Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1898 — CONGRSS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CONGRSS

On Wednesday the postoffice appropriation bill, which was technically the subject before the House, was almost lost track of in the debate. The Cuban-Span-ish question, which had been kept in the background heretofore, forged to the front. Mr. Cochran (Dem., Mo.) brought the question into the arena, and in the course of the debate that followed Mr. Grosvenor of Ohio took occasion to deny emphatically the stories afloat to the effect that the President desired an early adjournment of Congress in order that he might effect a settlement without congressional interference. The subject of Hawaiian annexation also came in for attention. Mr. Williams (Dem., Miss.), Mr. Adams (Bep., Pa.) and Mr., Berry (Dem., Ky.), all members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, made speeches on the subject, the former in opposition and the two latter in favor of the proposition. Business in the legislative session of the Senate was confined to the passage of a rew bills, largely of a local character. The national quarantine bill was not considered. On Thursday the session of the House was devoted strictly to the postoffice appropriation bill, which was taken up for amendment under the five-minute rule. The questions which consumed the major portion of the time related to the allowance for clerk hire at postoffices and to rural free delivery. The House increased the allowance for rural free delivery from $150,000 to $300,000 and defeated the proposition for increased clerk hire. Among the bills passed in the Senate was one to authorize the construction of a gunboat on the great lakes to take .the place of the United States ship Michigan, nnd to cost, exclusive of armament, not to exceed $230,000. Adjourned till Monday. On Friday the House spent another day on the postoffice appropriation bill, but disposed of only two pages of the bill. Most of the day was devoted to a debate on the merits of the pneumatic tube mail service in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, and the advisability of continuing the existing contract. An effort to strike out the appropriation of $225,000 was defeated, but the opponents of the appropriation succeeded in securing the adoption of an amendment providing that no additional contracts should be jmade.' An amendment was adopted making it a misdemeanor for any person to “pad” the tnails during the period when the mails are being weighed to determine the compensation to be paid to the railroads for their transportation. The Senate was not in session.

The House on Saturday passed the postoffice appropriation bill, which had been under consideration since Wednesday. The main points of attack in the debate were the appropriation of $30,000,000 for railway transportation of mails and $171,000 for special facilities between New York and New Orleans and $25,000 for special facilities from Kansas City to Newton. Kas. These items annually attract more or less of a contest. This year the opposition seemed to be less intense. All effort to reduce the appropriation for railroad transportation signally failed, and the vote on Southern mail subsidy was 77 to 98 against striking out. By neat parliamentary maneuvering the opponents of the subsidy were prevented from getting a direct vote on a motion to recommit with instructions. The Maine relief bill was passed unanimously by the House on Monday. The Senate bill to satisfy the claim of the legal representatives of John Roach, amounting to $331,151, for labor, material and dockage furnished by Roach, and the occupation of his yards by the gunboats Chicago, Boston and Atlanta, was taken up out of its order and a long and bitter fight followed. Without action upon the claim, the House took a recess until 8 o'clock. The evening session was devoted to the consideration of private pension bills. In the Senate Mr. Bacon introduced an amendment which he announced he would offer to the resolution providing for the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States. The amendment provides that the resolution shall not be effective until the question of annexation shall have been submitted to the qualified electors of Hawaii and passed upon affirmatively by them. Mr. Allen secured the passage of a resolution calling upon the Secretary of the Interior for information as to the number of all classes of pensioners, including the percentage of" men anfi women and children, carried on the pension rolls. A number of bills of minor importance were passed. In the House on Tuesday the naval appropriation bill was reported, but as it had not been printed the contested election case of Thorpe versus Eppes. from the fourth Virginia district, was taken up and debated until 4 o'clock, when, owing to the illness of Mr. Rhea of Kentucky, who was to have spoken in the afternoon, the House adjourned. In the Senate the quarantine bill was further debated. Mr. Carter of the Committee on Territories called up the measure reported by him making further provisions for a civil government of Alaska, and addressed the Senate at length upon it. Mr. Gallinger, who recently returned from a trip to Cuba, announced that he would briefly address the Senate upon his observations in Cuba. Mr. Foraker presented the credentials of his colleague. Mr. Hanna, for the term as United States Senator covering six years from March 4. 1899., The credentials were read and ordered filed. Among the bills passed was that to raise the age of protection for girls in the District of Columbia and the territories to 18 years.