Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1885 — CONGRESSIONAL. [ARTICLE]

CONGRESSIONAL.

The Work of the Senate and House of Representatives. The Anti-Foreign Contract Labor bill passed the Senate Feb. 18, by a vote of 50 to 9. Briefly summed up, the measure forbids the importation of aliens into the United States on contract to perform labor. All such contracts are declared nu’l and void, and punishment is provided for violaton of the law embodied in the bill Exceptions are made in favor of artists, actors, lecturers, singers and domestic servants. A bill was introduced to set aside the St. Clair flats in Michigan as a hunting and fishing reserve. The Committee on Indian Affairs reported a bill to enable the President to negotiate for the opening of Oklahoma, providing a penalty of fine and imprisonment for entering upon the lands without authority of law. Mr. Van Wyck introduced a bill to appropriate $•’0,009 for the improvement of the Missouri River opposite Nebraska City. Emery Speer, of Georgia, was confirmed United States District Judge of that State by a vote of 26 yeas to 25 nays. All the Republicans except Mr. Hale of Maine voted for him and all the Democrats except Mr. Brown ot Georgia voted against him. The House of Representatives passed the Senate bill for the erectipn at Chattanooga of a public building to cost SIOO,OOO. Considerat on ot the river and harbor bill was resumed. Mr. Potter opposed the Hennepin Canal provision on the ground that it would benefit the State of Illinois alone Mr. Reed .“poke against the Mississip i River appropriation. He said that the improvements, if carried out on the plan proposed, would cost $156,000,000. The pending amendment offered as a substitute for the Galveston harbor paragraph was ado; ted. It appropriates $500,c00 for the improvement of the harbor and directs the harbor board to examine the plans and specifications for the proposed improvements and report to the Secretary of War. A report was submitted to the House by the Elections Committee on the Missouri contested election case of McLean vs. Broadhead, accompanied bv a resolution confirming the right of the sitting member. Broadhead. to his seat. The House bill forfeiting lands granted to the Texas Pacific Road passed the Senate Feb. 19. Fifty-six Senators voted for and only two —Blair and Bowen—against it. Despite the efforts of the obstructionists, all amendments which militated against the effectiveness of the bill were vote! down. It declares forfeited all lands granted to the Texas Pacific Railroad Company under the act of 1871, and repeals the act of 1875 "for the relief of settlers within railroad limits.” V. hile the bill was under discussion there was a sharp interchange of amenities between Senators Beck and Morgan. Mr. Beck made some severe remarks about the difficulty of getting any legislation inimical to the railroads through the Senate, and reflected particularly upon Senators on the Democratic side. Mr. Morgan took this as personal to himself, and replied that he had always tried to do his duty unawed by public clamor. He had not tried to earn applause by making himself conspicuous on the popular side of every question, regardless of right and wrong, and, as he had been a Democrat longer than the Senator from Kentucky had enjoyed the privileges of American citizenship, he did not intend to take any lessons in Democracy from that gentleman. The Scotch have often been accused of Intellectual inertia, and Mr. Beck took this allusion to his being a naturalized citizen as an affront. There is no doubt Mr. Beck is proud of “cakes and brither Seo's," but he appeared to be exactly the reverse, for he excused himself lor being born in Scotland by saying that he had no chance to exercise his choice in regard to the place'of his nativity, and he declared that Mr. Morgan's allusion to his b rth in Scotland was very unworthy of him and unworthy of the Senaite. He added, loftily, that in what he had said before he had no thought of the Senator from Alabama. He did not think the Senator from Alabama was so important a person as that gentleman thought that he vAs. In the House of Representative i Speaker Carlisle took the chair for the first time since his recent sickness. He was welcomed back with hearty applause. Consideration of the river and harbor bill being resumed an amendment was adopted Increasing the appropriation for the Improvement of the Mississippi River, between the Ulinois and Ohio Rivers, from S4(K’,OOO to $600,0110. An amendment was also agreed to providing that no portion of the Mississippi appropriation shall be expended in repairing or building levees, unless for the purpose of benefiting navigation. Several hours were spent in committee of the whole on the naval appropriation bilL A letter from the Secretary of War concerning the estimated cost of the new lock for the Sault Ste. Marie Falls Canal in Michigan was laid before the Senate Feb. 20. It is estimated that the lock will cost $1,253,400, and additional improvements for deepening the canal, etc., $355,685. A memorial from the Illinois Legislature was presented urging Congress to acquire the ownership of the ship-canal connecting the waters of the Keweenaw Bay with those of Lake Superior, and to make tire canal free lor the commerce of the lakes. The Committee on Agriculture reported favorably with amendment the House bill for the protection of forests on the public domain. The Des Mornes Biver bid was further considered, and several amendments offered by Mr. Lapham were rejected. Tbe agricultural appropriation bill was parsed substantially as it came from the House. A resolution was adopted calling on the Secretary of the Interior for information whether the subsidized Pacific roads are operating their telegraph lines in the interest of the public. Notwithstanding the recommendation of the Appropriations Committee against it, the Senate decided by a vote of 33 to’lß in favor of the House amendment reducing the postage upon drop tetters to two cents an ounce. The House of Representatives passed three bills for public buildings, appropriating SIOO,OOO for Council Bluffs, $50,000 for Clarksburg, and $1,000,006 for Louisville. When the river and harbor bill came up, the friends of the measure, to expedite matters, yielded to the Mississippi River clause. The Chair ruled that the Hennepin Canal paragraph should be stricken from the bill on the ground that the subject came properly within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Railways and Canals. Mr. Henderson, of lowa, appealed from the decision. The naval bill was discussed at length. Mr. Long called the navy “an alphabet of wooden washtubs,” and said that scarcely a nation was so poor as to do it reverence. People, he said, laughed at the navy and relished the sinking of the Tallapoosa by a coal barge as a Falstaffian burlesque. Very little business was transacted in Congress on Feb. 21, the ceremonies attending the dedication of the Washington Mqnument occupying the attention of Senators and Representatives. The Senate held a brief session, which was devoted exclusively to the postoffice appropriation bilL The House did nothing in a legislative way.