Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1885 — CONGRESSIONAL [ARTICLE]

CONGRESSIONAL

The Work of the Senate and Hoose of Representative*. The House joint resolution appropriating $50,000 to relieve the destitute Indians in Montrna passed the Senate on the 7th Inst Mr. I'lumb presented a petition from the Oklahoma settlers protesting against the cruelty of their removal from their lands in the interest of wealthy and powerful cattle owners, and praying Congress to withdraw the military forces and organize the Territory of Oklahoma into a State. Mr. Morrill called up his rcsolutin declaring that reciprocity treaties with nations of Inferior population and resources should be regarded with disfavor, and spoke at length in its sup-ort. A long debate on the interstate commerce bill followed, durlrg which Mr. Ingalls made some very caustic remarks to the effect that tbe upper house was generally suspected of being controlled by corporations. The Chair presented a report by the Mississippi River Commission that Cant. Eads had maintained a channel in the South Pass. In the executive session the Nicaragua treaty was reported back from the Committee on Foreign Rela-ions, with the recommendation that it be ratified. The President sent in*the following nominations: Sidney L. Willson, of New York, Pension Agent at Washington, D. C.; Luther S. Howlett, of Oregon, Receiver of imblic Moneys at Yakima, Washington Territory; August Duddenhausen, of Idaho, Register of the Land Office at Oxford, Idaho; Al en W. Eaton, of Idaho, Receiver of Pubiic Moneys at Oxford, Idaho: Luke Lea, Attorney of the United States for the Southern District of Mississippi. in the House, of Representatives there was presented from the Sectary of the Navy an estimate of $2,500,<00 for the erection of a gun-foundry and the purchase of steel-works for the manufacture of heavy ordnance. Mr. O’Neill’s motion to strike from the interstate commerce bill the section prohibiting railroads from charging more for a short than a long haul was vo cd down by IX) to 127. An amendment was adopted giving Federal courts power to issue writs of mandamus compelling railroad companies to. forward freight. A resolution was adopted asking tbe Secretary of the Navy to report the cause of the death of Cadet Frederick 8. Strang, of Oregon, who is alleged to have been fatally injured by hazing at Annapolis. A stfley debate on the interstate commerce bill followed. A resolution was offered by Mr. Gibson declaring it the duty of Congress to enable the Government to begin at at once the construction of a navy suitable for war

