San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1886-01-21
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From Our Regular @ Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, Jan. IA, 1886.

| WARRINGTON, Jun. Ii, 1000.
While Congress has done nothing
startling since it reassembled, almos
everything that has occurred on Cap
itol Hill has been fraught with inter
est and importance. The Senate hai
discussed and voted agsinst tho Nor
mons, and incidentally against Woman
Suffrage. Steps were taken towards
over hauling the street railways o.
Washington as we'll as the U. s. Pen
sion Office, and the Congressiona
Record was embellished with consid
cradle eloquenee on Silver coinage
Senator Beck exonerated himsol ffrom
his recent alleged antagonism to the
President. About one thousand new
bills were introduced in tho House
and the Speaker completed the or
ganization of that body by formally
announcing where he has had as
signed his 1926 men on his forty. eight
Committees.
There is no more than the usual
amount of dissatisfaction among
Members on account of their positions
on the Committees Indeed l think
there was less complaint than was
expected, and the general verdict of
those who have no personal in
terest in the great questions with
which these committees are to deal,
is, that Speaker Carlisle has arranged
them with wisdom and fairness
There are so many new members
in the present House, that their as
signments had to be made somewhat
blindly, az their special abilities had
not been tested. But the Speaker
profited by his experience in the forty
eighth Congress in placing the old
members with view to their qualifi-
cations. The more prominent COM
mlttees which have the most import
ant work to do are strong.
Both branches of Congress are now.
ready for real work, any amount of
which is waiting for them. 1t is
thought the session will continue I'M
til August. About three thousand
bills have been presented in the House
alone.
The list of bills with which Con
gress is flooded furnishes undeniable
proof of American inventive genius.
No possible subject of Legislation has
been sighted. Among them are many
old-timers that come up and die out
with every New Congress. One bill
asks that for the remainder of her life
the widow of General Grant may cor
respond with her friends and that her
friends may correspond with her with
out paying postage. The most pop
ular measure is one for the establish
ment of Agricultural Experiment
Stations. Nearly all the members
from rural districts have introduced
it in one form or another. About
dozen Civil Service bills have been
presented and new bill asks for the
establishment Of o National Universe
ty here. 1t provides instruction in
the highest branches of all depart
ments of knowledge, with facilities
for research and investigation. Space
forbids me to give the full terms of
the bill, but 1 will mention that the
government of the institution is to
be vested in o board of Regents con-
sisting of one member from each
state of the Union, to disappointed by
the Governor. Each state and terri
tory shall be entitled to scholarships
in the ratio of one for each Represent
alive or Delegate and two for each
Senator. These scholarships shall
secure free instruction for five years.
The Republicans in both branches
of Congress are after the Pension
Office and the Senate has passed O
resolution for an investigation of its
past and present. They
complain that Commissioner Black
does not treat them with sufficient
Difference when they call on business,
and then they have to do something
in retaliation against the recent char
ges in Gen. Blacks annual report,
about the Pension bureau having been
a political machine,ru by Republican
partisans.