Morning journal and courier., 1888-05-16
Fiftieth Congress--First Session.
WAsHNaroN. May 15.

or division. It provides that hereafter eigl
 hours shall constitute days work for lette
 carriers in cities or postal districts connecte
 herewith, for which they shall receive tt
 same pay as is now paid for days work (
 greater number of hours. If any lette
 carrier is employed a greater number (
 hours per day than eight hours he shall
 paid extra for the same in proportion to th
 salary now fixed by law
 Mr. Platt introduced bill to authorize th appointment of a commission to inquire int
 the use of different systems and methods c dynamite and other high explosives in mill | tary operations. Referred to the committe on coast defenses.
 | On motion of Mir. Blair the House bill t | establish department of labor was taken up | yeas 23, nays IS.
 It was laid aside informally and the pen | sion appropriation bill was taken up for con I sideration. The amendment repo1ted by tn | committee on appropriations increasing ths amount from $79, ,000, 900 to $sO, ,473, 900 wa agreed to. The next amendment was to strik
 out of the House bill the words 'that in al pensions to widows payment shall be mad from the date of the death of the husband, and to insert in lieu of it the following That all pensions which have been ol which may hereafter be granted under th' general laws regulating pensions to widows
 h consequence of death occurring from g
 cause which operated in the service since the
 fourth of March, 1861, shall commence from
 the date of death of the husband.''
 Mir. Harrison made the point of order that
 the amendment was general legislation in an
 appropriation bill. The same objection he
 said applied to the House clause, but the on.
 ly remedy in the Senate was to strike it
 out as point of order did not lie
 against it. The discussion, which was
 participated in by Senators Harris, Allison,
 Edmunds, Hawley, Cockrell and Salisbury
 turned on the question of the right of the
 Senate to originate appropriation bills, Mr.
 Hoar asserting that it was the settled policy of both houses to regard appropriation bills as revenue bills and consequently within the exclusive power of the House to originate them, and Senators Cockrel1, Edmunds and Allison contending that the Senate had a right to originate appropriation bills.
 The presiding officer submitted the point of order to the Senate, and the Senate decid- ed (yeas 22, nays 1s) that the proposed amend; ment was in order. The Democrats generally voted in the negative and were joined in their vote by Senators Edmunds and Ingalls,.
 MT. Cockrell asked MT. Allison to state the
 MT. Allison replied that the clause as it came from the House was so vague and uncertain that he would not like to venture on an estimate. He thought it would apply to all cases of widows pensions, including ''service pensions" widows of the war of 1C4H &uo LII Gu0 m041Cda WAT, alSO LQS widows pensions granted by special act of committee on appropriations would apply only to 1 ,702 cases. @
 MT. Edmunds inquired what was the pres ent law in regard to widows pensions.
 MT. Allison reported that widows received pensions from the date of application. The amendment of the committee did not apply to very many widows because up to 1880 f haIy ranoiuo1 frox, tho data of ln. of husbands. The total amount that would be required WAS estimated by the commis- sioner at about $500 00O
 Mir. Cockrell proposed that the bill should lie over till tomorrow and that the commit tees report be published in the Record. He believed that the estimate as to the cost of the proposed change was just as far from the mark as the estimates of the cost of the arrears of pensions were. There were now on the rolls, he said, 53, ,096 widows; of these S95 were widows of soldiers of the Mexican war. In these cases many pensions would go back from thirty-five to forty years. Of the widows of the war of 1S12 there were Il, S31 on the pension roll. The farther back they went the more numerous they became. The proposition was agreed to and the bill went over till tomorrow, leaving the amend ment still undecided.
 The House bill to establish department of labor was taken up, advocated by Mr. Blair and opposed bySAr. Cockrell and Mir. Reagan. It went over without action. The Senate pro- eeeded to executive business and at 5:25 ad- journed.
 HoUsE.-The House went into committee on the tariff bill, and MT. Butterworth, of Ohio, spoke against the bill. He argued that 3 tariff was not strictly speaking a tax. It was trade regulation relating ro that part of the nations business which extended to the productions of other countries. By it the United States said to other nations: md labor you shall not come into our mar zet, except in pursuance to this privilege" When 8 man paid dollar in tariff he invest sd it, and the Republican party contended hat for every dollar so invested it came back nto the pocket of the man who made the in- Ohio paid in wsges to those en- yaged in her industries $600,0 more than III the States of Delaware, West Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennes- zee, Texas, Kentucky and Virginia. Yet these States had population ,f fifteen millions, while Ohio had only title over three millions. The gentlemen was not fair, that they did not represent but agricultural States. Whose fault was it that they were not manu acturing States! Whose fault was 1t that the ron of the South had slumbered in her mountains for the past century; that her ,oal remained undug in her hills; that the waters of her rivers were turning no wheels ,f industry and bearing on their bosom but title commercei It was the fault of the South, or rather the fault of the faith whose works so abundantly and conclusively con- lemned it. Ohio did not require the sym- ,atny of gentlemen on the other side. There vas kind of philanthropy that ran away rom home tos.hnd an object for it's care laughter) He summed up the difference ion by the declaration that the free trade ! philosophy created an active concern for the \ heep while the Republican philosophy reated an active concern for the hepherd He could not un- lerstand how any Irish-American ould stand here as the closest nd most earnest ally of England, which vas attempting to do to this country what he had done to the Irish homes across the ! ca. He created good deal of laughter by eading an extract from the London Times declaring that the only time England has any lse for an Irishman Sis when he emigrates to America and votes for free trade, which he I aid that the issue had been fairly made up between the two parties. Let there be no uggling Let the resolutions in the na- ional platforms so fairly present the issue hat they would attest that they were drawn l y patriotic statesmen and not by tempor- zing, huekstering politicians. l
 MT. Simmons, of North Carolina, gave his I Iearty support to the bill, although he re- I retted that it did not contain repeal ot the l ax on cigars, cigarettes and cheroots. and on I ruit brandy.
 Mir. Stone, of Kentuc ky, spoke in favor of I he bill.
 MT. Grout, of Vermont, would reduce the urplus by making an annual appropriation | f $10, ,000,0 900 for the defense of the great l esboard cities and no longer leave them at | he mercy of any nation which might send I unboats into their harbors. He would make | n annual appropriation of $i0, 900, 900 for the I ducation of the embryo American citizen I rho could not read or write. He would in- Il rease the pension rolls SIG, ,0eo, ,000 by pass- ng the dependent pension bill and by other \ ension legislation. He would reduce the to- \ acco tax and raise the tariff and the danger \ a surplus would have vanished In con fusion he compared the farming interests of Il Termont and Kentucky, quoting statistics to how that when the population of the two I tates was compared the eastern State was ar in advance of her western rival. The \ nly things that Kentucky had more than