to 1879 most bills relating to 
the improvement of rivers were sent to the Committee on Commerce.\4\ 
The jurisdiction of the Committee on Railways and Canals, in this 
respect especially, was carefully examined and reported on in 1877.\5\ 
The present form of rule defining jurisdiction dates from the revision 
of 1880.
  4218. The Committee on Railways and Canals has retained a general 
jurisdiction of the subject of canals; but has lost its jurisdiction as 
to railways.--The jurisdiction of the Committee on Railways and Canals 
as to railways has been absorbed by the Committee on Interstate and 
Foreign Commerce.\6\ But the jurisdiction of legislation as to canals 
has been retained, and the Committee on Railways and Canals has 
reported.
  In 1882,\7\ on the Illinois and Mississippi Canal, the Maryland and 
Delaware ship canal, and the Michigan ship canal; also the bill (H. R. 
5545) relating to the jurisdiction of the United States over certain 
ship canals and other navigable waters.
  In 1884,\8\ on various canals; and the bill (H. R. 6320) relating to 
a harbor of refuge and breakwater at the northern end of the Cape Cod 
ship canal.\9\
  In 1885,\10\ on the bill (H. R. 4991) to provide for the survey of a 
water route to connect Lake Michigan and Detroit River.
  In 1891,\11\ 1892,\12\ 1901,\13\ and 1906,\14\ on the incorporation 
of the Lake Erie and Ohio Ship Canal Company.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ For another argument in opposition to standing committees, see 
section 4194 of this volume.
  \2\ First session Twenty-third Congress, Journal, pp. 179, 180, 508.
  \3\ Second session Forty-sixth Congress, Record, p. 205.
  \4\ Now the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. See section 
4096 of this volume.
  \5\ Second session Forty-fifth Congress, Record, pp. 18, 28; Report 
No. 13. See also remarks of Mr. Beale, second session Forty-sixth 
Congress, Record, p. 726.
  \6\ See section 4114 of this volume.
  \7\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Reports Nos. 879, 880, 
1000, 1016.
  \8\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Reports Nos. 339, 602, 603, 
628, 1294, 2040.
  \9\ As this bill carried an appropriation, the jurisdiction of this 
committee over it may be doubted, as the appropriating power belongs to 
the Rivers and Harbors Committee, or where contracts have been made, to 
the Appropriations Committee. Furthermore, the subject of harbors is in 
the later practice exclusively within the jurisdiction of the Rivers 
and Harbors Committee.
  \10\ Second session Forty-eighth Congress, Report No. 2455.
  \11\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 1416.
  \12\ Second session Fifty-sixth Congress, Report No. 2496.
  \13\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 1872.
  \14\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 1343.
                                                            Sec. 4219
  In 1901 \1\ and 1906 \2\ on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.
  In 1896,\3\ on canal navigation; and in 1906 \4\ on condition and 
ownership of canals.
  In 1892,\5\ 1894,\6\ and 1896,\7\ on a proposed ship canal between 
the Great Lakes and the Hudson River.
  In 1894,\8\ on the proposed connection between the Red River of the 
North and the Minnesota River.
  In 1890,\9\ on the Niagara Falls ship canal.
  4219. The Committee on Rivers and Harbors does not have jurisdiction 
of the subject of canals, and may not include provisions therefor in 
the river and harbor appropriation bill.
  Where points of order are reserved on an appropriation bill, a 
portion not germane, and not within the jurisdiction of the committee, 
may be stricken out on a point of order in Committee of the Whole.
  The river and harbor bill is not a general appropriation bill.
  On February 19, 1885,\10\ a question arose over a paragraph in the 
river and harbor bill, providing for the construction of the Hennepin 
Canal, and after extended debate the Chairman \11\ of the Committee of 
the Whole House on the state of the Union, in the course of an 
elaborate opinion, said:

