Show washington LETTES OM a washington F feb eb 6 1888 1883 the week in Con congress gresi has been an unusually inheres interesting ting ono one and considerable real work has been done in committee rooms and on the floor of boti both the senate and the house among the senates doings was senator lennas rennals defense of the administration and the presidents message in which he undertook to demolish the argument made by senator sherman in his recent speech and to show the urgent need of tariff reform th senate passed the resolution provides for changing inauguration day from the ath of march to thi th soth of april and for fixing thi tbt beginning and termination of the official terms of senators and representatives to the ame date A number of bills have been discussed and passed among them ame t ne to in crease to 72 P a month the pension of any person helpless from injuries received or d ispass contracted bract in the army or naval service service of the united states the house of representatives has baa debated the lowry white election contest giving a blow to cheap literature by requiring it to pay pay book postage and passed a number of bills for the erection of bubla buildings in different parts of the country in the lowry white case tle tie flu question estion is whether vh ether or not mr white bite who now occupies the seat was a duly naturalized american citizen and had imen deen so 0 o for seven at the time of the election and was therefore eligible the democratic ma majority of the committee en n elections say no the republican minority say yes the question will probably be decided today to day in favor of mr white the everlasting blair educational bill continues as the unfinished business in the senate but is put aside from time to time to make way for fer other business today senator platt plate of connecticut has the floor for a talk on the tariff it was expected that senator speech would call forth a vigorous 0 rejoinder from the ohio senator and ss as is usually the case ahen straight cut party fight is going on the galleries were full and and the senators were in their seats for an hour and a half the rie from west virginia figuratively pounded Sher sherman ruan and the republican party with all 1 th the strength at his command mr sherman who was sufficiently stirred to strike back said among other things that th the democratic party had been in power in the house of representatives Representative a for ten years aud and not a single affirmative proposition or measure as to the tariff question had been presented to the american people he said if he had not changed his views on the tariff in the past thirty years he would not be worthy of a seat scat in the united states senate ile ha admitted that he voted for immigration in 1884 he said it was a i invitation to foreigners to ta help to make good the tha absence of brave union soldiers he would have voted then for any kind of law to have defeated the democratic party of that day tho the moat important bill ot ol a general character before the house committee on patents is ie that of mr anderson of kansas to faduce the lifetime of a patent to seven searf the bill has been discussed discus god by the te committee commit toe and remanded rm 0 back for further consideration As AS far as developed the committee is ii divided as to the merits of the measure the only bills of a general character b before the house pension committee relate to the mexican war one is to amend the act BO as to place teamsters in the mexican war on the pension rolls the same as soli soldiers lers the former it is said worked equally as hard asther as the rank ank and file and were exposed to fully as much danger and for this reason it is considered proper that they should be pensioned henry george and sam jones have both been in washington lecturing the latter thinks the temperance sentiment is growing ta in all sections of the country and that before twenty years there will be both state and national prohibition in all the states high license ie he considers the worst enemy of prohibition because it makes the liquor traffic respectable and the more mere respectable the longer 0 it will survive henry geor georga 0 thinks president cleveland will be reelect re elect ed if he will stick to his tariff me message S it has been whispered about the capitol this week though I 1 do not for the truth of the report that the judiciary committee of the house was bonsi considering dering the preparation pa ration of a resolution calling u upon P the department of justice to prosecute gould huntington senator stanford and others who rr are e shown shawn by the report of the pacific railroad commission to have ina made de millions of dollars frequently out of the land grant roads |