Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1898 — CONGRESS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CONGRESS

After four days of consideration theHouse on Saturday passed the bankruptcy bill reported by the House Committeeon Judiciary as a substitute for the Nelson bill passed by the Senate at the extra session last summer. The bill is known as the Henderson bill, and contains both' voluntary and involuntary features. It is considered less drastic than the measure passed by the last House by a vote of 157 to 87. The involuntary feature, however, had but 1G majority. On Saturday a motion to strike out the iuvoluntarv feature was defeated by a majority of 19, and the bill was passed by a majority of 23, fho> vote standing, yeas 158, nays 125. Eighteen Republicans voted against the bill and twelve Democrats for it. The , Populists, with one exception, voted against it. Monday was private bill day in the House. The feature of the day was a spirited contest over the bill to pay Newberry College, a Lutheran institution in South Carolina, $15,000 for damages by Federal troops. It was Anally passed. On motion of Mr. Bailey, the Democratic leader, the House voted—sß to 35—to observe Washington’s birthday by adjourning over until Wednesday, but Mr. Dingley raised the point of no quorum and before further action could be taken the House recessed. For three hours the Senate had under discussion the bill providing for the taking of the twelfth and silbsequent censuses. It was amended so as to place the census bureau under the Secretary of the Interior, but the extended discussion which followed disclosed so wide a divergence of views as to the various features of the measure that no further action was tafcen. A resolution offered by Mr. Allen, directing the I Committee on Naval Affairs to make an | investigation of the Maine disaster, was I adopted without debate. In the House on Tuesday Mr. Johnson : of Indiana made a sensational speech opposing the annexation of Hawaii. Polit- ; Uni speeches occupied the rest of the day. I The sundry civil hill was before the j House. The debate was finished. In the | Senate a bill was passed increasing the ' j army by two artillery regiments. In ex- } exutive session the Cuban question was i discussed. On Wednesday a variety of subjects occupied the attention of the House during the consideration of the sundry civil bill. Mr. Mahany of New York made an attack on the patriotism of some of the social leaders of New York, who, he said, held high revel while the nation was bowed down with grief over the loss of life resulting from the Maine explosion. The Southern members; who have for years been fighting the appropriation for “informers” on illicit distilleries, succeeded in killing the appropriation in committee of the whole, but Chairman Cannon gave notice that he would demand a yea and nay vote jn the House. A resolution was adopted inquiring of the Treasury Department what has been done by the United States to prevent the conveyance to the Cubans of articles produced in the United States; also as to the preventions of filibustering. In the Senate the entire, day was devoted to debate on the Cuban question. By a vote of 51 to 5, Mr. Allen’s proposition to add a belligerency rider to the consular and diplomatic appropriation bill was rejected. The House disposed of thirty additional pages of the sundry civil appropriation bill on Thursday. The fact that the Government is preparing for contingencies was recognized when Chairman Cannon, who has been laboring to keep down appropriations, accepted without a word of protest an amendment to increase the appropriation to care for the unused machinery at the Springfield arsenal. Resolutions which were objected t.o a few weeks ago for the appointment of two extra naval cadets to positionsedn the engineer corps of the navy were also adopted. One of them will fill a vacancy caused by thedeath of Lieut, Merritt of the Maine. A feature of the Senate’s session was th® speech of Mr. Spooner (Wisconsin) on the right of Henry W. Corbett to a seat in the Senate from Oregon under appointment of the Governor. Mr. Spooner made a constitutional argument in favor of seating Mr. Corbett. An effort was made to obtain consideration of the Alaskan homestead and railway right of way bill, but on a parliamentary technicality it went over. The resolution offered on Wednesday by Mr. Allen (Nebraska) to appoint a committee of five Senators to investigate the Cuban situation was withdrawn by its author when it was laid before the Senate. In the House fin Friday a long and somewhat exciting debate over the question of river and harbor appropriations was precipitated during the conuideratfon of the sundry civil appropriation hill. It. was practically agreed by all those, who participated that there would be no river and harbor hill at this session of Congress. The item appropriating $400,000 for San Pedro harbor, California, was passed, and the Oakland harbor appropriation remains in the hill by a vote of 118 to 10. An unsuccessful effort was made to peoure consideration of the hill passed by the Senate for two additional regiments or artillery, hut on objection from Mr. Cox (I)oin., Tenn.), it went over. In the Senate Henry W. Corbett’s right to n seat in tin* Senate from Ordgon was under consideration for five hours. A bill permitting the building of a dam between Coon Rapids and tin* north limits of Minneapolis, across the Mississippi River, was passed. Early in the session an attempt was made to get up the Alaskan bill, but it failed.