Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-05-16

United States Senate.
WASHINGTON, May l5th.-A favorable re.
port was made for the public buildings at
Council Bluffs, Ia.
iaint resolution was adopted for an Inter
national Convention, to recommend the es-
tablishment of standard meridian forreckcn-
ing longitude and time
Morrill, presented amendments to the
House bonded distilled spirits bill, in the
form OF a substitute for that measure.
Beck addressed the Senate 10 support of
the House bonded distilled spirits bill.
Window, mover of the impending investi-
cation into the alleged corruption in connec-
ton with the bill, replied to Beck.
Becks resolution, having served its pur-
pose In calling attention to the subject. was
indefinitely postponed.
Garland reported from the judiciary Com
mittee an amendment to the revised statutes
relating to the claims of persons in the naval
service entitled to bounty-lsnd warrants.
After an executive session the Senate ad-
| journed.
House OF Representatives.
WASHINGTON, May 18th. - Robinson Of
! fered q resolution requesting the President
| to inform the House whether certain official
papers, recently published, regarding the i'm
| prisonment Of American citizens in British
! prisons, had been received at the State De.
partment. and what answer had been given
thereto.
Under O Suspension of the rules, the House,
by vote of 155 to As, passed a bill that no
action for damages for infringements of pat.
ents shall be sustained for the use of any
patented article when it appears, on trial,
that the defendant purchased such article for
a valuable consideration in the open market.
Several motions to suspend the rules and
pass bills were rejected.
Lynch introduced bill to repeal Section
3,029 Of the revised statutes, relative to the
appointment and duties of Supervisors of
Elections. LSsction 2.029 provides that Su-
psrvisors shall have no authority to make
arrests or perform any other duties than to
| witness the election proceedings and the
making OF returns. The bill also requires
the United States Supervisors, in their re-
ports to the Chief Supervisors, to report all
violations of the Act, and gives the United
States District Attorney free access to the
reports to obtain information upon which to
institute criminal prosecutions against any
persons charged with violating the provisions
of the Act. Referred.
The Commissioner of Pensions informed
| the House that the deficiency appropriation
of SIG 600, 600, to meet the June payments
of army pensions, should be made available
by the 25th instant.
| Adjourned.
The Boston COlIeetorship- UoTthiugton
Confirmed.
WASHINGTON, May 15ih.-Senators Hoar
and Dawes came sadly to grief in the Senate
to-day. They have been working like beavers
for months past to defeat the nomination OF
ROLAND Worthington to be Collector of the
| Port of Boston. 1t was the first fight regu-
larry in the Senate against the Administers
trultless, there was some curiosity to know
how many men could be ranged in line against
the President. The result of the executive
| session to-day, when Worthington was con-
frmed by vote Of 80 to 81, shows that seven
Republican Senators-Hoar, Dawes, Hawley,
Plat, Miller of New York, Sherman and
Mitchell-could be bounded on to oppose an
Objectionable nomination. The fight
of the Massachusetts, Senators has been
= most ludicrous one. They pretended
not to make it on the grounds of Sena.
torial courtesy, but because of the stain
Worthingtons appointment as Collector
would be upon the civil service reform princi-
Piles of managing the Boston Custom-house.
Hoar and Dawes spoke in this strain to-day,
and alluded to the partisan administration of
the Office by Simons, Boards predecessor.
Rollins of New Hampshire showed that under
SimOns the Custom-house had been more
efficiently managed, and at less cost, than
under Beard AMI that more merchants petit
toned for the retention OF Simons than had
petitioned for Beard. The Democrats who
voted against Worthington to-day were Baird.
Salisbury, Williams. Vest, Pendleton,
George, and Jones Of Florida.
Civil Service Reform.
| WASHINGTON, May 15th.-Senator Pendle-
ton, on behalf of the Committee on Civil
Service and RetreDchmeGt, to day presented
TO the Senate report in advocacy of the
passage of the bill to regulate and improve
the civil ssrvice of the United States, re-
ported to the Senate on the Doth of March
last. The report reviews at length the
growth of the Government since its founda.
ton, and the effects of that growth on the
civil service.
Referring to what is characterized as "the
spoils system and its effect on the Presi.
dent, it states that instead of deyosing his
time to the great questions of craftsmanship,
he must spend most of it in weighing in the
balance political considerations that shall de-
termine the claim of this friend OF that po.
litical supporter to the possession of some
Office or position of honor under him. The
President Of the Republic, as created by the
Constitution in the beginning, and the
Chief Magistrate of to-day, it is maintained,
are two entirely different public functionaries.
There has grown up such a perversion of the
duties Of the Presidential Office, such pros
| titutiOn OF it to ends unworthy Of the great
| idea Of its creation, imposing burdens so
grievous ard degrading to all the faculties
and functions becoming its in
cumbent, that q change, the committee
thinks, has really occurred in the
character of the Government itself, which, il
not corrected, will be precipitats and disas-
| trous. Personal attention to the cunsidera-
ton which should control executive action in
the disposition of patronage aud 10 the selec-
ton of officials has become impossible, ard
political control, IS guide to such action, is
fraught with Generalization and danger to
| the republic.
Without multiplying words, the committee
says this much is patent, that in the growth
and expansion of the nation, the appointing
power is lsid beyond the possibility of per
sonal attention to the requirements OF official
positions, increased a hundred fold in num-
Der and manifold 10 variety and responsibility
the duties to be performed that in
the discharge OF this, the highest of all
executive functions, political influences and
corporations have come to dominate, and to
subordinate all other considerations, and the
distribution of official spoils has come to be
| the lawful preregative of political ascendancy.
| The offices have come 60 be sought and be.
slowed as SO many charities, furnishing sup
port to the needy, and exaciing in return par.
tisan service, bus not as 30 many trusts i'm
posing duties on the holders. These abuses,
the committee sssert, have grown out of
| system comparatively new in our Govern
ment. Appointments because of special
fitness. and removal for cause, were the rule in
its early history.
The report, after quoting from the views
heretofore expressed by Presidents Grant,
Hayes, Garfield aud Arthur in favor of regu-
lating the civil service by Law, concludes by
urging the passage of the bill.
| Sensation In the House of Represents.
lives.
New YORK, May 15jh.-Ths Mail and Ec.
press Washington correspondent says: Con
gresham Robinson, of Brooklyn, electrified
the House this afternoon by introducing an
other spreed.eagle Irish resolution. He asked
that the President communicate to the House
whether certain papers and correspondence
regarding American citizens in British
prisons, communicated to the British Parlia-
ment or published in London, have been re.
ceived at the State Department, and whether
the House may expect the additional cor.
| respondence called for by its resolution of
the 18th ultimo whether any persons claim
| ing to be American citizens still remain in
British prisons without allegation of crime or
prospects of speedy trial; whether any
proposition has been made to coercs Ameri.
can citizens TO so degrade their citizenship as
| to accept release from unjust imprisonment by
accepting it on degrading conditions whether
any persons holding Office under the United
States have offered money to these citizens
to induce them to accept release under such
degrading conditions, and if so by what al