Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 58, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1898 — CONGRESS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CONGRESS

During its session of three hours on Monday the Senate passed a considerable, number of bills from the general calendar, among the number being one authorizing the construction of eight new revenue cutters not exceeding in aggregate cost the sum of $2,025,000. A resolution offered last Thursday by Mr. Chandler (N. II.) authorizing the committee,on naval affairs to send for persons and papers in the course of the investigation of the Maine disaster, was adopted. Mr. Lodge (Mass.) of the foreign relations committee called up the joint resolution for the relief of August Bolton and Gustave Richglieu. The resolution as reported from the foreign relations committee is as follows: “That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby empowered to take such measures as in his judgment may be necessary to.obtain the indemnity from the Spanish government for the wrongs and injuries suffered by August Bolten and Gustave Richelieu by reason of their wrongful arrest and imprisonment by Spanish authorities at Santiago de Cuba in the year 1895; and to secure this end he is authorized and requested to employ such means.or exercise such power ns may be necessary.” In the House on Tuesday it was agreed to consider the bill for the relief of the legal heirs of the victims and survivors of the Maine disaster as soon as the postSffice appropriation-bill is out of the way. During the general debate on the postoffice bill members eagerly took advantage of the latitude allowed in committee of the whole on-the state of the Union to discuss various political questions. Messrs. Griggs (Dem., Ga.) and Walker (Rep., Mass.)-discussed the conditions of the cotton industry, and Mr. Tawney (Rep., Minn.), a member of the Ways and Means Committee, replied to the speech of Mr. Johnson (Rep., Ind.) made some time ago against the advisability of annexing -the Hawaiian islands. Mr. Tawney strongly advocated the annexation of the islands. After the passage of numerous bills from the general calendar the Senate began consideration of the measure providing for a national system of quarantine. Little beyond the reading of the bill was accomplished. On Wednesday the postoffice appropriation bill, which was technically the subject before the House, was almost lost track of in the debate. The Cuban-Span-ish question, which had been kept in the background heretofore, forged to the front. Mr. Cochran (Dem., Mo.Xbrought the question into the arena, and in the course of the debate that followed Mr. Grosvenor of Ohio took occasion to deny emphatically the stories afloat to the effect that the President desired an early adjournment of Congress in ordet that he might effect a settlement , without congressional interference. The subject of Hawaiian annexation also came in for attention. Mr. Williams (Dem., Miss.), Mr. Adams (Rep., ,Pa.) and Mr. Berry (Dem., Ky.), all members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, made speeches on the ■ subject, the former in opposition and the two latter in favor of the proposition. Business in the legislative session of the Senate was confined to the passage of a few bilis, largely of a local character. The national quarantine bill was not considered. On Thursday the session of the House Was devoted strictly to the postoffice appropriation bill, which was taken up for amendment under the five-minute rule. The questions which consumed the major portion of the time related to the allowance for clerk hire at postoffices and to rural free delivery. The House increased the allowance for rural free delivery from $150,000 to $300,000 and defeated the proposition for increased clerk hire. Among the bills passed in the Senate was one to authorize the construction of a gunboat on the great lakes to take the place of the United States ship. Michigan, and to cost, exclusive of armament, not to exceed $230,000. Adjourned till Monday. On Friday the House spent another day on the postoffice appropriation bill, but disposed of only two pages of the bill. Most of the day was devoted to a debate on the merits of the pneumatic tube mail service in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, and the advisability of continuing the existing contract. An effort to strike out the appropriation of $225,000 was defeated, but the opponents of the appropriation succeeded in securing the adoption of an amendment providing that no additional contracts should be made. An amendment was adopted making it a misdemeanor for any person to “pad” the mails during the period when the mails are being weighed to determine the compensation to be paid to the railroads for their transportation. The Senate was not in session.