The Ohio Democrat

FIFTY-SECOND CONGRESS.

First Session.

WASHINGTON, March 15—SENATE—The Senate passed, by a vote of 24 to 21, the post office building bill, authorizing the postmaster general to cause the construction of post offices in cities where the gross receipts have for three years exceeded $9,000, and have not exceeded $90,000. Senator Sherman introduced the following petitions from citizens of Ohio: Sixteen for legislation defining lard, and imposing a tax thereon; six praying for legislation to prevent the adulteration of food; twenty-one for legislation for the encouragement of silk culture; twenty-six for a law prohibiting contracts discrediting legal tender currency; thirty-four in favor of a law to prevent gambling in farm products; thirty-one favoring the free delivery of mails in country districts.

HOUSE.—Mr. V. A. Taylor introduced a bill providing that all soldiers of the late war who re-enlisted as veteran volunteers and afterward were discharged to receive promotion and commissions as officers in the army shall be paid all installments of veteran bounty which were withheld from them on account of their being so commissioned and mustered, the same as they would have been entitled to receive had they completed their term of enlistment without promotion and received an honorable discharge, provided that all soldiers of the late war who were discharged to receive promotion prior to their re-enlistment as veterans shall be entitled to receive the same bounty that they would have been entitled to had they served as enlisted men for the full term of their service. A number of private bills were introduced.

WASHINGTON, March 15—SENATE.—In their talk before the rivers and harbors committee, Senator Carlisle and Mayor Berry spoke for the Licking river and its improvements, and urged that an appropriation be made for a survey of the river as far as Falmouth. They also spoke in favor of a levee in front of Newport and at the side of the bank of the Licking river, to prevent the overflow of the Newport barracks grounds and a large portion of the city of Newport, which is subject to inundation at high water. Senator Turpie favorably reported his bill for the relief of Samuel M. Campbell, of Marion county, Ind., late private, Company C, Seventh Indiana volunteer infantry, paying him $50 per month in lieu of what he now receives, and also his bill for the relief of Wm. C. Tarkington, of Indianapolis, Ind., late captain and quartermaster in the U. S. volunteer service, pensioning him at $30 per month.

HOUSE—The following were among the private bills introduced: Sending claim of Thomas L. Alexander, late Lieut. Col. Fifth Infantry, to U. S. court of claims. The same bill was introduced into the senate by Senator Blackburn; increasing pension of Josephine Hogan, widow of Andrew J. Hogan, late Capt. Company I, First Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, to $20 per month; pensioning H. N. Wheelbeck, late Lieut.-Col., Sixty-fourth O. V. I., at $100 per month instead of his present pension.

WASHINGTON, March 16—SENATE.—Senator Peffer, introduced, by request, a bill with the following comprehensive title: "Creating a fund for the payment of pensions, and for setting our army of idle laborers at work on extensive public improvements; for the removal of the strongest incentive to crime among the poor and to vice among the rich; for protecting the American from the influx of undue alien competition, and for other purposes." The fund contemplated in the bill is to be furnished by a graduated tax on incomes and real estate. Referred. Petitions presented: Two in favor of the passage of the option bill, one from the Ohio millers' association, and one from citizens of Jackson township, Allen county, and then a lot of petitions against gambling in farm products, in favor of pure lard, against discrediting legal-tender currency, for encouragement of silk culture, and against the opening of the World's fair on Sunday.

House—Bills introduced: Paying Ellen Owens, of Ironton, O., $1,335 in payment and full satisfaction for property belonging to her used and destroyed by U. S. troops in Lawrence county, O., in the winter of 1861; and also a bill conferring jurisdiction on the U. S. court of claims to adjudicate the claim of the heirs of Dudley D. Smith, late of Guyandotte, W. Va., for a residence and its contents, and for a store house and out buildings and their contents, all valued at $3,250, destroyed during the war in 1861.

WASHINGTON, March 17—SENATE—Senator Voorhees introduced a petition from the Peru (Ind.) Bagging Co., protesting against the bill of Mr. Turner, of Georgia, putting bagging for cotton on the free list. Senator Peffer introduced a bill to establish an electrical experimental station for the purpose of investigating and determining whether electricity can be profitably used and applied as a motive power in the propulsion of farm machinery. Referred to committee on agriculture.

House—Bills introduced: To abate the assessment of $317.41 alleged to be unjustly taxed against S. Wachner, distiller of spirits from potatoes in the month of April, 1880; paying $100 to Hester Barnes, who was accidentally shot by a soldier of the U. S. army at Carlin, Nev., on October 9, 1875; paying $5,000 to Geo. S. Curtis, who is disabled by reason of injuries received at Saginaw Bay, Mich., in the year 1856, while in employment of the United States on the lake survey; to pay to D. D. Duncan, of Russellville, Ky., $800 for property taken and used by the U. S. army during the war.

WASHINGTON, March 18—SENATE—Senator Blackburn's bill, for the relief of Capt. I.B. Webster, of Louisville, Ky., was adversely reported and indefinitely postponed. Senator Sherman's bill, to provide for fixing a uniform standard of classification and grading of wheat, corn, oats, barley and rye, favorably reported with an amendment. His bill for the relief of Lorain Ruggles was unfavorably reported. Senator Sherman introduced to-day a bill increasing the pension paid to Solomon E. Homan to $50 per month.

House—The bill to pension Mary A. Beerbower, of West Virginia, was favorably reported; Mr. Capehart's (W. Va.) bill pensioning Mrs. Elizabeth Carpenter, was favorably reported. Bills introduced: Paying $300 to Isaac DeWitt, of Coshocton county, for money unlawfully received from him by the military authorities of the United States; to pay the administrator of the estate of E. B. Tradway, late of Owsley county, Ky., $500 for a horse taken by the U. S. troops during the war; pensioning Israel B. Smith, late of the 191st regiment, Virginia state troops; removing charges of desertion from the military record of Robert E. Morrow, late of Company B, Fourth West Virginia.

WASHINGTON, March 19—SENATE.—No business of importance was transacted in the senate to-day.

House.—To-day's session was devoted to eulogies upon the late Senator Plumb. Mr. J. D. Taylor, of Ohio, made an eloquent speech, in which he referred in beautiful language to the life and work of that distinguished senator. The other speakers were: Broderick, Funston, Otis, Davis, Bartine, Cate, Baker, Post, Youmans, Wilson, of Missouri, and Caruth. Private bills introduced by Mr. Holman. They were as follows: To correct the military record of Wm. E. Burns, late of company A, Sixty-eighth Ind. V. I.; to correct the military record of John Dickson, late of Company E, First Kentucky Vol. cavalry; to pension Samuel Trester, step-father of Clarence Ball, of Company A, Seventh Ind. V. I.; to correct the military record of John Faust, late of Company E, Fifty-third Pennsylvania volunteers, who is charged with desertion; to pension Julia A. Wolf, widow of Geo. A. Wolf, late of Company E, Third U. S. artillery in the Mexican war; to reimburse John Colter, late captain of Company H, 139th Ind. volunteers, in the amount of $2,740 expended by him in recruiting his company.