The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1897-04-29
THE F|FTy.F|FTH CONGRESS
THE INDIAN BILL SENT TO CONFER
ENCE AFTER CONSIDERATION
OF AMENDMENTS.
DAWES COMMISSIONS GOOD WORK.
ChOctaws, Whereby the Indians
Take Land n.Severalty and
Give Up Tribal Relations.

Washington, April 23.-The desk of the
late Judge Holman today was covered
with a black pail of mourning, upon
which were strewn lilies of the valley
and hyacinths. The blind chaplain in
his prayer referred feelingly to the loss
the house and the country had sustained
in his death.
After the reading of the journal Mr.
Bland of Missouri offered the resolution
which he attempted to offer last week.
relative to the suits to fOreclose the first
mortgage on the Union Pacific Railway
and calling on the attorney general for
information as to what steps had been
taken to protect the interests of the gov
clause directing the speaker to appoint
Immediately the committee on Pacific
roads.
He presented the resolution as a priv
legged question, on the ground that as
there was no committee to which the
resolution could be referred this was the
only way it could be brought before the
house. The speaker ruled that it was
not privileged, whereupon Mr.. Bland APP
pealed, and Mr.. Dingley promptly moved
to lay the appeal on the table. The
chair ruled the motion was not debata-
Bile, but brief debate nevertheless was
INDUCED, Mr.. Bland saying:
eve want to know whether the liens
on the Union Pacific are to belquidated,
as the law required that the government
may take possession of the road. We
desire to ascertain the policy of the gov
ernment."
Mr.. Dingley pointed out that all the in
formation which the attorney general
could furnish on the subject had already
been transmitted to the senate. The at
torney general could, by law, only give
his legal opinion to the president.
Mr.. Bailey supported Mr.. Bland, CON
tending that the attorney general will
90 further than he did in responding to
the senate resolution.
The debate was brought to an abrupt
close by the interposition of a point of
order that the motion to lay the appeal
on the table was not debatable.
Mr.. Richardson (dem) of Tennessee
sharply contended that an appeal was al
ways debatable, and that it could not be
cut off unless the floor was yielded for
a motion to lay it en- the table, but the
speaker resolutely Ieaffirmed his decis-
ion. The house could not, he declared,
be placed at the mercy of one member.
If there was n desire to hear the appeal
debated the house had it in it's power to
vote down the motion.
The appeal was laid upon the table,
81 to rs, % pre- sent and not voting.
hnr in n IF
the whole and resumed the consideration
of the senate amendment to the Indian
appropriation bill. The pending amerd-
ment was that relating to the opening
of the Uncompahgre Indian reservation.
Mr.. Lacey (rep) Of Iowa offered as a
substitute Il proposition to instruct the
conferees to insist upon Il provision to
lease the gils mite lands with such linn
itations as would prevent its control by
combinations.
After considerable debate this PROPOSE
ton prevailed without division.
When the senate amendment to strike
out the provision in the bill to ratify the
gas and oil leases of the Seneca Indians
was reached, Mr.. C. w. Stone (rep) of
Pennsylvania moved to concur. He de-
nounccd in unmeasured terms the meth
DDS by which it is alleged the lease was
obtained from the Indians. The motion
to concur was defeated, 40 to 20. This
motion was equivalent to agreeing to
motion to non-concur. The amendment
qualifying the right of the children of an
Indian mother and white man to in
herit by requiring the consent Of ma
jority of the members of the tribe was
also non-cOncurred in.
In all, eight of the eighteen amend
ments We're agreed to.
When the committee of the whole
made its report to the house, under the
threat of no quorum the instructions to
the conferees relative to the UncOm-
pahgre reservation were not pressed,
with the understanding, however, that
this question should come separately be-
fore the house.
The bill was sent to conference, and
Messrs. Sherman of New York, Curtis
of Kansas and Allen of Mississippi were
appointed conferees. Under the resolu
ton adopted early in the day the speak
er appointed the following committee to
attend the Grant tomb dedication eXer-
cises at New York:
The speaker, Messrs. Lowe, Cum
mings, Payne. McClelland, Dingley,
Bailey, Hit, McNlillin, Dalzell. Allen.
Burton. Hartman. Mercer, Walker of
Virginia, McCleary, Brewer, Overstreet,
Fitzpatrick, Sulloway, Dinsmore, Bar
tholdt, Tate and Ridgley of Kansas.
At 3 o'clock the house adjourned until
Monday.