Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1884 — WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON.

J. C. Burrows, of Michigan, has formally declined to accept the Solicitorship of the Treasury. Mr. Wicker, Customs Collector at Key West, has been removed from office for aiding Cuban filibusters. Secretary Lincoln, by direction of the President, has ordered a committee of inquiry in the case of Gen. Swaim. The internal-revenue receipts for the first nine months of the fiscal year which ends June 30, 1884, were as follows: Spirits, $55,497,393, an increase of $3,102,440 over the corresponding period of the previous year; tobacco, $18,854,535, a decrease of $13,755,393; fermented liquors, $12,658,859, an increase of $895,773; banks and bankers, $2,392, a decrease of $3,741,534; miscellaneous sources, $440,904, a decrease o $6,006,539. The aggregate receipts were SB7, 454,084, which are $20,505,253 less than the collections of the last fiscal year. Four reports on the woman-suffrage question have been prepared by the House Judiciary Committee. The adverse majority report declares that it would be either useless or pernicious to permit the entrance of political contention into the homes of the people—useless if man and wife agreed, and pernicious if they differed. In the former event the volume of ballots alone would be increased, and in the latter the peace and contentment of home would be exchanged for a bedlam of political debate and becoine a scene of base and demoralizing intrigue. While a few intelligent women would defy all obstacles in casting their ballots, the great mass of the refined women would shrink from rude contact with the common crowd, leaving to the ignorant and vile the exclusive right to speak for the sex in public affairs. The minority report holds that woman has an equal right to the ballot with man. Mr. Dorsheimer says that, while not willing to have the bill come up at present, yet he thinks the time will soon come when women should’ have the right of suffrage. Mr. Poland declares that he cannot believe that any large portion of the intelllgennt women of the country want suffrage. or would perform the duties if granted to them. The value of imports of merchandise for the twelve months ended March 31, 1884, was $683,258,042, and for the same period in

1888, $742,608,876, a decrease of $66,250,233. The value of exports of merchandise for the twelve months ended March 31, 1884, was $761,733,431, and for the same time in 1883, $808,727,802, a decrease of $46,994,371.