IN MEDIAS RES.

In Congress.-Subsidy; Grand Army of Labor; Public Farms; Free Passes; Worsted Cloths; Pension Appropriation; Interstate Commerce; Diplomatic and Consular Appropriations; "Original Package"; U. S. Flag.

SENATE.

Two bills of the same general tenor have been introduced in the Senate by Mr. Frye, both to encourage our merchant marine.

The merchant marine is to be encouraged by the payment of thirty cents a ton for every thousand miles sailed, and all vessels of five hundred tons or more are to enjoy the benefit. The mail service is to be provided for by the payment of from $1 to $6, according to the class of the vessel, for every mile made on the outward course. There are many minor provisions in regard to the citizenship of the officers and crews, and in regard to the classification of the mail-service vessels by tonnage and speed. The cost to the Government by the first bill is estimated by the Commissioner of Navigation at about $3,500,000 for the first year, increasing to perhaps $6,000,000 in five or six years.

Two bills have been introduced in the Senate by Mr. Plumb; one to establish an organization to be called the Grand Army of Labor, the other to establish a Public Farm in every county in the United States. The bills are introduced by request. The ranks of the Grand

Price 5 Cents.

Devoted to the record of the facts and considerations which show that Individual Liberty is good for the people of the United States:

And that, therefore, Legislative Regulation is injurious for them.

Army of Labor are to be filled in response to a call by the President, addressed to all citizens over twenty-one years of age, for recruits who are to serve for not less than one day. They are not expected to work more than four hours a day, more than five days a week, nor more than six weeks at a time without a fortnight's holiday. Their field of labor is to be that of public service, in which room is to be made for them as fast as they ask for it, by removing incumbents who are not members of the Army. They are to be paid $4 a day in paper money only, and if there is not enough in the Treasury, the Treasurer is to make The Public Farms are presumably to be tilled by members of the Grand Army only, at the same pay. Each bill concludes with a clause to repeal all previous legislation conflicting with it.

some.

Some of the railroad corporations are suspected of using their Free Passes to influence voters in Congressional elections. A joint resolution authorizing the Interstate Commerce Commission to look into the matter has been offered in the Senate.

The bill to classify Worsted Cloths as woolen, passed the Senate and was approved by the President.

The Pension Appropriation bill has been passed. It calls for $100,000,000 in round numbers, and has been amended to provide for the appointment of two additional pension agents, making the whole number twenty instead of eigh

teen.

A bill amending the Interstate Commerce Law has been offered in the Senate to make it unlawful for any railroad running into an adjoining foreign country, to carry passengers

or freight from this country into the foreign country, or vice versa, without having first obtained a license to do so from the Commission; and the Commission is to have the right to withdraw the license if such a road violates any provisions of the Interstate Law.

HOUSE.

The House, after some discussion, passed the Diplomatic and Consular Appropriation Bill.

A bill to add to the Interstate Commerce Law, a clause intended to offset the effect produced upon the State prohibitory laws by the recent decision of the Supreme Court in the "Original Package" case, has been introduced by Mr. Boutelle. The clause to be added is as follows: "That nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to authorize the sale or traffic in intoxicating liquors in any State, contrary to the laws thereof."

A bill to prevent the desecration of the United States Flag has been introduced by Mr. Caldwell. It fines or imprisons anyone who uses the flag as part of an advertisement.

STATE LEGISLATURES.

Massachusetts. - The most engrossing topic in the House during the last week was the Public Bar bill. The gist of the bill is that holders of licenses of the first, second, and third classes must be licensed victuallers, must specify the room or rooms where the liquor is sold, and in these must have only such furniture and fixtures as the board granting the license should prescribe. This bill it was proposed to substitute for the law now in force.

It was claimed that sitting down at a table to drink is as much a violation of the law as standing up at a bar, and that it has already been so decided by the courts. There is a clause in every license, that no open bar shall be kept,-a regulation copied from the Statutes. The bill was rejected by the close vote of 106 to 102.

The bill to reform caucuses by an application of the Australian ballot system was ordered to a third reading.

A bill to reduce or abolish the poll tax was reported adversely by the committee to which it had been referred.

The Meigs Elevated Railway bill was recommitted with instructions after a lengthy debate. It was fiercely opposed, its antagonists claiming that under it every horse railroad could turn up as an elevated road, being incorporated as such by the bill; and that Mr. Meigs would have the exclusive right to build or permit any one else to build elevated roads any where in the State.

New Jersey.-The Senate passed the Australian Ballot Reform bill by a vote of 11 to 10. This is practically doomed to defeat in the House, after which the West's Ballot Reform bill will come up.

The West bill does not compel the use of the official ballot, but permits the peddling of others, at the distance of one hundred feet from the poll.

