Morning journal and courier., 1882-12-18
Hews by Telegraph FROM All. QUARTERS. 4 BUSY CONGRESS, Rapid Progress in the Ses-
 sion's Work. TWO CENT POSTAGE ADOPTED. Another Death Among the
 House Members. Sunday Laws and the People. An Effort to Enforce Them in
 Newark.
Sunday Laws and the People.
All Effort to Enforce Them in
 Newark,
THE NATIONAL CAPITAL.

THE NATIONAL CAPITAL. | Congress BusiIy at SVork--UnusuRl Prog. | ress Made in LegisIation-The Death Q, 1 Congressman n Orth-Other Matters
 l WASHINGTON, Dec. 17.-Congress was at
 work again yesterday, adding another Satur-
 day, an unusual day for Congress to sit in the beginning of the session, to it's record of l labor In the Senate the Pendleton civil l service bill was up for discussion and mum Der of Senators on both sides ventilated their views on it's merits. Senator Sherman s opposition to the bill sprang from his ex- perience as Cabinet officer, and he ex- pressed himself in favor of 8 measure that would prohibit Senators and Congressmen
 from recommending appointments sena.
 tors Ingalls,, Voorhees,, Plumb and Maxey
 spoke against the bill, while Senator Jones.
 of Florida: advocated it's passage. In the
 House the postofice appropriation bill was
 up and the proposition was adopted to have
 two cent postage in lieu of three cents to
 take effect January 1, 1884. MT. Hewitt
 made an earnest effort to secure cheap post
 age at once by moving substitute for which
 he gives the following reasons: 'I have al-
 ways been and am still friend and advocate
 of cheap postage. But if this reduction
 of postage to two cents shall create
 8 deficiency of revenue which has to
 be made good by taxation, then it is not
 cheap postage. All of the Postoffice depart
 ment people say that such reduction as this
 Is will create Q deficiency. I, therefore,
 moved as an amendment to strike out of the
 Postoffice bill the proposition of the Appro.
 pr1ations committee and insert provision re-
 quiring the Postmaster General to provide self-sealing letter sheets and sell these at two cents each. The result of this would have been to increase the revenue by the substitution in many cases of two cent sheets for the postal cards now in use and to cheapen postage for all busi
 ness purposes where half sheet would an- swer the purpose. I suppose that the gain and loss would thus about equal each other This is safe and convenient step toward the ultimate attainment of universal two cent postage and has the great merit of taking effect immediately instead of waiting until January, 1884, for cheaper postage, as is proposed by the committee. After long discussion the chair ruled that any amend ment was out of order. The same proposi- tion will undoubtedly be renewed in the Sen ate"
 Henry Wilson, of the Jeannette expedition, was examined by the board yesterday. He testified that the Jeanette a perfectly seaworthy vessel that she was fitted out in frst-class style, and that he had no complaint to make against any officer or member of the crew. During the entire expedition hs said that he had heard that there was trouble be- tween Captain De Long and MT. Collins, but he could give no details as to the nature of it. He corroborated previous witnesses with ref erence to Danenhower's management of the whale boat during the gale of Sept. 12. The witness was discharged and the court decided to examine large amount of documentary tnCf1 off T~h hover was recalled.
 By the death of Representative Orth, of Indiana, the Forty seventh Congress loses the fifth member who has died within the year. The others were Messrs. Allen of Missouri Lowe of Alabama, Houk of Illinois, and Up- degfaf of Ohio. Mir. O'Connor, also elected to this Congress, died before he could take his seat. The flag will be at half-mast over the House tomorrow, and both houses will no doubt adjourn over out of respect to Orth's memory. Speaker Keller to day appointed the following committee of the House to at tend the funeral at Lafayette, Ind, next Thursday: Messrs. Calkins, Steele and Wat son of Indiana, Davis of Illinois, Curtin of Pennsylvania and House of Tennessee.
 resolution of inquiry will be presented to Congress this week looking toward secur. ing some light on the manner in which the contract for dredging the Potomac flats was awarded. The story has been circulated that Contractor Adams of this city, who was the lowest bidder, sold out to P. Sanford Ross of New York, the next lowest, to whom the contract was awarded and who begins work to morrow. In an inter view published here, however, the Secretary of War is quoted as saying that Adams was found to be without backing Of any consequence" that he was 6 failing contractor and that he never had any notion of doing the work he bid for. In this connection Adams has written letter to the Secretary of War declaring such state- ments to be false and Ibellous. He offers to prove that the District of Columbia now owes him $500, GOO for work that the con- nlssloners thought him responsible enough to undertake, and threatens to take person al hand in finding out why this important contract was awarded to @ man whose bid was sS3O,OO0 above the lowest. Hence the possibility of an investigation quite as unsa- vory as the flats themselves.
 Congressmen of both sides copgratu- lating each other on the progress thus far made with the work of the session and the record shows the congratulations not out of place, inasmuch as moro business has been transacted than ever before previous to a holiday recess. The Indian, agricultural military academy and consular and diplo- matlc and appropriation bills have already passed the House and the postoffice bill will probably be finished tomorrow. MT. Kas- son will then renew his effort to get up his civil service bill, but this will be antagonized by the army bill which the committee expects to T6pofE IO-NOrcOW. lh1S Dlll apprOprlateS a sum slightly below that of last session. Members of the committee today deny the report that the proposed clause for the in crease Of the army to 3O,O0O men has been agreed on. The probability is that Mir. Kas- son will have to wait until the bill is disposed of before getting chance for civil service reform. It is generally believed the House will take recess from December 22d to Jan uary Sd. Nothing can be said definitely as to the weeks work in the Senate. The civil service bill may occupy several days. About aEdozen amendments are pending and several will give rise to debate. There are several special orders on the calendar, but as soon as the civil service measure is disposed of Mir. Dawes will call up the Indian appropria- ton bill.
 The Ways and Means Committee of the House will meet twice day on the report of the tariff commission and some of the mem bers are in favor of sitting during the recess. The Commissioners on Foreign Affairs hopes to do some work on the Hawaiian treaty ques tion this week, but beyond that there will be no important meetings in the House end of the Capitol until after the recess
 Henry w. Oliver, jr., of Pittsburga mem- Der of the tariff commission, is in town. He will appear before the Ways and Means con- mittee this week in regard to the schedule op metals.
 NEW VORK