The silver blade. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1895-1903, 1900-03-17
PROCEEDINGS N CONGRESS
SUMMARY OF THEIR WORK
Number Of Hills Pass-The lnvestiga-
tion Of the Occur d'Alene TrOu-
blss-A New Philippine Bul-Notes
Of the House.

In the senate.
Under a special order senate convened
at 10 o'clock Monday, two hours before
the regular hour Of meeting, to be oon-
sumed in the reading of the Alaskan civil
code bill. During the two hours the clerks
read 1913 pages of the bill.
The routine business being completed,
Senator Rawlins of Utah addressed the
senate on our relations with the Philip
pines.
Baron Gevers, the new minister from
the Netherlands, will be officially received
tomorrow. He brings authenticated copies
of the three treaties embodying the agree
ments of The Hague peace conference,
which he will file with the state depart
ment.
The vote on the substitute resolution
to allow Young, the sitting member, to
retain his seat resulted: Yeas, 100; nays,
l20. This caused great excitement.
Speaker Henderson announced his vote in
favor Of Wise, thus making the vote tie,
100 to 100. On recapitulation the reso-
luton allowing Young to retain his seat
was defeated 1913 to 1872. Mr.. Richardson
then moved to reconsider the vote and
Mr.. Weeks moved to lay the motion on
the table.
An important bill reported last week
from the public lands committee to ex-
tend the placer mining law of the United
States, with certain notifications, to shore
rights, beaching, working, etc., in Alaska
was passed. The bill is designed to meet
the conditions obtaining at Cape Nome.
Mr.. Lacey, chairman of the committee,
said the bill was endorsed by the Alaska
authorities and miners generally. An
amendment was adopted prohibiting cor
porations from locating claims.
At the conclusion of Tuesday morn
ings business in the senate, Senator Allen,
rising to a question of privilege, said that
he had been misrepresented by certain
newspaper correspondents who reported
that he had abandoned the free coinage Of
silver He declared he was a firm believer
and had always been, in the doctrine Of
the free and unlimited coinage of gold
and silver at l6 to l. Senator Allen was
proceeding with an elaboration of his
views when he was interrupted by Sena-
tor Turner of Washington, who had yield
ed to him and was reminded that 1t was
personal statement for which he had
yielded and not a speech. Senator Allen
gave way, but was followed by Senator
/ Butler, who desired to make q personal
statement concerning similar matters
Republican senators spent the eally
hour Wednesday discussing alnong item
! selves plans for the continuation OF the
caucus on the Puerto Rican bill. While
many felt bound to observe the secrecy
imposed in the recent caucus, most OF
them freely admitted that Il deadlock With
different shades of opinion existed. Meme
would admit, however, that there was
any serious doubt OF reaching harmoni-
GUS solution of the problem. There is
apparently an incre lseu disposition to
adopt the house revenue bill, leaving the
governmental question presented in the
senate measure to be dealt with later.
After the routine business in the senate
Senator Turner of Washington, VIII, be-
gan a speech on the Puerto Rican bill,
yielded the floor to Senator Teller, who
expected to leave for Cuba Immediately.
Senator Teller said the constitutional
questions involved in the discussion Of the
! pending bill had been thoroughly elabor-
ated and discussed, but he believed .hem
of sufficient Importance to be further
considered.
In the house committee on military af-
! fairs Wednesday Mr.. Sulzer cllled up his
resolution directing the secretary Of war
to inform the house what notifications
Great Britain is erecting along the north
ern frontier Of the Unitei States, especial
/ ly at Puget sound and in the northwest
border of the country. An amendment
was made striking out the reference to
Great Britain and making it refer ITO any
foreign power"
A motion to postpone the consideration
of the matter for a week prevailed oil a
party vote of to 5, and the resolution
went over without action.
In the senate Thursday Senator Jones
of Arkansas offered the following, which
was adopted: Whereas, Frequent com
plants are being made from many sections
of the Indian territory that townsite com
missioners are incompetent, inattentive tt
their duties and are not discharging tht
duties incumbent upon them; Resolved
That the committee on Indian affairs bt
directed to inquire into the truth of thes'
allegations and report to the senate"
When the morning business had beer
finished Senator Sullivan took the fool
to deliver his announced speech on our re
lations with the Philippines, but at thu
request of Senator Allison yielded for TIN
immediate consideration of the bill appro
priating for the benefit and government o
Puerto Rico the revenues collected on tn
importation therefrom. Senator Jones OF
fered the following substitute for the bill
"That the duties collected to this dat
on articles imported into the United
States from Puerto Rico since the l8tl
| dow of April 1900 the date of the OK