Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1897-03-22
FIFTY-FIFTH CONGRESS.
WASHINGTON, March %.
SENATE.

WASHINGTON, March ~.
SENATE.
Among the bills reported from COM
mitteesand placed on the calendar was
one providing free homesteads on pub
lie lands for actual and bona fde set
tiers.
Mr.. Hanna made his first remarks in
the Senate when be offered bill pro.
viding for new public building at
Cleveland, Ohio.
The four great appropriation bills
the agriculture, the sundry civil, the
Indian and the general deficiency
which failed in the last Congress, were
received from the House and referred
to the appropriations committee.
House joint resolution. was passed
continuing until December next the
joint committee to investigate the use
of alcohol in the arts.
The correspondence in the case OF
Victor H. McCord was transmitted by
the President and referred to the COM
mittee on foreign relations.
A resolution was offered by MIR. AL
len and agreed to, calling on the Presi-
dent for the correspondence between
the United States and Spain and be.
tween the State Department and Con-
sui Lee, in reference to the arrest, i'm
prisonment and death OF DR.. Ricardo at
Guanabacoa, Cuba, and asking whether
any steps have been taken to inquire
into the circumstances surrounding his
death.
The Senate then at 1910 went into
executive session.
HOUSE.
Tariff debates are not the attraction
they once were in the halls of Con-
gress. When Speaker Reed called the
House Of Representatives to order to-
day at 10 o'clock, in accordance with
the terms of the special order agreed to
last week, much less than half of the
members were in their seats and only q
sprinkling of visitors were to be seen in
the galleries.
Speaker Reed said Pursuant to
| the order adopted the House will now
resolve itself into the committee of the
whole for the consideration OF the tariff
bill No. 379. And the chair will ap-
point the gentleman from New York,
Mr.. Sherman, chairman of the com
mittee."
Mr.. Sherman took the chair and d.
rected the clerk to read the bill in ex.
tense, which occupied over two hours,
reducing by that much the period for
debate.
The reading of the bill occupied two
hours and quarter and if the clerk
had attempted to perform his task
literally, and had not skipped whole
paragraphs and sometimes whole
\ pages at once, he would not have got
to the end even at the most rapid rate
of reading, in twice the length of time
actually occupied. The printed bill
covers 1853 pages. During the reading
the galleries filled up, but were at no
time crowded. The reading of the bill
closed at 1920 and then Mr.. Dngley,
chairman of the committee on ways and
means, proceeded to address the House
in its favor.
Standing midway in the first passage
OF the republican side of the chamber,
Mr.. DINGHY began his speech slowly
and deliberately. Although his voice
was thin and weak the stiffness in the
large hall was so absolute that he could
be heard in the most remote corners.
All the members on his own side of the
House, and most of those on the other
side, paid the closest and most respect
full attention to his remarks and occa-
sionally some slight demonstration of
approval came to him from republican
members. After he had been speaking
for half an hour and when he had
reached the more abstruse points of his
argument his voice began to weaken
and the general interest in the speech
began to fall of.
Mr.. Wheeler, member of the com.
mittee on ways and means, said the
theory of the democratic party was
that the way to give employment to
American labor wss to find purchasers
for the products of farms and factories;
and that the way to do that was to
open the markets of the world to those
products. The democratic party
thought that the pending bill was not
one calculated to do that; and that it
would therefore be failure. 1t had
been framed in secret star chamber
by eleven republicans and was largely
framed from petitions presented to
that body of eleven men by the agents
of the protected interests Of the coun-
try. The effect of the Mckinley bill,
he declared, would be to close more
factories in the United States than had
ever been closed in like period of
time in the history of the country.
The great progress of the iron industry
in Alabama had taken place, he assert
l ed without the SLIGHTEST aid from pro-