Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-12-21
NATIONAL CAPITAL NOTES.
me senate Committees Decided on in eau.
cus--froposed Legislation in the Inter
est OF Settlers ON Public Lands.

WASHINGTON, ID. c., Dec TO-
Ane republican caucus of the Senate this
morning simply fixed up the committees.
and adjourned to Thursday to consider the
subject of electing officers. Arson b. Nc.
COOK, OF New York, and Mr.. Mcpherson.
Clerk Of the last House, are candidates for
secretary, the former especially having
quite number of warm advocates. Cana.
dy' OF North Carolina, is gaining ground
On Coionel Geo. w. Hooker, under the lead
ershlp OF sherman, Logan and Conger.
IN the construction of the committees,
Miller, OF California, takes WINDOWS place
as Chairman of Foreign Affairs, displacing
Edmunds, who was next in order for the
position, but he preferred to retain the Ju-
dietary. The only new Senator on this
committee is Wilson, of Iowa. The only
change in the Committee on Finance was to
add Miller, of New York, Mr.. Morrill, re-
naming Chairman. The Committee on
Appropriation remains the same, Mr.. Alli-
son at ITS head, with the addition of Call, of
riorida, IN place OF Davis, of West Vir-
Siha Several of the new Senators have
places on the Committee on Manufactures.
hlddleberger, of Virginia, being Chairman
Sabin, Dolph and Colquitt being among his
coIieagues. Miller, of New York, supplants
Malone as Chairman of the Committee ON
Agriculture. The only change in the Com.
mittee on Military Affairs. of which Logan
Is Chairman, is to add Camden in place of
Grover, Cameron, of Pennsylvania, was
lett at the head of the Committee on Naval
AHalrs, with Anthony second. Mr.. Hale.
| the third on the Committee will be de facto
Chairman. Hill, of Colorado, takes the head
| OF the Post-office and Post Roads Conn
mlttee, Senator Ferry's old place. To
this committee Palmer and Wilson, the
! new Senators from Michigan and Iowa, are
! added. Plumb continues at the head of the
/ COMMITTEES on Public Lands, Henderson, of
/ Nebraska, is placed on the Committee ON
Private Land Claims, Territories and
transportation Routes to the Seaboard.
Dawes keeps Indian Affairs, and Mitchell
| gets Pensions, on which are Cullom and
Sabin. Mcmillan is on Revolutionary
! Claims, and is Chairman of the Committee
/ on Commerce, Cameron, of Wisconsin, is
Chairman OF the Committee on Claims, and
ingalls, Is Chairman of the Committee on
the District of Columbia, with Palmer and
| Riddleberger among his colleagues Platt
has Patents and Harrison Territories Saw
yer is Chairman of the Committee on Rail-
| roads, on which are Cullom and Sabin
| wilson Is Chairman of the Committee on
Mines and Mining, and Conger on the Re-
vision of the Laws. Blair keeps Education
and Labor, and Hawlev Civil Service and
/ Retrenchment. Van Wyck is Chairman of
the Committee on the improvement of the
Mississippi River, and Aldrich succeeds
! Harrison at the head of Transportation
/ Routes to the Seaboard. Cullom is Chair
man of the committee TO examine several
! branches of the civil service. The Demo-
Gratis are given the Chairmanships of the
Committees on Private Land Claims, Rev
/ dictionary Claims, Engrossed Bills, Epi-
| demic Diseases, Claims Against Nicaragua,
Potomac Flats and Library. Malone has
the Craftsmanship of Public Buildings and
Grounds, very important place. OF the
! new Republican Senators. Sabin, Palmer
| Henderson, Bowen and Pike were not given
| chairmanships.
The Democratic caucus made the follow
ing assignments: Private Land Claims,
Bayard; Engrossed Bills, Salisbury; Epi-
demic Diseases, Harris; Revolutionary
Claims, Jones of Florida: Nicaragua
Claims, Maxey; Library, voorhees,. Jonas
| replaces Barrow on Elections. Vance and
Brown succeed Johnston and Call on For
gein Affairs. Call replaces Davis of West
| Virginia on finance.
The bill of Mr.. Washburne, of Minnesota,
to be introduced in the House tomorrow, is
| important to would-be settlers on public
land, and will no doubt receive a great deal
of attention in Congress, the text of it is as
follows:
SECTION ]. That the presumption laws,
! together with all laws authorizing the filing
OF declaratory statements for entering pub
lie lands by agent or attorney, be, and the
same are hereby, repealed; provided, how
! ever, that this repeal shall not affect the
| disposal of the lands under treaty Stipula-
ton with Indian tribes, nor be deemed to
| impair any legal rights heretofore acquired
under laws hereby repealed, but. all exist
ing settlements, entries or filings may be
perfected upon proper proof of lawful and
bona fide character of said claims, and of
due compliance with the provisions and
requirements of the laws under which such
settlement or filings were made; provided,
! further, that any person who has not here
tofore had the benefit of the presumption
laws, and who failed from any cause to
perfect tile to a tract of land heretofore
entered by him under the homestead laws,
may make a second homestead entry in
lieu of presumption privilege hereby re-
pealed.
SEC. >. That no person who has made or
! hereafter shall make homestead entry of
public lands shall be entitled to avail him.
self of the provisions of section 2,30l of the
Revised Statutes of the United States until
he shall have resided upon, cultivated and
made actual Improvement on the land EN-
braced in such entry for the full period of
thirty months, and IL shall be the duty of
the General Land Office to require evidence
of actual compliance with the requirements
Of the law in respect to settlement, resi-
dence, improvement and cultivation in all
cases in which title now is or may hereaf
ter be claimed under homestead or other
settlement or Improvement laws of the
United States.
Sec. 3. That any person applying for the
benefits of timbeT-culture laws shall make
his entry in person at the proper local land
office, and shall make affidavit that he is an
actual resident of the State or Territory in
which the land is situated, and that he has
entered into no contract or agreement to
relinquish the entry he may make, and that
he has no present or prospective purpose
to make such REIMBURSEMENT; and the Of
fering for sale as a matter of traffic, specu-
lation or REIMBURSEMENT of public land en-
tries shall be deemed prima facie evidence
that such entries We're made for specula-
tive purposes and not in good faith, as re-
quired by law, and such entries shall there
upon be repealed and cancelled by the
Commissioner of the General Land Office,
and the land covered thereby shall be
deemed subject to entry by the first legal
applicant The first section of the act of
May IL, 1880, authorizing lands covered by
relinquished claims to be held as open TO
settlement or entry withHlt further action
Of the Commissioner of the General Land
Office, and all other acts and parts of acts
inconsistent herewith, are hereby repealed;
provided also that when the timber-culture
entry shall have once been made on a tract
OF public land subject to such entry and
the same shall be cancelled or relinquished,
the land covered thereby shall thereafter
be subject to entry only under the timber
culture laws, and no patent shall be issued
for such land until the requirements un-
der such laws shall have been fully COM
piled with.
Thu Congressional Library Building Pro-
ject.
WAsHINGToN, ID. e., Dec. 10
Senator Voorhees, to-day again intro
duced his bill for constructing a Congress
sional Library building. This covers the
purchase of site of some valuable prop
erty situated on the east front of the Capt.
toll, and now owned by parties who have
had influence enough so far TO prevent the
| erection of a library building elsewh here,
although the Government owns several
eligible sites. Half million is asked for
the purchase of site, and another half a
, million to begin the construction OF the
building, but the estimates as first sub
mitted contemplated the expenditure OF
s3,U00,O0J.