Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1886 — CONGRESS. [ARTICLE]

CONGRESS.

What Is Being Done by the National Legislature. General Logan’s army bill was again the subject of debate on the Bth inst. General Logan and Manderson spoke in favor of and Messrs. Hale and Toller in opposition to the measure. Mr. Blair presented a memorial from the Mormon women of Utah, complaining that, the Edmunds law has been so construed as to bring its penalties to bear on the innocent, and has inflicted upon the women unprecedented indignities and immeasurable Borrow. Mr.- Blair reported favorably, without amendment, from the Committee of Education and Labor the arbitration bill recently passed by the House of Representatives. The postoffice appropriation bill passed the House after amendments to increase the appropriations for postal clerks and the transportation of foreign mails had bean rejected. During the debate of the measure Mr, Phelps attacked Postmaster General Vilas, calling him the Pooh-Bah of the administration, who usurped the functions of the President and of Congress to defeat the laws. Messrs. Holman and Randall defended Mr. Vilas. Mr. Lawler, of Illinois, from the Committee on Labor, reported back to the House a resolution for a Congressional investigation of thecauses underlying the differences existing between employers and employes on railroads, and it was referred to the committee of the whole. I Gen. Logan’s bill for an increase of the army was defeated in the Senate on the 7th inst. by avote of 31 to 19. A bill appropriating $200,C00 for a public building at San Antonio, Tex.f was passed. Mr. Blair introduced a bill to provide that eight hours shall constitute a day’s work for all letter-carriers, and that their 'salaries shall not be reduced by reason of the decreasein the hours of labor. The President sent to the Senate the following nominations: John A. McClernaud, of Illinois, member of the' Board of Registrat on and Election in the Territory of Utah; Obadiah W. Cutter, Collector of Customs for the District of Niagara, N. Y.; Edwin Warfield, Surveyor of Customs at Baltimore; Thcmus G. Hayes, United States Attorney, District of Maryland ; George H.Cairnes, United States Marshal, District of Maryland ; Cyrus P. Shepard, Register of the Laud Office at. Worthington, Minn. ; Edmund James, receiver of public moneys at Carson City, Nev.; Samuel I. Lorah, receiver of public moneys at Central. City, Col.: G. S. Lake, pension agent at Des Moines; Charles W. Johnston, register of the land, office at Roseburg, Oregon; William T. Barney, register of tho land office at Oregon City, Oregon ; Charles R. Sauser, of Ohio, agentat Yakima Indian Agency, Washington Territory ; James I. David, of Michigan, agent at Osage Agency, Indian Territory. The House did nothing worth recording, the business transacted being purely routine, and relating to matters Of no interest. The Washington Territory bill was placed before the Senate on the Bth inst., and Mr. Voorhees spoke in advocacy of his amendment, which consists of an enabling act for the admission of Montana Territory, but the amendmentwas voted down by a party vote—yeas 19, nays23—the Democrats voting in the affirmative, the Republicans in the negative. The Senate passed a bill granting to the Kansas and ArkansasRailway Company right of way through. Indian Territory, and the House measure to ere.ct a building in Washington for the Congressional Library at a cost of nearly $3,000,010. By a vote of yeas 84 to nays 291 the House of Representatives defeated the amendment offered by Mr. Dibble of South Carolina, suspending the further coinage of silver under the Bland act. after July 1,1889. The House also defeated the free coinage bill by a vote of yeas 126 to nays k',3. The Judiciary Committee authorized Mr. Culbertson to report bis bill relating to captured and abandoned property, involving over $10,000,000, with tho recommendation that it be passed. The bill to admit Washington Territory was before the Senate on the 9th inst.,-the pending, question being on the proposed amendment cJ Senator Eustis limiting the right ot suffrage in. the proposed new State to qualified male electors only. After a somewhat protracted debatethe amendment was rejected—yeas 12, nays 25. The yeas were: Messrs. Beck, Berry, Coke, Eustis, Gorman, Gray, Ingalls, Jackson, Maxey,. Pugh, Saulsbury, and Walthall. Among tho Senators voting against Mr. Eustis’ amendment was Mr. Edmunds. Mr. Ingalls introduced a bill for the appointment of a board of arbitration to settle differences between railroad companies and their employes. George Hearst was sworn in as Senator from California. The following nominationswere sent to the Senate by the President: Lawrence Harrigan to be appraiser of merchandise" for the port of St. Louis, Mo.; William H. Waldy, of Michigan, to be a member of the .Board of Indian Commissioners. In the House of Representatives Mr. Forney,, of Alabama, asked unanimous consent for the present consideration of the joint resolution, making an appropriation for the relief of sufferers from the floods in Alabama. Mr. Beach, of New York, objected. The House then went into committee of the whole on the private calendar. Several bills were agreed to, when, the committee ran against a snag in the shape of a bill directing the Quartermaster General tosettle with the McMinnville and Manchester Railroad Company of Tennessee. The amount Involved in the bill is $246,000, and a long discussion ensued upon the measure, but no action was taken. The bill authorizing the formation of a new State to be composed of parts Washington and Idaho Territories, to be known as the State of Washington, passed the Senate on tho 10th inst. by a vote of 30 to 13. Senators Butler, S. C. ~ George, Miss.; Jones, Ark.; and Morgan, Ala., voted with the Republicans inthe affirmative. Senator Hearst, Cal., cast his first vote with his party in the negative. The President sent fifty appointments to the Senate. They include the successors of "suspended” officials whose terms have expired since their names were originally presented. They are now sent in to till "vacancies.” The Hous» passed a bill authorizing the establishment of sixteen new life-saving stations. Bills were passed authorizing the construction of bridges as follows: Across the Mississippi River near Alton, Ill,; across the west channel of the Detroit River, to connect Belle Isle Park with, the main land ; across the Tennessee River, by the Nashville, Jackson and Memphis Railroad Compnay; across the Mississippi near Keithsburg, 111. ; across the Illinois and Des Moines, by the New York and Council Bluffs Railroad Company;. over Bayou Barnard, Mississippi; across Red River near Brown's Ferry, Texas ; across the St. Croix at some accessible point between Prescott, Wis., and Taylor’s Falls, Minn. ; across the Mississippi at Winona, Minn.; across the Missouri at St. Joseph, Mo.; across the Missouri atCouncil Bluffs; across the Missouri at SalineCity, Mo.; across tho Kansas by the Interstate Rapid Transit Company; across, tho Missouri in Clay or Jackson Counties, Missouri; across the Missouri above St. Charles, Mo. ; across tho Yellowstone in Montana; acrossthe Mississippi at Red Wing, Mimi. ; across the Missouri near Atchison, Kan. ; across the Tombigee, Warrior, Tennessee, and other navigable rivers in Alabama, by the Gulf and Chicago-Air-Line Railroad Company; across Youug’e Bay, Oregon ; across tho Missouri year Cfaamberlain, Dakota; across the Missouri at Pierre,. Dakota.