St. Landry democrat., 1888-06-16
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, June 4, 1SS

w ASHlNGION, Ouue r, 1000
The President and Mrs. Cleveland
celebrated the second anniversary of
their marriage on Saturday at Oak
View, their suburban residence, by
having a few friends take tea with
them.
About sixty prominent members of
both Houses of Congress are in attend
ance upon the national convention at
St. Louis. Many more would have been
there had they not been unwilling to
leave the pending tariff discussion in
the lower House. Three days of the
past week were devoted to the cOnsid-
Grafton of the tariff bill by sections, un-
der the five minute rule; but owing to
Republican obstruction there was very
little progress made. Lumber was the
main stumbling block. Mr.. Brecken-
ridge, of Kentucky, made an interest
ing point by reading from the Record
of 1858 showing that Blaine was at that
time an advocate of free lumber. But
the result of this was that most ct the
evening was spent in discussing Blaine's
tariff record.
The last thing done by the House on
Saturday afternoon was to discuss the
Agricultural Appropriation bill. It got
into "a little row over the question of in
creased salaries for clerks and officials
of that Department, and there was the
usual fuss about the appropriation for
seeds, but as usual the political seeds
men came out VIGOROUSLY.
General Sheridan may be betteror he
may be dead before this reaches you.
His rallies and his relapscs follow each
other too frequently to make any rec
ord of his condition. The bill reviying
the rank General of the Army has
been passed, signed by the President.
confirmed by the Senate, and General
Sheridan promoted thereto. He was
much gratified by the promotion, and
dictated himself, a letter of thanks to
the President,
dietary Committee are still delaying
in making a report to the Senate on the
nomination of Mr.. Fuller to be Chief
Justice.
Secretary Whitney has pulled up
Paymaster- General Fulton of the Navy
will, Il quick, sharp jerk. The Paymas-
ter-General recently awarded a con
tract for furnishing 10000 pounds of
tobacco for the use of the navy to
Richmond firm, in spite of the fact that
his bid was the highest instead of the
lowest. An investigation is now in
progress to ascertain the cause of this
seeming favortism. Secretary Whit
ney says that he will go to the bottom
of the affair.
Belva Lockwood has officially accent
ed the nomination for President tend
cred her by the equal rights party. This
will be her second Presidential cam
paign.
If a person has any doubt as to which
political party is in favor of the big cor
tInns md r,1nnnnn1iap Of
try just let that person keep close
watch upon the actions of the commit
tees of the Senate and House-the SEN
ate committee representing the Repub-
iican party, and the House committees
the Democratic party. For instance,
the House recently passed bill reqnir- |
ing the Pacific railroads to construct |
and operate telegraph lines over their |
roads wien the Senate committee on
commerce rot hold Of this bill, they re-
ported to the Senate with an amend
ment striking out the word construct
which virtually destroys the effect that
the bill was intended to have, in com
peling these roads to construct tele-
graph lines that would he run in opnosi-
ton to those of the Western Union
Telegraph company. With the word
construct" left out of the bill, the rail
Apbus St'It arrange
ment with the Western Union COM
pany. that will continue the present mo-
nopoly. Here is another instance of the
Senate favoring big corporations. Pub
lie opini0n compelled the Senate to
pass bill forfeiting all the unearned
grants of lands to railroads In order to
make it as easy as possible on the cor
DOrations, the bills only sorfeited the
lands, through which the roads had
not been built. When this bill reached
the House committee on Public Lands.
Mr.. Holman, of Indiana. offered sub
stitnte providing that all lands shall he
forfeited that have not been earned in
strict accordance with the original
grant. These two bills give good gene
raj idea of the policy of the two parties
In dealing with wealthy corporations.
The Democrats believe in controlling
them, the Republicans in being con-
trolled by them.
Mr.. Cleveland has been invited to the
opening OF the Cincinnati exposition
on July 4. He will go if possible.