Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1893 — RECORD OF CONGRESS. [ARTICLE]

RECORD OF CONGRESS.

WORK OF THE FIFTY-SECOND NATIONAL LEGISLATURE. Silver, Tariff, Anti-Options, World's Fair and Economical Schemes Figure as the Leading Questions—No Great Retrenchment Noticeable in the Appropriations. Didn't Reduce Expenses. The silver and- tariff questions, the anti-option bill and the reduction of appropriations were the leading topics of consideration by the Llld Congress, and secondary only in importance to these matters were measures relating to the World’s Fair, equipment of railroads with automatic car-couplers, national quarantine and immigration, Behring Sea and Hawaiian annexation. Nothing of an affirmative nature, except to prevent two items in the McKinley act taking effect, was actually accomplished so far as respects silver, the tariff or anti-options, the action taken on each of these questions in one branch of t ongress being negatived by the action or non-action of the other branch. The result of the agitafion of the necessity for a retrenchment of expenditures is not apparent in any considerable change in the aggregate appropriations carried by the national supply bills, for they amount to about as much as in the List Congress, laws on the statute books preventing some large reductions which otherwise possibly would have been made, while the decreases which it was possible to effect were offset by increased appropriations for pensions and rivers and harbors. The condition of the public Treasury, however, though it did not result in the Llld Congress getting below the bill-ion-dollar limit, undoubtedly infiuenced legislation to a considerable extent, and prevented the authorization of many proposed new expenditures for improvement of the public service, for public buildings, payment of claims, and for other purposes. A notable instance of the operation of this influence is seen in the fact that not a single public building bill passed the House, and it was only by putting a number of them on the sundry civil appropriation bill that any appropriations whatever for public buildings were secured. KtrujcKie l)ver .Silver. The silver question was kept steadily before the attention of Congress by tho alternate advocates of lree coinage and of tho iepeal of the Sherman law. The coinage committee of the House in the first session reported a free-silver bill, which after an exciting debate was saved from defeat by the casting vote of the Speaker, but was afterward filibustered to death, the friends of the bill failing to secure the signatures of a majority of the Democrats to petition for a cloture rule in its behalf. The Senate then passed a free-ooinage bill, but when the free-silver men renewed their fight in the House they were outnumbered by fourteen votes, and, of course, failed. The anti-silver men met a similar fate in their efforts to secure a repeal of the present law, the Senate refusing by a decisive vote to consider it, and the House killing the AndrewCate bill by declining to vote so as to give its friends the parliamentary right to move cloture on it, without which itj concededly could never be forced to a vote in tho closing hours of the Con-, gress. Tactics Tariff. On tho tariff, according to a Washington correspondent, the dominant party in the House adopted a policy of attacking tho McKinley act in detail largely for political reasons and partly for tho reason that in view of the political complexion of the Senate it was practically out of the question to pass a general tariff-revision bill through the Senate, while special measures might stand some show of passage. The result was the enactment into law of two bills continuing block tin on the free list and fine linen at 35 per cent ad valorem. Under the McKinley act large duties were to take effect on those items in the near future. Other separate bills were passed through the House, only to be pigeonholed in the Senate, as follows: Free wool and reduction of duties on woolen manufactures, free ootton-bagging machinery; free binding twine; freo silver-lead ores, where the value, not the weight of the silver exceeds that of the lead in any importation; free tinplate, terne-plate, taggers’ tin, and the limitation to SIOO of the amount of personal baggage returning tourists may bring into the United States. The anti-option bill passed both houses, but was killed by the refusal of the House to suspend the rules and agree by a two-thirds vote to the amendment put on the bill by the Senate, the opponents of the measure maneuvering so as to prevent Mr. Hatch making effective his majority in favor of the measure and forcing him at the last moment to try suspension of the rules. The pure-food bill, the running mate of the anti-option bill, passed the Senate, but was never able to get consideration in the House.

World's Fair Legislation. World’s Fair legislation comprised the grant of $2,500,000 in souvenir halfdollars in aid of the Fair, the closing of Its gates on Sunday, the appropriation of various amounts for different Fair purposes and the passage of sundry acts of a special nature and minor importance. An automatic car-coupler bill shorn of its drastic features was enacted into law, as was also a national quarantine bill increasing the powers of the marinehospital service to meet the threatened dangers from cho'era, and an Immigration law imposing additional restrictions on immigration, but not suspending it entirely. The Senate averted the bill over the Behring sea seal fisheries by ratifying a treaty of arbitration. It also ratiued extradition treaties with Russia and other countries, but still has before it a treaty of annexation of the Hawaiian islands. The opening of the Cherokee outlet was provided for in the Indian bill under aclause appropriating $8,295,000 for its purchase from Indians. $295,000 to be paid in cash and $8,000,000 in five equal annual installments. Put on the St itute Bo 3kß. Approximately 425 House and 235 Senate bills and joint resolutions became laws, making 660 acts put on the statute books as the result of the work of Congress. A majority of these measures were of interest only to individuals or localities, being forthe relief of citizens, for the bridging of streams, for the District of Columbia, for rights of way, etc. An unusual proportion of the‘claims bills were forthe relief of Southern men. The House passed in round numbers 625 bills, of which 200 failed of passage in the Senate, and in the neighborhood of 625 bills passed by the Senate failed in the House, including a long list of public-building bills, many private pension bills and other measures involving increased expenditures. Vetoed by the President Three bills were vetoed by the President, viz., to refer the McGarrahan claim to the Court of Claims (a second McGarrahan bill failing of action in the House), to amend the Court of Appeals act and in relation to Marshals in the United States Courts in Alabama. This last bill became a law by passage over the veto, Senator Hoar stating that it bad been vetoed through a misunderstanding of its provisions. The President subjected three bills to a “pocket" veto and two other bills failed of en-

grosoment in time for presentation to him, All were of comparatively small Importance. The Pension and Census offices, the whisky trust, Panama ( anal and Pacific Mall company, the Watson-Cobb charges, the Pinkerton system and Homestead troubles, the Maverick and Spring Garden bank failures, the Ellis Island immigration station were investigated by Congressional committees, but nothing came of the reports submitted. Election Contests Settled. The Senate passed ,on two eleotion contests in favor of the sitting members, Dubois (Idaho) and Call (Florida), the contestants being Claggett and Davidson, respectively. The House unseated Stewart, the Republican sitting member from a Pennsylvania district, and gave the place to Craig. In the Noyes-Rockwell contest from New York it refused 10 follow the recommendation of the elections committee that Rockwell, the Democratic sitting member, be unseated, and by a majority vote confirmed Rockwell’s title. In the oases of McDuffie vs. Turpin from Alabama, Reynolds vs. Schonk and Greon vs. Scull from Pennsylvania, and Miller vs. Elliott from South Carolina the elections committee reported in favor of the sitting members.