Wichita eagle., 1888-05-01
SENATE.


SENATE.
WASHINGTON, April 3O-Bills reporte,
and placed on the calendar-Senate bill
fixing the salary Of the several judges o
the United States district courts at IS, ZOO
(Mr. Coke dissenting)
Among the bills introduced and referre,
were the following:
By Mr.. Dawes-To authorize the secre
tary of the interior to fix the amount o
compensation to be paid for right of wa,
for railroads in Indian reservations i'm Ger
tain contingencies.
BY Mr. Stewart-To require the purchas,
and coinage Of not less than $4,000, 0O
worth of silver bullion per month I'll,
said that the bill involved no new prin
ciple and asked that it be read first anC
second time and laid on the table So or
slered.
Mr.. Stewart offered resolution (Which
was laid over calling on the secretary o.
the treasury for a statement of the amount
OF silver bullion offered to the government
since the passage of the silver coinage ac
and by whom and at what prices; also Of
the amount of silver bullion purchased
each month during the same period anC
whether the question of Indian consOl bill.
enters to any extent into the determine
ton of the market price of silver bullion
in the United States.
Mr.. Stewart also offered a resolution
(Which was adopteD directing the director
of the mint to send information as to the
foreign silver coins designated in his cir
cular: the amount of pure silver in each
coin and whether the value OF such silver
coins las SO designated) has been estimated
by him according to the pure silver con-
tanned in them respectively.
The resolution offered last week by Mr.
Hale calling on the secretary of the interior
for information as to appointments in his
department below the civil service grade
since March, 1885, was taken up and
adopted.
The senate then proceeded to the consid-
Grafton of the railroad land forfeiture bill
Mr.. Paddock offered an amendment pro-
viding that nothing in the act should be
construed as limiting the rights granted
TO purchasers or settlers by the forfeiture
act of the Bird of March 1887; or as repeal
ing, altering or amending that act. Adopt
ed-yeas 80; nays Z.
The senate bill to authorize the sale of a
tract of land in the military reservation at
TT. Leavenworth, Kansas, to the Leaven-
worth City Water company was passed.
The international copyright bill was
then taken up. The amendment hereto.
fore offered by Mr.. Morrill, las to ,pablica
tons OF magazines and newspaper articles)
was withdrawn by his authority and an
3ther amendment was offered for him by
Mr.. Chace, who said he would accept il as
a matter of compromise. 1t was that any
publisher OF newspaper or magazine may
import for his own use, but not for sale.
not more than two copies of any newspaper
or magazine published in a foreign
country. The amendment was adopted.
Mr.. Vest moved TO strike out the words
from type set so as to have the clause
read book of dramatic composition
printed within the limits of the United
States"
Mr. Beck spoke against the bill. He said
It was a bill for trusts, pools. combinations,
exclusive rights to certain men, He
quoted from the report made in the Forty
second congress by the joint committee on
the library, consisting Of Senators Morrill,
tMaine), Sherman and fIowes, and Repre-
sentatives Peters. Wheeler and Campbell,
of Ohio, to show that the effect of the bill
!hen proposed would be to increase the
price of books and 10 deprive the great
masses of the American people of the ben
etits which they We're deriving under exist
ing laws. The object of the bill was to
build up monopoly and to give to the
publishers of the four great publishing
cities, New York, Boston, Philadelphia
and Chicago the exclusive power to pub
iish foreign books and to exact any price
chat they saw fit.
Mr.. Vest said be did not like the friends
of the bill to be placed in the category in
which the speech of the senator from Ken
lucky placed them. He Vest favored the
principles established by the international
copyright union, and he quoted from
message of President Cleveland urgently
pressing the subject Oh the attention of
congress. All that any friend of litera-
ture demanded WIS that the people of this
country should simply give to foreign au-
thors the same protection that they gave
TO their own authors; that there should he
no geographical distinction in the com
monwealth of letters As to MIR
Beck's argument that the bill was in
favor of pools and monopolies, he
Vest said that there would be no
worse pool and no more dishonest one
than that of publishers taking books TO
which they had no right and publishing
them. If the principle of the biIl were
struck down il would be a striking down
of the principle which underlay ali right
Of property, that of creation, whether in
tellectual or physical.
The question was taken on Mr.. Vests
amendment and ii was rejected without n
division
Mr.. Jones, of Arkansas. moved to strike
ont all oil section 2, requiring as part of
the conditions of copyright. printed comics
of books and works of art to be sent 70
the congressional library. books 10 be
printed from type set in the United States
The vote on the amendment was yeas Ii
nays 10. No quorum voting
The senate then adjourned.