  The gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Turner] asked that that part of the 
bill which begins on line 813 and ends with line 842 be stricken out. 
They relate exclusively to the ``construction of a canal from the 
Illinois River near the town of Hennepin to the Mississippi River at or 
near Rock Island,'' and propose that $300,000 be appropriated therefor. 
He claimed that they should be stricken from the bill upon four points 
of order.
  The first was that the Committee on Rivers and Harbors had no 
jurisdiction over the subject-matter of that canal. The second was that 
that committee had no right to put that canal into this bill and 
thereby give it the precedence allowed to bills making appropriations 
for the improvement of rivers and harbors by paragraph 8, Rule XI.\12\ 
The third ground was that said lines are practically the same as H. R. 
1975 upon the Calendar, reported last session by the gentleman from 
Iowa [Mr. Murphy] from the Committee on Railways and Canals. That being 
true, it is contended that those lines are therefore obnoxious to 
clause 4, Rule XXI, as to amendments. His last point was that this was 
``new legislation, increasing the amount of expenditure covered by the 
bill, and doing it by a clause not germane to the bill.'' Allusion was 
there meant to the familiar third paragraph of Rule XXI.\13\
  For convenience, the last two points will be disposed of first. In 
reply to them it was urged that this bill is not a general 
appropriation bill and not covered by the third clause of Rule XXI, 
which in terms applies to ``general appropriation bills,'' and that 
clause 4 of Rule XXI is in terms confined to amendments, whereas the 
lines attacked are in the bill and not offered as an amendment.\14\
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ First session Fifty-seventh Congress, Report No. 1610.
  \2\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 244.
  \3\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 351.
  \4\ First session Fifty-ninth Congress, Report No. 3215.
  \5\ First session Fifty-second Congress, Report No. 1023.
  \6\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 913.
  \7\ First session Fifty-fourth Congress, Report No. 423.
  \8\ Second session Fifty-third Congress, Report No. 1335.
  \9\ First session Fifty-first Congress, Report No. 1430.
  \10\ Second session Forty-eighth Congress, Record, pp. 1677, 1927, 
2097.
  \11\ Nathaniel J. Hammond, of Georgia, Chairman.
  \12\ Now section 61 of Rule XI. See section 4621 of this volume.
  \13\ See section 3578 of this volume.
  \14\ This provision of the rule no longer exists.
Sec. 4219
  In February, 1881, Mr. Carlisle (our present Speaker) being Chairman 
of the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, 
considering the river and harbor appropriation bill, held that it was 
not a general appropriation bill, and that therefore an amendment to 
add a new work--that is, ``an ice harbor at Dubuque, Iowa, $40,000''--
was not out of order.\1\ That decision has been followed ever since, 
and, upon the letter of the rule, is fatal to the fourth point above 
stated. The third point as put is applicable to amendments only, and as 
the letter of the rule cited covers only amendments, and this is not an 
amendment, that letter again kills.

  Having examined the point as to the jurisdiction of the committee, 
the Chairman said:

  It is admitted that when the bill was reported to the House, and 
before and upon its reference to this committee, all points of order 
were reserved openly in the House and entered into its proceedings. But 
it is claimed that this precise question has been decided. It is 
asserted that during the last session of this Congress, when a like 
bill was in Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, the 
then chairman of the committee, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Wellborn] 
held this same canal to be in order under like circumstances, and that 
on appeal his decision was sustained by the committee by a vote of 103 
to 63.
  A decision under like circumstances deliberately made by that 
gentleman would have great weight with the Chair. The vote of the 
committee on appeal, even though but half the Members voted, would add 
force to the decision were the issues fully understood when that vote 
was had. It is important, therefore, to examine the facts.

