New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-11-18
TIE moRK BEFORE CONGRESS.

Congress will adjourn and its members will
! go homo on the 4th Of March next, instead OF
! continuing in session until tho dust and heat
of June OF July drive them to the seaside or
mountains. The third and last session OF the
XLIId Congress will, therefore, be only three
months long, and will not be succeeded Dy an
"extra session. in which to gather up the
odds and ends of unfinished legislation and
to load down the files of committees with
thousand bills that never ought to have been
introduced, and deserved the death which the
expiration of Congress brought. One month
will of course be wasted in getting ready
to begin work, and in the holiday re-
cess. Representatives who have been
away from the Capital since June last
are likely to have great accumulation OF
" Department work" to attend to-changes in
country POst-0flices to make room for local
noliticians whose "claims' have to be Tec0g-
nizcd unless, perchance, the President IS
hard-hearted enough remOrselessy to enforce
the Civil Service regulations providing for
those whose heads must como off when the
force of Internal Revenue officers is reduced
securing clerkshps for fayOrites, 1880 that
the sessions of Congress will be little more
than nominal during the first month. After
about the 9th OF 18th of January the serious
work of the session is likely to begin.
The first and most important duty of Con-
gresS will DO to pass the Appropriation bills.
| These, tho majority of which are generally
neglected until nearly the close of the session
| and then rushed through in such haste that
nobody except the members of the Conference
| Committees know how much money is voted
| away, nor how much special legislation is in
| corporated in them, should at once engage
| the attention of both Houses. Tho Appropn-
| atoms Committee of the House has already
been in session examining the estimates fur
nished by the Departments and preparing the
bills. so that there need be no delay if Con-
gress feels disposed to take hold of them at
once A long debate may be expected on
the subject of Civil Service Reform,
when the appropriation for that purpose
is considered and if the temper of the House.
as shown by its action last Winter, has not
changed, the President will receive very little
aid from the opposite end OF the Avenue IN
his efforts to secure moro efficient class Of
public officials. A host Of loyal Southern
claimants will be in Washington this Winter,
begging Congress to pay them for property
DESTROYED by the Union army during the War.
The House was, last Spring, disposed to con-
slider these claims with some favor, and a bill
ordering the payment of one OF these claim
ants was passed by the Senate as well as by
the House, but was vetoed by the President.
As the next Congress will probably be more
unfavOrable to such claims than this, we may
expect the doors of the Capitol to be besieged
| by these people from the day Congress meets
until it adjourns.
We do not look for the passage of another
Amnesty bill, either by this Congress or the
next. Bills relieving single individuals Of
political disabilities may become laws if any
of those excepted in the partial bill of last
May ask for such relief. Ku-Klux and En-
forcement legislation, if, indeed, the majority
propose it, will be postponed until next Win
ter. both because there will DO no time to at
! tend to it during the coming session and
because the Administration majority in the
next Congress will be so much greater that
| fewer obstacles can be placed in the way by
! the opposition. Very few changes if any will
be made In the Tariff and Internal Revenue
| laws. Those interested in the manufacture Of
! tobacco and beer will ask for some change in
the mode of collecting the tax on those
articles, and an attempt will be made to have
the stamp tax on bank checks &c, abolished
| The propositions to establish q postal tele-
graph, to pay the French spOliation claims, to
reorganiza the Customs Service of the United
States, to adopt the report of the Commits
soners for the Revision Of the Laws, to give
new subsidies to steamship companies and
new grants of land to railroads, and humid
red Others, some meritOriOus and others not,
will allI probably have to wait another year.
The distribution of the money awarded us by
the Geneva Board of Arbitration will be early
provided for.
In the matter of investigations, Congress
and the country are likely to have rest.
The only one that has thus far been publicly
proposed relates to tho Credit Mobilier
scandal, which will be in the hands of
a special committee early IN the ses-
sion. The revision of tho Committees
of the Senate may cause some excitement. as
there are several Liberal Republicans who
will be depOsed from their chairmanships
as soon as an Administration caucus can
be held. 1t is not anticipated, however,
that this action will meet with any opposition
from Administration Senators, and the decision
of the caucus will be promptly ratified by the
Senate. Altogether the coming session of
Congress promises to be very quiet one, and
its work will occupy but small space in the
history of the times.