Huntsville gazette., 1888-09-15

total of 2l3 vetoes of bills of all kinds passed
during his administration, while ffty five
bills up to that date had become laws with
out the presidents signature. In the first
session of the last congress the president
vetoed lO4 private bills and six measures of
general character.
OF the grand total of 13 S2l bills intro
duced in both houses and the G, $40 reported
from committees, only 278 bills other than
the CSC pension and other private bills have
become laws About sixty Of these are OF
more or less general interest Tho most im-
portant are the following:
Authorizing the condemnation by the gov
ernor Of land for sites of public buildings;
establishing a department of labor, prohibit
ing obscene or hbelous matter passing
through the mails; providing for an annual
maritime conference to secure greater safety
for life and property at sea; giving 500
bounty to soldiers who were enrolled or en-
listed for three years prior to July % 1861,
and who were subsequently honoraby dis
charged from the service; authorizing the
president to arrange conference with the
South and Central American republic With
a view to closer commercial relations: re-
mitting duties paid on imported breeding
animals, and admitting free of duty those
imported in the future; reducing the charge
for passports from s. to ST. increasing PEN
sion for utter deafness to $50 month"; in
creasing the stringency of the laws prohibit
ing the destruction of timber on the public
domain or the reservation belonging to In
dians; limiting the hours that letter carriers
in cities shall be employed to eight day
and providing for pro rata pay for extra
time employed; permitting publishers to
place upon printed matter the words sam
pie copy, marked copy", from" and
other marks indicating to the receiver legiti-
mate information; giving to state soldiers
homes 500 year for each inmate received
who would be entitled to admission to the
National homes for soldiers and sailors.
The house bill to prohibit the return of
Chinese to our shores upon certificates already
ssrled, an prohibiting the ilnm, grafton of
Chinese laborers, has been issued by the SEN
ate since the end Of the nine months of this
session.
The bill giving additional authority to the
president to enforce the retaliation act of
February, 1887, against Ct"rla. which
passed the house S .tu"' " i'll bs bh next
important measure to become .aw.
There has been b.. very little political
le e-lSl4IiOn III JDlo SESSION.. he WOTh III budb
lirec. ion ha been devoted almost exclu-
sively To the Mills tariff dill and the tariff
measure, which has been under preparation
for several months by the senate committee
Oh finance There are several specific tariff
bill, b4fore the house committee Oh wtys and
means, introdu ed by Mr. Breckenridge, of
A rhansaS and directed toward what he
called trusts, or combinations, involving
IL. In.,x ,.,,-f
dnty levied, anu these are likely to attract
widespread political attention when they are
taken up for consideration. They have not
yet been acted upon by the house committee
on ways and means Effort will be made to
have the joint resolution directing the presi-
dent to suspend for a period of six months
the duties levied upon cotton bagging, but,
inasmuch as this will have to be done by the
suspension of the rules requiring two thirds
vote, there is little prospects of success in
this session, since it is with great difficulty
that quorum is secured for any purpose.
Among the most important bills of gen
eral character pending in various stages of
completion are those providing for the or
ganization of the territory of Oklahoma;
providing for the issue of circulating Ma
tional bank notes to the par value of bonds
deposited with the treasurer: establishing
additional life saving stations throughout
the country and the bill enacting an entirely
new system of general land laws. All of
these measures are unfinished business on
the calendar and are privileged. They will
be among the first measures for action in the
next session of this congress if they are not
passed i'll this session
There are various important bills which
III .l1oeo
congress. Among them are all the bills
making states of Washington, Montana and
North Dakota territories; which bills are in
the senate, and bills of a similar character
in the house. and the bill incorporating the
Nicaragua Canal company, which was en-
dorsed by the Republican National conven-
tion and mentioned in its platform The
special committee of the house investigating
the subject of foreign immigration will
members of it say, report bill in December
regulating immigration, which will doubt
less attract widespread attention and make a
prolonged debate.
The general food adulteration bill will
also come up in the next session, if not in
the present one, and will be source of earn,
est contention. Members of the committee
on public lands in both houses do not expect
any SioIdticu III 0uio COllSI0SS W uSpTlVt
railroad companies of any of their land
grants. The proposition to extend the inter
state commerce law so to include the tee-
graph companies, and also to amend the ex
isting law so as to prohibit shippers owning
private cars will come III for attention dur
ing the next session which convenes on De-
cember 4, and adjourns on March 4, cover
ing exactly three months, but excluding
the regular holiday adjournment, consumes
only about nine weeks. Effort will also be
made in the next session to put in the regular
army, navy and provisions for Notifications,
heavy ordinance and men of war, torpedo
boats, dynamite cruisers, etc. etc.
1t it believed, however, by the oldest and
strongest men in congress that the subject Of
the tariff will consume nearly all of the next
session Of congress, which will remain after
the regular appropriation bills have been
passed. Many also predict that there will
not be sufficient time to enable the two
houses to accomplish the work desired on
the tariff trusts and other important ques-
tions. and that the president will call an ex-
ira session shortly after the Inauguration in
March.