Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-05-30
UNDER THE BIG DOME.
The Latest Gossip Heard About the
National Capitol.
The Hawaiian Matisr-vnien Pacific Rail.
road--Ihe Ssnais Bribery Case.

wAsHISGToy, May 29-[Special. J.
There Is deal Of complaint that the SEN
ate committee on commerce has gone out
OF business The complaint is little ex-
aggcratctl, 1t Is true, but for some time
large class Of bills has been waiting on
the action Of that committee, and those
which authorize the construction Of bridges
across navigable rivers are considered es-
pccia1ly important because the season for
that kind of work Is well advanced, ma
terial IL said to DC pherornenally cheap
and skilled labOrers by the thousand are
eager for employment. After very I'M
usual delay Senator Ransom named the
last day OF May for meeting Of the COM
mittcc, but neither he nor any other mcm-
bcr would give any positive promise Of
final, action soon. Most important Of the
waiting bills IL that providing for the
Hudson river bridge from New York city.
1t will be remembered that the first bill
was vetoed Try the president, and the house
passed another framed with the utmost
care to meet every objection urged in the
veto The preliminary surveys and sound
ings should even now bc in progress, and
the condition Of the money market makes
IfIlS " ttftsb idFpThDlS tiIit ~ ltKDtl1bc Vic
securities.
The Printing once Site.
There is also provoking delay as 10
the new government printing office, though
everybody agrees that there ought to be
speedy action. Pursuant to vote Of the
house Its committee on public buildings
and grounds some time ago selected for "a
site the government land near tho fish
commission building and on the same
square as the Pennsylvania depot, but the
senate committee still insists on the pres
ent site and hopes to bring the senate to
it's views Senator Henderson of the com
mittce, however, prefers the baseball
ground, but would accept the present site
If an agreement could be reached, while
the senate, having voted once for the Ma
hone lot, Is naturally reluctant to give
1t up.
The reconsideration OF that vote moved
by senator Harris over month ago is still
pending Meanwhile the retained en-
ployccs In the present building cannot en-
joy their good fortune for dread Of n catas
trophe, and the hundreds who have been
discharged are moving all they can get at
with appeals for reinstatement or places
elsewhere. The women In particular make
affecting pleas and often throng the lob
bics, but these are times when the force Is
being cut down in almost every depart
mcnt, and the rule is--once out permanent
ly out, or Mt least for long time.
"Grcat Cry, Little Wool"
Senator Kylc's resolution declaring 1t the
sense of tho senate that the United States
should not use force to restore Queen
Liliuokalani and would regard tho inter
ference of any other government as an I'M
friendly act did not excite SO much inter
est as was expected. The senate took it
rather coolly, In fact, and speakers on both
sides assumed rs matter OF course that
all Americans agreed with the resolution.
If one may judge from the discussion and
the absolute silence about it in the CONVEX
sation of members, the Hawaiian question
has ceased to bc an exciting topic. Tho
same, only much moro SO, may he said of
the much horaldcd convention of the Pan
American Bimetallic league, which was
notable for the absence of almost every
body who had been advertised to he pres
cnt. In place of the alleged hundreds of
delegates from Spanish America and tho
far west, there We're dozens of letters of re
Erct, along with n painfully largo number
of statements that the writer's would have
como il they could have raised the money.
There were, however, enough present to
organize, abuse the administration to the
taste of the most frantic ants, listen to
nm able argument In favor of n grand
transcontincntal railroad paid for by new
grccnbacks and pass some spicy rcsolu-
tons. Perhaps the delegates did not know
1t, but the government is in q fnir way to
own transcontincntal railroad in spite of
itself, for every proposition before the com
mittccs looking toward settlement with
the Pacific railway companies has been
fought with such vigor that the matter is
now little farther back, If any odds, than
1t was at the beginning of the session.
In q Chaotic State.
President Huntington seems to have al
most convinced the house committee that
the bill they had favored will not do at all,
and the senate committee is very slow in
taking to tho plan which he presented be-
fore It. He has maintained, and others
before tho two committees continue to
maintain, that to retire the first mortgage
bonds 1t would be necessary to tax the
shareholders of whom there are some 10,
600, and take the property out of their
hands Tho last figuring Is to the effect
that mortgage bond issue Of 81 10. 600, DOC
at az per cent would cover the debts OF
tho ruad Including that to the government
OF course the government would have &c
guarantee this issue before it would float
Some very curious testimony was dc
vclopcd by the inquiry as to how soon tn,
road could expect great local traffic, ant
some surprising opinions were given b,
far western men. Mr., Huntington claimed
that tho trouble had risen through the los.