Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1889 — WASHINGTON NOTES. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON NOTES.

It is rumored that the Samoan treaty may be rejected by the Senate; that even Mr. Blaine himself is dissatisfied with it A rumor is in circulation that Seers-' tary of the Navy Tracy will be appointed to the vacant seat on the United States Supreme Coart bench. • """ I Asst Secy. Bussey has rendered a decision adhering to the rejection of the claim of John Seifert, late of Com-, Say A, Forty-ninth Indiana Volunire, to an invalid pension. Claimant ■ asked for a pension for a pistol wound received while ejecting from a saloon a number of persona who were disturbing a game of cards in which fie and his \ captain were engaged. President Green, of the Western Union Telegraph Company, has written to the Postmaster General on the subject of reducing rates for Government service. He admits that the company has taken certain business at very low rates lor press associations, and even given service free or at coat in bulletining events of great public interest, but he does not consider that sueh exceptional incidents should be made the basis in determining the rates to be paid for government service, which tool the most exacting character. Rev. Dr. Dorchester, Superintendent of Indian Schools, has returned from a two months’ tour of inspection among the Indian schools in the West. At the Chiloceouchoel,in the Indian Territory, the Indian boys, with the assistance of two white farmers, are cultivating, this year, 225 acres of corn, ninety acres of wheat, twenty acres of potatoes, besides smaller acreages of other crops. In some of the schools visited Dr. Dorchester, said that the instructors and others in authority were inefficient and altogether improper persons to fill the important positions which they occupied.

Civil Bervice Commissioner Roosevelt said N ednesday that charges have been brought against both the pension office and the sixth auditor’s office; that men have been discharged because they were Democrats. He was not prepared to say that this was a violation of the law, but individually he was firmly of the opinion that it was in violation of the spirit of the law. He thought that no one, unless he happened to be an active partisan, should be dismissed from the public service. He said the commission was going to look the matter up, not only as relating to the present but to the past In speaking of the matter further, Mr. Roosevelt said that in the Baltimore postoffioe it war charged that there had been a clean sweep, and out of 357 employee there were only eleven Democrats. He thought that this wm wrong, and ought to be stepped.

The committee appointed by Secretary Noble to investigate and report upon the manner of rerating pensions in the Pension Bureau during tne last year were, Thursday, busilv engaged in examining the eases. It is stated at the Pension Office that in the event the committee discovers that re-ratinga have been made in violation of law, the facts can be reported to the Commissioner, and tiie law points out the oonrae he is to pnrane. The pensioners are given sixty days In which to show cause why their increased pensions were not illegally granted. If they fail to respond, then the Commissioner can have their pension certificates recalled and the amounts adjusted to its legal limits. Ik can demand that the back pension, if any, shall be returned, and he has full antnority to collect it, as he would any 'other form of indebtedness.