Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1888 — CONGRESSIONAL. [ARTICLE]

CONGRESSIONAL.

Work of the Senate and tbe Hotua of Representatives. The Judiciary Committee of the Senate, on the 19th Inst., reported adversely Senator Frye's. bill to apply the laws of the veveral States re-, lating to the sale of liquors to imported aa well 1 as domestic liquors. The majority of the committee nold that the State control over police regulations is, under the Constitution, as secure against intrusion from federal authority as the regulation of foreign com--merce by the General Government is from. encroachment upon that province by State authority. It therefore recommtnds that the question be let tas it is—a judicial one. A minority report signed by Senators Wilson (Iowa), Inga Is. and Edmunds says it would seem that. the legislative aud judicial departments cf the Government concur in the answer that the character tl legislation presented by the bill is within the constitutional power of Congress; that it does not violate the injunction of the Constitution that “all duties, •imports, and excises .shall be uniform tin ought uc the Upited States ” An importer of ardent spirits or olr any other article of foreign production is entitled to no greater protection und r the Constitution than is the deales in like articles of domestic manufacture. . The one pays an internal tax, the other pays a tax leveled by the: custom house, and what Congress may constitutionally say about one it may repeat as to the other. The Senate passed fifty-nve bills, the: most of them being pension and private relief bills. The House by a vote of yeas 178, nays 67, passed the bill authorizing the issue of. fractional silver certificates. A resolution was.. introduced by Mr. Taulbee for the appointment of a special committee to examine intothe condition of the civil service in all the departments and branches of the government. Senator Aldrich, from the Committee on,. Finance, favorably reported to the Senate, on March 20, his funding bill, which: provides that the Secretary of the Treasury ■hall issue in exchange for 4-per-cent. bonds an. equal amount of bonds payable , in 1907, and that in consideration of the reduction of interest the Treasurer shall pay to the holders of the 4-per-cent. bouds a sum equal . to the present worth of the difference in interest, and that in ascertaining the present . worth interest should be computed at not less than per cent, per annum, compounded quarterly. The bill also provides that national banks holding these bonds shall' be allowed to issue notes upon them to their - full par value. Mr. Blair called up his bill,, giving preference to civil-service appointments . among men who had been disloyal during the war to those who had served in the Confederate . army, and who were suffering from wounds or disabilities. Several Southern Senators spoke on the resolution, saying they would not. consent to any such discrimination in favor of. Confederate soldiers. The Senate Finance Committee made a favorable report on the bill towipe out the charges against the States for the loan of 1836. It amounted to between $20,000,UX) and $.0,000,000. There was a livelytime in the House over the resolution assigning four days for the consideration of measures from the Committee on Labor, the opponents of the resolution resorting to obstructive tactics to prevent action. Mr. O’Neill (Mo.) finally said he. was willing to amend the resolution by striking out the clause limiting the time of debate on each measure called up. After a long debate the time-limitation clause was stricken out and the resolution was adopted. In pursuance of. the terms of the resolution the floor was accorded to the Committee on Labor and bills were-, passed for the protection in their wages of mechanics, laborers, and servants in the District. of Columbia and the Territories, and extending the provisions of the eight-hour law to lettercarriers. Bills were reported to the House forthe erection of public buildings at Sterling, Hl„ Richmond, Ind,, and Burlington, lowa. The following bills were passed by the Senate on March 21: To allow soldiers and sailors who--have lost both hands, or tbe use of both hands, a pension of SIOO a month; House bill to facili--tato the prosecution of works projected for improvement of rivers and harbors ; House bill to divide the great Sioux Indian reservation into. separate smaller reservations. Senator Manderson introduced a bill to appropriate $150,000 • for quarters and barracks at the Hampton, Milwaukee, and Leavenworth branches of the National Soldiers’ Home. A minority report. was presented from the Senate Committee on Territories opposing the annexation of the Idaho Pan-handle to Washington Territory and favoring the admission of the latter Territory with its present boundaries. The House passed bills to prevent the product of convict labor from being furnished to or for the use of any department of the Government, and from being used In public buildings orothes public works, and to prevent the employment of alien labor on public buildings and. other public works and in the various departments of the Government. The bill to establish a Department of Labor and the bill referring to the Court of Claims for adjustment. the accounts of laborers, workmen and mechanics arising under the eight-hour law, were • discussed by the House, in committee of the whole.

The President sent a brief message to the-> Senate on the 22d of March, in reply to the resolution requesting him to transmit to the Senate copies of the minutes and daily protocols of the meetings of the Fisheries Commissioners. He inclosed a copy of the letter received from the Secretary of State on the subject, and said he hoped the information contained therein would prove a satisfactory answer to the resolution. Secretary Bayard’s le-tter is in bflect that the discussion was carried on under the pledge of secrecy on both sides, that no stenographic report was made ( and that it was impossible to comply with the Senate’s request. In the Senate thirty-one measures were passed, the most important bill being the House bill authorizing the President to arrange a conference between the United: States and the republics of Mexico, Central and South America, Hayti, San Domingo, and the empire of Brazil, with amendments upon which a conference was ordered. The Senate also passed a bill reported from the ■Postoffice Committee reducing the rate of postage on seeds, cuttings, bulbs, roots, scions, etc., to one cent for every four ounces. The House passed the following bills: Providing that on the trial of all civil and criminal cases in Circuit and District Courts the Judge shall charge the jury In writing, if so required by either party; providing that judgments and decrees of United States Courts rendered within any States shall be liens on property in the same manner and to the same extent as judgments and decrees of the courts of that State. The urgent deficiency bill was favorably reported to both houses by the conferrees, and was passed by both branches. The bill appropriates $6,876,500.