1300 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
utes to read. I will ask, if there be no ee that it may be con- 
sidered to-night. 
The Presipine Orricer. The question is on concurring in the report 
of the committee of conference. 
Mr. A. P. Gorman. Does the Senator from Kansas desire this report 
to be acted upon now, or will he permit it to be printed and go over 
until to-morrow ? 
Mr. Ineatts. I should prefer, unless there is some reason to the 
contrary, that it may be now considered. 
Mr. Gorman. I trust the Senator from Kansas will favor us with an 
explanation of the report. 
Mr. Ineatts. Its provisions are generally known, and they are 
simple. It provides for the acquisition of a tract of land not exceed- 
ing 2,000 acres in the valley of Rock Creek, at an expenditure of not 
to exceed $1,200,000, one-half of which is to be paid by the Govern- 
ment of the United States and one-half from the revenues of the Dis- 
trict, in four equal annual installments. It has been discussed in both 
‘Houses. The provisions have been generally disseminated through 
the press, and I believe that the measure, while not all that can be 
desired and in some respects not in accord with my own views, is 
generally approved. I think, unless the Senator from Maryland has 
some particular reason why further inquiry should be made, that I 
should prefer to have the report acted upon to-night. 
Mr. Gorman. I am very heartily in favor of the general proposi- 
tion, but in the reading of the report one or two things struck me as 
rather novel to be introduced in the District in an enterprise of this 
sort. The first was the fact that you assess, by a commission to be 
named by the bill, the benefits that accrue to the adjoining property. 
Mr. Incas. I did not like that. That was not in accord with my 
own views, but agreeing to it was the result of a compromise. 
Mr. Gorman. I am perfectly well aware that in quite a number of 
the large cities of the country such is the rule in the opening of streets 
and other improvements within the corporate limits, where the prop- 
erty advances in value rapidly and where the owner derives benefit 
from it, but, as I understand, this park is out some distance from the 
city of Washington, in the country. 
Mr. Ineatts. In the valley of Rock Creek. 
Mr. Gorman. The valley of Rock Creek, and it extends to the Mary- 
land line. 
Mr. Ineatts. It will extend to the District line, if the money holds 
out. 
Mr. Gorman. Very good, but the whole of it is located outside of 
the limits of the city of Washington, and the surrounding country con- 
sists of farms and dwellings and property not of very great value to-day. 
It does seem to me that to choose a commission of our own selection 
