Congressional News

WASHINGTON CITY, July 12. - The conference report on the post office appropriation bill was presented to the senate yesterday, the house insisting on its disagreement to the clause appropriating $800,000 for South American mail service. A motion was made that the senate insist, and a long debate ensued, but the motion was agreed to - 28 to 16. The senate bill providing for seacoast defenses was next taken up, and another long debate took place, but without action the senate, at 5:30 p. m., adjourned. 

The house ordered a conference on the land forfeiture bill, and after some debate concurred in the senate amendment to the agricultural bill appropriating $100,000 for sorghum experiments, which had been the cause of disagreement. This passed the bill. The conference report on the District bill was agreed to, and then in committee the Mills bill was resumed on the amendment fixing the duty on flax and linen thread etc., at 40 per cent ad valorem. After a long political debate it was rejected. The rate of duty on bugs and bagging was changed from 15 per cent ad valorem to 6/8 of a cent a pound. The wool section was then taken up and Caswell of Wisconsin offered an amendment substituting the schedule of 1867 for the one in the bill, but the matter was laid over and the house took a recess until 8 p. m. At the evening session the bill providing for taking the eleventh and subsequent censuses was passed. O'Neil, by an ingenious amendment which was not noticed until adopted, got the wages of messengers and watchmen raised from $400 to $600 per year, and Conger of Iowa secured an amendment giving preference to honorably discharged soldiers. The house adjourned at 11:30 p. m.

 WASHINGTON CITY, July 13.- A resolution was introduced in the senate yesterday providing for the printing of extra copies of the pensions committee's report on vetoed private pension bills. The resolution resulted in quite an acrimonious debate, during which Blair said the president's messages were not gentlemanly. Butler of South Carolina thought Blair a poor judge of gentlemanhood, and Blair retorted that he at any rate was not a traitor and indebted to his country for his life. Then George took the floor to speak on the fisheries treaty, and stopped the war of words. When George had concluded a bill to pay Mrs. Sarah L. Latimer $5,000, for giving important information in 1864 as to hostile intentions of the Sioux Indians was passed, and the senate adjourned. 

The house passed the resolution for a special committee to investigate alleged evasions of the contract labor law after speeches recounting the evils of too much immigration, especially of Italians and Chinese. The Mills bill was then taken up and the rest of the day devoted to a political discussion, until at 5 o'clock the house took a recess until 8 p. m., the purpose being the consideration of antagonized private pension bills. The opposition, however, was continued at the night session, and nothing was accomplished, the house adjourning at 10:15. 

WASHINGTON CITY, July 14. - A protest was presented in the senate yesterday signed by a large number of wool manufacturers and dealers against the Mills bill. A bill appropriating $50,000 for a public building at Waubesha, Minn., was reported, and bills were passed authorizing a bridge across the Mississippi at Waubesha and appropriating $200,000 for a branch soldiers' home in Grant county, Indiana. Dolph then occupied most of the remainder of the session in a speech against the fisheries treaty. When he concluded some uninteresting business was transacted, and the senate adjourned until Monday. 

The conference report on the post office appropriation bill was presented in the house. It agrees on everything except the subsidy amendment. The rate of postage on seeds, bulbs, etc, was fixed at 1 cent per each two ounces. The report was agreed to and Bingham moved to concur on the subsidy feature, but to reduce the appropriation from $800,000 to $450,000. The matter was debated at length, Bingham, Dingley and Owen of Indiana favoring it and Blount, Holman, Dockery and Nelson of Minnesota opposing. The debate was pending when the house at 5 p. m. took recess to 8, at which time private pension bills were considered and twenty-four passed, including one in behalf of Muck-A-Pee-Wah-Ken-Zah, or "John." The house adjourned at 10:30.

 WASHINGTON CITY, July 16.- The house Saturday rejected Bingham's proposition relative to a mail subsidy in the post office appropriation bill, insisted on a disagreement, and ordered a new conference. The tariff bill was then resumed, the wool schedule being the subject of debate. La Follette of Wisconsin antagonized the remarks made on the tariff by Carlisle at the opening of the debate, and the discussion was continued by Scott, Grosvenor, Ford of Michigan and others. At 5 p. m. the house took recess until 8, at which time consideration of private bills was taken up, and nineteen passed, adjournment being reached at midnight. 

WASHINGTON CITY July 17. -The senate passed a bill appropriating $25,000 for a monument to Gen. George Rogers Clark, to be erected in Louisville in recognition of his services in the conquest of the northwestern territory during the revolutionary war. Pugh spoke in favor of the fisheries treaty and Chandler against it, and these two speeches, with some unimportant routine work, occupied the whole session. 

The house took up the tariff bill immediately upon assembling, the motion to strike wool from the free list being pending. After some debate a division on the motion was had, and it was defeated - yeas, 93; nays, 122 - Sowden, Wilkins and Foran, Democrats, voting aye, and Anderson of Iowa, Republican, nay. Mills offered an amendment fixing the duty on certain carpetings, mattings, etc. , which was adopted, and after the rejection of a motion to restore the wool tariff of 1867 this part of the bill was disposed of. Then some committee amendments fixing the duty on kaolin, marble, etc., were adopted, and the tariff part of the bill was done. The tobacco section being reached, Wise wanted the tax on cigars, etc., repealed, but his proposition was defeated, and Johnston of North Carolina moved the repeal of all tax on spirits distilled from grain or fruit. The motion was defeated - 27 to 135. A motion was then made to repeal the taxes on fruit spirits, and this was pending when the house adjourned. Oct. 1, 1888, was the date fixed tor the tobacco clause to go into effect. 

WASHINGTON CITY July 18.- Blair moved in the senate yesterday that a place be provided in the capitol to test Craig's improved telegraph scheme, the object being to have the government buy it if it was a good thing. The resolution went over. The sundry civil bill was reported back, and a bill to place John C. Fremont on the retired list with the rank of major general was Butler, Cali, Gibson, Hearst, and Gray Democrats, voting aye . The senate then receded from its subsidy amendment to the post office bill. The bill to pay government workmen for overtime since the eight hour law went into effect was taken up, and after debate, passed - yeas, 25; nays, 22. 

The senate then adjourned. The house adopted a resolution asking why ex-Confederates were refused Mexican war pensions, and then resumed the tariff discussion. All amendments repealing the tax on cigars, etc, and fruit spirits were rejected, as were several proposing to strike out the modification of the revenue laws relating to the collection of taxes. Lawler offered an amendment abolishing the oleomargarine tax, and that was rejected- 101 to 3. The last section of the bill was acted upon, leaving only those sections that have been passed over to consider. A motion was adopted that the bill go into effect October 1 next, and Mills said he would call the previous question Saturday at 11:30 a. m. The house took recess to 8 p. m., at which session bills establishing lighthouses at a number of Atlantic ports and in the lakes were passed. The house adjourned at 9:45 p. m.