Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 July 1884 — THE WORK OF CONGRESS. [ARTICLE]

THE WORK OF CONGRESS.

What Is Being Done by the National Legislature. The Senate, June 24, passed the Mexican pension bill, with an amendment that no person shall be entitled to more than one pension at a time, and the House bill to authorize the appointment of two additional Justices of the Supreme Court for Dakota and one for Washington Territory. In the Honse of Representatives, a bill was passed to repeal the pre-emption and timber-culture laws, with an amendment that agricultural lands shall hereafter be reserved for actual settlers under the homestead law. The House electoral-count bill was passed, as was also the Senate bill to give an annual vacation of fifteen days to each letter-carrier. The Senate, on June 25, spent the day o*4> the legislative appropriation bill, and struck out the clause directing the consolidation of customs districts. The Honse of Representatives admitted James R. Chalmers for the Becond District of Mississippi; a resolution to declare the election void being voted down by 56 to 161. Bills were passed to authorize tbe establishment of a branch Soldiers’ Home in the West, and giving permission for a horse railway on the island and bridges at Rock Island. The Senate, on the 26th, passed the legislative appropriation bill, with an amendment that all reports in the Record shall oe an accurate transcript of the proceedings and debates. The House passed a bill authorizing the construction of a bridge across the Missouri River at White Cloud, Kan. Bills were reported to pension the surviving officers and men of the Tippecanoe campaign, and for disposing of the Cherokee reservation in Kansas. The Senate, on June 27, passed a bill granting right of way through the Indian Territory to the Southerh Kansas Road. A bill for the relief of William McQarrahan was reported adversely. Mr. Mitchell introduced a bill to incorporate the national encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic. Mr. Hawley called attention to a false statement in a speeeh printed in the Record, that Gen. Logan owned 89,000 acres of land. The House, by a vote of 124 to 114, tabled the bill to forfeit the “backbone” railroad land grant. The subject of printing undelivered speeches in the official report of proceedings led to some hot words and considerable merriment. A favorable report was made in the Senate, June 19, on the bill to pension the widow of General James B- Steedman. The general deficiency bjll was passed, with an item authorizing the payment of $3,000 to Charles H. Beed for defending Charles J. Guiteau. The River and Harbor bill consumed the remainder of the day’s session. In the House, the Speaker stated that the regular order wis the question of privilege comeing over from yesterday, and presented by a resolution offered by Mr. Cannon, that the Record be so amended as to show that the speech purporting to have been delivered by Mr. McAdoo, in which allusion is made to Senator Logan, was not actually delivered by him.. Mr. Cox after deprecating the practice of printing long essays in The Record, said the present dispute arose from the publication in The Record of a newspaper article stating that Senator Logan owned 80,000 acres of land. It had not been charged that he came by it wrongfully. He (Cox) did not know that Logan was a dishonest man. What was the object of this discussion to-day, except to prevent adjournment? In order to put an end to the discussion, he moved to lay the whole matter on the table. [Cries of “Good ” and “Vote.”] The motion was agreed to without a division. Mr. Lovering’s eight-hour law, which proposed to pay Government employes a full day’s pay for eight hours’ work, was defeated.