Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-11
FROM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT, !,

l
WASHINGTON, February 1O.-The House
to-day began its consideration of the new
code of rules provided for it by the Repub-
| lican majority of the Committee on Rules.
The debate upon it was most -uninteresting,
and at no time were there more than three
or four members listening to the speeches.
The Republican speakers presented no
arguments in favor of the adoption of the
code that were not included in the majority
report accompanying it, and the Democratic
| speakers simply reiterated the arguments
used by them during the pendency of the
| Smith-J ackson election case when Mr.. Reed
first made his rulings and included in the
minority report.
BUT LITTLE TIME ALLOWED.
The Democrats are not to be allowed to
| consume so much time over this discussion
as they had anticipated. They had been
looking forward to about ten days of debate,
but the probabilities are that the vote upon
adoption of the code will be taken on
Wednesday evening. This is accounted for
by the fact that the code is being discussed
as q whole, and not section by section. This
will necessarily shorten the time to be occu-
pied by the debate, and Mr.. Mckinley
thinks that three days will be ample IN
which to present the arguments pro and con.
AS soon as the rules have been adopted
the majority expect to push the business of
the House rapidly to completion. They want,
if possible, to secure an early adjournment,
not only to cut off the mass OF indiscriminate
legislation which has been proposed, but also
for its political effect. To this end they in
tend to push forward all the more important
matters to prominent places on the calen-
dars, and dispose of them as rapidly as
possible.
PREFERRED BUSINESS.
The election cases, the tariff bill and the
appropriation bills will be the first things
IN order after the rules are adopted. This
is the executive week of the Committee on
Elections, during which they will hold no
hearings. There are several cases pending,
and the committee proposes to dispose of as
many of them as possible.
The first one to be taken up tomorrow
will be the case of Atkinson VS. Pendleton,
of West Virginia. There will bea majority
and a minority report in this case, the Re-
publicans favoring the seating of Atkinson.
In the McGinnis VS. Anderson case it is con-
sidered quite probable that the committee
will return report favoring the contestee
and allowing Mr.. Anderson to keep his seat.
These two cases may occupy the time of
the committee for the whole week, but, if
not, there are the cases OF Mudd VS. Comp
ton, of Maryland, Pratt vs. Posey, of Indi-
ana, and Threet VS. Clarke. of Alabama, all
of which have been argued before the COM
mittee and are ready to be considered. It
is expected that if the rules are .disposed~of
in the House by Wednesday evening that
the Atkinson-Pendleto case will be taken
up on Thursday, and probably the McGin-
nis-Alderson case on Friday.
THE TARIFF BILL.
The Committee on Ways and Means is
making rapid progress with the formation
of the tariff bill, and expects to report it to
the House within ten days. The work of
the Committee on Appropriations is in an
advanced state. The pension appropriation
bill, which carries sos, 900, 600, is almost
ready to be reported to the House and the
other bills are we'll under way
Altogether the present situation in the
House, with the certainty of being able un-
der the new rules to transact business more
rapidly than has hitherto been possible, is
very favorable to the realization of the Re
publican hope that this will be short ses-
sion, thus giving members time to look
after their reelection, and the Republicans
opportunity to point out how much more
expeditiously they can legislate than the
Democrats can. LIGHTNER.