Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 132, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1903 — CONGRESS [ARTICLE]

CONGRESS

The session of the Senate oj» (Tuesday was devoted exclueively- to the reading of the President’s message and J to the routine incident receipt of the message. On motion of Mr. Cullom it was voted to refer to the committee on foreign affairs both message and the Cuban treaty, the text of which had been transmitted With the message. The House wns in session ldss than half an hour, an early adjournment being taken out of respect to the memory of Mr. Foqyderer (Pa.) and Boring (Ky.), deceased members. The President’s message was read and referred to Hie committee on ways and means, the membership of which was yet to be announced. The message also was ordered printed. The Speaker announced the committees on rules and mileage, the former consisting of himself, Dalzell (Pa.), Grosvenor (Ohio), Williams (Miss.) and De Armond (Mo.). Aside from making provision for the payment of mileage of members no further business was transacted.

A number of petitions and many new bills were received by the Senate Wednesday. Some of the petitions protested against Senator Smoot e&„ TJtah remaini ing in the Senate. Mr. Gallinger (N. H.) introduced the first bill, .providing for the erection of a statue to Gen. John Stark. The House joint resolution making immediately available the appropriation for mileage of Senators and members was adopted. In the House the session lasted only five minutes. After prayer by the chaplain and the reading ,of the journal G. C. Reed and Minor Wallace- and T. B. Kyle of Ohio were sworn in as members.

The Senate on Thursday entered upon a discussion of the eligibility of Reed Smoot of Utah to a seat in the upper housfe, to Which he has been elected, Senator Dubois of Idaho taking exceptions to the statement by Senator Hoar that petitions from organizations against seating Mr. Smoot were out of place. Mr. Dubois argued that these petitions represented the moral thought of the country, and should be approached in the proper spirit. A large number of bills were presented, followed by a brief executive session. Resolutions of the House on the death of Representatives Foecderer of Pennsylvania and Boring of Kentucky were received, and out of respect to their memory the Senate adjourned until tlie next Monday. In the House Mr. Payne introduced a bill to make effective the Cuban reciprocity convention. It was referred to the ways and means committed. Following the reading of the journal Mr. Ball of Texas was sworn in, and the Speaker announced the ways and means committee.

The House was in session seventeen minutes on Friday, adjourning at 12:17 p. m. until Monday. Mr. .Payne (N. Y.), chairman of the committee on ways and means, reported the Cubaji bill and gave notice that on Monday he would call it up for consideration. By unanimous consent the minority of the ways and means was given further time in which to snhmit a minority report. Mr. Livernast (Cal.) rose to a question of personal privilege, and started to criticise President Roosevelt’s Panama policy, but was ruled out of order. Odds and Ends. William Stalilnecker, Jr., a son of the former Congressman and Mayor of Yonkers, N. Y., was arrested in that city for burglary. Maj. Gen. Woods reports that during his recent trip to Lake Lnnao the hitherto hostile Moros of that region met him in a friendly spirit. The Kansas Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows filed a lien against De Boissiere home, in Franklin County, for $50,000, spent by it on improvements to the property when the Odd Fellows had possession of it The boys of Boston met and resolved against the girl messenger. They explain they want the jobs and want to regulate who shall hqve the jobs. In the meantime Boston has a record breaking messenger service. A sensational trial is pending in St. Petersburg ns a result of a government investigation of the engineers who built the Southern Manchuria Railway. The investigation has revealed the defalcation of several million roubles. Humbert Cattlina and Martin J. Pishkur, Italian miners, fell from a cage descending into the Minnie Henly mine nt Butte, Mont., and, striking the sump, 1,000 feet below, were instantly killed. Cattlina’s head was severed from his body.

A rowboat containing several men was picked up at sea 400 miles from Noumes, New Caledonia, and taken to Melbourne, Yictoria. Six of the rescued meu have turned oflf'to be convicts who had escaped from the French penal settlement in New Caledonia. The Illinois Tunnel Company, with a capital stock of $30,000,000, was ificorporated at Springfield to succeed the Illinois Telephone and Telegraph Company.) The company will spend a sum at least equal to its capital iu building conduits and tunnels in Chicago. Rev. Robert A, Ellwood of Wilmington, Del., accused of preaching a sensational sermon on the crime of a negro murderer who was lynched, in order to avoid a resolution of censure from n committee of churchmen, asked and was granted a trial before the Newcastle presbytery, which will be held nt Dover Jan. 19. Judge John E. Cnrlnnd of the United States Court for the district of South Dakota sustained the anti-compact law passed by the Legislature last winter. It forbids collusion between fire insnranca companies in fixing rates. The estate of A- P- F. Coape, the alleged English lord, who killed himself, his wife and sister-in-law Oct. 4 at Lumberton, N. M., is appraised at $lO,000. Diamonds which Coape was known to have had have disappeared. Their disappearance Is the foundation for a rumor that the family was Tnurdered by an outsider bent on robbery.