Birmingham age-herald., 1895-02-12
STILL ON APPROPRIATIONS.
 The Rouse Continues to Consider the Same Old Bill.
BELT POLITICS
BLACK
Finds an Airing in the Senate. < The Same Cry of Fraud in Elections.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1.-The session of
 the house today, which lasted six and half
 hours, was given over almost entirely to
 the consideration of the legislative, execu-
 tive and judicial appropriation bill for the
 year ending June 30, 1896. It was com
 pleted before the house adjourned, with
 the exception of the paragraph providing
 money for the pension office force, and
 upon that one and quarter hours' debate
 at subsequent session was arranged
 for. Amendments were made to the bill as
 follows:
 Directing the secretary of the treasury to arrange for the refining and melting into bars of gold and silver bnllion at tie
 Helena, Mont., assay office.
 Referring to the attorney general for re-
 port to the next congress as to the law and
 facts the statement made by the Indian
 bureau of the accounts between the United
 States and several Indian tribes, as author ized by the act of 1891; for tho purchase and
 opening of the Cherokee strip; striking out
 the appropriation of $2000 to pay the salary
 of the private secretary 10 the secretary of
 the interior; requiring the master of every
 vessel, upon arriving at any port in this country where there is no naval officer, to
 mail a copy of his manifest to the auditor
 of the treasury department.
 In the course of the discussion upon the
 paragraph of the bill providing for session
 committee clerks MT. Van Voorhis, re-
 publican, of New York, advocated their
 employment on the ground that more
 brains were necessary in the financial com
 mittee, and that if the chairman could not
 find the facts connected with the recent ne-
 gotiations for bonds, which he declared to
 be suspicious on it's face, some bralny clerk
 might be able to do so.
 senate bill was passed authorizing the
 coinage of gold and silver at the Denver
 mint.
 The senate amendments to the Chicago
 S4 ,000 1000 public building were concurred
 in on motion of MT. Ourborrow, demo-
 crat, of Illinois, and the bill now goes to
 the president.
 All senate amendments to the diplomatic
 and consular appropriation bill were, on
 motion of MT. McCreary, democrat, of
 Kentucky, non- -concurred in and a confer-
 ence agreed to-Messrs. McCreary, Hooker,
 democrat, of Mississippi, and Hitt, repub-
 lioan, of flliuois, managers.
 The con ference report on tue bill to regu-
 the United States was agreed to and the
 house at 5:30 o'clock adjourned until noon
 tomorrow.
 tes IN THE SENATE.
 MT. Hill introduced concurrent resoiu- ton declaring it to be the sense Of congress
 that "the true policy of the government
 requires that it's efforts should be steadily
 directed to the establishment of a safe sys- tenn of bimetallism wherein gold and silver may be maintained at parity and every dollar coined may be the equal in value and power of every other dollar coined or is- sued by the United States, but if our ef- forts to establish or maintain such bimet- alism shall ot be wholly successful, and if for any reason our silver coin shall not hereafter be at a parity with gold and sill yer and the equal thereof in value and power in the market and the payment of debts, then it is hereby declared that the bonds of the United States now or here- after issued, which by their terms are pay able in coin, shall nevertheless be paid n standard gold dollars, it being the policy of the United States that it's creditors shall
 at all times be paid in the best money in use. .'
 The resolution was followed by one offered by Mir. Stewart, populist, of Me- vada, declaring that there is no authority of law to buy gold coin in preference to silver coin for any purpose whatever. In | the regular course of procedure one or both of these resolutions will come before the senate in the morning hour tomorrow. l The postoffice appropriation bill was | then taken up, Mir. Butler giving notice that when it was disposed of he would ask to have the pooling oill taken up. | The first amendment which led to dis | cussion was the one increasing the appro- | priation for every postoffce car service | from 8 ,1C5, ,000 to $3, ZOE, ,000 and he added | these words:
 USaid sum shall be expended under the | direction and in the discretion of the post | master general. and any provision of exist l ing law in conflict herewith is hereby re- pealed.'
 | made point of order against this pro- l vision, on the ground that it was general | legislation on an appropriation bill. | MT. Lodge argued that adoption of the amendment would, in connection with the next amendment, (to strike out the item ''for necessary and special facilities on | trunk lines from Springfield, Mass, to | Atlanta and New Orleans') throw into the | hands of the ostmaster- general the right | to put the southern fast mail iouse where | he pleased. To that he strongly objected, | because that should be settled by congress. | MT. Blackburn, democrat, oi Kentucky, 1 in charge of the bill, defended the amend ment. He was asked by MT. Lodge whel her | it was the purpose to abolish the fast l southern mail service. He admitted that | it was, and said that there was only one | route in the country that got this subsidy. | The postoffice department had never rec | commended it and the postmaster ge neral | had asked congress to abolish it, for the | reason that 1t was an absolute detriment | instead of service.
 | Mr. Lodge said that the southern fast | mail service had been of vast ben fit, and | that be did not want to see it abolished. | Mir. Allison, republican, of Iowa, op- | possd the amendment as a radical and un- l wise change of existing law. Mir. AIleu, populist, of Nebraska, drifted | frc m the discussion of postoffice matters to affairs in the state of Alabama, which had | been, MT. Allen said, for the last two or l three years deprived of a republican form | of government.
 When Mir. Allen had spoken about ten | minutes he was interrupted by MT. | Chandler, repu blican, o; New Hampshire, | who said that when such question was being discussed as whether sovereign
 state of the union had a republican form of l government or not there ought to be @ | quorum present in the senate cham Der. | He suggested the absence of such 8 l quorum.
 l The roll was called and ffty-two senators iEHspepdsd eight more than quorum. I Mr. Allen then preceded with his speech I He gave what rurported to be statistics ol
 the election in the black belt counties iu l A!atama in August, le94, showing county ] cy county tie number of votes counted T the number actually cast (estimated) and l ias un4ber of fraudulent votes (esti' l...i..J, lls ag.issa.s being 6ossos votei