Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1901 — Congress. [ARTICLE]

Congress.

On Monday the Senate confirmed appointment of James S. HaHan of Chicago as attorney general of Porto Rico by vote of 43 to 21. Devoted rest of day to legislative, executive and judicial appropriation bill, adopting amendment appropriating SIO,OOO to keep library of Congress open from 2 o’clock to 10 o’clock Sundays. The House appointed Messrs. Hull (Iowa), Brownlow (Tennessee) and Hay (Virginia) as House conferees on army reorganization bill. By rote of 135 to 57 passed bill appropriating $230,000 for construction in District of Columbia of home for aged and infirm colored people. By vote of 37 yeas to 82 nays killed bill allowing subjects of foreign countries claiming indemnity for injuries received in tins country to bring suit in the court of claims. Passed Senate bill to establish branch soldiers’ home at Johnson City, Tenn. Passed bill increasing salary of commissioner of education in Porto Rico from $3,000 to $4,000. In the Senate on Tuesday appropriate resolutions on death of Queen Victoria were ordered engrossed and forwarded to ttarprime" minister of Great Britain. Legislative, executive and judicial appropriation bill was completed. Treaty with Spain for purchase of two Philippine Islands, unintentionally omitted from Paris treaty*, was ratified by vote of 38 to. 19. Adjourned as an additional mttrk of respect to the memory of Queen Victoria The House passed bill to send to the court of claims the claims of Cramp & Sons of $1,300,000 for alleged damages on account of failure of government to furnish ’armor plate for battleships on time. Passed’Senate bill to extend placer mining laws to saline lands. Adopted a resolution of profound regret over death of Queen Victoria, and adjourned as an additional mark of respect. • On Wednesday the Senate resumed, consideration of shipping bill. It was made the unfinished business of the Senate, thus restoring it to its privileged position. Mr. Vest attacked it in a speech lasting nearly three hours. Mr. Rawlins precipitated lively colloquy by charging deal had been entered into between Republican members of Utah Legislature and certain railroad interests and officials of the Mormon Church to secure election of Thomas L. Kearns to the Senate from that State. He aroused Mr. Hale and Mr. Chandler, who contended statements of Mr. Rawlins ought not to be made in Senate at this stage of proceedings in Utah, as Senate could not consider the question in any phase in advance of action. The House passed District of Columbia appropriation bill and entered upon consideration of naval appropriation bill. There was some discussion of extent to which navy was to be increased ultimately, in course of which Mr. Wheeler (Dem., Ky.) declared himself in favor of navy large enough to meet "all comers,” and some criticism by Mr. Richardson, minority leader, of rapid growth of naval expenditures.

The Senate devoted Saturday to the Indian appropriation bill and made only fair progress. The chief feature of the. debate was a sharp attack by Mr. Pettigrew on the Dawes commission, which he said was extravagant and was accomplishing little in the way of results. Announcement was made by him that he did not purpose to filibuster against any bill. The shipping bill was not taken up. The House spent the day in consideration of the naval appropriation bill, completing it with the exception of a single paragraph. The Senate made little progress with the Indian appropriation bill on Friday. Listened so a speech by Senator Depew iri favor of the shipping subsidy bill. Passed a number of private pension bills. The House adopted the conference report on the army reorganization bill and seventy-seven private pension bills. *> On Saturday the Senate discussed national irrigation, the text being an amendment to the Indian appropriation bill providing for surveys, looking to the construction of an irrigation dam and ditches for the watering of the reservation of the Pima and Maricopa Indians, at San Carlos on the Gila river, Arizona. Mr. Platt of Connecticut led the opposition. and"was assisted by Mr. Quarles of Wisconsin. Mr. Stewart. Mr. Chandler and Mr. Thurston argued for the experiment. The report of the conference committee on the army reorganization bill was presented and Mr. Hawley announced that he would call it up on Monday. The House made good progress with the bill to revise arid codify the postal laws. Only twenty-eight of the 221 pages remain to be disposed of. Efforts were persistently made tq load the. biOp with amendments to effect changes in the existing postal laws. The pressure was especially strong in favor of re-x-las4ifying certain classes of' postoffice employes, but Mr. Loud of California, in charge of the bill, fought all of them, explaining that such amendments were out of place on a codification bill, ami would, if adopted, mean its death in the Senate. In this way every attempt to amend the bill was successfully resisted. The latter part of the session was devoted to eulogies upon the life i(nd public services of the late Senator Gear of lowa.

Odds and Ends.

Liner Cym'ric crashed into the British steamer Carib Prince, • near London. Prince was damaged in her upper works. London News wants separate compartments in English trains abolished in view of the ense with which murders are committed in them. Martin Reich, aged 02, living alone near Shamokin, Pa., was tortured with hot pokers and brutally kicked by five masked robbers, who secured $133.60. A shortage of $49,000, due to speculation, has been found in the accounts of . Luther A. Porter, cashier of the. Warren Deposit Bank of Bowling Green, Ky. John W. Griggs, Attorney General of the United States, has been elected a director of the Trust Company of America of New York, to fill a vacancy in the board. William Pearson was shot dead anil robbed, and Mrs. Rhoda King wounded in a compartment of a train in England by an American robber. The man was caught. At a meeting of the Southern Hosiery Yarn Spinners’ Association at Charlotte, N. C., an order for a curtailment of production was passed. This means an entire stoppage of night work.