  Having reviewed the facts of that decision, and quoted from it, the 
Chairman continued:

  That extract contained a deliberate opinion ``that the Committee on 
Rivers and Harbors did not have jurisdiction over the subject.'' It 
further held that ``had the point been presented before the House at 
the proper time and in the proper way the Chair thinks the clause 
should have been stricken from the bill.'' There, as here, jurisdiction 
was asserted by reason of reference of the Chief Engineer's report, 
etc., to the Committee on Rivers and Harbors.
  That Chairman gave no opinion as to what was the proper time and 
proper way in the House. Doubtless the proper time would have been when 
the bill was reported and before it was committed to the Committee of 
the Whole House on the state of the Union. And now about the ``proper 
way.'' Had the House been informed that this matter was in the bill 
before it was sent here, action might have been taken in the House 
other than reserving points of order if its rules and practice allowed 
consideration in the House before consideration in the Committee of the 
Whole House on the state of the Union. But there is no such practice as 
to appropriation bills. When this bill was reported its title indicated 
what it was. It was an original bill reported from the committee, never 
having been before introduced into the House. By Rule XXI, clause 1, it 
was then read only by its title and referred to this committee.\2\ It 
was never read in the House except by title. But suppose it be treated 
as having been so read. Rule XXIII \3\ requires that--
  ``All motions or propositions involving a tax or charge upon the 
people; all proceedings touching appropriations of money or property * 
* * shall be first considered in a Committee of the Whole, and a point 
of order under this rule shall be good at any time before the 
consideration of a bill has been commenced.''
  It seems to the Chair that had it been so read in the House and a 
point of order had been raised and a motion had been made to strike out 
this canal provision, the Speaker could but have said that that was a 
``motion'' or ``proposition'' or ``proceeding touching appropriations 
of money'' under Rule XXIII, and all that the House could do was to 
refer it to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, 
where that rule demands that its first consideration shall be had.
  Suppose that is not true. Suppose that the House, when for the only 
time this bill was before it, had instructed this committee first to 
pass upon this point of order. None would then doubt that
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Third session Forty-sixth Congress, Record, p. 1634.
  \2\ This rule is different now.
  \3\ See section 4792 of this volume.
                                                            Sec. 4220
this committee could so act. Where is the difference when, pursuant to 
its ordinary practice, the House allowed all points of order to be 
reserved and sent the bill here under that disability for the action of 
this committee?
  Paragraph 8 of the same Rule XXIII declares that ``the rules of 
proceeding in the House shall be observed in Committee of the Whole 
House so far as they are applicable.'' Our Digest of Rules, when it 
states that the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole can not rule a 
proposition in an appropriation bill committed to it out of order, 
says:
  ``Of course it is otherwise where the point was reserved before 
commitment.''--(Digest, 265.)
  The fact that the House allows points of order to be reserved before 
commitment proves that it virtually instructs that the fact of 
commitment shall not cut them off. Otherwise the practice of reserving 
points of order on these bills would be worse than an unmeaning farce. 
It would operate as a snare and a fraud. Otherwise all the purposes 
sought by distributing matters among our committee according to their 
jurisdictions, fixed by the rules, would be thwarted. Otherwise the 
river and harbor bill would be an omnibus, capable of carrying whatever 
a majority of the Committee on Rivers and Harbors chose to pack into 
it, however foreign to its jurisdiction, and that, too, with a 
guaranteed ``right of way'' in preference to all legislation except 
that necessary to preserve the life of the Government. Such a 
construction must be wrong. The first and second points of order are 
sustained, and the lines objected to will be stricken from the bill.

   Mr. Thomas J. Henderson, of Illinois, having appealed, on February 
24, the decision of the Chair was sustained--108 yeas to 85 nays.\1\
  4220. The subject of canals is not within the jurisdiction of the 
Committee on Rivers and Harbors.--On February 7, 1907,\2\ the river and 
harbor appropriation bill was under consideration in Committee of the 
Whole House on the state of the Union, when Mr. J. Warren Keifer, of 
Ohio, proposed an amendment as follows:

  Add after line 7, on page 101, the following paragraph:
  ``Big Miami River, from the Ohio River at or near Cincinnati, 
northward along the line of the Miami and Erie Canal to a connection 
with Lake Erie at or near Toledo, and as to its practicability, 
utility, and with a view to obtaining the cost, if completed, of a ship 
canal connecting, for the purposes of trade and commerce, the Ohio 
River and Lake Erie.''

