The Arizona sentinel., 1897-04-17
WASHINGTON LETTER.
(From Our Regular Correspondent
WASHINGTON, April 5, 189'

WASHINGTON, April 5, 1897 The Dingley tariff bill hayin l last week passed the House, reeeiy
 ing every Republican vote, fv Democratic votes and one populis vote, is now in the hands of tn
 Senate Committee on Finance Every statement made concerning ! changes in the bill by that Com mittee is guess. Senators Allison Aldrich, and Platt, of Conn, whc have been going over the bill as
 subcommittee, are not the kind o
 men to announce their conclusions
 even when they have definitely
 arrived at them, to the public, be-
 fore making their report to their colleagues on the Committee. When
 the committee decides upon the amendments to the bill will be lime enough to praise or to criticize its work. Until then your guess is as good as anybodys, if you must have a guess.
 The honor of being the first fourth-cIass postmaster appointed by President Mckinley fell to Mir. John P. Kelley. of White Cloud, Kansas. The delay in making ap- pointments of this class was owing to the change in the office of fourth assistant postmaster general. Mir. Bristow is now occupying that posi- ton and will proceed as rapidly as possible to ill the 2,500 vacancies which have accumulated since the new administration came in. There will probably be an average of about 50 appointments day made until the work gets up to date
 Senator EIkins has for 8 long time been studying the question of how best to restore the old time prestige of American shipping As a result of that study, he made a very strong speech in the Senate in favor of his bill providing for the imposing of duties upon imports Tn a manner that will discriminate in favor Of American ships.
 President Mckinley seldom makes promises in connection with appointments, but he has made one that will please every patriotic American, that is, to appoint young Phil Sheridan a cadet to West Point as soon as he reaches the age of eligibility, which will be sometime next year.
 Representative Grosvernor, of Ohio, Is 8 good lawyer, and the fol- lowing opinion from him on the decision of the Supreme Court which SC many persons, especially Democrats, profess to think is op- posed by that bill go into effect April 1, and upon the right of Con- gress to pass such an amendment, is both timely and interesting Af ter citing other misunderstanding, Mir. Grosvenor says: Simply and solely what the Supreme Court did hold was that the Wilson law, which went into effect on the 2Sth day of August, and was said to take effect from the first day of August, did not repeal the Mckinley law until the day when 1t was passed, and how anybody could have had a doubt about that is a mystery to me, but the Supreme Court did not hold that the long line of retrospec- tive legislation ill the Wilson law was not approved That law bristles with retrospective legisla- tion. Whiskey in bond and not in bond that had been manufactured and deposited in the bonded ware house or was on that day deposited at a tax of ninety cents, was i'm mediately raised to $1 10. New bonds were required, the whole system remodeled, but no lawyer In the U. s. ever disputed the power of Congress to pass just such an enactment The best evidence of the popular estimate of this re- troactive amendment is found in the fact that the vast body of i'm porters who presumably have the n-7'-'----='-"--===-----s