The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1888-08-31
WASHINGTON LETTER.
lrrom our regular correspondent

| amendment To 1he house tariff bill, an
additional section suspeuding until
! further orders of congress all laws re-
lating to the sinking fund. II was re-
ferred to the finance committee. lie
also introduced a bill 10 repeal all laws
/ relating 10 the sinking fund, and asked
that it lie on the table until he could
see what would become Of his amend
ment 10 the tariff hill.
senator Reagan has introduced a
substitute for his bin To define trusts
and to punish persons connected with
| them. The substitute is substantially
the same as the original bill
! So many reports have been circulated
about the condition Of the government
/ finances for the currant fiscal year that
the treasury department has issued nm
/ official statement showing the total
amount OF the appropriations made,
and those now pending in both house
and senate bills and amendments, also
a statement of the estimated income of
the government from all sources. The
appropriations as passed by the house
amount to Sil3,6l3, l53; as passed by
i the senate, S425 ,s7o,5l4 The estimated
receipts for the year ending June 30,
! lsso, amount 10 $4Io, SOB, 7Si. Accord
i Ing To this statement, if the senate APP
preparation bills are accepted, the sur
I plus viii be Si4, ,6a3, 30, and il those Of
the house, the surplus will be S2i, $50,
5Sl. II is very safe to say that the APP
propriations of neither house will be
/ accepted wholly by the other There
Will be compromises on bon sides, So
/ hat the surplus is likely 10 he very
/ tsnall one, even if il exists ut all, for
there i already falling of In the esti-
mated receipts fton custom duties
which amount To S3,o10,0O0. should
this keep up, the receipts would be
something like Sls,0o0,00o below the
estimates nj the end Of the fiscal year.
This state of affairs seems TO be worry
ing the politicians on both sides con
siderably. 1t hns upset their calcula-
latioils.
Senator Edmunds has informed the
republican national committee that he
viii not be able to take amy active
part in the campaign this year. This
action is said TO have been taken ON
account Of bad health.
The senate committee on pensions
have reported substitute for the bill
pensioning Mrs, Sheridan, which re-
duccs the amount from 5000 to $500
year.
There are indications that The re-
puhlicans of the house are preparing
for deadlock, because the democrats
refuse to agree TO set aside "A day for the
consideration of the dependent and
other pension bills.
The republicans Of the senate having
rejected the fisheries treaty, the
country will now anxiously await Mr..
CleveIand's action under the "retali-
alton act, f" about which we heard so
much while the discussion of the treaty
was going ON. II gives Mr.. Cleveland
great power, and il is certainly to be
hoped that it will not be abused.
IN these days of harsh political de
bates in house and senate, it is pleas
ure to note the graceful and courteous
! act by one senator towards another of
the opposition party. Senator Hoar
as acting presiding officer Of the senate
WAS called upon to appoint p conference
committee upon private bill. The
bill had been reported by Mr.. Hoar,
and according 10 all senatorial usages,
4 he should have been appointed one OF
the conferees. Thinking il indelicate
/ TO appoint himself, Mr.. Hoar appointed
three other senators. one of whom was
4 Senator Harris. Mr.. Harris immcdi-
\ ataly rose and made motion that the
/ gentleman from Tennessee (himself)
be excused and the occupant of the
chair Mr. Hoar) be substituted. He
then, to save Mr.. Hoar from the EN-
barrassment of putting the question,
put it himself from where he stood and
declared it unanimously carried.
Senator Morgan calls Mr. Blaine the
"chief humbug of the age" What
Mr.. Blaine calls Senator Morgan has
not been ascertained.
7 r pubiicans in congress did not find
much to admire in Mr.. BIaiue's recent
speech on trusts. 1t pleased the demo-
Gratis much that they are continually
Returning to it. The most careful men
make a bad break occasionally.
Many interesting things ina politi-
: cal way, have been going on here this
week. We have had visits from the
chairmen of both national campaign
committees, and doubtless many COM
binations have been made which will
have more or less effect on the coming
election.
r. SHARPERs SHARPED THEM.-The