Connecticut western news., 1888-02-08
AT WASHINGTON.
Some Matters of Moment Brought
 Up at the Capital.

Dr. E. s. Isham of Chicago, representing the Pullman Palace Car Company, addressed the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce upon that feature of the Cullom bill which proposes to extend the interstate com merce law over sleeping car companies. He defined the boundaries and nature of the busi- ness of the sleeping car companies for the pur- poses of comparison and to show the relation of the business to existing legislation and to the power of Congress, maintaining, first, that the sleeping car companies are engaged in no business within the intent of Congress in the existing law; second, that they are engaged in no business within the constitutional powers of Congress. inasmuch as their business involves no transportation, and third, that It their business be within the powers and intent of Congress, the present law and the proposed amendment are utterly inapplicable, being ad- justed to the railroads and the business of transportation, and being full of requirements with which it is impossible for the sleeping car companies to comply. The business of the Pullman Car Company, he argued, is prima- rily that of . car manufacturing company; sell ing or leasing its cars to railway companies, and the fares collected by the sleeping car company are so collected in pursuance of the contract with the railway as compensation for the use of the leased cars. The Supreme Court, he said, had adjudged that the faro paid to the railroad company and to the Pull man Company together form one compensation for one act of transportation.
 
 tee on Public Buildings and Grounds, has adopted new plan with reference to public building bills which causes ccnsternation to their authors. He has decided that hereafter he will refer all measures asking for appropri- ations for new buildings to the supervising ar chitect of the Treasury for his opinions as to the needs of a building, and particularly with reference to the amount of money which should be appropriated. The recommendation of the supervising architect is to be acc pted, and he, nf fhn wi fho-nfOra tho fate of all aspiring cities ln his hands.
 The hearing on the bills to prevent menha- den fishing within three miles of the coast was continued before the House Committee on Fisheries. Hon. William Walter Phelps said that the interests of the fishermen who caught the fish and of the people who ate them was greater interest than that of the guano and oil made from the menhaden. The food fish, he said, had decreased in quantity, and this decrease kept equal pace with the energy of the menhaden catch. How enormous tbis catch was was evidenced by the fact that the opponents of the bill had admitted incidentally that at one time they had caught 6,0O0 barrels of the fish at single point The fishing dimin- ished the quantity of food fish, not so much by the quantity of them caught in the monstrous nets and mixed with the menhaden, but by the fact that the menhaden were destroyed or driven away, so that there were none to sup ply food for tho bluefsh. the weakfsh, and other food fish. It was idle to claim that the menhadeu supply was inexhaustibe. The fishing was yearly driven further south to find them. The northern ifs ing was already ex- hausted.
 Congressman Spooner argued that the men, haden fishermen couldn't catch food enough for their own use on the cruise: that the infinite supply of the menhaden could never be ex- hausted; that the menhaden was not the fool of the bluefsh, only its relish, like liquor to a man.
 One sea captain from Massachusetts and one from Maine protested against the bill on the ground that it would kill the New England | fisheries, as the needed to take menhaden in nets to supply the demand for bait, which was | 8 great industry.