Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1884 — WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON.

The pension appropriation bill provided for 150 additional special examiners in connection with the Pension Department, The places will be filled by competitive examination. Twenty-five additional appointments in the Patent-Office will also be filled in accordance with the civil-service rules. |; At the solicitation of some of the leading trade and industrial organizations of the country the Secretary of State last winter directed the preparation of a circular letter with a view to securing through Consular officers the fullest obtainable information concerning the condition of labor throughout the world, and especially in Europe. Very full returns have been received from Consuls everywhere, and are now in process of preparation in the Bureau of Statistics of the State Department for the press. The material embodies information relating not only to the rates of wages paid to all classes of laborers but to the prices paid for the necessaries of life, clothing, rent, food, etc., not only from the American standpoint as to what the necessaries of life comprise, but the actual nature and quality of the articles consumed... .Within the limits of Washington a Chicago express train collided with a local passenger train, and several persons were killed.