Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1888 — NATIONAL LAWMAKERS. [ARTICLE]

NATIONAL LAWMAKERS.

What Is Being .Done by the National Legislature. . Amowg the measures passed by tho Senate on the 18th inst. were the bills for the representation of the several departments at the Columbus’centennial, with ou amendment appropriating Sffi,000; authorizing tho sale of a i>ortion of the Win, nebago reservation in Nebraska; appropriating $250,000 for a public building at Oakland, Cal.; and authorizing tho construction of railroad bridges at Parkville, Mo., Alma, Wis., and Fort Smith, Ark. The Senate, in secret session, ratified the leng-pending treaty providing for an adjustment of the Venezuelan claims. The House passed bills appropriating $50,000 for a public building at Brownsville, Texas, and $50,000 for the completion of the public building at Wichita, Kansas. BiUs far the appropriation of $40,000 each for the erection of public buildings at Faribault and Red Wing. Minn., were introduced in the House. The naval appropriation bill was reported from tho House Naval Committee. Both houses agreed to the conference report on the Indian appropriation bilL The House went into Committee on the Sun-dry-Civil Appropriation BiU the 19th, and after debate a provision appropriating $500,000 for thelibrary buildings was stricken out. The committee the- rose, and after passing a bill authorizing the appointment of an additional Associate Justice for Dakota adjourned. Messrs. McShane and Laird precipitated a red-hot discussion in the House the 20th, which is of more than local interest to the people of the West and Northwest, When that paragraph in the sundry civil appropriation bill which appropriates SIOO,OOO for protecting the public lands was reached, Mr. McShane moved to amend it by reducing the amount to <50,000. He made a short but vigorous attack upon the specialagency branch of the general Land office. In the broadest and bitterest terms Mr. Laird denounced not only the late Commissioner of the General Land Office (Mr. Sparks) but the» general policy of the office as it relates’to special’ agents. His denunciation of Sparks for suspending the homestead laws was extremely personal. Mr. Weaver of lowa defended Sparks and his policy, and closed by saying: “Thereis not a land-grabber in the country who will not indorse the remarks of the gentleman from Nebraska.’’ McShane’s amendment was lost. In the Senate Mr. Farwell’s bill directing the President to prohibit the importation of the products of foreign states in certain, cases was reported adversely from tile Committee on Foreign Affairs. r lhe House bill appropriating $50,009 to complete the public building at Wichita, Kas., was taken up and passed, with an amendment, increasin ( the appropriation to SIOO,OOO. The Senate then toox up the pension bills on the calendar and passed all of them, ninety-two in number. The. House on the 21ot voted to non-concur in. the Senate amendments to the diplomatic and. consular and District of Columbia appropriation bills, and ordered a conference on the lastnamed measure. The House then went into committee of the whole on the sundry civil bill. The only change made in tho measure was the addition .of an amendment offered by Mr. McShane (Neb.) abolishing the Surveyor General's office at Lincoln, Neb., and turning the papers of the office over to the States of Nebraska and lowa. A debate on the public land surveys followed, but without concluding the bill the committee rose and the House adjourned. The Senate was not in session the 22d. In the House a lively debate resulted over the sundry civil bill, which was finally completed. The House passed the naval appropriation bill. Thirty-seven private pension bills were passed at the evening session. There Was more inter-, set takro iu the bulletins from the Republican Natioitf Convention than in legislation.