Morning journal and courier., 1882-12-29
News by Telegraph FROM ALL QUARTERS. MBNDING THB TARIFP. Changes Made blythe House
 Committee. A LAW AGAINST ASSESSMENTS. The Senate Vote Against Com
 pulsory Contributions. CIVIL SERVICE IN THE HOUSE. A Poor Outlook for Pensle-
 toms BiHl.
CIVIL SERVICE IN THE HOUSE,
A Poor Outlook for Penssge-
 toms BiHG.
THE NATIONAL CAPITAL,


 missions ScheiuIes-TroabIe Brewing
 Between Attorney General Brewster
 and District Attorney Noodford-Star
 Route Matters
 WASHINGTON, Dec. 2S.-The Committee on Ways and Means this afternoon passed over without consideration the schedule of cotton and cotton goods and took up the schedule of 1 hemp jute and flax goods. The duty on | brown and bleached linens, ducks canvas | paddlngs, cot bottoms, draper crash hucka- backs, handkerchiefs, lawns or other manu. | factures of flax jute or hemp or of which flax jute or hemp shall be the component part of chief value not specially enumerated or provided for in this act was made 40 in- stead of 35 per cent ad y1zoren The words For carpets valued at 24 cents per pound 30 per cent od vazorena'' were stricken out. Gunny cloth not bagging valued at 10 cents per square yard cents per pound, was placed at 40 per cent. d0 vG5o1en. Manila was in cluded with all manufactures of hemp. The 1 schedule of wool and woolens was also passed without consideration and the sched- ule of silk and silk goods considered and changed only slightly in phraseology.
 In the case of Surgeon A. M. Owen of the navy, charged with advising Captain Alfred l Hopkins of the navy to desert his post at the navy yard at Pensacola during the yellow ] fever epidemic, court martial today found 1 him not guilty on the ground that he merely gave Hopkins 8 letter to the effect that his health made it advisable for him to leave but | he did not advise urge him to go with out proper authority. Touching the finding of the court Secretary Chandler this afternoon said to reporter of the ] United Press association q disapprove of 1 the verdict. believe Dr. Owen should have been found guilty. He advised Captain Hop- kins to leave his post, thus violating one of l the articles for the government of the navy. l By Captain Hopkins leaving his post he ] (Hopkins) submitted himself to death or dis. l missal as within the discretion of a court l martial. Hopkins justly suffered the lesser punishment and think Owen should have | shared his fate" The disapproval of the | Secretary in no way interferes with the fnd- | ing of the court. Surgeon Owen will be sent back to his post. The members of the court martial were Rear Admiral Bryerson, presi- dent, Commodore Calhoun, Commodore Fillebrown, Captain W. W. Queen, Captain l w. P. McCann, Medical Director P. J. How l itz and Medical Director J. W. Browne In the Star route case Mir. Brewer, the 1 postof6ce clerk who was on the stand at the adjournment Wednesday, was cross examined by Mir. Wilson, counsel for the defense, par 1 ticularly as to the route known as the Kearney and Kent route in Nebraska. Mir. Wilson asked for subpoena duees teclan for Mir Bliss l and P. H. Woodward to produce certain papers. In reply to the demands of counsel that all papers should be submitted now, Mir. Bliss said that at the proper stage of the case the prosecution proposed to put in evidence all papers they had reason to think had any bearing on the orders of Brady. They could not say on what papers Mir. Brady acted l When the government finished they would | turn the papers over to the defense and the defense would put In all that they thought proper. Judge Wylie, remarking that that was all the defense could ask said the pre- sumption was i'll favor of Brady's deci ion l and the court was not going to presume that l any order made by him was corruptly made The government had undertaken to make it and were now going on to show merely what I orders were made by Brady.
 ] The Senate District subcommittee spent considerable time today examining papers l submitted by citizens against the confrma. ] ton of J. H. Olmstead as commissioner of 1 the District of Columbia and it is reported 1 to night that an adverse report will be made. 1 An effort has also been made to induce the President to withdraw the nomination and it l IS said he IS not so we'll satisfied with the nomination as when he made it.
 Friends of the Psndleton civil service bill 1 in the House, and not one of the Ohio Demo- | cratic delegation is among them are feeling about for indications for the prospectssof it's passage. They find tae supporters of the Kasson bill determined to l antagonize it with their own measure l and the antagonism seems 50 marked that it is considered more than likely that no civil ] service bill will pass this session other than l the Senate Judiciary bill, which passed the upper House, prohibiting political assess ments upon ofdceholders.
 l In the Dickson case Judge Shell gave mo- l tice to thu defense that strict construction l of the rules of evidence would exclude all of l Drivers evidence prior to the cross examina- tion of Bowen. He did not say that he would exclude it, but gave notice that such was the | rule. He presumed they would have an op portunity to further examine Bowen. MT. Cuppy said that if the court believed it to be necessary they would certainly examine Bowen again. The court explained that he had reference only to that part of Drivers testimony relative to the conversa- tion on August 23. William H. Thornton, reporter for the National Repat6lict1as, gave testimony to show that Dickson could not have been at Drivers and had the conversa- tion sworn to by Bowen, because Dickson was with witness until Il o'clock that night. A number of witnesses then testified as to l Dickson's good character, and number of others to being cheated out of money by Bowen and to his bad reputation generally. Mir. Smith, Dickson's lawyer testified to the 1 steps taken by him to secure Bowen's prose- l cution. It was stated that Bowen was out of the city, but would return tonight. The l court then adjourned with the understand
  1 ined to morrow.
 The question of whether member of l Congress who is employed to render services l to the government can be paid therefor, or l whether his right to payment is denied by section ,7G5 of the revised statutes, was de. ] cided by First Comptroller Lawrence to- day 1 He holds that the section does not apply to ! members of Congress, and they can there ] fore draw two salaries from the government 1 for services.
  ! decision refusing payment to certain south ! ern States of One-half the proceeds of the l sales of lands under the direct tax act of l 1862, and which portion is claimed as due them under the provisions of the act. The Comptroller holds that the States did not comply with the provisions of the law, and 1 moreover that the act makes no approprin- tlon for this purpose and therefore rejects the clain:. The sum involved is a very large one.
 The colored janitor of the Fifth police sta 1 tlon was to- day sent to the grand jury in de. . fault of $2, 800 bail for robbing a drunken prisoner in his cell of S3, 900 in bonds and money.
 The Postmaster General to day addressed a communication to the chairman of the Senate Appropriation committee calling at tention to the fact that the growers of seeds and bulbs in the States along the Canada border forward their goods to Canada and have them sent through the mails to persons III the Unlted StateS oDtalnlng the benefits of cheaper postal rates such matter. The Postmaster General, after referring to the fact that the United States charges twice as much per ounce for carrying producers seeds as it does for carrying the circulars which advertise those seeds, concludes his let ter by asking whether we cannot afford to transport for eight cents per pound seeds which farmers buy, as we'll as carry seeds for nothing which the government buys, and if we cannot afford to carry seeds for one cent per two ounces paid into our treasury as well as to carry them for the same price paid into the Canadian treasury. Attention was also called to the need of some effective leg
 islation to prevent the sending of explosive and dangerous matter that will injure the contents of mail pouches employees handling the same. Enumerated in this class
 are dynamite, loaded pistols, sharp instru
 ments, &c.
 It has long been known in the department l of justice here that official relations had beer