Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-04-10
rxocEEDINGs IN CoNeRrss.
SENATE.

SENAIE.
Washington, April o.-Hill, from
the committee on post offices and post
roads, reported favorably the original
bill to establish p0stal-telegrap sys.
tenn. Hill remarked that the commit
tee were unanimous IA to the fist ten
sections of the bill which relate 10 do.
ing the work by contract with exist
ing companies, but that n minority of
the committee were opposed to the
section relating To the construction or
purchase of lines 10y the government.
the provision relating TO the liability
of any contracting company for fail
ure to correctly and promptly transmit
messages has been amended by limit
ins such liability to 500 times the
amount paid for transmission. Two
new features have been added to the
bill. TIE first authorizes the contract
ing company to employ postmaster
as its agent and operator at any postal
telegraph Office where telegraphic re-
ceipts are insufficient to pay the salary
of an operator, and to pay him u com
mission not exceeding 80 per cent. of the
| charges on messages transmitted from
the Office. The second requires the
postmaster-general To secure provi5-
ion il, the contract which shall protect
postal kilograms against discrmina-
ton on the order of transmission in
favor Of kilograms received ut such of
the companys offices as are not oper-
ated under the provisions of the bill.
| The contract system remains the most
prominent feature of the bill, and IL
not widely different from the scheme
of the Postal Telegraph company, eX-
cept that 1t empowers the postmaster
general to receive bids from any tele-
graph company for n contract. The
provisions relating to the establish
ment ola government system, pure
and simple, in the event that no salts
factory contract with established com
panies is secured, are combination of
the features of the Hill and Edmunds
| bills.
The senate resumed consideration of
the naval appropriation bill and Vest
continued his remarks. The popular
impression, Vest said, was that the
civil war was the beginning of the de.
| cline of the American merchant ma
rine, but this Impression was not cor
rect. The decline had begun six years
before the war. The loss nf American
shipping from 1910 to 1882 was for the
| v.
during the war SO A 5 per cent, and
since the war II 10 per cent. Refer
ring to the shipping bill
for the committee on commerce, Vest
said it was like empificism which
mistook adeep-seated disease for mere
cutaneous eruption and treated the pa
tent with cuticura and moderate doses
| ,f s,ttl All this ttpt.yt ,.G nrn
tectiny American labor was leather
and prunella. American ships were
obliged to pay foreign sailors the same
wages they paid sailors in the coast
wise trade.
Bayard said he had been Informed
that in cases where the same stock
holders owned vessels built and regis
tered in England and also built and
registered in the United States
in which they were paying the same
wages, yet they had felt compelled t.
cease running the American vessels
Bayard had been wondering what wa
the magic that made the differenc,
that compelled such result.
Vest read correspondence from tn,
president of shipping company t
show there was difference of % 20 81
per cent. in the first cost of ship
against the American ship owner
He should be permitted to buy ship
wherever be choose to buy them.
I Bayard suggested that would be
3. lef, anded privilege, if higher wage
4 prohibited the running of vessels.
/ Vest continued reading to show tina
relieving crews in America increases
the expenses of American ships b.
SIS 900 year. 1t was no wonder tn
only American line had deserted tn
flag of its country. Free ships wcr
J.. not the only thing necessary. III
\ would reform the whole protectiv
y system. which had struck down tn
4 American merchant marine.
:. MCPHERSON, in the course Of his RI
.. marks, said while the government
:, persisted in keeping the present SCI
# rotary of the navy,iit could not woi
- der at the lack of confidence in ia
I, navy department.
;. Hale remarked that he did not SUI
pose the senator from New Jerse
- could sit down without getting o
y some of his bile againt the secretary
the navy. This led to n squabble ov'
the secretary of the treasury, aft
which the senate went into executiy
session, and then adjourned.