Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1875-02-28
Proceedings of Congress.
House,.

> the United States Navy, to accept the rresen
" sent to his wife by the khedive of Egypt
r passed.
, Hazelton moved to suspend the rules an(
: pass Senate bill referring to the Court O
Claims certain claims for the Construction O
. if,sn- clads and steam machinery during thu
war After discussion, i'll which 10 was stated
by opponents of the bill that il would cos
five millions, the motion was rejeeted-l32 {,
, 100.
The House then proceeded to consideration
of bills affecting the District of Columbia. and
spent over two hours In discussion of the Tax
Bill for the District, without reaching a con
clusion
At r. the bill for the reorganization of the
Treasury Department was taken up. Young
offered an amendment, requiring appoint
ments in the department to be distributed
among the States and Territories In propor
tion to the population. Agreed to, and the
bill passed.
Packer, from the Post Office Committee, re.
ported the Annual Post Route Bill, which was
passed.
Myers introduced a bill to return to the gov
eminent Of Japan one-half Of the indemnity
fund paid by it to the United States. under the
convention of October %, 1869, and to dispose
of the balance of said fund.
=! Dawes moved to suspend the rules and go
and Tax Bill, and pending that all general de-
| bate be limited to three-quarters OF an hour,
which latter motion was agreed to by a vote
! OF l62 to So; the former by vote of 90 to Sc.
The House went into Committee of the Whole
with Hale, of Maine, in the chair.
Burchard was recognized as entitled to the
floor, and said that for the first time since the
war the House has met with the proposition
to increase the revenues, and the question at
once Is, is there any necessity to increase the
revenue TO meet what the expenses should
PEI re proceeded to show that there was a
n far inn
inquired That the necessities of the Government
would require an increase Of nearly forty mil
mons. The great question was, by what means
snail this large amount of additional revenue
be raisedT' Was the bill as proposed the best
means? twas suggested by some that tea and
conee should be taxed. He had an OBJ
lection to that. He thought the bill as report
ed would meet all the demands According
to his estimate under the bill, $1S,0OO,00O
would be raised from distilled spirits, $1,000
600 additional from the tax on tobacco, and
about S9,0OO,OOO from sugar. That would be
an additional revenue of over $S0000,000.
The next item was the restoration of the tax
on tea. This he was compelled to oppose,
because the restoration of that tax would dis
turb too many OF the industries of the coun-
try without an adequate compensation in
amount of revenue received. He protested
against the restoration of the tax in the name
Of the laboring classes of the country
Cox opposed the bill, and said that to in
crease the tax on distilled spirits would not
raise general increase of revenue He
showed that the greatest revenue was received
when the tax was lowest. He would prefer
taxation on tea and coffee, but above all he
would prefer economy, and, if time were al
lowed him, he would show that the House had
not economical. In his judgment, our whole
tariff system was great fraud He believed
it could be increased from tea and coffee suf- |
ficient to supply all demands of the sinking
fund, and that seemed to be the whole object
of the bill.
Buffers Postal Telegraph Bill was reported,
when a point of order was raised by Willard, |
and supported by Garfield and Randall that |
it should receive its first consideration in Com
mittec of the Whole. The Speaker oyerruled |
the point, and Butler proceeded to explain |
and advocate his bill. He attacked the Asso-
ciated Press and the Western Union Telegraph |
Company, as monopolies that sought to con-
troll the news business'of the country. Butler |
moved the previous question, which the House |
refused to second 80 to n; not two.thrds in
the affirmative. Potter, of New York, charac-
terized the bill as a most extraordinary one. |
Telegraph lines were not the property of the
United States. They were neither built nor
subsidized by the Government, nor even by |
authority of the Governments; yet it was pro-
posed that Congress should take possession of
private property, manage it, and fix prices
upon it.
The bill for the improvement of the Mis-
sissippi River was taken up and discussed and
amended by striking out the portion directing
the Secretary of War to construct the work in
case of default of Captain Eads, and passed. |
The House went into a Committee of the |
Whole on the Revenue Bill. The first vote
was on Southards amendment to strike out
the first section relating to the whiskey tax
Rejected-yeas GA, nays 96. Randall then
moved to amend the first section by making
the tax on whiskey 80 cents instead of 81 |
LOst-G3 to IS.
Kasson, in behalf of the committee, offered |
an amendment providing that the tax on spir-
its contracted to be delivered before the 10th
of February shall be paid by the purchaser
Adopted. Archer moved to strike out the
enacting clause. Lost-63 to g. The third |
section, repeating the stamp tax on matches,
was stricken out. A substitute was adopted |
for the fourth section which increased the du-
ties on molasses and sugar twenty-five per
cent which is substantially the same, but in
Guiding melado.