Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 November 1889 — WASHINGTON AFFAIRS. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON AFFAIRS.

The annual report of Surgeon General Browne to the Secretary of the Navy shows that 979,780 was expended for medical purposes in the navy from October 1, 1888, to the same date this year, when there was a balance on hand of 9208,989. The annual report of Paymaster General Rochester to the Secretary of War shows that the total disbursements during the past fiscal year amounted to 114,786,921, a net increase of 9324,918 over last year. This increase is due to a large increase in the number of discharged men, 997 more than during the previous year. “I have just returned from an interview with the President, in which the silver question was discussed at considerable length,” said Senator Sherman Wednesday afternoon. “I am not at liberty, of course, to report the details of the discussion, but think it is pretty well settled that the next Congress will be compelled to legislate further in the Intel est of silver. I am not prepared to state what will be the full nature of the legislation. It is a very important matter, one in which politics does not enter, or at least should not enter, as it is a matter of finanee, in the interest of all classes of people, rich and poor. My opinion is that, whatever is done, nothing can be accomplished under two years at least, because hasty legislation in such an important matter might prove ruinous to the country. While I have decided views as to what should be done, Ido not at this time care to elaborate them, as the matter is sure to come up in Congress, ancfl may desire to change my mind after a full discussion of the question.” Vice President Morton, through his pri rate secretary, has issued a card denying the charge that liquor is being sold in one of his properties in Washington. The card says: “The building is conducted as a family apartment house, apartments be.ng leased by the year, and Mr. Morton has never entertained the idea of permitting any part of it to be used as a bar. ” Gentlemen arriving at Washington from South Dakota report that the citizens out | .there have not yet ceased their jolifications ' over their admission into the union of States. Mr. £. G. Foster, special agent of

the Treasury Department, was in Sioux Falls when the President’s proclamation was Issued. He had been sent there in-' specting the penitentiary, a large number of government prisoners being confined there. When he arrived he telephoned th* to the hotel. It was in the afternoon, and the warden had just learned of President Harrison’s proclamation for statehood. When the message was received by the warden he yelled back through the telephone : “Tell the agent of the Department of Justice that the warden of the penitentiary for the State of South Dakota will be pleased to send a carriage to the hotel immediately, for the purpose of enabling the State and federal governments to shake hands and give evidence of their friendship and the high regard the one entertains for the other. The warden for the penitentiary of the State of South Dakota will very gladly entertain all the federal officers who may call to-day, but the war den for the penitentiary of the Territory of Dakota has just stepped out with the intention of not returning until the crack of doom.” An omnibus bill for the admission of Wyoming, Idaho, Arizona and New Mexico will be pushed in the coming congress. Thergovernmßnt has- established a customs station on the south shore of Lake of the Woods, with the intention of putting a stop to stealing of timber by Canadian smugglers, who have been running eight steamboats on the lake and culling the choicest of Uncle Sam’s trees. Col. Lieber, acting judge-advocate-gen-eral, says drunkenness causes most of th* army desertions. John Bright's son called on the President Tuesday.