Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1899 — congress [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

congress

The House on Wednesday settled the fate of the Nicaragua canal bill in this Congress by refusing to override the decision of the chair, occupied by Mr. Hopkins, in committee of the whole, when the chair held that the canal bill offered as an amendment by Mr. Hepburn was out of order. The reading of the sundry civil bill was continued. The appropriation for the deep waterways commission was increased from $60,000 to $90,000 on motion of the Appropriations Committee. After completing ten additional pages of the bill the committee rose and the House adjourned. A bill extending the “cordial appreciation” of Congress to Miss Helen Miller Gould for her patriotic services during the recent war and providing that the President should present to her a gold medal was passed by the Senate. A bill was passed providing for the admission to the naval academy as a cadet of Oscar W. Deignan, one of the Merrimac heroes. The army reorganization bill was reported to the Senate on Thursday. The naval personnel bill was taken up and read, but no effort made to proceed further with its consideration. Soon after the Senate convened a House joint resolution authorizing the Secretary of the Nayy to pay certain laborers, workmen and mechanics at "United States navy yards and naval stations 50 per cent additional for work performed in excess of eight hpurg p/E diejn was called up and adopted. Mr. Hale having gotten the personnel bill before the Senate did not press and Mr. Gallinger (N. H.) called up the bill enabling soldiers who served in theSpanish war who had previously beeni pensioners again to obtain their pensions and had it reconsidered. The proviso of the bill that applicants for pensions should file their claims within a year was stricken out and the bill was then passed. Consideration was begun of the postofflee appropriation bill. Practically the only obstacle encountered by the bill was the committee amendment providing for special mail facilities on the trunk linos from New York and Washington to Atlanta and New Orleans and from Kansas City, Mo., to Newton, Kan. In the House the proposition to include the item of $20,000,000 to be paid Spain for the cession of the Philippines, in the sundry civil bill shared the same fate as did the Nicaragua canal bill “rider” the day before. The ruling of the chair was preceded by an extended debate. After the sundry civil bill had been completed and reported to the House Mr. Hepburn (Iowa), the champion of the Nicaragua canal bill, moxed to recommit it, with instructions to report it back with the canal bill incorporated in it. The motion was promptly declared out of order by the Speaker, whereupon Mr. Hepburn appealed and Mr. Payne (New York> moved to lay the appeal on the table. Upon the latter motion the vote was taken, and the result was 97 yeas to 67 nays. The House on Friday finally passed thesundry civil appropriation bill, to which it had devoted over a week. No important amendment had been adopted. TheSpeaker’s ruling upon the motion to recommit the bill, with instructions to incorporate in it the Nicaragua canal amendment, was sustained—lss to 96. A bill was passed authorizing the President to appoint five additional cadets-at-large-to the naval academy. The evening session was devoted to private pension legislation. The naval personnel bill, for which the Navy Department has been contending for so many years, was passed The Senate spent most of the day Saturday ou the postollice appropriation bill, but failed to complete it. An echo of theold star route developments was heard when several Senators criticised the method by which a combination of speculators, secured the star route contracts. Several bills of minor importance were passed early in the day. The House spent twohours upon the naval appropriation bill without making any progress. The remainder of the session was devoted to eulogies upon the life and public services, of the late Representative Northway, of Ohio. The paragraph in the bill relating to the naval academy, against which Mr. Mudd (Rep., Md.) raised a point of order, was stricken out, the point of order being sustained. Mr. Mudd then moved additional appropriations of $720,000 for the completion of the buildings at the academy authorized in the last naval bill. During almost six hours Monday afternoon the postoffice appropriation bill was under discussion in the Senate, the timebeing consumed largely by Mr. Butler (Pop., N, C.) and Mr. Pettigrew (Sil. Rep., S. D.) in an amendment providing that the postal commission should present its final report to Congress by March' 1, 1900. Failing after many trials to obtain unanimous consent for the insertion of the amendment in the bill, Mr. Butler permitted it to come to a vote. It was. defeated 27 to 19. Mr. Hawley, chairman, of the Military Affairs Committee, moved to take up the army reorganization bill, unanimous consent having been refused to take up the measure without displacing the unfinished business—the antiscalping bill. Mr. Hawley’s motion pre-, vailed, 44 to 26, this making the army bill the unfinished business. A separate bill appropriating $20,000,000 for payment to Spain under the provisions of the treaty of Paris was passed by the House under suspension of the rules. The Senate bill to reimburse the Governors of States for expenses pa'/l by the States in organizingvolunteers for service in the war with Spain before their muster into the service of the United States also was passed under suspension of rules. The bil! appropriating $500,000 for the Pan-Ameri-can exposition to be held nt Buffalo, N. Y., in 1901 was before the House, when senee of a quorum compelled an adjournment. > •