San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1883-12-20
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON. Dc. IL. 1888.
lrram Our REGULAR corr..psaa. cot. |

1 w AnhhsotVsss INV 49, $1,000
The events of the week at the Cap
itol though far reaching and Of great
Importance may be briefly summar
lied. Speaker Carlisle, upon taking
the gayel made short speech which
has had an effect to allay the alarm
of those who thought, or pretended
to think, his election would presage
commercial and industrial ruin.
The picturesque features OF the
first day Of the Forty-Eighth Con
gress were an unusually crowded
Capitol, q profusion of flowers on the
desks of the more prominent men
and the mutual recognition and greet
ing of senator's and members.
Thirty.two names have been added
TO the roll of the House and this in
crease is very noticeablein the crowd
cd hall. The Democratic frontier has
been advanced far into Republican
territory. The latter appear to occu'
by but little more than one-third the
space Of the hall.
On the second day the Presidents
message was read in both the House,
and the Senate. The general com
ment OF members and senators is that
it is conservative businesslike paper,
devoid Of all salience.
There is no dearth Of new bills,
however. They are being literally
dumped upon the Clerks desk BY
conscience stricken members. And il
is the same way over in the Senate.
Senator Edmunds alone has outlined
a whole national platform in the bills
he has introduced. No less than sew
en- amendments to the Constitution
have already been proposed in the
Senate, covering the protection Of the
citizen in his political rights, the
broadening Of the suffrage to foreign
born citizens and to women, the regu-
lation of the liquor traffic, and the
extension of the veto power to the
items Of appropriation bills. The
printing of this tidal wave Of meas
ures makes o fearful raid on the Gov
eminent Printing Office, and swells
the Congressional Record to remark
able proportions. Over 400 bills
have been introduced in two days of
this session. In the Forty Seventh
Congress nearly eleven thousand of
these bills and resolutions were in
troduced, all of which, except few
hundred, persisted. History will no
doubt repeat itself in the new Con-
gress. For long series of years
the total number of bills has steadily
risen, while the ratio of bills has de-
clined.
One of the features of the week
was Senator Morrill's able speech on
the coinage of the country. He ad-
vocated the stoppage of silver coin
age, and made fun of the beautiful
works of art we carry around in our
pockets. He said the United States
ought to have as artistic coins as any
other country, and intimated that the
present coins, from an artistic point
of view, were not worth working for
or placing in a bric-a-brac cabinet.
Those who talk of MIR. Carlisle Us
a Southern Speaker of an Exon
federate house, overlook the fact that
a majority of the democratic mem
bers are from the north. The south
ern states proper are represented by
seventy-fve democrats, the border
states missouri and Kentucky, by
twenty three, and the northern states
by ninety-eight. Even classifying
Missouri and Kentucky with the
south the democratic representation
would be a tie-9S to SO. Of the
votes that elected Mr.. Carlisle, 35
came from the north, 10 from the
border states, and So from the south.
Mr.. Randall's vote of So was made
up of 32 from the north and 20 from
the south. So that Mr.. Carlisle re-
ceived more northern votes than did
Randall.
A fact worthy of note in regard to
the southern representation, is that
the x-Confederste element is by no
means SO large as formerly. Many
of the new members from that sec