Morning journal and courier., 1880-12-08

tions made by Secretary Sherman in his an-
 nual report were discussed by the Committee
 of Ways and Means this morning with respect to their bearing upon the question of refund ing. Messrs. Wood, Mills, Carlisle, Luckes,
 Fulton, Kelly, Frye, Dunnell and Conger
 were present. It was the unanimous opinion | of the committee that the maturing bonds could be successfully refunded into 3 per cent. bond. Upon motion of Mir. Luckes, Mr. Wood was instructed to change the rate of interest fixed in his bill from 31 to 3 per ! cent Judge Kelly said he believed 8 per l cent bond could be successfully foated and
 he looked upon any rate of interest exceeding 24 per cent as bonus to the bondholders
 and the money sharks He reserved the right to offer an amendment to the bill when it
 comes up before the House. While voting
 with the other members of the committee to
 fix the rate at per cent, MT. Kelly will
 move an amendment in the nature of a sub- stitute to the bill favoring the payment of the
 maturing bonds as rapidly as possible from
 the surplus revenues of the government. MT.
 Wood will attempt to bring the refunding bill
 before the House tomorrow.
 Chairman Atkins, of the House Committee
 on Appropriations, arrived in the city to-day considerably improved in health. The pen
 
 ready to report to the House next Thursday and the members of the committee expect to dispose of the Notifications and Indian bills before the recess.
 The Effort to Unseat Kellogg.
 WASHINGTON, Dec. 7.-The credentials of Thomas c. Manning, appointed by the Gov ernor of Louisiana to succeed the late Judge Spofford, who contested Senator Kellogg's seat, were presented to the Senate to-day Senator Hill of Georgia, was one of the principal prosecutors to Spoford's title. Hill said meeting of the committee on privileges | and elections would probably be held soon to 1 decide what steps shall be taken with respect | to the contest in the future. He says that l vote will be taken on the case before the close | of the session, although a number of | speeches on the right of the sitting Senator l to his seat may be made. The action of Sen | ators Bayard, Thurman, Pendleton and oth- 1 CTS last session rendered Governors Kelloggs l right to his seat. The Duty NIaIt-A Fight Between |
 Rival Interests-A General Tariff Dis i
 cussion ForeshadOvved.
 WASHINGTON, Dec. 7.-The manufacturers of lager beer and ale and the principal ingre- dients which enter into its composition (malt) | are engaged in a bitter fight to-day. The Senate referred back to the Committee on Finance bill increasing the duty on malt to 25 cents per bushel, which at the last session had been reported unanimously to the Senate. The brewers, independently of those brewers who also manufacture malt request the privi- Iege of making arguments in opposition to the bill Henry Clausen of New York J. B. Manning of Buffalo and Mir. Tracey of Lan- singburg appeared before the committee this afternoon in behalf of the maltsters and J. c. DeLonergne and J. Langdon Ward of New York represented the brewers The points in favor of an increase of duty have been thoroughly discussed. The American malt sters fear the competition of Canadian malt sters, and ask to have this important indus try more adequately protected The brew CTS, on the other hand, claim that the object of the malsters is to secure 8 monopoly 1 of the manufacture of malt to injure that portion of the trade which purchases instead of manufacturing the article. The brewers informed the committee that the duty on barley is 15 cents per bushel of 48 pounds, the duty on malt imported from Canada is 20 per cent on bushels of 34 pounds each. The average Gd gGL0rem duty collected on Canadian malt from '72 to '79 inclusive was 1.726 cents The increase of duty pro- posed would be really 7. T cents per bushel. They avowed that 9s3 per cent. of all the malt consumed in the United States is made by American maltsters. Out of 33, ,0O0,OO bushels of malt consumed last year only 536,- poo bushels were imported. The brew BITS maintain that the present rate of duty on malt enables them to keep the charges of American maltsters down to a fair figure. The committee will probably act on the bill this week. If it is brought before the Senate this session it will probably pre- oipitate general tariff discussion. Amend ments in the line of revenue reform totally foreign to the subject matter of the bill will be offered The result will in all l be the defeat of the measure.