Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1888-06-14
WASHINGTON LETTER.
rFrom our regular correspondent


WASHINGTON, June 4th, 1888.
The President and Mrs. Cleveland
celebrated the second anniversary oi
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 consideration
of the tariff bill by sections, under the
five minute rule, but owing to the Re-
publican obstruction there was very
little progress made. Lumber was the
main stumbling block. Mr.. Breckin-
ridge, of Kentucky, made an interest
ing point by reading from the record of
1868 showing that Blaine was at that
time fierce advocate of free lumber.
But the result of this was that most of
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. 1t got
into little row over the question ofin-
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 victOrIOusly.
General Sheridan may be better or he
may be dead before this reaches you.
His rallies and his relapses follow each
other too frequently to make any record
of his condition. The bill reviving the
rank of General of the Army has been
passed, signed by the President, con-
firmed by the Senate, and General Sher-
idan promoted thereto. He was much
gratified by the promotion, and dictat-
ed, himself, letter of thanks to the
President.
The Republicans of the Senate judi
ciary committee are still delaying in
making 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
with 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 q
Richmond firm, in spite of the fact that
his bid was the highest instead of the
lowest. An investigation is now in pro-
gress to ascertain the cause ofthis SEEM
ing favoritism. Secretary Whitney says
he will go to the bottom of the affair.
Belva Lockwood has officially accept
ed the nomination for President ten
dered her by the equal rights party.
This will be her second Presidential
campaign.
If a person has any doubt as to which
political party is in favor of the big cor
porations and monopolies of the coun-
try, just let that person keep a close
watch upon the actions of the commit
tees of the Senate and House-:he Sem
ate committees representing the Repub-
lican party, and the House committees,
the Democratic party. For instance,
the House recently passed bill requir-
ing the Pacific railroads to construct
and operate telegraph lines over their
roads; when the Senate committee on
commerce got hold of this bill, they re-
ported it 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
pelling these roads to construct tele-
graph lines that would be run in oppo-
sition to those of the Western Union
Telegraph Company. With the word
construct left out of the bill, the rail-
roads will simply make some arrange
ment with the Western Union Compa-
ny. that will continue the present mo-
nopoly. Here is another instance of
the Senate favoring big corporations:
Public opinion compelled the Senate to
pass bill forfeiting all the unearned
grants of land to railroads. In order to
make it as easy as possible on the cor
porations, the bill only forfeited 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 substitute
providing that all lands shall be forfeit
ed that have not been earned in strict
accordance with the original grant.
These two bills give good general idea
of the policy of the two parties in deal
with wealthy corporations. The DEM
ocrats believe in controlling them. the
Republicans in being controlled by
them.
Mr.. Cleveland has been invited to the
opening of the Cincinnati exposition ON
July4. He will go if possible.