Omaha daily bee., 1886-06-29

bued with an undue hatre to the colored
race. The letter is as follows:
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
PENSION OFFICE,
WASHINGTON. ID. c., 1856.
Southern division, c. w. c. examiner, No.
$50 mother of Arnold Shaw Company
III, Seventeenth regiment United States
colored troops.
SIRs:--'rhis claim for pension has been re-
iected on the ground that as the claimant
was slave at the time of the soldiers death,
she was not dependent upon him for sup
port at that time. Very respectfully,
lonN c. BLACK, Commissioner.
To Joel II. Griffin. Nashville, Tenn.
How General Black could have fallen into
this mistake is the strange part of ii. The
colored soldier, Arnold Shaw enlisted in
August, 1863 At that period there were no
slaves in the United States, unless General
Black proposes to override the emancipation
proclamation of President Lincoln. The old
colored woman had four sons in the union
army. This one was shot to death in defend
ing the old flag, and she received her sons
bounty, SOS. Ii the evidence was sufficient
to give her that, why not enough to give her
the widows pension of Sl2 per month?
TIE CoUNTRY's DEBT.
The fiscal year to close with wednesday of
this week will find the national finances in
pretty good shape. The public debt, which
twenty years ago was $i5 for each man,
woman and child in the coun try, is now S23
for each person, and the interest charge,
which at that time was over 81 per head, is
now 75 cents per capita The total debt to-
day is just half what it was then aud the an
nual interest charge but one-fourth of what
it was al that time. Then the intereStbear-
ing debt was S2332, ,000, 900 and interest from
. to $40 rer cent, n ow the intercst-bearng
debt is Sl,2!0,0)0, 600 and the interest rate
among whom the debt was divided was
S35, 600, 600, now it is 60 0OO09 1t is favor
lite occupation with people with bad diges
tion to complain that the country is terribly
burdened with debt. SO it is, but it is especially
happy in this line when compared with those
of some other countries that are supposed to
rank very high in the school of civilization.
For instance, while our debt is So? per head,
that of Austria is $50, that of Russia S35, that
of Spain $50, that of Italy $50, that of Great
Britain 500, and that of France $3.50.
HOW LAIRD WARMED COBB.
The far-Seeing wisdom of Samuel J. Ran
dali limiting at an early hour to-day the
| general debate upon the land clauses of the
sundry civil bill to two hours, was
| fully demonstrated before that debate was
finished, and was probably the only thing
| which sayed the house from riot and the ne
| cessity of eXpunging from the Record in the
future some good big chunks Of history and
Indiana and Mr. Laird of Nebraska differed
! trinsic value of Mr.. Sparks to this great gov
ernment that it seemed they would stop little
| short of active verbal assault had not the
| gavel of the chairman been brought INTO
| requisition as peacenaker. Laird, who has
clrmb Mr. Sparks for wrongs done
| constituents, made a twenty minutes speech
| which metaphorlcally wiped up the floor with
| the commissioner of the general land Office
| and left little of him officially but old clothes
| and bones. Mr.. Cobb of course as a demo
and chairman If tho ppmmiItaa m nuh-
| lie lands, proceeded to defend the commits
| sioner, without rhyme, reason or logic, for all
| his acts. As Mr.. Cobb is never Mr.. Cobb on
| the floor of the house if he doesn't have the
| base ball club by the butt end, he proceeded
| to get his legs tangled in good sized blum
| der which was nothing more nor less than to
get Congressman Laird confounded- with his
| brother, heavy land owner, in Nebraska,
| now dead, and to ocharge the honorable gen
| tleman to his face, through the medium of
| special agents report with all the crimes,
land thief in pursuit of his calling can be
that when Mr. Laird " again got got
the floor, the house couldn't get close enough
| gone) to see the fun, and Mr.. Cobb was roasted
| by the shrilt voiced leader from Nebraska
| in way that he is not likely soon to, forget.
| He was shown, in no mild language, how he
| had got the confusion of the average land
| agents report worse confOunded, and then.
| in a little side elOquence, Mr.. Laird defended
| the memory of his brother in way that,
| backed up by Mr.. Sparks own agents, made
| view of the case and sat down at the end of
his time pulling, red faced failure.
| :. FOR THE PACIFIC EXTENsIoN BILL.
Since the visit of MesSrs. Il. j. Evans,
Samuel Haas and George F. Wright, of
| Council Bluffs, on Saturday, the members of
the Iowa delegation, which intended to vote
| solidly against the bill to extend the time of
payment of the Pacific railway debt, have
| changed their minds. The delegation here
| on Saturday represented the board of trade
of Council Bluffs and they came with a
memorial signed by almost all the members
OF the state legislature who We're in the ses.
sions of the senate on the impeachment
court, The legislature last winter passed
resolutions instructing the Iowa delegation
ure. This last. memorial practically
absolves the delegation from carrying out the
| wishes of that legislature. The delegation
told the members OF congress that the bill
| was not thoroughly understood, and they
| came here, after getting the memorial, in
| order that any member could use his own
judgment on the subject. They do not adyo-
1 cate the bill itself, but simply came for the
| their own judgment. All but Congressman
| Murphy and Fredericks were here and saw
the delegation, and it Is now thought that q
| majority at least will vote for the bill pro-
| yided 1t is reached on the calendar.
| POOLING THEIR ISSUES.
The house has not taken action yet on any
| OF lDt SCORES Ol NelOtS llldl lllt president las
| sent in the present session. 1t Is understood
that tacit agreement has been made by men
of all parties in that BODY TO let the yetOes all
come in until the president is done, and then
| take them up and pass them over his head.
| BY this arrangement men 0f all parties will
be united in opposition TO the yetOes, and
they will make short work of the preside nIs
vetOes, and whistle his objections down the
| wind. Some of the old hands are managing
this matter and they expect to put through
every one of the vetoed bills before congress
adjOuIns.
| A LONGER SESSION PROBABLE.
There is very little prospect OF the adjourn
ment of congress before the last OF July. In
its debate upon the postotce bill to-day, the
senate showed disposition 10 insist upon an
appropriation for the transportation of ocean
mails, and the democratic senators were the
most emphatic of all The members of the
house appear quite as determined in Their
opposition TO the measure, and neither will
yield without a long struggle. The president
has given notice that lie will not sign any
midnight legislation, and that viii
prevent the bills being rushed
through, as is usually the ease on
the last day of the session, lie can take q
bill and keep it ten days if he chooses, and
congress has got 10 wait for him to consider
it. 1t is believed that he will hasten an ad
jOuTnment as much as he can, but will Op
pose hasty legislation, and il would be JUS
like him to veto one of the big appropriation
| .f .fR .l.f fA.ti. la