The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1882-06-23

letters 10 z cents ana on newspapers ana otner
printed matter to one-half the present rates,
and asks the postmaster general II the pro-
posed rates can be adopted with safety.
Hon. w. A. Wheeler has declined to serve on
the tariff commission, and the president will
soon nominate successors to Wheeler and
Phelps. 1t is authoritatively announced that
John l.. Hayes, of Massachusetts, who Is q
WOODEN manufacturer, will propose q reduc-
ton of 80 per cent. on the duty on wooden
fabrics.
The commissioner of pensions asks the APP
preparation of Sl,l97, 900 for clerk hire, with
which amount he proposes to finish every
claim within three years. The government
has already paid over $500, 00o,0 900 for pensions
to soldiers of the late war, and the amounts re-
quired for some years to come will be greater
than tho interest on the public debt.
The June report of the department of agri-
culture announces a decrease OF L. per cent.
In the area of spring wheat. The condition of
winter wheat is 100, and indications favor q
crop of both varieties exceeded only by that
of 1880. Complaining I'm half the states was
not completed by Tune !, but q large increase
In acreage is reported. There are brilliant
prospects for oats, with an increase of 7 per
cent. IN area.
The compulsory army retirement bill, If It
shall become a law, will place upon tho retired
list six paymasters now in active service, thus
creating that number of vacancies. In antici-
patton OF the vacancies, 1t Is said that there
are already filed at the Office of the secretary
of war twelve hundred applications for APP
pointment thereto, just two hundred for each
place.
The pay of the tariff commissioners is to be
$l0 per day and expenses. Their route, as
outlined in advance of confirmation, will be
Long Branch, Coney island, and Newport,
spending tho month of August ut Saratoga;
then u trip to the vineyards of California, and
an autumn visit to the sugar plantations of
Louisiana. There have been thirty-ive appli-
cations for the position of secretary and stem
ographer.
The house committee on banking and cur
rency directed Representative Dingley to re-
port with favorable recommendation the bill
introduced by him to provide for the issue of
gold certificates. The bill authorizes the SEQ
rotary of the treasury to receive deposits Of
gold coin and bullion in sums not less than
$40, and issue certificates therefor in denomi-
nations not less than $40 each, corresponding
with the denominations Of United States
notes, certificates to be receivable for customs
taxes and public dues, and when so received
may be reissued. IL also provides that when
certificates are held by any national banking
association they may be counted as part of its
lawful reserve, and may be accepted In settle
ment of a clearing -house balance.
In the international Typographical union at
St. Louis, a telegram from the Washington
union was read, stating that Senator Plumb
had made war upon 1t because Of its refusal to
allow one of his political followers to work in
the government printing Office as a proof-read-
err. In response to a resolution recently intro
duced in the senat by Mr.. Plumb, Public
Printer Rounds has addressed to Acting Vice
President Davis n letter, to the effect that the
work of his Office is in accord with the Typo
graphical and Book Binders unions, and
cbn,,ld ba raf,rca IN ohida hv thnir - o,,lotfopo
a general strike would be ordered, involving
serious loss of time, although he would act as
congress might direct.
Guiteau has selected as his spiritual guide
Rev. DR.. w. W. Hicks, a Presbyterian minis
ter of Washington, who will make daily calls
atthe jail. Gisiteau spends most of his time
in reading the bible and a religious work which
was given to him by Mr.. Griffith, of Balti-
more. When he does not take his usual
amount of exercise, he says that it is because
he feels lazy. So far from giving way mental
ly, his mind is bright, and he is able to argne
his case with considerable legal sharpness.
In a conversation with one of the officers, he
said that Mr.. Reed had been wrong I'm his re-
cent moves in the case; that there is nothing
that can be done about it now, even IL the rec
ord is wrong, for it has been ruled upon, and
the judgment completes it. 'If it is wrong"
Guiteau said, sit has to go now. The question
of jurisdiction has been settled, and there Is
nothing LETT Of that question. The only hope
is in tho president; that 1 have told Reed, and
have told him to go to him and let all other
things go.
A strike is threatened by the printers en-
ployed at the government printing office. The
grievance is that several men working in the
dOcnment-room were refused extra nav which
the rules Of the union require for work per
formed outside of the recognized working
hours. One Saturday evening an order came
from congress to the printing-ofic for n docu-
ment which was wanted in haste, and the
foreman asked the printers in question to do
the work before breakfast Monday morning.
They complied, but made their demand for a
price and a half" or go cents an hour, which
was refused. subsequently a committee rep
resenting the printers waited upon the fore
man and urged the claims of the printers, but
he still refused to make the allowance. That
is the situation of affairs now. The foreman
says that the law of congress restricts the
compensation of printers to 40 cents an hour,
and he has no authority to increase Ii, and
could not, If he wished to do so, without rend-
ering himself liable to Imprisonment for dis
obeying the law.
The debate upon the provisions of the leg
~islative, executive, and judicial appropriation
bill has shed some light on the pension ques-
ton. The committee in training the bill, have
undertaken so to increase the number of
clerks employed, directly or indirectly, on
pension cases, that the claims will be adjudi-
Gated within three years from July /, 1882.
There were 268,554 of these claims pending,
undetermined, on April l, and with the pres
ent number of clerks 1t would take eight years
to dispose of them. The committee provide
in the bill for increasing the number of clerks
employed in the pension bureau from T42 to
1850; the numberin the surgeon generals Of
flee from 257 to 766; the number in the adju-
tant generals Office from 423 to 500, and for
the addition of 60 clerks in other offices where
a small part of the work is done. The addi-
tional annual cost Of these clerks will be ST.
72,430. The greater part of this sum will DO
expended in the pension bureau, where tho
cost of clerical work will be raised from $685.
$50 to S1,SS1 $50, or more than doubled. 1t has
been proposed by some TO add n sufficient
number of clerks to dispose of all the claims
in one year instead of three, but it has been
found that no more additional clerks than
those provided in the bill can work upon the
records to advantage, because there is only
one copy of the records which these clerks
must examine. 1t was thought that these
records might be duplicated by photo-litho-