Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1883 — WASHINGTON NOTES. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON NOTES.

ed at Washington, in excellent health, from their southern trip. No worn and mutilated currency can be redeemed by the treasury department until a new appropriation is made. Indictments have been returned by the Washington Grand Jury against Kellogg and Brady, for star route manipulations C har ges again st naval officers of w holesale smuggling are again indulged in in the Treasury Department and other circles. The assertion is openly made that the government has lost more money through the smuggling of naval officers than through all sources combined, whereat naval officers are highly indignant. The secretary of the agricultural department of California, in a private telegram says: From the latest and best information received, the State will produce a futy average crop of wheat this year, or 30,000,000 bushels. Reports received from thirty counties of Wisconsin report the winter wheat in excellent condition. Of the 260,000 Indians in the United States, about 160,000 in the West, Northwest and Southwest require more or less military surveillance. One-fourth of them —or 60,000 in round numbers—are adults capable of bearing arms, but there are seldom more than from 100 to 1,000 Indians on the war-path. Yet we have on the border a force of 17,500 men for purposes of repression and suppression. Congressman Guenther, of Wisconsin, who was active in his efforts to ''secure a reduction of the tariff on glass bottles, says that even now, before the new tariff has gone into operation, toe price on small bottles has been increased about one dollar per gross, and it is expected that when the new tariff goes into effect the price will be still more increased. tMe ofd rate was 85 per cent ad valorem, and the new tariff, owing to the extraordinary action of the Conference Committee, fixes the rate at one per cent per pound, an increase of over one hundred per cent

It is reported to the Treasury Department that smuggling is being extensively practised on the Rio Grande river, and that a difference of opinion exists between the district attorney for the Southern District of Texas and the collector of customs at Brownsville as to the authority of the officers of the latter to arrest persons detected in the act of smuggling. The question has been referred to the solicitor of the Treasury for an opinion. The solicitor says that he has no doubt that the officers have the same legal right to arrest offenders that they have to seize smuggled goods, provided the arrest is not made on Mexican territory. R. H. Milroy, of Yokama Indian Agency, W. T., writes to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that the recent trouble between the Indians of his agency and the white settlers of the vicinity arose from a quarrel occasioned by the scattering of poisoned meat near the camp of the Indians on the Columbia river by one of the white settlers. The Indians ate complaining that when the grass grew about the meat the horses might eat of it and be poisoned. The agent says the Indians ought to be brought to the reservation, as it is becoming very difficult for them to find subsistence where they are in camp, and as long as they remain there troubles of a greater or less magnitude will be constantly arising. The specifications for the new postal notes, authorized- by Congress its last session, are nearly completed and by the first of th“ month the Post office Department will invite proposals for making th°m from private bank-note companies and the bureau of Engraving and Printing located here. Engravers are now -st work on the latter, preparing designs, and the specifications are alone required to expedite matters. These notes will prove a great accommodation in the transaction of business involving small amounts, ranging from 10 cents upto 82 or S 3, They can be sent for a 8-oent postage stamp, and are made payable to bearer so that the troublesome m .nev order and letter of indentification are thus dispensed with. The postal note, however, will not in any way antagonize the money orders, for a sort of fractional currency. Upon the reception of a postal note all that will be required of the holde” will be to present it at the nearest post office and receive the cash. . “General Grant made a remark the other day which struck me as odd,” said Commissioner Loring. “He said that the place to build Mexican railroads was through the country to the south of the City of Mexico, and added that railroad built through this section would open up a sugar, cotton and agriculture l country the richest in the world.” The attention of American capitalists and railroadbuilders is directed almost entirely to northern Mexico, and to the establishment of rail connection with the United States. The scheme for the drainage 'of the City of Mexico and the reclamation of large tracts of contiguous land, in which Commissioner Loring is interested, is in statu quo. The gentlemen are awaiting

advices from the Mexican govehiment relative to the time of payment of the 89,000,000 promised for tile work and more definite information about the 8200,000 guarantee deposit required by the government from whoever may undertake the job. It is said at the Postoffice Department that the report referred to in a recent dispatch from the City of Mexico in regard to postal arrangements between that country and the United States, urged the necessity of a daily instead of a tri-week-ly mail in Mexico. At present the United States mails for Mexico reach the frontier daily, and are delayed there on account of the slow mail service of that government. A change proposed, in which the Mexican authorities appear to acquiesce* will obriate delay, and the mails will be forwarded, as far as possible, on the day they reach the Mexican border. Judge Thoman said Tuesday that the rules drawn up by the Civil-service Commission differed somewhat, but not materially, from those employed by the former commission. Until they are laid before the President and cabinet he would say nothing further regarding them, except that, in his opinion, they would fairly test the qualifications of those competing for office. On being in - terrogated as to certain statements credit■ eTto him, that the wholesale discharge of government employes on the incoming of a new administration was not forbidden by law, he asserted that what he said was thav.the civil-service law had nothing to do with removing; that the power to dismiss from office was not abridged by the bill, but that all appointments to office must be made from among those found competent, without regard to party. It is said that Postmaster-General Gresham will give the Louisiana case an overhauling at an early date, and make an effort to have matter to and from the offices of that institution excluded from h e mails as required by law. The lottery company keeps several high-priced men of influence in Washington on its pay-rolls, and thus far the attempts to interfere with the transmission of lottery matter through the mails have fallen flat The men who compose the lottery crowd are afraid as death of the new Postmaster-General, and quake in their boots for fear he may by an official ruling kick their fat into the fire. The prompt manner in which he takes up ‘questions and goes at once to the bottom of them is something new in department administration, and fills the parties who makes living expediting or delaying matters of business by arguments, demurrersand other means, with a fear that their occupation will soon be gone.