  Mr. James R. Mann, of Illinois, made a point of order, saying:

  An amendment of this sort upon this bill is not in order, because it 
is neither the improvement of a river or a harbor. That matter was 
settled years ago in the case of the Hennepin Canal. The point of order 
was sustained by the Chairman at that time, that it was not in order 
upon a river and harbor bill on the ground that the Hennepin Canal was 
not an improvement of a river or a harbor, and the item went out on the 
point of order.

  The Chairman \3\ held:

  It is perfectly clear to the Chair that this is not within the 
jurisdiction of this committee.

  4221. The creation and history of the Committee on Manufactures, 
section 20 of Rule XI.
  Reference to early jurisdiction of the Committee on Manufactures as 
to tariff bills.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ It should be noted that the bill as to which this decision was 
made was an appropriation bill which originated in the Committee on 
Rivers and Harbors, and therefore should be distinguished from the 
ordinary public bill which originates with a Member and is referred to 
a standing committee. It is held that such reference, if it remain 
uncorrected, gives jurisdiction to the committee receiving it.
  \2\ Second session Fifty-ninth Congress, Record, p. 2467.
  \3\ Frank D. Currier, of New Hampshire, Chairman.
Sec. 4222
  The rule gives to the Committee on Manufactures jurisdiction of 
subjects relating ``to the manufacturing industries.''
  Section 20 of Rule XI provides for the reference of subjects 
relating--

to the manufacturing industries: to the Committee on Manufactures.

  The committee consists of thirteen Members.
  On December 12, 1809,\1\ Mr. Lemuel Sawyer, of North Carolina, 
proposed a standing committee on manufactures; but as this involved a 
division of the jurisdiction of the old Committee on ``Commerce and 
Manufactures'' the House refused assent. But on December 18, 1819,\2\ 
after considerable debate as to the propriety of separating the two 
subjects of commerce and manufactures, the Committee on Manufactures 
was created, on motion of Mr. Peter Little, of Maryland. In the early 
history of the House this committee sometimes reported tariff bills,\3\ 
and as late as April 8, 1864,\4\ it reported on the subject of the duty 
on wool. But these isolated reports have not in any way impaired the 
exclusive jurisdiction of revenue subjects exercised by the Committee 
on Ways and Means in the later history of the House. The present rule 
defining the jurisdiction of the Committee on Manufactures was adopted 
in the revision of 1880.\5\
  4222. Illustrations of exercise of jurisdiction by the Committee on 
Manufactures.--The Committee on Manufactures in 1884 \6\ reported the 
following bills:
  The bill (H. R. 986) to regulate commerce between the States 
pertaining to commercial travelers.
  The bill (H. R. 1435) authorizing the President to appoint a 
commission on the tests of metals.
  In 1882,\7\ the bill (H. R. 4726) providing for the appointment of a 
commission of experts to make tests of iron and steel and materials 
used in structures generally.
  In 1892 and 1893,\8\ on the sweat-shop system.
  In 1885 \9\ the Committee on Manufactures investigated the subject of 
the whisky and cotton bagging trusts.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \1\ Second session Eleventh Congress, Journal, p. 128; Annals, p. 
717.
  \2\ First session Sixteenth Congress, Journal, p. 9; Annals, pp. 708, 
709. See also section 4096 of this volume.
  \3\ Second session Nineteenth Congress, Journal, p. 141; first 
session Twentieth Congress, Journal, p. 236.
  \4\ First session Thirty-eighth Congress, Report No. 48.
  \5\ Second session Forty-sixth Congress, Record, p. 205.
  \6\ First session Forty-eighth Congress, Reports Nos. 1321, 629.
  \7\ First session Forty-seventh Congress, Report No. 1307.
  \8\ Fifty-second Congress, first session, Report No. 164; second 
session, Report No. 2309.
  \9\ Second session Fiftieth Congress, Report No. 4165.