Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1900 — CONGRESS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CONGRESS

On Thursday the Senate passed the Senate substitute for the House currency < bill by a vote of 4(1 to 29. Made the’ Hawaiian bill unfinished business, giving it right of way. The House completed twenty-six of the 124 pages of the legislative, executive and judicial appropriation bill without amendment. During the general debate Mr. Boutell (Ill.), Mr Miers (Ind.) and Mr. Showalter (Pa.) discussed the Philippine question; Mr. Grosvenor (Ohio) and Mr. Gillette (Mass.) civil service reform, Mr. Driggs (N. Y.) pensions, and Mr. Underwood (Ain.) his resolution to repeal the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution. The Senate on Friday resumed discussion of the Philippine question. Mr. McEnery strongly opposed permanent acquisition of the islands and believed United States ought to relinquish them as soon as authority of this country had been asserted. Mr. Stewart took pronounced position in favor of admission of the products of any of the island possessions of the United States free of duty. Hawaiian bill was read, but nothing was done with it. The House by a vote of 75 to 67, in committee of the whole, struck out from legislative appropriation bill all provision for civil servivce commission. Action regarded as .annual joke, as item will probably be restored in open session when members have to go on record on roll call. Rest of the time devoted to assertions by Mr. Sims (Dem., Tenn.) that northern volunteer soldiers in Spanish war were much more clamorous for pensions than the southern ones, and attributing this to the debauching of public sentiment in the North on the pension question. Mr. Pearre (Rep., Md.) raised the storm by stating that hundreds of Massachusetts soldiers who never smelled powder had applied for pensions. This brought out an indignant' reply from Mr. Fitzgerald (Dem., Mass.), who detailed the record of the Massachusetts volunteers. He was followed by others, who defended the soldiers from their sev?ral States. Mr. Hepburn (Iowa) especially assailed Mr. Sims. The Senate held no session on Saturday. The House passed the legislative, executive and judicial appropriation bill. The civil service appropriation, stricken out in committee of the whole, was restored to the bill by a vote of 77 to 125. The Senate spent Monday in debate on rhe right of Congress to extend or withhold the Constitution Jo territory acquired by the United States. The House began expansion debate, the Porto Rico tariff bill coming up. Passed a bill to amend sections 3339 and 3341 of the Revised Statutes relating to internal revehue tax on fermented liquors, the purpose being to abolish the smaller packages of beer, one-sixth and one-eighth barrels.- The bill is to go into effect July 1,- 1900. Nothing accomplished at a night sesion. which was to have been devoted to pension legislation. Mr. Talbert, of South Carolina, made the point of uo quorum and blocked proceedings. The Senate on Tuesday heard Mr. Kenney in opposition lo retention of the Philippines and then resumed consideration of Hawaiian bill. The House heard Mr. Hopkins of Illinois in supi»ort of the Porto Rican tariff bill and Messrs, New-, lands of Nevada and Swanson of Virginia against it. On Wednesday the Senate passed a numlter of bills of local interest and spent the rest of the day in debate on the Hawaiian government bill, little progress being made. In the Hoiyg* debate on Porto Rican tariff bill was resumed. Adopted Senate resolution authorizing the President to appoint one woman commissioner to represent the United States and the national society of the D. A. R. at the unveiling of the statue of Lafayette at the Paris exposition.