A bill relating to fees of pension claim‘agents, embodying the same provisions as those contained in the pension bill recently passed by the House, was introduced in the Senate on the Bth inst. After a long debate it was referred to the Pensions Committee. A resolution was offered requesting the President to communicate to the Senate a historical statement concerning the public policy of the Confederate Government during the la:e war, which has been recently tiled in the War Department by Gen. Sherman. In the House of Representatives a bill was reported by the Committee on Appropriations making additional appropriations for the naval service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1885. The House resumed the consideration of the interstate commerce bill, the pending question being < n the amendment offered fiv Mr Hammond to the amendment offered by Mr. Perkins (providing for a commission), providing that the Commissioners shall not be appointed until the Sth of March. 1885. This amendment was agreed to -71 to 12. Mr. Perkins’ amendment, as amended, was lost -yeas 96, nays 124. Mr. O’Neill of Pennsylvania, offered as a substitute for the Interstate commerce bill a proposition for the appointment of five Commissioners, and defining their duties. Lost-35 to 133. Mr. Hepburn moved to recommit the bill. Lost—yeas 92, nays 132. On ■ the motion to recommit seventeen Democrats and seventy-five Republicans were recorded in the affirmative and 124 Democrats and eight Repub--1 cans in the negative. The Republicans who voted in the negative were Anderson, Bayne, J. M. Campbell, Goff, James, Payson, Weaver and York. The bill then passed—veas 158, nays 75. “This," suid Mr. Reagan when the result was announced, “is a fitting celebration for the Bth day of January.” in the Alabama contested-election case resolutions were adopted unseating Shelley (Democrat) and declaring Craig (Republican) elected. A bill to establish a Bureau of Public Health, to be charged with executing all health laws, was Introduced in the Senate on the 9th inst. by Mr. Palmer, of Michigan. The bill directs that the Commissioner in charge of the bureau shall, with the aid of the Surgeons-Gen-eral of the army, navy and marine hospital service and the Commissioners of Education and Agriculture, prepare a code of regulations for the sanitation of the army and navy, as well as of all merchant vessels sailing under the United States flag, all schools, and animals in transit from State to State. In conjunction with the President of the American Medical Association the Commissioner is also instructed to prepare a code of regulations for the practice of surgery and midwifery. All goods designed for food, drink, wearing apparel, etc., so poisoned by adulteration as to be dangerous to human health are declared contraband. The Senate passed a bill directing that one of the Greely relief vessels be used as a revenue cutter off the coast of Alaska. Mr. Cockrell introduced a bill to make the bounty law apply to the heirs of all colored soldiers lost in Federal service. Mr. Garland made a speech on interstate commerce, and moved to recommit the Senate measure, which motion was rejected by 18 to 24. The Committee on Public Lands reported favorably the bill to amend the Revised Statutes relating to the entry of coal-lands by reducing the price of such lands from $lO to $5 per acre where the lands are more than fifteen miles from any completed railroad, and from S2O to $lO where the lands are within this limit. The President sent the following nominations to the Senate: Samuel P. McCormick, to be Collector of Internal Revenue for the District of West Virginia. Postmasters: James 8. Stocking, Washington, Pa.; Theodore Ruth, Pomona, Cal.; Arthur Coonforth, Clyde, Kan.; Anthony A C. Rogers, Pine Bluff, Ark.; John J. Cutter, Parke, D. T. A resolution was adopted by the House of Representatives, calling upon the Executive for information relative to the arrest of T. R Moynahan, an American citizen, by the Government of Mexico. Another resolution was passed requesting information from the President concerning the Congo Conference. Mr. Breckinridge introduced a bill for the appointment of a Southwestern River Commission.

The naval appropriation bill, amounting to $6,120,155, reported by the Appropriation Committee, making provision for the six months ending June 30, was passed bv the House of Representatives on the loth ihst. The House then went into committee of the whole on the consular and didomatic appropriations bill. Mr. Townshend, in brief remarks upon the consular service, attributed the present business depression to ovei production and favored the opening up of the markets of southern nations to the surplus pr<»duct:on of this country. These markets could be secured by the formation ot commercial alliances with those nations which would give the manufactures of the United States an advantage over the manufactures of Europe. From the similarity ot their institutions to those of the United States, if they could be disabused of the Idea that the United States wanted to conquer their political sovereignties, the countries of Central and South America would join with us in seeking to build up the welfare oi the American continent and develop its resources. Mr. Robinson. of New York, said the pending measure was one to enable Americans abroad to make fools of themselves and forget their Americanism. He was oppose 1 to appropriating money to pamper a lot of in-nrable snobs. There was no use for Amer.oan Ministers abro id exo pt to degrade their Government. He did not want a Democratic snob to succeed the Republican snob (Lowell). Let Dr. Burchard be appointed to succeed Lowell. He was a man to express ideas, and a fair representative of democratic Americanism. The wonderful speech of Mr. Burchard had not turned a single vote from Blaine to Cleveland. In the course of his Congressional career he had said many things which had been called foolish by the snobs and dudes that ran the American press, but all his actions had been prompted by love for American institutions. It would always be his pride and pleasure to be able to state to his children and his children’s children that while a member of the House he had stood up for American principles against the contaminating influence of foreign aristocracy.

There is a tree in California which measures 140 feet in circumference. There is another, called the dead giant redwood tree, which measures 114 feet. There are other trees standing near it measuring from 72 to 96 feet in circumference. The“Grizly Giant” measures 92 feet; the famous Charter Oak, near Hartford, Ct., which fell in 1856, measured 33 feet; in North Andover, Mass., there is an elm which measures 27 feet; the Washington elm, in Cambridge, Mass., measures 14 feet in circu inference, and there is a cypress near the Neuse River, in North Carolina, in the hollow of which a horse can easily tarn round.