Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-05-05
WASHINGTON LETTER.

whole period, the cost value of the
silver dollar is 80 cents.
WASHTN GTON LETTER.
ESPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF THE MoNIToR.]
Washington. Apr. 2S.
Senator Quay is to retire from the
head of the republican national COM
mittee and Assistant Postmaster Gen
eral Clarkson is to succeed him, if
the rumor which is being much talked
about here is true. According to this
story the change is to take place at
the meeting of the committee which
has been called for May Z, in this
city, and it is to be made at the spec
ial request of Mr.. Harrison.
In reporting the senate antitrust
bill to the house the judiciary COM
mittee took occasion to give the sem
ate blow below the belt. The re-
port says that the measure is not
what any member of the committee
would have proposed upon his own
motion, but it recommends its pass
age as perhaps the only legislation
possible under existing circumstances
by this congress. In order to get the
full force of this report the fact must
be remembered that both in and out
of congress the opinion is general
that this bill will accomplish nothing.
That congress can sometimes rise
to the occasion was fully shown when
the Joint resolution appropriating
Szzc, r~-'-zs
ers by the Mississippi flood became
law in less than two hours after it
was introduced. Representative
Coleman of Louisiana introduced it in
the House and pushed it right thro' ;
Senator Gibson performed like
service in the senate, and as soon as
it was engrossed Mr.. Coleman jumped
into a cab and took to the White
House and the president Immediately
signed it. Mr.. Coleman then went
to the war department and got the
secretary of war to telegraph its pass
age to the officers in the flooded dis
I trict. The nearest approach to oppo-
sition the resolution met with was
when Representative Bland of Mis-
souri, asked where congress found the
authority to appropriate money for
the relief of the people in the various
states. Representative Cannon of
Illinois replied that they found it in
precedents and in the starving de-
mands of $4,000 people. Which was
right?
The attempt to defeat the appro-
priation for the civil service commits
sion in the House failed, but 81 mem
bers voted for it. A vote for the out
right repeal of the law would receive
a much larger vote than that, but not
large enough to repeal 1t.
A committee from the American
agricultural colleges and experiment.
al stations is here for the purpose of
bringing their needs to the attention
of congress. It asks for at least $15,-
900 year for each state.
Politics have been getting quite
warm here of late, and since the in
PRODUCTION of the republican senate
rial caucus federal election bill they
have become red hot. The democrats
call the measure revolutionary and
say they propose to resort to every
possible means to defeat it. The re-
publicans don't say much, but they
go right along preparing to pass the
bill, and as preliminary thereto a
resolution has been introduced in the
senate restricting debate on any
measure to six days and prohibiting
dilatory motions to prevent a vote
being taken at the end of that period.
The democrats claim that under the
present rules of the senate they can
and will defeat this resolution, but
that will depend largely upon the de
: cisions of the presiding officer of the
. senate, and if Mr.. Morton hasn't the
sand to meet the expectations of hi:
{ party leaders he will be "persuaded'
| to take little trip, and Mr.. Ingalls,
2 from whom the democrats will get NJ
{ favors, will take his place.
: The silver question has been prac
+ tically settled by the agreement O
s the republican caucus committees o
: the house and senate upon bill, ant
| the acceptance of that bill by caucus
: es of both houses. OF course ther'
: is some kicking. Senator Teller ha
n given notice that he would oppose tn
Y bill and has introduced bill embody
= ing his own ideas, but the caucus bill
: is bound to pass. The silver me-
$ who are plentiful here just now. re
: gard the bill as a victory for tha
(, metal and will work for its's 'spassage.
n The Mckinley tariff bill will prob
e ably be called up within the next tvs