Show XLVII CONGRESS SECOND SESSION SENATE Washington Fortythree senators sen-ators five more than a quorum were present Several petitions were presented Miller of California introduced a bill to increase the fees of witnesses in the United States courts Hoar offered a resolution that the postmaster general submit a statement state-ment showing the annual payments to steamship companies for carrying foreign mails since 1840 Adopted Call submitted a resolution ask ing the secretary of the interior for the number of contested homestead entries pending ani if legislation were necessary to expedite decisions of such cases Adopted The civil service bill was resumed re-sumed on Hawleys amendment prohibiting solicitation or the collection col-lection of political contributions by officers of the government from other officers or employees Beck opposed the amendment asa as-a sham because its prohibitions did I i not extend to other persons as well as to Government employees Instead In-stead of operating personally senators sena-tors could do so throngh their private pri-vate secretaries The good faith of the Senate in seeking to prevent these political assessments upon government employees had been tested by the amendment offered by Vest on Saturday prohibiting payment pay-ment of such assessments to any person whether in the employ of the government or not That amendment had been supported by the unanimous vote of democratic Senators but republicans had unanimously unani-mously opposed accl rejected it Hawley said ikck had been challenged to produce one person I who had been removed from tailing or refusing to make political contribution contri-bution s in the last campaign No such person had been produced but if it should turn out that any peison had been dismissed on that account he hoped the officer who dismissed i him would receive as severe punishment punish-ment as the law permitted as well as the contempt of the American people The object at which his Hawley amendment aimed was the prevention of oppressive op-pressive actions from employees of the government and it was drawn carefully with that object in view the proposition to go beyond this and provide that no clerk after earning and receiving his salary should spend a dollar of it for any political purpose in which te might take an interest was one which he could not support Vest said any provision of law which did not absolutely prohibit employees of the government from paying money for political purposes would be a nullity He again offered of-fered in another form his amendment amend-ment which was rejected on Saturday Satur-day and after discussion it was rejected re-jected 18 to 27 George moved to amend the section sec-tion of Hawleys amendment prohibiting pro-hibiting solicitation or receipt of contributions for political purposes in public buildings so as to extend its provisions to the whole District of Columbia Lost 17 to 27 Blair offered the following as an additional section No person habitually ha-bitually using intoxicating beverages shall be appointed to to or be retained in any office business busi-ness or employment to which the provisions of this act are applicable appli-cable Brown moved to amend by inserting in-serting after the word beverage the words to excess Agreed to Blair spoke briefly in support of the amendment Edmunds said theamendment as it stood contained by legal implication impli-cation that other vices were to be excluded from consideration by the civil service committee and to cure this defect by inserting after intoxicating in-toxicating beverages the words or is guilty of any other immoral habit Laughter After some discussion the amendment was agreed toayes 32 noes 16 Blairs amendment as amended agreed to After some further amendments had been offered and disposed of and considerable discussion indulged in-dulged in the Senate passed the civil service bill by a vote of 39 toG HOUSE I Washington 27The House was called to order by Speaker Keifer not a quorum present After several sev-eral bills were passed Rice of Missouri Mis-souri objected to further proceedings proceed-ings Adjourned y |