Birmingham state herald., 1896-04-08

members of the British parliament and, therefore, were entitled to make speeches in public, justifying their action. There fore, the analogy did not lie. He com mented upon the neglect of the secretary of the interior to carry out the acts of congress in regard to the lands of the Uncompahgre Indian reservation in Utah and in regard to the Pacific railroad lands, and said that the secretary might just as well be making stump speeches in Georgia as sitting in his executive of flee.
 Besides, he added, the arguments which the secretary of the interior was unload ing to the public in Georgia were making converts by the score to the cause or bi- metallism. But the very slack attention to public duties which might character fze those cabinet officials was an add1- tional reason why the power of making appointments should be taken from them. MT. Stewart, populist of Nevada, ar gued against civil service reform as hav- ing a tendency to replace simple democra> cy with a consolidated despotism.
 MT. Allen, in charge of the bill, after re- marking that the question of civil service reform had nothing more to do with the pending question than it had to do with the war in Cuba, moved to lay MT. Vol cott's amendment on the table. The mo- tion was agreed to and the amendment was laid on the table-yeas AS, nays T. as follows:
 Yeas-Messrs. Allen, Allison, Bacon, Baker, Bate, Berrys-Blackburn, Brice. Brown, Butler, Call. Carter, Chiffon, Clarke, Cockrell, Cullom, Daniel, Davis, Faulkner, Gear, Gordon, German, Hale, Harris, Hawley, Hill, Jones of Arkansas, Lindsay, McMillan, Mitchell of Oregon, Nelson, Pasco, Peffer, Perkins, Pettigrew, Pritchard, Proctor, Pugh, Roach, Sher- man, Stewart, Teller, Turpie, Vest, Wal thall, Warren, White and Wilson'S.
 nH. Nf1u Lodge, Villas, Wetmore and Wolcott-7.
 Mr Wolcott's amendment, which was thus defeated, was a provision that whenever a postoffice is consolidated with another postoffice, so as to make It a station, or sub-station, the salary or the superintendent or clerk may be paid out of the appropriation for clerks. The result of the vote was unfavorable to the extension of the system of postoffice con- solidation.
 Mr. Pasco offered an amendment that nothing in the bill should authorize the establishment or maintenance of any station, sub-station or branch postoffice beyond the limits of any city or town.
 This was adopted-yeas 36, nays 20.
 The committee amendment appropriat- ing $80, 900 as additional compensation to the Oceanic Steamship company for ocean mail service from San Francisco to New Zealand and New South Wales
 
 the item of $196, ,614 for necessary and spe- cial mail facilities on trunk lines from Boston to Atlanta and New Orleans by way of New York and Washington was retained in the bill, MT. Villas motion to strike it out having been voted down yeas 13 nays 39.
 An amendment requiring the expendi- ture of ,000 for experiments in rural free delivery was offered by MT. Butler, populst, of North Carolina, and was agreed te-yeas 27, nays 25.
 The bill was then passed and the senate at 555 adjourned until tomorrow.
 The House.
 The house spent the day in discussing two measures that had not been expected to engage it's attention at this time The first was the bill providing for the estab- lishment of free public library in Washington. There was a difference of opinion between the house and senate as to the fund against which the expenses of the institution should be charged-the senate providing that they should be di- vided between the district and general government, and the house that they should be paid entirely by the district. The committee on affairs of the district of Columbia recommended that the house 1ecede from its amendment to the bill, but after two hours discussion the rec ommendation of the committee was dis agreed to -113 to 137. The bill was sent to conference.
 The other was the bill reported from the committee on coinage, weights and measures to adopt the metric system in government business January 1, 1898, and to make it the legal standard of the country January 1, 1901. It was support ed by MT. c. w. Stone, republican, of Pennsylvania, and opposed by Messrs. Bartlett, democrat of New York; Otey democrat, of Virginia, and Parker, -fe- publican, of New Jersey. The house re- fused. 65 to 80, to order the bill to its en- grossment and third reading, and pend- ing demand for the yeas and nays, at 5:1O o'clock, on motion of MT. Stone, 1t adjourned until tomorrow.