Montana. The late Legislature having been preoccupied with changing "Territory" to "State" throughout the constitution, neglected to appropriate any money for State expenses, and the officials and employees of the new government receive no pay, for the best of reasons. The money can be obtained only through the Legislature, the Legislature can be convened only when summoned by the Governor, and the Governor is away getting married, with no prospect of a speedy return.

South Dakota.-The Prohibitionists succeeded in passing a strict prohibition law, which went into force May 1st. All the saloons, according to newspaper reports, have been closed.

New York. The bill providing for the submission of a Prohibition Amendment to the people, in April, 1891, has now passed both branches of the Legislature.

The Cable Railway bill, handing over seventy miles of the streets of New York City to the Cable Company, was successfully engineered through the Senate, by a vote of 17 to 13.

The bill to abolish Capital Punishment, lately passed by the House, was dropped by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Assembly rejected the High License bill, 62 to 60.

The Aqueduct bill, which originally contemplated taking nearly $10,000,000 from the State treasury, was much modified before passing. No direct payment is now ordered, but that all suits for aqueduct work or materials shall have preference in the Supreme Court of the First Judicial District of New York.

The New York Legislature of 1890 must be credited with a hardly earned Ballot Reform Law and the Linson Registration Law,—both aimed at corrupt election methods; economical supply and appropriation laws, whereby the tax rate for the ensuing year will be made less by a third, leaving 2.34 mills; and with repealing the Two-Dollar-a-Day Law, and thus saving more money for the State.

IN GENERAL.

The libel suit brought by James Burt against the Daily Advertiser, of Boston, Mass., has been decided for the plaintiff. Mr. Burt was accused by the Advertiser of gross frauds in` undervaluing sugar at the port of Boston, and the slight basis the paper had for such accusations vanished entirely on trial. The jury brought in a verdict for the plaintiff for $12,500, the largest sum ever awarded in Massachusetts in a case of this nature.

In Ohio suit has been brought in the Supreme court to deprive the Standard Oil Company of its charter. The grounds assigned in the suit are that the State law against monopolies has been violated by the company's joining the Standard Oil Trust of New York and exchanging its stock for trust certificates; that the Trustees are now the Directors of the company, which is forbidden by statute, as in all incorporated companies a majority of the Directors must be resident in the State.

An interesting case has been decided in the United States Circuit court. A negro holding a first-class ticket on a Baltimore boat, sued the company for not permitting him to sit at table with the white passengers. As there was another table provided for the colored people on board, with the same food and attendance, it was held that this was an attempt not to vindicate his rights, but to impose his company upon those who did not wish it. The suit, which was brought up on appeal, was dismissed.

English courts seem to interpret contracts more strictly than the courts of this country. The holder of a return ticket sold at reduced rate presented the ticket in payment of his returning fare from an intermediate point. The ticket was refused, and the holder compelled to pay full fare, although the journey was not so long as that to which he was entitled. The judge ruled that the company were acting within their rights.

About a year ago the State of Minnesota passed a law compelling all corporations to pay a fee of $50 upon the first $50,000 of the capital stock, and $5 for every succeeding $1,000. A year's working shows $41,467 paid into the State treasury, and the suppression and almost total disappearance of the hundreds of wild-cat mining and other companies, which before that time were in a flourishing condition on a paper capital of from five to forty million. The law applies to increase of capital, as well as to the capital of corporations newly organized.

STRIKES.

The carpenters' strike of Chicago is at an end. The new Builders' Association granted nearly all of the strikers' demands, the final terms being as follows:

The men are to have an eight-hour day, overtime to be rated as time and a half, and Sunday time as double; minimum pay shall be 35 cents per hour until August 1st, and 37 1-2 cents thereafter (the original demand being 40); the employers agree to employ Union men only, and retain their present apprentices, taking on one new apprentice each year. The builders granted the advance in wages, and the strikers conceded the control of apprentices. An arbitration committee is also recognized as authority for both employThe ers and workmen in future difficulties. strike is estimated to have cost the city nearly $1,000,000.

The strikes in certain other trades in Chicago have not been so successful. The iron-workers were still out on Saturday last; the planing-mill men were demanding an eight-hour day; the stock-yard coopers were still endeavoring to secure better recognition from their employers. With these last, it seems to have been the rule that they could be discharged without notice, while they were required to give two weeks' notice themselves or forfeit ten days' pay. They assert that they have sometimes had only two or three days' work in the week, but are often obliged to work Sunday.

In New York City the threatened carpenters' strike failed to materialize, owing to the demands of the men having been conceded by their employers.

Over 10,000 carpenters and house-smiths had united in asking for shorter time with the same pay, and this has now been nearly universally conceded, one firm alone holding out against these