Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-02-20
PROCEEDINGS OF CONGRESS-.

PROCEEDINGS OF CONGRESS-.
WASHINGTON, Special Telegram, Feb. H.
The seuate. after spending two long execu-
tive sessions and the entire afternoon in a
chaoticIdebate passed the house bill to re-
peal the pre-emption and timber culture laws
BY 26 to 20 1t is safe to say thatn bill has
been passed this session which is in q worse
muddle aud Ia less understood The discus
sion to-day was on Palm er's amendment This
was simply the old and much-described On
tonagon land grant bill, which was success
fully tackedon the repeal The original bill
is virtually the bill which Gen Washburn got
through the house two years ago. 1t was
passed by the house last June The amend
ment provides:
Whenever public lands have been withdrawn
from sale by grants made to aid in construction
Of railroads. and such Withdrawals have been
terminated by act Of congress, executive order,
Or order by the land Department., or where lands
have been, by operation Of law reduced in price
TO ST. IS per acre and purchased In good faith or
| entered with warrants or scrip, and the officers
| Of the land department have issued certificates
| or patents IN accordance with this purchase
by the president and offered at public auction:
and where on the 10Th OF January, 1855, there
were no valid conflicting claims thereto or state
ments thereon. all such entries, ETC., are con-
armed and declared valid and legal.
Morgan amended Palners amendm ent SO as
10 except two hundred or more settlers who
have gone on the disputed lands in Northern
Michigan and entered ho1nesteads The Pal
ner amendment passed by close party
vote. Senator Vest produced sensation by
| reading letter from a Michigan citizen,
charging that the proposition covered big
steal, in which few capitalists were inter
ested. Senator Palmer, in very temperate
| speech, denied the aspersion, but the letter
produced 6 hub-bub for some time after
ward Commissioner Mcfarland says there
are between 100, 900 and POO, 900 acres of
land embraced in the Ontanagon &mend
ment The original entry men, having paid
| ST. Is for them, and having paid taxes in
many cases for fifteen years, will now have
| their patents endorsed as regular. The SEN
ate amendments to the orig inal house bill
are numerous and sweeping-so much so
that there is no expectation that they will
! be concurred in. The final vote was almost a
strict party one, Edmunds being the only
! Republican to vote against the repeal, and
Brown the only Democrat to vote in the
| affirmative.
| WASHINGTON Feb. 12.-The resolutions offered
yesterday by Messrs. ingalls, and Hoar, relating
! to the electoral count, were, on motion OF MIR.
! Hoar, referred without comment to the COM
mite &c on privileges and elections
| resolution offered by Mr.. Sherman was agreed
to- authorizing the president Of the senate to APP
! point committee OF three senators to make the
necessary arrangements tor the inauguration OF
the president-elect.
| SENATE-The senate, In spite Of strong efforts
~ Mr.. Van Wyck to have the Texas Pacific land
, yrant forfeiture bill considered, voted to take
up the bill prohibiting the importation of for
.gn contract labor This measure was debated
, 1t great length without action.
! KoUsE-A bill passed amending the Pacific
:ailroad act so as to authorize the construction
I If road from Sioux City, Iowa. to GRANGER.
Wyo. The senate bill regarding jurisdiction over
The Yellowstone National Park passed. The post
office appropriation bill was considered. The
shair overruled point OF order against para
graph allowing additional compensation to
American steamships carrying ocean mails. and
, IN an appeal the decision was sustained. After
ward, by vote of los to 81 the house struck
out the paragraph in question. An evening ses-
zion was held for the consideration of private
pension bills.
| There was an animated discussion,
Turing which tho scandal over
;he Pacific mail subsidy in the
! Forty-third congress was referred to By Hol-
man, Mills and Blount as a warning against
affirmative action. Bayne of Pennsylvania
made the decisive attack on the clause.
charging the Democrats with utter incomDe-
;ency and with being led by the agents Of
lay Gould. When the vote was taken on the
! motion TO strike out the subsidy advocates
were paralyzed by the discovery that they
were defeated and that their pet scheme was
punched out of the bill
SENATE.-The day was mostly devoted to the
Indian appropriation bill The provision for
the payment of claims for Indian depredations
was struck out.
The nomination of E. A. Kredler,
to be marshal of Montana, was
taken up, and, at the request of Senator
Cameron Of Wisconsin, was laid over till
Monday.
The house passed the postoff1ce appropria-
lion bill to-day. The advocates of the steam
ship subsidy clause made the most de-
te1mined efforts to overcome the adverse
vote Of yesterday in committee of the whole,
but their efforts were unavailing The prin-
cipal objection to this clause was that the en-
tire amount of the appropriation-$6O 900
would be absorbed by the Pacific Mail
Steamship company, in whose special inter-
est it was charged the clause was drawn
This allegation was given color by the fact
that Mr. Louderback, a prominent director
of the company, has been here most of the
winter nursing this scheme, and it was given
further confirmation to-day by his presence
in the corridor, surrounded by professional
lobbyists and notorious strikers, all of whom
were actively working for the subsidy clause
under Louderback's orders. Considering
the persistent and bare-faced operations Of
this Pacific Mail lobby it is creditable to the
house that the action of yesterday in elm
mating the subsidy clause was confirmed by
an increased vote to-day. Many of those
who voted against this clause are favorable
to granting proper aid in the form of liberal
compensation for carrying the United States
mails, but in the case under review no ben
eft would have followed to the commerce Of
the country, and no additional, facilities
! would have been furnished the postal SER
vice.
The paragraph Of the bill which provides
for the reduction of postage on letters, as
passed by the house, reads as follows:
Upon all matter Of the first class, as defined by
the laws OF congress declared subject to postage
at the rate OF three cents for each half ounce or
fraction, postage shall be charged on and after
the LIST day of July. 1885, at the rate of two
cents for each ounce or fraction thereof, and
drop letters shall be mailed at the rate Of two
cents per ounce Or fraction thereof including
delivery at letter carrier offices, and cent for
each ounce or fraction thereof where their de-
livery by carrier is not established.
The paragraph providing for the reduction
of the rate on newspapers reads as follows,
and forms part of the paragraph above
quoted:
That upon all publications of the second class,