Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1886 — WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON.

Secretary Manning has written a letter to Chairman Morrison, of the Ways and Means Committee, in which he estimates that Mr. Morrison’s tariff bill will reduce the public revenue about $12,000,000. The clausM of the bill’limiting the maximum of duties to certain ad valorem fates will give £ rise to controversies over values which will have to be approximately ascertained by customs officers,

and he advises that the decisions of offioers in such cases be made finalJ The Secretary calls attention to the necessity of making definite classifications, so as to avoid troublesome litigation. Provisions fixing the rate of duty according to the component material of ejjief value leads to legation, he says, because of the uncertainty 6f the meaning of that term when applied tb a manufactured article. Attention kg/ also called to the uncertainty of the term “broken or granulated rice,” and a suggestion is made that a maximum size be stated, so as to avoid controversy. It is understood that the Secretary of the Treasury will recommend that Congress provide specific duties on silk. , Representative Sanburn has reported to the House Committee on Agriculture that he finds on thorough examination a strong analogy between cholera in the human raee j and the so-called Texas plague in cattle, in ! the manner of its mode of propagation and spread among cattle, as well as very many conditions and symptoms in common with yellow fever. He thinks that the disease, like cholera, is spread by the excretions of the infected eatte, and considers a board fence separating well from diseased or ex- 1 posed cattle a sufficient quarantine. Dr. Swinburne of the committee expresses the' opinion that the infected northern or west-' ern cattle do not transmit the disease one to the other, and recommends an appropriation for a scientific commission to investigate the plague, the enactment of laws governing the transportation of cattle, and the enforcement of quarantine. Congressman Lawler has%'%ill to present to Congress providing for the closing of the Chicago River, between the lake and Twelfth street.... A ship canal is proposed from the river at Sixteenth street to the lake. The House Committee on Indian Affairs has agreed on bills granting right of way through Indian Territory to the Fort Scott and Kansas, Fort Wortli and Denver, Kansas and Arkansas Valley, and Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad Companies... .The House adopted a resolution empowering the Postoffice Committee “to ascertain whether ad-; ditional legislation is necessary to prevent the monopoly of telegraphic facilities, and to secure to the Southern, Western and Pacific StatesHhe benefits of competition between telegraph companies, and to protect the people of the United States against unreasonable charges for telegraphic servioes.”