Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1883 — WASHINGTON NOTES. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON NOTES.

There are 400,000 claims now pending in the land office. * The pension appropriation bill has been reported to the fall committee. It appropriates $81,000,000. The Chippewas are in Washington to protest against their removal to White Earth Reservation. Both democratic and republican caucuses have determined that the tariff bill must be prated to passage. The total deficiencies in appropriations for the various departments for the fisoal year ending June 30 next are $1,549,843. The sub-oommittee which has charge of the postoffioe bill has retained the clause providing for a reduction of letter postage to two centaper half ounoe. The marriage of Miss Mabel Bayard, the eldest daughter of Senator Bayard, and Mr. Samuel D. Warren, of Boston, took place at the Ascension Ohurch Washington, on Thursday. The Senate committee on appropriations, im reporting the appropriation for continuing the work on the census, has reduced .the amount from $200,000 to 9100,000, on the ground that the work is in a very unsatisfactory condition. Congress will give John F. ,Slater, of Connecticut, a gold medal on aooount of his bequest of $1,000,000 for the pnrpose of “uplifting the lately emancipated population of the Southern States and iheir posterity by conferring on them the blessing of Christian education.” One of the counsel for the defense in the case informs the Post that the expenses,of Brady, Dorsey and Yaile in the recent and pending trials will be fully $200,000, of which Brady and Dorsey are reported to have spent $75*000 each.

Notwithstanding the opposition offered to Rufus Hatoh and others who desire to lease the Yellowstone Park, the oompany continues to make preparations for building their hotels on the park grounds. The office of assistant secretary of the interior appears to be headquarters for the company. The grand jury returned a presentment against William Dickson for corruptly endeavoring to influence the vote of his fellow'jurors in the last star-route trials. It is stated, that the delay in the proceed* ings which gave rise to the rumor that the bill had been ignored arose from technical imperfections in the bill. The friends of the whjsky bill are quite •disheartened at the decisive vote—s to 1 —by which the House refused to consider their bill, and have about given up all hope of passing it at all this sdtsion. The sentiment seems to be growing in the Bouse that tire people must be relieved as far as possible, of the taxes on necessaries, and that the luxuries of life, such as whisky and tobacco, should be made to bear the chief burden. The amount in the treasury, Jan. 1, 1883, of standard silver dollars, was $94,016,842; fractional silver, $26:521,692; total silver, $420,538,534, or about 3,600 tons. It is apparent that this Congress should either discontinue coinage of the standard silver dollar or make suitable appropriations for building additional vaults in the East and for transportation of silver ooin from San Francisco, no further space being available for building at that point. The lowest rate for transportation of silver from San Francisoo obtainable is sls per SI,OOO.

The olaim of Bed Cloud, presented in the Indian Bureau, is for ponies seized from Indians and sold by General Crook in 1876. The amount realized,ss,ooo,was to have been applied to the purchase of cows for the benefit of the Indians, but Bed Cloud asserts that this was not done, and a partial search of. the reoords of the Indian Bureau does not show that any return was ever made of the money. The persons who made the side will be called upon for an explanation if further searoh does not reveal a satisfactory aocount of the transaction. The National Republican contains an interview with General Grant on the subject of the reciprocity treaty between the United States and Mexico, and the political and commercial relations of the countries. The treaty proposes the entry into Mexioo of articles uqder seventythree different heads. He laid special stress on articles of machinery, agricultural implement?, railway materials and vehicles. the manufacture of which in this Country for use in Mexico would give employment to thousands of people, and open up to c nterprising Americans th ?ee mines of untold wealth and plantations of vast extent. The. work of collating and preparing the result of the census for publication is in such a backward and confused condition that it is not likely the pending census deficiency bill will be recommended for passage until substantial assurances are furnished that the proposed appropriation will be employed to produce clearly defined results, aad bring the work speedily to a dose. Secretary Teller contemplates recalling ex-Superintendent Walker to oomplete the work, his successor being prostrated by siokness/Speoial-

iris identified with the cenaM, it mm*. i i MiiWimiinir tn hum trmtimi nave DBSI-mOßSUinng W wobbw upon their own pet subjects published at the expense at the government. The Woman’s Suffrage Convention adopted resolutions declaring that woman suffrage means stable institutions, wages and equal pen ty for men and women; pronouncing the pending reforms in the civil servioe a dishonest pretense unless women are graded in the service the same as men; denouncing the to disfranchise the women of Utah for no crime whatsoever” as “a cruel display of the power which lies in might alone,” and asserting that Women should be given the ballot to preserve the integrity of society and the permanence of American institutions, in view of the fact that immigration to this country now averages 500,000 per annum. Clara A. Scott, of New York, presented through Speaker Kiefer, a petition asking for SIO,OOO of Congress, partly because of her services as a nurse during the war, and partly because of the pt rsecution of a certain United States Senator not named, who drove her from the department in 1860 because she would not yield to his temptations.

Great indignation has been expressed among the Indiana delegation and the friends of ex-Senator Henry S. Lane over the publication in the Washington Post, of Mcnday last, of an alleged interview with Miss Clara G. Scott, in whioh she is reported as having made serious charges against the late Senator from Indiana. Your correspondent has taken the pains to investigate the matter, and he finds that the woman, who is a "crank” of the most pronounced type, never mentioned the name of the Indiana Senator, and never knew him. On the contrary, she avers that‘she told the Post reporter that it was Senator Lane, of Kansas. The Post reporter explains his mistake, and will make the proper correction in this way. The woman spoke of the late senator from Kansas, and on returning to his office to write,up his notes he discovered that he had not taken the initials, and not knowing them himself, he enquired of some one in the room what were the initials of Senator Lane. “Henry S.” was the reply, whereupon the Senator from Indiana was made responsible for the alleged piccadilloes of the redoubtable James H. Lane, of Kansas.

The Cherokee Indians, situated in the Indian Territory, are anxious to lease a portion of their land, and cattle men are desirous of securing the use of it Secretary Teller is waiting for the report of a special agent sent to investigate the subject before rendering a decision. As-sistant-Secretary Joelyn favors granting the leases. He says: “The Gherokees want to lease the west end of their nation. They can get $200,000 for it, while now they do not receive a cent The land is fit for nothing but grazing, and there are plenty of cattle men who would like to place their herds on it The $200,000 ought to be divided, and one-half of the sum used to buy stock for the Indians, and the remainder used to buy farming implements and for school houses. By these means the Indians in a short time would become self-supporting. Secretary Teller in his report refers to what has been done for one tribe of Indians, and the result. In November, 1879, the Gov-

ernment appropriated $30,000 for the Navajo Indians, of New Mexioo. This sum was used in purchasing 14,000 sheep and 1,000 goats. Now those Indians have 900,000 sheep and 200,000 goats. The wool clip in 1881 was 1,000,000 pounds, 200,000 pounds of which was used in making blankets. The Navajos number 16,000. In 1871-’72-’73 the Government appropriated $500,000 for these Indians. In 1881,1882 and 1888 a sum but little over $50,000 was appropriated,the amount for this year being hut $5,000. Next year no appropriation will be neoessary, the Indians having become self-supporting. This is the only way to solve the Indian problem. Prepare the way for them to make their own living.” A plan similar to the above has been sent to the Indian Department by Indian Agent Hunt / of the Indian Territory. He proposes to make three of the wildest tribes self-sup-porting within ten years by appropriating about $250,000 for the purpose of purchasing cattle for the Indians.