The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-05-20
XLIXth CONGRESS- FIRST SESSION.
SENATE.

WASHINGTON, Mdy lJ
Mr. Hoar gave notice that tommorr0W he
would call up the bill disposing of the Ala
bama awards.
On motion of Mr. Frye, the bill concerning
the Staten Island bridge was taken up.
Mr.. Mcpherson cited figures to show that
an immense commerce passed through the
stream which it was proposed to bridge and
contended that no bridge at that point would
carry one-tenth the commerce now carried
by the stream.
At 2 o'clock, Mr.. Mcpherson not having
concluded his remarks, the matter went
over.
The pension bill was then placed before
the Senate the pending question being that
of Mr.. Mcpherson to recommlt the Dill to
the committee with instructions to submit to
would be incurred by its passage.
Mr.. McPherson's motion to recommit was
rejected-yeas IA, nays %.
The question then recurred on Mr.. Blair,s
amendment to Mr. Van Wyck's amend
ment, which is to add to the bill a section
providing that no soldier under this act
should receive o pension less than W.
month Mr.. Blair's motion is to make the
provision read ''No pension paid under any
law to any soldier hereafter shall be rated
at less than $4 month"
Mr.. Blair modified his amendment SO as TO
include Sailors marines, etc.
Mr.. Blair'S amendment was agreed to. Inc
question recurring on the amendment OF
Mr.. Van Wyck as amended by that Of Mr..
Blair, the amendment as amended was
agreed to.
Mr.. Logan moved an amendment extend
ing the provisions of the bill so as to cover
men who served three months. The amend
ment was agreed to by a viva voce vote.
The pension bill was brought to vote ana
passed-yeas "a, nays IA. The New England
Senators all voted in favor of the bill.
The bankruptcy bill having been placed
before .the Senate, Mr.. Hoar yielded the
floor in order to take up the military acad-
emy bill, which was just reported from the
committee by Mr. Logan. The latter Dill
was therefore laid before the Senate, but
was at once ordered to be recommitted
The bankruptcy bill was again laid before
the Senate and after an Intellectual attempt
by Mr. Riddleberger to secure an executive
session, the Senate at $40 adjourned.
HOUSE.
A Joint resolution was reported proposing
a constitutional amendment creating the
Office of Second Vice President. he1erred
to the House calendar.
The House then went into committee OF
the whole on the Senate amendment to the
post Office appropriation bill.
Mr.. Hiscock of New York maintained that
the amendment was not subsidy He did
not want to be understood as saying that ne
could not vote for liberal subsidy II the
effect of it would be to extend American
commerce When the gentleman Ins1nuated
Lldb UllG lODUN WAS lull VI liiCu pdooilS eAAC
Senate amendment, he might as well retort
that as strong influences were at Work
emanating from the other side of the ocean
to strike the American steamship lines, me
effect of the American line to Brazil nad
been to reduce the freight on coffee alone
one million dollars year Mr.. Hiscock said
he was within bounds in his statement that
on freight alone the American steamship
lines to South America had saved to Amerl-
can consumers 81, 500 900 year. Ihe propo-
sition before the House was to pay to
American steamships at best only meagre
compensation for carrying American mails.
The policy which obtained favor on the
other side of the House, and with the gentle
man on his side, who seemed to be alarmed
lest some steamship line would get some ad-
vantage from it, was this: that the English,
German and French lines paying 30, 100 and
| 200 per cent. more than the United States
proposed to pay, we would let them carry
| our mails at the lowest possible prices, the
effect being to drive American shlpplmg IlIl e
| carry our mails for nothing if, by SO doing,
| she could destroy the American lines OF
| steamships. Measured by prices paid tor
| carrying our domestic mails on railroads
| steamboats, and star routes. or by the prices
| paid by European powers for mail service,
| the United States would be paying under
| this Senate amendment very low rate OF
| compensation indeed. If there was gov.
| ernmental policy worthy OF support ano
| more than any other would advance oul
| prosperity, it was contained in this amend
ment. AS a party man, as citizen of the
| United States, he found nothing in the
| Senate amendment he could not support.
| Remarks were also made in support of the
| Senate amendment by Messrs. Peters Of
| Delaware, and Dingley of Maine.
Messrs Dockery of Missouri, Springer Of
| Illinois and McAdoo of New Jersey spoke
| against the amendment
| This closed the general debate, and the
committee rose, and the House at O'Clock
| adiourned