APPROPRIATION FOR REPAIR OF LEVEES, MISSISSIPPI RIVER. APRIL 25, 1912.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. HUMPHREYS of Mississippi, from the Committee on Rivers and Harbors, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. J. Res. 309.] The Committee on Rivers and Harbors, to whom was referred House joint resolution 309, appropriating money for the repair of the levees along the Mississippi River, reports it with the recommendation that the resolution be amended by striking out, in line 19, page 2, the words "unexpended balance of," and that the resolution as amended be agreed to. The flood now passing down the Mississippi River has broken the levees, which have been constructed jointly by the United States Government and the localities along the river, in many places, and large areas of farm lands have been flooded. It is expected that these waters will recede and that the farmers will be able to plant their crops within the next three or four weeks, but when the snows begin to melt along the upper tributaries of the Mississippi there occurs what is generally known as the June rise. This rise reaches the lower Mississippi about the 1st of July, and unless the levees which have been broken by the existing flood can be rebuilt before then another flood will ensue, and coming at that time it will be impossible for the farmers who are then overflowed to make any crop at all this year. The local levee boards along the lower Mississippi raise funds for the construction of levees by taxes which are collected in December, but these funds have practically all been expended during the past 30 days in emergency work done to prevent the destruction of the levees by the existing flood. The gauge at Cairo has heretofore been regarded as an index to the height which might be expected in the lower river. The highest point ever reached on that gauge before the flood of 1912 was 52.2 feet; this year the river reached 54 feet at that point. The highest point reached on the gauge at Memphis heretofore was 40.3 feet; this year the river reached 45.3 at that point. This statement will explain the reason why the local levee boards were required to expend in emergency work during the existing flood the funds which they had raised for further levee building during the current year. The rivers and harbors bill which passed the House a few weeks ago and is now in the Senate will probably not become a law for a month or six weeks, and it will not be possible for the Secretary of War to close these crevasses before the June rise if no funds are available for that purpose until the rivers and harbors act has been approved. The Chief of Engineers estimates that it will require $1,100,000 to close the breaks in the levees which have already occurred, but the flood is still in the river and there is serious danger of still further breaks along the lower reaches. For this reason he recommends that $1,500,000 be made available at once to provide for the rebuilding of the levees already destroyed and to cover other breaks that may hereafter occur. The resolution provides that a million and a half dollars be appropriated to become immediately available, and that the Secretary of War shall keep an accurate account of the cost of repairing these crevasses, and that the total sum so expended shall be deducted from the appropriations for levee construction hereafter available. O 1 INTERFERENCE WITH COMMERCE AMONG THE STATES, ETC. APRIL 25, 1912.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed. Mr. BEALL of Texas, from the Committee on Agriculture, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 56.] The Committee on Agriculture having had under consideration H. R. 56, a bill to prohibit interference with commerce among the States and Territories and with foreign nations, and to remove obstructions thereto, and to prohibit the transmission of certain messages by telegraph, telephone, cable, or other means of communication between States and Territories and foreign nations, submits the following report: Section 1 of this bill defines the word "message" and the word person," and provides that words importing the plural number, whenever used, may be applied to or mean only a single person or thing, and words importing the singular number may be applied to or mean several persons or things. Section 2 makes it unlawful for any person to send or cause to be sent any message offering to make or enter into a contract for the purchase or sale of cotton without intending that such cotton shall be actually delivered and received, and provides penalties for violation. Section 3 makes it the duty of any person sending any message relating to a contract for the future delivery of cotton to furnish to the person transmitting such message an affidavit to the effect that the message does not relate to the character of contracts described in section 2, and provides penalties for any false statement that may be made in such affidavit. This section also provides that proof of failure to make any affidavit required in the act shall be prima facie evidence that the message or messages related to a contract prohibited by section 2 of the act, and that proof of failure to deliver or receive the cotton called for in any contract for future delivery shall be prima facie evidence that there was no intention to deliver or receive said cotton when said contract was