Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1903-02-26
|DOINCS OF CONGRESS.
House.

House.
The house Saturday, Feb. 10. passed
the sundry civil bill. which has been
under consideration since Tuesday, and
then broke ali previous records IN the
! matter of private pension Legislation.
1t was the last opportunity OF passing
pension bills at this session, and the
calendar was cleared not only of house,
but Of senate bills, 325 in all being
passed Three hundred and twelve is
the highest previous record, made In
the Fifty-frst congress. Among them
was n bill to grant a pension of $50 at
month to the widow of the late Repre-
sentative Rumpe, of Iowa, who died
about two weeks ago. Mr. Rumple had
a gallant war record, having taken part
In over thirty battles and having risen
| from private to the rank Of captain.
The house also passed a senate bill TO
authorize the president to place Ed
ward l.. Bailey on the retired list OF
| the army as a colonel. After serving
over thirty nine years in the regular
army Col. Bailey resigned his commits
sion.
Monday. Feb. 16. the house disposed
| of a number Of bills under suspension
of the rules, defeating two. The most
| important measure passed was the SEN
| ate bill TO amend the railroad safety
appliance law A special order was
adopted which practically will make
the Fowler currency bill continuing
| order for the remainder of the session,
not however, TO interfere with confer
| ence reports, appropriation bills, ana
other privileged matters.
Tuesday. Feb. II, the house began
consideration of the naval appropri
alton bill under the operation OF rule
which made the new legislation rela-
tive TO the increase of the personnel OF
the navy and for the increase Of the
Naval academy in order. The general
debate on the bill was without special
feature The paragraph in the bill pro-
viding $3.50 600 for naval station on
the great lakes went out on point OF
order. Mr.. Littlefield and Mr.. Sulzer
had an interesting clash before the ma
val bill was taken up, the former
charging the latter with having per
verted the record. After the reading
of the journal Mr. Cooper (Texasi
called attention to the fact that through
an error in the record a bill passed
the river and harbor bill for Sabine
Pass technically repealed the river and
harbor bill. AS the matter was some
what complicated it was allowed to go
over until Wednesday. On completing
thirty of the sixty-fve pages of the ma
val appropriation bill the committee
rose The senate amendments to the
Indian appropriation bill were dis
agreed to. and the bill sent to confer
ence. Messrs. Sherman. Curtis (Kan-
sas,, and Little arkansas were APP
pointed conferees. At p IN. the house
adjourned.
Wednesday. Feb. IS, the house by a
majority of TO | rejected the confer
ence report on the army appropriation
because of its provisions for the retire
ment OF civil war officers at an adj
yanced grade and permitting officers to
deposit money with the government at
per cent interest. The house emphat-
ically voted against both propositions
and sent the bill back to conference.
The proceedings on the conference re-
port were enl!vened by sharp per-
sonal clash between Mr.. Hull, of Iowa,
and Mr.. Slayden, of Texas. The re-
mainder of the day was devoted to the
naval bill. Slow progress was maze,
only twenty pages being covered. An
appropriation of 100000 for expenses
incident TO the occupation of the new
naval station the government is TO ac-
qure from Cuba was placed in the bill
at the request OF the navy department
Thursday, Feb. 10, the house passed
the naval appropriation bill with
number of amendments. Nothing else
of importance was done
Friday. Feb. 20, the house passed the
fortihcations appropriations bill, adopt
ed the conference report on the bill for
the protection Of the president and on
the legislative. executive and judicial
appropriation bill. and then spent three
hours wrangling over the Fowler cur.
rency bin. The latter bill has been
given privilege by the terms of a special
rule adopted Monday, but when the
decks had been cleared for it the Dem
ocrats began a flibuster, Mr.. Bartlett
! (GaD declaring that it was useless to
waste time on measure which il was
not intended should become a law
| After half-do2en roll calls the house
| finally got into committee of the whole
TO consider the bill but, 1t then being
! ; o'clock. on motion OF Mr. Fowler the
| house adjourned