Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 January 1886 — NATIONAL LEGISLATION. [ARTICLE]

NATIONAL LEGISLATION.

Two Million-Dollar Monuments to Lincoln and Grant Proposed. A Fke-MiHion Dollar University at the National Capital—Other Measures. Washiagton special. Among the bills introduced in the House are two tariff bills by Mr, Maybury, of Michigan. One provides that on and after J uly 1, 1886, no customs duty shall be levied upon lumber—boards, beams, planks, joists, scantling, laths, pickets, shingles, timber, round or sawed, staves, heading, or any other description of timber, whether rough or dressed. The other provides that on and after July 1, 1886, ores of iron, lead, copper, and zinc, bituminous coal, salt, and lumber of all kinds, whether rough or dressed, shaU bo admitted free of duty. Mr. Maybury shows his faith in free trade by placing on the free list the articles In the production of which his State is moßt largely interested. pensions. Senator Blair, of New Hampshire, has introduced a biU to gjve applicants for pensions, whose applications have been rejected by the Secretary of the Interior, on appeal from the Commissioner of Pensions, a hearing before a jury. TWO-MI I, LION-DOLLAR MONUMENTS. Senator Blair has looked with great admiration upon the Washington monument, and he is profoundly impressed with the belief that we need more gigantic obelisks. He has introduced two bills for the erection of monuments to Lincoln and Grant. The former is to bo erected in Lincoln Park, east of the Capitol, where the emancipation statue stands, and the latter at some point north of the Capitol. The Washington monument stands west of the Capitol, so that symmetry will demand the erection of a like monument to Mr. Blair himself south of the Capitol. Mr. Blair proposes to appropriate $160,000 a year for each of those two monuments for ten years, so that each one will cost f 1,000,000. No labor and no materials so far as possible are to be procured by contract. Chinese labor is exoluded by the provision that only American citizens shall be employed in the work. The monuments are to be similar in style to the Washington monument. THE SILVER IDEA. The silver men are not content to remain on the defensive and await the attack of the antisilver men. Senator Morgan has put in a bill to compel the Secretary of the Treasury to replace with silver one-half of the gold in the fund reserved for the redemption of greenbacks, ard one-half of the gold or greenbacks in the n it onal bank redemption fund, and in other i-p cial funds. 1 JUDICIAL RETIREMENT. In the Sena’e ihs following bills, among others, have been introducedBy Mr. Dolph, to amend Sec. 717 cf the Revised Statutes. It provides that judges of United States courts who have held their offices thirty cr who have hold office ten years and have attained the age of 70, may retire upon full salary. By Senator Call, to retire Judges of Circuit or District Courts. It provides that when any Judge of a Circuit or District Court Bhall have become disabled through the excessive or habitual use of intoxicants, or any other cause, he shall be retired with an annual salary of 82,000 a year, unless he shall thereafter bo tried and impeached. This disability is to be determined by the Judgeof the oireuit adjacent to that in which the Judge to be tried has jurisdiction. The Attorney General is authorized to institute proceedings against such Judges on complaint of Senators or Representatives. COMPULSORY EDUCATION OP INDIANS. By Senator Toller, to provide for the compulsory education of Indian children. It authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to take any Indian children between the ages of 8 and 18, who belong to tribes receiving annuities from the United States, and place thorn in Government schools for the education of the Indians, to be kept there for five years. This is not to apply, however, to the five civilized tribes, nor to the Osage Indians of Indian Territory. The Secretary is authorized to withhold rations and annuities from parents who refuse to comply with these provisions. All such schools are to he manual labor schools, and to include teaching of agriculture and stock-raising to boys and housework to girls. A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY. By Senator Ingalls, to Establish a national university in the District of Oqjumbia. The sum of 85,000,000 is granted to the board of regents in a perpetual registered certificate of the United States, to be unassignable, and bearing 6 per cent, interest, the interest to be paid quarterly; so much of the interest as is needed for sites, buildings, etc., may bo used. The treasurer -4* the United States shall bo treasurer of the un’ versity. No chair for instruction in sectarian religion or partisan politios shall be maintained, and no seotarian or partisan test shall be allowed in selecting officers or professors. Chairs or faculties may be endowed by gift, bequest, etc., but no amount less than 8100,000 shall be considered an endowment. Instruction shall be as nearly free as is consistent with the income. No person shall bo admitted for regular study and graduation who has not previously received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, or a degree of equal value, from some recognized institution, fctat.is and Territories shall be entitled to scholarships in the ratio of one for c-a- h Representative or Delegate, and two for each Senator. These scholarships shall secure free instruction for five years. The Governor of each State shall nominate candidates for life scholarships, and each State and Territory shall be emitted to one life scholarship. Two classes of fellowships are established, one open to competition of graduates best qualifying themselves, and the other open to learned men of aU nations who have merited distinction. TRANSPORTATION CHARGES. The resolution offered by Senator Mitchell, of Oregon, and adopted, relating to transportation charges, recites in its preamble that the Columbia and its tributaries drain a grazing and agricultural region of unsurpassed fertility as large as Germany and Franoe; that freight charges on wheat from the Dalles to Portland, eighty miles, are 12 ce'nts a bushel, and for another' distance of 214 miles are 8 eents a bushel. "It declares such charges exorbitant and ruinouato the producer, and instructs the Committee 6n fransportatton'.Routes to inquire intothem and the proper measures of relief, and also as to the importance of the speedy completion of the eanal and locks of the Cascades and of the proper means to be adopted to overcome the obstructions at the Dalles. SUPPRESSING THB INDIANS. Among the notable measures introduced In the House are the following: By Mr. Laird, of Nebraska, a joint resolution authorizing th<j President to call out two volunteer regiments of cavalry In the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona, to be enlisted and officered from citizens of such Territories, for the suppression of Indian hostilities therein. LAND PATENTS, Also, a joint resolution instructing the Commissioner of the General Land Office to pass to patent all pend in ’ homestead and pre-emption claims against v, hieb a specific charge of fraud is not pending or provod, and also calling on such omcor for a statement in detail of the ret.s'm for issuing the order of April 3 suspending the issuance of patents; also, a bill to establish a soldiers’ home in Nebraska, lowa, Wisconsin, or Minnesota. REGULATION OP LABOR. The constit itional amendment introduced by Mr. of Massachusetts, provides that Congress shall have power to limit the hours of labor. SUGAR DUTIES. A bill touching the duty on sugar, introduced by Mr. O'Donnell, of Michigan, provides that the duty on sugar shall c* ase after July 1 next, prohibits importations of sugar from any country imposing an export duty thereexr, provides for the payment of a bounty of one cent a pound on sugar produoed in the United States, and appropriates 7-;--,<»00,000 for that purpo e. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. A constitutional amendment proposed by Mr. McAdoo, of New Jersey, provides that Presidential electors shall be elected in every State on the third Tuesday in October, and that no ohter officers than Representatives in Congress shall be elected on the same day. POLYGAMY. Mr. McAdoo has also introduced a bill depriving of the right of suffrage all polygamists or persons who are members of organizations that encourage other persons to commit bigamy.