Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1888-10-24

In Roth Houses--Dxkota Farmers Re
ported starvlng-A Season OF Railway
Disaaters--The News ia General
A Remarkable Session.
Saturday at o'clock the first session Of
the Fiftieth ended the longest continuous
session In nearly a century of congress,
having lasted 321 days. The longest preyi-
GUS session ran 800 days, ending Septem-
Der 80. Apart from protracted but in
I feresting discussion Of the tariff question
in both houses, and the unparalleled dead
lock il the consideration of the hill 10 re-
fund the direct. tax, the session has been
remarkable in several ways, but in none
more than in the enormous number of
measures introduced in both branches of
congress.
ID the senate 3,641 bills and ZIG joint
resolutions were presented, and in the
house the record ran up tc the unaquallel
s Agnres ~ llyS0 stls and go go joint rssniu-
tons, making grand total of 1886
measures introduced in one session. In
the senate 1884 measures were reported
back from committees and placed on the
the house, where $500 measures of the
total number of 11,928 introduced still
slumber in committee rooms.
Among the measures of public interest
that have become laws are the following:
Relating to permissible marks ON mail
matter; for division of the Sioux reserya-
ton; for conference with the South and
Central American nations; limiting the
hours of letter carriers; making Lieutenant
/ General Sheridan general of the army; to
establish department of labor; for an in
ternational maritime conference; requiring
the Pacific railroad companies to maintain
telegraph lines; to prohibit the crossing of
Chinese laborers to the United States; for
the establishment of rules in respect to the
st. Maria and other canals; to create
boards of arbitration to settle controver-
sizes between common carriers and IhelI
employees: aiding state homes for disabled
soldiers, and changing the date of meeting
of the electoral college.
In the next stage--that is, in conference
between the two houses--two are bills OF
the first importance. namely, repeating the
preemption and timber culture laws and
providing general homestead law, and de-
claring forfeiture of unearned railroad
land grants.
Pending before the senate is the house
tariff bill and the senate substitute. The
|, senate passed bills to divide Dakota and
admit the southern half as a state and to
aid common school education (Blair billl
but they never reached the house fol
action.
The following are the most importan,
bills Enacted upon on the senate calendar
For the admission of Montana and Wash.
ton territories; to prohibit the alcoholic
liquor traffic; to decl ire trusts unlawful.
The following measures of importanc,
were reported from the house committo,
calendar and are still on the house
To reform the direct tax vote OF
which will be taken early in Decembe
next, under agreement by which the me.
mortal deadlock over this bill was broken
for the payment of arrears of pensions; re-
curing the investment of the national
bank redemption fund in circulating notes
to include telegraph companies under The
inter state commerce act; to promote COM
mercial union with Canada.
The following are some important SEN
ate bills which slumber in COMMITTEES
Requesting the president to re- open nego-
tiations with Great Britain looking to the
annexation of Canada to the United States
for the free coinage of silver; to repeal the
oleomargearine act;E he Hennepin canal bill
to reduce letter postage to cent; to gram
woman suffrage, and measures proposing
radical changes in the governments tinan.
cial policy.
The following are few of the origina
house bills which likewise never got ont o.
committees: To repeal the internal rev,
enue laws and to base tax to prohibit tn,
mailing of newspapers containing lotter,
advertisements; to lay a graduated in
come tax; to repeal the civil service law
for full reciprocity between the United
States and Canada; directing judicial pro-
ceedings to be brought against the Pacific
railroads; to break up trusts, and various
measures proposing changes in the pen
sion tariff and financial laws.
The most important private bills of this
session were those pensloning Mrs. Logan
and Mrs. Frank A. Blair. both of which
became laws, and bills to pension Mrs
Waite and Mrs. Sheridan, which passed
the senate but never We're acted on by the
house.