Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1890 — WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON.

Friday morning for the first time in several months the ways and means commit? tee of the House held a session. The purJ pose was to discuss the treatment of the Senate amendments to the tariff bill, and the entire session was ‘So consumed. Ab the bill itself had not reached the committee no formal conclusions could be noted, and the proceedings were entirely, confined to general discussion. On one point there seemed to be practical agree. l ment, and that was that the amendments! should be considered by the committee in** stead of acceding at once to the request oil the Senate for a conference. As to how much time should be allotted to that pro* oeeding there seemed to be a diversity of opinion, but there was a pronounced disposition on both the Republican and Democratic sides to hasten the action in the committee as much as possible. The date upon which the bill when enacted into law, shall take effect also discussed, but without result beyond the development of a strong individual belief that the date fixed by the Senate, Oct. 1, was too early to admit of final action upon this bill and its distribution among the customs officers of the country. It was not supposed when the census was authorized that the work of the enumerators would prove of any particular value to the Department of Justice, yet an incident has just come to light which shows that the census schedule may in certain instances be of great value in the detection of criminals. A short time ago' Pension Commissioner Raum asked authority from the superintendent of the census for one of his special agents to examine the schedules received from Rio Blanco county, CoK It was asserted that a man who was wanted for violating the pension laws was believed to be in hiding in that county, but just where he could be' found was not known. The special agent 1 went over the schedules, and after a dili-' gent search found the man with his fam4 ily, registered m an out of the way mining camp. He has been arrested and will be 1 brought to trial through this information. Speaker Reed refuses to sign the river and harbor bill until there is a quorum' present. The sugar and'.binding twine provisions of the tariff bill is likely to prove the stumbling block of the compromise committee . The result may be a change in tfie free list oi sugar from 13 to 16 Dutch standard. The President’s mountain home at Cresson Springs. Pa., was invaded Saturday by about 1,200 members of the Grand Army and their friends. They were accorded a pleasant reception by the executive. The membership of the House of Representatives is already too large, but it will probably be increased by twenty-odd members under the new apportionment. The admission of new States and increase of population threatens, at the present rate to so increase the size of the House as to make it very difficult to transact business. Many people familiar with legislative as-■ fairs believe that now the membership of the House should be reduced rather than' increased. Since 1790 the apportionment' has run up from one member to every 33,900 people to one for every 151,912 people,l and meanwhile the membership in the House has increased from 103 to 330. It is curious to look over the progress of apporJ tionments. Every ten years the party ini power figures on the census to see what apportionment will give them the advant. age of most members of their party in Congress and the grestest strength in the Electoral College. One. result of all the figuring is that some ofi the States have fewer Representatives now than they had on the first apportionmentin 1790 a member of the House represented 33,900 citizens; ten years later each member represented 35,000. From that the apportionment increased steadily to 40,000, to 47,700, to 70,680, to 93,420, to 127,000, to 131,425 and then, in 1880, to 151,912. As it now stands under the new apportionment frill Virginia will lose one Representative. l In 1790 she had just nine more Represensi tatives in the House than she now has. Before any census was taken, when the' government was just organized, Virginia! had ten Representatives, just what she 1 now has. Connecticut had seven Repre>j sentatives in 1790, and has but four now. Delaware had at the beginning, and still has one, but back beand 1820 she had two. Illinois had nothing until 1810, when she came in with one, which has grown steadily up to twenty. From the same time Indiana has! had a steady growth from one to thirteen*' Maryland had six when the government was formed, which was increased to nine in 1800, and six is the numbqr she now has. 1 Maine started in with seven under the apportionment of 1810, and now has butfour.l Massachusetts had seventeen in 1800, and' now has twelve. New Hampshire had four under the first apportionment, and now has but half that. Rhode Island was given two at the first apportionment, and has always had the same number. Secretary Windom announced Monday that he would purchase $16,000,000 of 4 per cent, bonds and prepay the interest on between $50,000,000 and $60,000,000 of 6 per cents, in order to relieve the stringency in the money market. The order was issued from Washington Monday morning, giving notice that offers for the bonds to be purchased will be received at 12 o’clock noon next Wednesday. Mr. Windom said that he had named $16,000,000 as the amount of bonds to be purchased, because, as the entire available surplus is now $52,000,000, the Treasury has outstanding offers for bonds and Interest amounting to $30,000,000, and .the amount of 4 per cents, now asked for will require about $20,000,000. This, together with what will be required lor the prepayment of the interest on th" 6 per cents., will consume the entire available surplus. Mr. Windom further said there was no doubt in his mind that the action taken will bring satisfactory relief if the holders of bonds are disposed to cooperate with the Treasury. He sees no great danger of serious financial trouble and it will not be the fault of theTreasuiQ Department if it comes.