Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-04-03
THE SENATE AND HOUSE.
MATTERS AND MEASURES OF MA
 TlONAL INTEREST.

- l MATTERS AND MEASURES OF MA TIONAL INTEREST. l The Mississippi Bridge-The Treasury Surplus-Liquor at the Senate Restau- rant-The Minority on the Mills Bill. l MT. RiddIebergerf Gives Warning. WASHINGTON, April 3-The principal 1 feature of general interest in the senate was 1 the further consideration of the house bill for | the purchase of bonds with the treasury sur- l plus, which finally went over without action. | The senate also passed with amendments the house bill for the construction of bridge l across the Mississippi river at Memphis, | and upon this bill conference committee l was ordered The house bill for pension to Mrs. Logan was passed. Mir. Berry would | not call for aye and nay vote on the bill, :, but wished to go on record as being opposed to it.
 The senate passed a bill appropriating $50, ,OO0 for the purchase of building for the use of the signal office in Washington.
 The house bill authorizing the construction of a bridge across the Mississippi river at Memphis was taken up, and, after consider able discussion, was passed with amendments y which was ordered.
 The senate then resumed the unfinished business-the house bill for the purchase of bonds with the treasury surplus.
 MT. Stewart moved to recommit, with in- structions to the committee to report without delay separate bill, allowing the owners of gold or silver bullion to deposit the same and receive coin certificates therefor.
 MT. Sherman opposed the motion, saying that it was very unusual to instruct a com mittee to report proposition then submitted for the first time He thought the bill should pass.
 MT. Stewart argued in support of his motion, and declared that under no circum- stances would he vote for the original bill, in the present stringency of the money market. He believed that the senate and the country were in favor of using silver as basis of circulation, and he asked the yeas and nays on his motion.
 NIT. Riddleberger gave notice that he would to-day ask the senate to act on his resolution to suspend the rules as to executive sessions, so as to have the fisheries treaty considered in open session. He said he gave this notice so that there might be no delay on the excuse of absenteesm, and also that those who might be afraid to vote on it could absent themselves.
 The senate then went into secret session, and at 4:15 p. m. adjourned
 Many senators are again beginning to complain of the open manner in which whisay. wine and beer are being sold at the tables and over the counter of the senate res taurant. One clause of rule 10 for the regu- lation of the senate wing of the Capitol reads as follows: ''No spirituous liquors shall be soli, furnished or kept in the restaurant" This rule was in force when Senator Frye, the leading senatorial prohibitionist, was < chairman of the committee on rules. It was not enforced then, as it is not now. Liquor is sold almost as openly in the senate as in the bars about the city. Senator Ingalls, once made one of his interesting and characteristic speeches oil this subject in the senate. MT. Ingalls, now, as president of the senate. has the appointment of the restaurant keeper. and the committee on rules has absolute con- trol of the bill Of fare. Yet the sale of liquor goes on unchecked.
 In the house the most important feature was the reporting from the ways and means committee of the Mills tariff bill, with the majority and minority reports. The bill was referred to the committee of the whole and reports ordered printed. The minority report. after criticisng the Mills bill as avowedly a poltica! measure, believed to represent, so far as it goes, the views of the president and his party associates, and which is to constitute the issue and be the platform of the party, goes on to assail the Dill as radical reversal of the tariff policy of the government, which for the most part since its foundation has made industrial and agricultural progress in the United States without a parallel in the worlds history. If enacted into law the Mills bill will disturb every branch of busi- ness, retard manufacturing and agricultural prosperity and seriously impair our industrial independence
 The whole bill, they say, seems framed to benefit other countries, rather than our own. Free wool, proposed by the Mills bill, they say means loss and ruin to the American grower. Placing flax and hemp on the free list will injure the grower and manufacturer. Sealing down duties, they say, as proposed in the Mills bill, will not reduce the income and surplus of the government. Experience shows that mere diminution of duties tends to stimulate foreign importations, and thus | increase revenue
 If the absolute periln to the business of the country described by the president in his message last December as resulting from an existing and increasing surplus was imminent and well founded, how easily he could have l averted it by purchasing outstanding bonds with the surplus money in the treasury a power l which he possessed, clear and undoubted under the act of March 8. 1881, that author izes the secretary at any time to apply the surplus money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, or so much of it as may be con- sidered proper, to the purchase or redemption of United States bonds.
 The minority report this bill not as a revenue reduction measure, but as direct attempt to fasten upon this country the Brit ish policy of free foreign trade So viewing it, their sense of obligation to the people, and especially the working people employed in manufacture and agriculture in all sections of our common country, impel them to resist it with all their power. They will assist the majority in every effort to reduce the redund- ant income of the government in direct and practicable way, but every effort at fiscal leg islation which will destroy or enfeebe our in- dustries, retard material development or tend to reduce our labor to the standard of other | countries will be met with the persistent and determined opposition of the minority repre- sented in the house.
 Incendiary Tramps.