made. Section 4 authorizes and requires any agent of any telegraph, telephone, wireless telegraph, or cable company to whom messages described in the act may be tendered to administer any oath required to be made under the provisions of the act, such oath to have like effect and force as if administered by officers having a seal. Section 5 makes it unlawful for any person owning or operating any telegraph or telephone line, wireless telegraph, cable, or other means of communication, or any officer, agent, or employee of such person, knowingly to use such property, or knowingly to allow such property to be used, for the transmission of any message relating to such contracts as are described in section 2 of the act and imposes a penalty for violation. Section 6 declares every book, newspaper, pamphlet, letter, writing, or other publication containing matter tending to induce or promote the making of such contracts and carries the usual penalties for violation. Section 7 authorizes the Postmaster General to instruct the postmasters in the post offices at which any matter described in section 6 as nonmailable matter arrives as to the disposition to be made of such matter and is modeled after the fraud-order section of the existing law. Section 8 provides that in any proceeding under this act all persons may be required to testify and to produce books and papers, but no person shall be prosecuted and subjected to any penalty or punishment whatever on account of any transaction, matter, or thing concerning which he may testify or produce evidence of any character whatever. This action conforms to the immunity clause of the Elkins Act. The purpose of the bill is to restrict, so far as may be, those transactions on the cotton exchanges of the country which are recognized as dealing only with the fluctuations in the price of cotton and which do not involve the actual transfer of the commodity. It does not seek to prohibit or to interfere with a single legitimate transaction in cotton. It is recognized as one of the world's greatest articles of commerce. Millions of our own people are engaged in its production, and other millions, here and elsewhere, are employed in its manufacture and in the distribution of cotton and cotton products. The demand for cotton is world-wide, and commerce in it is a necessity. Any attempt to restrict or hamper the course of legitimate commerce in cotton would be injurious to the producers and distributors, as well as the consumers of cotton products. It is not believed by this committee that any injurious effects upon legitimate dealing in cotton will follow the enactment of this measure into law. In so far as the present system of trading in cotton is dependent upon future trading, if it is at all, when actual delivery is not made, a readjustment may be necessary, but such readjustment can be made with advantage to the cotton trade. In effecting the purpose of eliminating gambling in cotton this bill closes the mails and the interstate agencies of communication against those seeking to use them for purely speculative purposes. It is not believed that any serious constitutional objection can be made against its provisions, and it is expected to prevent a form of speculation that is morally wrong and economically hurtful. The committee therefore recommend that the bill be passed. O 62D CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. ( REPT. 602, 2d Session. INTERFERENCE WITH COMMERCE AMONG THE STATES, ETC. MAY 2, 1912.-Ordered to be printed. Mr. LAMB, from the Committee on Agriculture, submitted the fol lowing as the VIEWS OF THE MINORITY. [To accompany H. R. 56.] We are opposed to the passage of H. R. 56, because 1. The question of the constitutionality of the bill is doubtful. 2. It is a distinct restriction on trade in cotton, which must result in depreciation in its price in the hands of the producer. 3. It denies to all persons dealing in cotton the use of the usual means of transmitting intelligence without the unusual procedure of making special affidavits as to honest intentions. 4. The bill is arbitrary and tyrannical in its requirements, and no valid reason is given for the enactment of a law that makes the ordinary dealing in a staple product criminal unless the deal is proven in advance to be valid under a restrictive and prohibitory measure. 5. The penalties are too severe. Innocent men, unaware of this law, would most likely do the very things it prohibits, and naturally leave undone the things it enjoins. 6. It creates irresponsible agents to administer oaths. 7. It is a radical, unnecessary, profitless, and injurious proposition, which if applied in this case might with equal propriety be employed in restraint of trade of all farm products, to the serious detriment of the producer. 8. It is doubtful if Congress has the power or authority to place such unreasonable restrictions on trade under the commerce clause of the Constitution. It certainly can not do so on commerce wholly within a State. 9. The evidence before the committee showed that the New York Cotton Exchange, through its members, is the distributing agent for more than 80 per cent of the cotton produced in this country. Its by-laws and rules require a well-understood and clearly defined contract for its sales and purchases, enforceable in the courts by actual delivery of the cotton contracted for or damages for breach of such |