Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-05-28
The Original Package Debate Kept
Up in the Senate.
THE RIVER AND HARBOR BILL.
They are Still Hammering at it II
the House.
REPRESENTATIVE vAUx SWORN IN
SENATE.

INTO enect the recommendations of the inter
national conference by the appointment (by
and with the advice and consent OF
the Senate) of three commissioners to
represent the United States in the
lntercentinental Railway Commission, whose
compensation Is to be paid from the common
fund to be contributed by the several nations
interested also to detail from the army and
navy such officers may be spared without
defrlment to the service to serve as engineers
under such commission in making a survey
(theIr expenses to be paid by the commission) J;
and appropriatlng S65. 900 the share of the
United states OF the expenses of such commits
sion and survey.
Among the bills reported from committees
and placed on the calendar were the following:
Senate bill appropriating $4,000 for a post
ONCE building at Fortress Monroe, Va; Senate
Dill 10 provide for a commission on the sub iect
OF the alcoholic liquor traffic
THE REBKLLIoS RECORD.
Mr.. Spooner offered a resolution (Which was
agreed to) calling on the Secretary of War for
information as to the completion of the work
OF lndexing the official records of the rebelion
and as to what steps are necessary to be taken
SO as to expedite the work SO that the entire
publication may be accomplished within three
years.
Mr. Stewart offered resolution (which was
agreed to- calling on the Secretary of Agricul-
ture TOR information as to the use of artesan
wells and other water supplies from subter-
ranean sources in irrigation
The resolution offered yesterday by Mr. Gull
lom as to railroad transportation 0f merchan-
disc III bond went over without action till to-
morrow.
IMPORTED LIQUOR IN PROHIBITION STATES.
The Senate bill ubjecting imported liquors
to the laws of the several states was again
taken up, and Mr.. Morgan made an argument
against Its constitutionality. In the passage OF
that bill, he said the Senate proposed to take
the hrst step, which was said always to count
most IN the journey, especially when the jour-
ney was III the wrong direction. If the ques-
ton had not been entirely new in the Senate
and II the votes to be given upon it were not
necessarily to be explained he would not
nave ventured in the present state
OF his health to express his views upon it. He
should do so very briefly. but did not fiatter
himself that he would be able to throw any
new or distinct light on the question. 1t
seemed that Congress felt called upon to make
a provision of law whereby states of the Amer
lean Union should be permitted to legislate on
a subject which they had not now the power or
the right to legislate upon.
FUNCTIONS OF THE STATES.
He did not think that it was in the
contemplation of the trainers of the Consti-
tuition that the states of the American
Union, through their legislatures and
their powers of sovereignty, should
be called upon as instrunentaIities of law
making by the Congress of the Z. s. The func-
tions Of the states were necessarily confined in
the Constitution) to those matters expressly re-
served to them and to those matters over
over which they had original jurisdiction and
power at the time they consented to the forma-
ton of the present Union. Whenever that doc
trine was dislOdged in respect of such matters
as the Senate was now considering Congress
would have entered on a journey which, when
finished, would find the country
A CONSOLIDATED EMPIRE
Whether that was to be the best destiny of
the American people or not posterity would
have to decide, but he, for one, was not will
ing to lend the assistance of his vote and voice
to the abandonment of all hopes of the ancestry
and its beliefs that a self-governng people. con-
trolled by oath to support the Constitution
could maintain just equipose and equili-
ment and could finally prove and
establish to the nations of the earth the
triumph OF ogreat constitutional govern
ment The particular cause of the anxiety
which now existed, and which the bill was
seeking to relieve. appeared to be that one of
the states OF the Union had a peculiar system
of legislation OH
THE SUBJECT OF INTOXICATING LIQUORS
There was very great diversity, very
the systems of the different states in regard to
the vexed matter of controlling the use man.
ufacture and sale of ardent spirits: and there
was not any one subject about which a gen.
eral act of Congress would have such diverse
application as in regard to that one. He did not
believe in any legislation OF a general char
acter by Congress that had local and peculiar
operation. Uniformity of legislation was pre-
requisite. But bill now before the Senate
could not possibly have general and uniform
bearing among the states.
THE RIGHT OF FREE INGREss AND EGRKss
of the citizens of one state into and from
another state, and the right OF free traffic
with each other, was the very life
blood OF society. 1t was a right which be-
longed, no. to the United States, nor
to the states. but to the people, and there could
be no invasion of that right by either state
government or the general government. The
pending bill was one to enable a state to inter-
fere by its legislation, with the right Of its
people to use ardent spirits. That might not
be valuable right. 1t might be one that
ought to be restrained by law. He believed
that il the Supreme Court had taken from the
beginning proper view of the question there
would not have been the slightest difficulty in
according to the states the full assuming of
their police powers for the control of the traffic
and use of intoxicants.
He, for one, should not give his vote to
enable any state legislature to become a legis-
lative tribunal to carry ont (Iike a territorial
legislature) under the consent of Congress
rights which he thought it had under the
Constitution. There s,no necessity for haste
in the matter unless there might be some pecu-
liar political necessity about which he was not
informed. He believed that the safer and
wiser policy was to defeat the bill either by its
indefinite postponement or in some other way.
IN FAVOR OF DOING SOMETHING.
Mr.. Faulkner expressed himself as in favor of
doing something, of passing some bill that would
relieve the situation which now confronted
Congress. The question had been discussed as
If it only affected Iowa and other prohibitorv
states, but it affected all those states in which
the systems of high license and of local option
prevailed. II he understood correctly the de-
cision OF the Supreme Court it involved
the question whether or not a
state could collect revenue from
the license system or could permit its citizens
to have local option or could prohibit the traffic
in Intoxicating liquors. He himself believed
(as the people of his state did) that the high
license system IVES the true method of dealing
with the question.
HOUSE.
The House was called to order this morning
by Speaker Reed. An immense floral tribute,
fully four feet in height adorned a front desk
in honor Of Mr.. yaux, Mr.. Randall's successor,
who vas present and the recipient