Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-12-21
YESTERDAY IN CONGRESS.
MIR. VEST ON CIVIL SERVICE
REFORM


Practices-Statesmen Stampedine for
Home = DispOsing of Appropriation
blIs-PensacOla Navy Yard-NOmina-
tiOns Sent to the Senate.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2O-Members of
congress are fast leaving the city. By
Friday there won't be a quorum of the
House here. Many leaves of absence
were granted to-day. 1t is evident that
mad the House decided to sit during the
holidays it would have been a broad farce.
ACKLEN-KELLOGG
Acklen will contest the seat of Kellogg
IN the next House. He will contest on
the ground of illegal votes. and the cor
rupt use Of money by Kellogg. He does
not expect to get the seat himself but only
wants to keep Kellogg out.
SENATE PROCEEDINGS.
In the Senate, at the close of the morn
ing hour, MIR. Allison called up the consul
iar ana diplomatic appropriation BILL and
the Senate proceeded to consider it.
The amendments reported by the Com
mlttee on Appropriations We're agreed to.
except the provision that nothing in the
act shall be construed to extend the time
within which the French-American
Claims Commission shall make its final
report and expire.
Oh huotlOn Ol MT. 9enuleJOn, with the
approval of the Committee on FOREIGN
Relations, an amendment was added
appropriating $4,000 to enable the Presi-
dent to extend the diplomatic relations
with the Government of Eastern Asia.
The bill was then passed.
MIR. Jones, of Florida, offered a resoIu-
ton, which was agreed to, directing the
Secretary of the Navy to inform the Sen
ate whether, in his judgment. any further
a A..
Pensacola navy yard in a, state of effi-
cheney, what is the condition of the drv
dock there, and whether it is in a condi-
tiOn to be used for the purposes for which
1t was constructed.
Mr.. Jones said he had observed that the
Pensacola navy yard was one of those
that the Secretary of the Navy Thought
should be abolished, and he made a brief
argument to show that this yard-the
only one on the Gulf of Mexico, our great
Mediterranean Sea - was of great aim
pOrtance, and ought to be maintained for
the protection of the commerce of the
Gulf and of the Mississippi valley having
its outlet there.
The civil service bill being under con-
sideratiOn, Mr.. Pendleton offered an
amendment striking out the provision
that original entrance to the service shall
be IN the lowest grade, and providing that
appointments in the departments shall be
appOrtiOned as nearly as possible among
the States and Territories and the District
of Columbia upon the basis of population.
A long discussion ensued, and the Sem
ate, at 400, went into executive session
and, when the doors were re-opened, adj
jOurned.
HOUSE PROCEEDINGS.
In the House, Mr.. Browne, of Indiana.
called up the motion to reconsider the vote
INV oh. tfs -,
officers to hold civil offices in the Terrific
ries was indefinitely postponed The
motion prevailed and the motion to post
pOne was withdrawn and the bill passed.
The House, at %, went into commit
tee of the whOle-Mr. Reed, of Maine, in
the Chair-on the post office appropria-
tiOn bill.
Mr.. Robson, of New Jersey. continued
his argument in support of his pending
amendment fixing the compensation of
land grant and bond subsidy railroads for
carrying the mails. The amendment was
agreed to after being modified so as to
provide that the compensation paid to
subsidized roads shall be fixed by the
Postmaster General at a rate not to eX-
ceed that fixed by him or allowed by law
to other companies of the same class to
which the United States have furnished
aid by grant of land, right of way or
otherwise.
The question then occurred on Mr.. Hol-
mans amendment, which fixes the COM
pensation for carrying the mail by land
grant railroads, which have received over
5000 acres per mile, at 80 per cent. of the
rate allowed to other railroads. Lost.
On motion of Mr.. Mills, of Texas. an
amendment was adopted directing the
Postmaster General to make a thorough
investigation of the railway mail service
and report to the next session of Congress
hot fc 10 20 Of
pOrtatiOn of mails, and what difference
there is between the cost of transportation
of freight for private parties and the cost
of transportation of mails.
The committee rose and reported the
bill to the House and it was passed
Mr.. ButterwOrth gave notice that he
would ask consideration of the army ap-
preparation bill tomorrow.
Lynch, of Mississippi, offered a resOlu-
tiOU making it in order to offer an amend
ment to the pension appropriation bill, ex-
tending the provisions of the act placing
enlisted cOlOred persons on the same foot
ing as other soldiers as to pensions and
bounties to the heirs of such persons.
Referred.
The House, at 4;40, adjourned.
SENATOR VEST ON CIVIL SERVICE RE-
FORM.
In the discussion of the civil service re-
form bill in the Senate this afternoon, Mr..
Vest said that he had agreed that this bill
not because he believed its provi-
siOns would remedy the evils existing in
our civil service, but rather as
a means of emphasizing his conviction of
the urgent necessity for reform. OF that
necessity there could be no question.
Money had become most potent factor in
American elections, and the civil service
woe mead nv tho RnDu blicau Marty ono
means of raising money for political
purposes. The great trouble now was
that a reform of the civil service was eX-
pected from men who are in their hearts
opposed to it. 1t was idle to give this
reform into the hands of nurses who de-
sired its death, and thenmtO expect it to
grow up into healthy manhood, The Re
publican party, judged by its record, was
opposed to civil service reform. General
Grant in 1871 had recommended certain
regulations almost identical with the pro-
visions of the pending bill, and what had
become of those regulations?
Mr.. Allison said that as he understood
it the pending bill simply proposed to
enact into law the practice now followed
in most of the departments, notably the
Treasury Department, in regulating pro-
motions.
Mr.. Vest said every Senator knew that
the regulations to which Mr.. Allison re-
ferred amounted to nothing. When Mr.,
SchurZ was Secretary of the Interior he
had made an attempt to put them in force,
and they were ostensibly in force now in
the Treasury Department, yet no
Democrat could get an appointment,
and the First Assistant Postmaster Gen
eral had recently announced publicly
that the officers in that department were
to be used for the benefit of the Republi-
can party, and sneered at the idea of any
other system. After President Grant had
announced his reformatOry purposes in
1871 came his second administration
based to a great degree upon the spoils
system. Then came that which distin-
guished Senator from New York Ono long
er i'm the Senate called ''the snivil service
reform of ThOtherfraud Hayes" an adj
ministratiOn whose first act was to re-
ward with offices yielding $291,OOO year
the men who for its benefit had stolen the
suffrages of sovereign States.
Mr.. Vest read letter of Casanave,
member of the Louisiana returning board
in 1876, to Hayes, asking to be rewarded
for his services in that capacity, and re-
marked that the extent of the degra-
dation of our politics was shown by the
fact that man holding public position
could dare to address such q letter to the
President of the United States. A man
who had aided in throttling and sitting
the voice of the free people of Louisiana
dared in the capital of the nation to de-
mand money from the President
for these services, and the money
was paid. Next came President Gar
fields administration. Garfield in all