Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 December 1887 — WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON.

Representative Holman has requested that he be not zeappointed to the appropriation committee, bntthatbe be given a place on some committee having no control whatever over the expenditures of public money. He expressed a preference for the public lands committee, and it is probable that the chairmanship of that committee will be given him. Mr. Burrows, of Michigan, has prepared a.bill which he will introduce, which is of special interest to farmers: It establishes a uniform system of weights. The present standard of weights of iarih products makes great inconvenience. In Indiana a bushel of onions is 57 pounds, while in Michigan 54 pounds makes a bushel, in Massachusetts 58 pounds, and Illinois 56 pounds. A bushel of beans varies from 58 to 62 pounds, and of buckwheat from 42 to 48 pounds.

Senator Palmer, of Michigan, it is reported; has come ont in favor of prohibition, and has advised the Republicans of that State to make that the nextissue. The administration tariff bill which will go before the ways and means com raittee with the indorsement of Speaker Carlisle, after the holiday recess, as the basis of revenue reform, contemplates a reduction of $62,000,000 annual revenue. Of this amount, $50,000,000 is' to come from reductions'of duties, chiefly on manufactures, and $12,000,000 from adding wool, salt, lumber, coal, etc., to the free list. The Bill aims, at a very extensive revision of present methods of administering the tariff law, and at remedying inconsistencies and irregu larities in the law as welt as a general revision of the high rate of tariff taxes. It proposes the substitution of specifi ■ for advalorem rates where the latter at 0 difficult of enforcement. In the chemical, earthen and glassware schedules,numerous judicious reductions are proposed. In metals,material reductions on iron and steel are recommended. In the wool and woolen schedule, raw wool being made free, the rates on woolen fabrics are so reduced as to take away about $10,000,000 upon the basis of last year’s importations. Inconsistencies as to rates on worsted and woolen cloths are corrected, and there occur some of the most important changes proposed in the bill. The hill embraces the schedules prepared for Congress last winter by Secretary Fairchild, substituting specific for advalorem duties on silk, gloves and embroideries. It also * includes the Hewitt jplan for reform of the customs administrative service, with some changes and additions suggested bv treasury experience since Mi. Hewitt’s bill was first introduced. Secretary Fairchild has decided to appoint Mr. Perry C. Smith, of New Jersey, as chief of the appointment division of the Treasury Department, in place of Mr. Eugene Higgins, resigned. Mr. Smith is a cousin of the Secretary. Seventy-nine Indianians hold positions in the Interior Department, ap pointedduring the present administraion.

A mild sort of panic has been caused in certain sections of the West among postal clerks by the receipt of blanks from the division superintendent,calling for the age, birthplace, etc., of the railway mail employes. Quite a large number of letters have been written here by the railway mail clerks inquiring what this new onslaught means. It seems to be pretty generally understood that the older employes are to be removed to give place to young men. Superintendent Nash said, Wednesday, that there was no danger to any of the old employes whose ages and health did not interfere with their physical and mental abilities; that any and all men who perform their duties satisfactorily would be retained. Those whose ages and physical condition interfere with their work would, of course, be dropped. No appointments are being made now to the railway mail service of men above thirty-four years of age. The idea is to fill np the service with active young men. The research for the ages and records of old employes will have the effect of producing some agility, no doubt, and a erial mat ini provement in their work.