The Mineral argus., 1884-05-29
CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS.

AAtlAAA 0hNA W.
its passage. Tn friends of the measure say
they are willing to accept the amendments, and
are confident the bill Will go throughth the house
and become a law this session. The bill will
be considered in the house on the 3lst, when
bills from the Indian affairs committee will be
! the special order.
Senator Vest, on Wednesday, the 18th, de-
sired to make a personal explanation. A state
ment has gone to the press he said, that the
vote upon the bill to place Gen. Grant upon
the retired list had been unanimous. He.
however had voted against the bill. He had
not called for the ayes and noes, nor made
any factiOus opposition, because two years
| ago. when a similar bill was before the senate,
he had spoken and voted against the bill, aud
given reasons for his opposition. He had no
personal opposition to Gen. Grant, but was OPP
posed to the principal of the bill.
The pension appropriation bill, as reported
to the senate, reduces the amount of unexpend-
ed balance of the appropriation for the current
fiscal year, to be reappropriated, from $S4, 0OO,-
900 to SOC, 000, 600, strikes out the provision
fixing compensation to pension agents at $40 per
100 vouchers paid in excess of 1000, and re-
ducing the number of pension agents to twelve,
and the section providing that the fee of pen
sion attorneys in all pension arrears, pension
or bounty land claims shall be $40, except in
cases where a special written contract is filed
with the commissioner of pensions, when the
fee may amount to not more than S25.
The senate has confirmed the following nom
nations: Peter W. Stollberg, receiver of pub
lie moneys, Taylor's Falls, Mimi John II.
Bowman, Gunnis0n, Colo, agent for Indians of
the Navajo agency, New Mexico; William 4.
Pirie, Rhode Island, Indian Inspector; It.. McF.
Patton, Salem, Ore, consul of the United
States at Osaka and Hiogo; Rudolph w. Wolff
soln, Buffalo, n. Y, consul of the United States
at Mannheim.
In the senate on Thursday a resolution was
offered directing the finance committee to in
v~estigate and learn whether the late New York
bank failures were due to violations of the ma
| Aso.o1 I,-1s,,~ Ina. A hill xwog fntaN1r1pal 10
prevent officials of national banking associa-
tions from specializing. The bill to loan ST.
100000 in aid of the New Orleans exposition
passed with some amendments. Adjourned
till Monday.
The House on Tuesday, had an animated
debate on the diplomatic and consular appopu-
lation bill and all amendments proposing to
increase or maintain salaries reduced by the
| bill were voted down. The senate amendments
TO the New Orleans exposition bill were con-
Cured in.
Following is the text of the bill introduced
by Senator ullom, to prohibit speculation by
officers of national banking associations:
Be it enacted, etc, That it shall be unlawful
for the president, cashier, teller, or other chief
executive officer of any national banking asso-
citation, having a capital stock amounting to
100000 or more, to deal, trade or otherwise
engage in speculation in stocks, bonds or other
securities, or in grain, provisions, produce or
oil, on margins on his own individual account
or for his own personal profit, either directly
or indirectly, or to have any partnership or
other financial interest in the operations of any
private banking of brokerage firm, or business.
ANY such officer who violates the provisions of
this act, or any person who aids or abets such
officer in violation the provisions of this act,
shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and
shall be imprisoned, not less than one year, or
more than five years, or fined more than
$4,000.
A report has been submitted to accompany
the bill reported from the house committee on
public lands, providing for the repeal of the
presumption and timber culture laws and
amendment of the homestead law. The com.
mittee say:
We believe it should be the policy of the gov
eminent to give those of our citizens who are
without homes such amount of the public do
main as will make them comfortable home
steads, where they enter upon it IN good faith,
intending to make it their homes and cultivate
and live upon it for a fixed period of time, anc
we believe 160 acres should be the maximum.
Under the pre-emption, homestead and timber
culture laws as they now stand, one person may
become the owner of $50 acres of the public do
main-lG0 acres under each. This is TO large
an amount of land, in our opinion, for any one
person to acquire in this manner. We think the
policy of the government should be to furnish as
many of its citizens with comfortable homes as
long in the future as possible, and 100 acres
is sufficient for this purpose. BY giving them
this amount, it will not be many years until all
our public domain will be taken up. The pre-
emption law was ~passedin 1871, the homestead
law in 1862 and the timber culture act III 1873.
j When the homestead law was enacted, the pre-
emptiOn law should have been repealed. The
timber culture law should never have been
passed. We have, therefore, in a substitute,
provided for the repeal of the presumption and
timber culture acts and amendment of the
homestead law.
Bills were introduced in the senate on Mon
day for the forfeiture of a portion of the North
ern Pacific land grant in Washington Territory
and Oregon, and of the Atlantic & Pacific rail-
road land grant. A bill to divide the Eighth
judicial circuit and place Minnesota, Iowa and
orably. A bill was introduced providing a
tenth judicial circuit, to consist of California,
Oregon and Nevada. After a long discussion
on the late failures in New York, the res
Olution offered Friday, directing the finance
committee to investigate national banks in New
York, to learn whether the failures were due
to violations or evasions of law, was referred
to the committee in question. The bill to
create a bureau of labor statistics was consid
cred
The house refused to fix a day for the con-
sideration of the bankruptcy bill TIL meas
ure being so far along on the calendar, it will
be impossible to reach it in the regular order,
so that the vote may be regarded as a practical
defeat of the bill for this session and probably
for this congress. The vote is a fair test of the
sense of the house on the question of the pas
sage of a bankruptcy bill. 1t shows that a ma
jority is against it. A member voted to fix a
day who would have voted against the bill, and
the majority is, therefore, probably larger even
than indicated by the vote. The vote
stood 1877 to 113.
In the house Mr. Hurd, from the committee
ON ways and means, moved to suspend the rules
and pass a bill to abolish discriminating duties
on works of art, the production of foreign and
American artists. The bill imposes a duty of
10 per cent. adj valorem on works of art whether
the production of foreign or American artists.
Messrs. Kasson, Belmont and Hurd spoke in
favor of the motion, and Messrs. Dunn, Mills
Warner (Ohio) and Boutelle against it, The
motion was lost-yeas 81 nays l19.