Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 April 1878 — BILLS BEFORE CONGRESS. [ARTICLE]

BILLS BEFORE CONGRESS.

Mail Contracts.— Representative Money offers a bill to regulate the contracts for carrying mails. It provides that when any contractor shall sublet his contract the Postmaster General shall can cel such contract and make a new contract at rates not to exceed the old one, and defines subletting as the employment by any contractor or any person to perform the service at his own expense and care, no part of the service being borne by such contractor. Specie Resumption. — Congressman Stephens has introduced a bill for the financial relief of the country and to facilitate tile return to specie payments without injuriously affecting the commercial business of the people. It directs the Secretary of the Treasury when the amount of coin and bullion in the treasury shall exceed $100,000,000 to redeem the present outstanding United States legal-tender notes when presented in sums of SI,OOO and upward with coin, full standard value. Abandoned Lands.— Senator McMillan has introduced a bill providing that it shall be lawful for homestead settlers, where the crops were destroyed or seriously injured by grasshoppers in the year 1876, »nd who left their lands in said year, to return thereto within three months from the enactment of this bill and perfect their settlement, provided that no other settlement shall have been made thereon, and no right or interest acquired therein by any other person since the date of abandonment. Civil-Service Reform. — Representative Harrison, of Illinois, has introduced , a bill, in the lower house of Congress,-to provide for a more efficient civil service in the United Slates. It would,’ if passed, create a new department in the United States Government, to bp called the Department of Civil Service, to consist of five Commissioners, who shall be appointed by the President. It would be the duty of these Commissioners to prescribe the qualifications requisite for appointment to the several branches of the civil service, and to examine all applicants for appointment. The bill further provides that no assessment shall be levied upon any officer of the United States for political purposes, and the payment of any such assessment shall be cause for immediate dismissal from the service.

A Consulting Naturalist. — Senator Edmunds has introduced a bill providing for the appointment of a Consulting Naturalist to be attached to the Department of Agriculture to investigate the following subjects : “The better preservation of army and naval stores; the cause, prevention and removal of infectious and parasitic diseases of men and animals, such as diphtheria, Texan-cat-tle disease and hog cholera, and to conduct such other investigations as may lead to the destruction of the cotton worm, the weevil, the Colorado beetle, the grasshopper and the curculio.” He is also to set on foot investigations looking to the efficient preservation of butter, cheese, eggs and fruit. This new officer is to be’appointed by the President, subject to confirmation by the Senate.

Anti-Lock- Lp Bill.— The bill introduced in the House by Representative Bright provides that, if any national bank shall aid and abet any person or corporation, or, if any officer of such bank shall certify any check, having reasonable cause to believe that the check is to be used to aid and abet any person or corporation in any attempt to withdraw from circulation orretain legaltender notes cf the United Slates in any bank or elsewhere, for tbe purpose of raising the /ate of interest on money, or to affect the price of any article to be sold, or for causing any change in the money market by either of such means, such national bank shall forfeit its charter, and the officer so offending shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for five years and a fine not let s than SIO,OOO, and it shall be the duty of the Comptroller of the Currency to prosecute any violation of this act before any court of the United States having competent jurisdiction to try such offenses. Fractional Currency.— Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts, has introduced a bill to “supply convenient currency with which the minor business transactions of the people may be done.” It provides for the issuing of 25 and 50 cents in fractional currency, and that any person paying into the treasury legal-tender notes or coin should receive such amount of fractional currency as he may desire, and directs the Secretary of the Treasury to pay out one-sixth of all payments made from the treasury in redemption of national-bank notes by the United State legal-tend er notes of the denominations of sl, $2, $3 and $5.