The Postmaster-General is authorized to provide for the transportation of official matter of any Department.of the Government, over any railroad or express company, whenever he can do so at a saving to the Government and without detriment to the public service; nothing in this section applying to official matter franked by members of Congress.

The Postmaster-General is directed to examine into the subject of a more rapid dispatch of mail matter between large cities, and postoffice stations and transportation terminals located in large cities, by means of pneumatic tubes or other systems. Ten thousand dollars is appropriated.

The act of July 26, 1892, provides that after providing by general advertisement for the transportation of the mails in any State or Territory as authorized by law, the Postmaster-General may secure any mail service that may become necessary be fore the next general advertisement for said State or Territory by posting notices, for not less than ten days, in the postoffices at the termini of any route to be let, and upon a bulletin board in the Postoffice Department, inviting proposals for its performThe contract shall be made to run to the end of the contract term under the general advertisement, and shall be made with the lowest eligible bidder whose proposal is in due form. Temporary service rendered necessary by the failure of any bidder or contractor to perform the service awarded him under this act may be employed by the Postmaster-General without advertisement, at the expense of any such falling bidder or contractor.

ance.

PUBLIC LANDS.

By act of June 25, 1892, section 3 of an act entitled "An act to forfeit certain lands heretofore granted for the purpose of aiding in the construction of railroads, and for other purposes," is amended so as to extend the time within which persons actu ally residing upon lands forfeited by said act shall be permitted to purchase the same in the quantities and upon the terms provided in said section at any time within three years from the passage of said act.

By act of July 26, 1892, section 2 of an act approved May 14, 1880, entitled "An act for the relief of settlers on public lands," is amended so as to read that in all cases where any person has contested, paid the land office fees, and procured the can. cellation of any pre-emption, homestead, or timber-culture entry, he shall be notified by the Register of the Land Office of the district of such cancellation, and shall be allowed thirty days from date of such notice to enter said lands. The Register shal be entitled to a fee of $1 for the giving of such notice, to be paid by the contestant and not to be reported. Should any such person who has initiated a contest die beforo its final termination, the said contest shall not abate by reason thereof, but his heirs who are citizens of the U. S. may continue the prosecution under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe, and shall be entitled to the same rights under this act that contestant would have been if his death had not occurred. By act of August 4, 1892, any person authorized to enter lands under the mining laws of the U. S. may enter lands that are chiefly valuable for building stone under the provisions of the law in relation to placer mineral claims. Lands reserved for the benefit of the public schools or donated to any State are not subject to entry under this act. Nothing in this act shall be construed to repeal section 24 of the act entitled "An act to repeal timber-culture laws, and for other purposes," approved March 3, 1891.

SHIPBUILDING.

The act of May 10, 1892, authorizes and directs the Secretary of the Treasury to grant registers, as vessels of the U. S., to such foreign-built steamships now engaged in freight and passenger business, and sailing in an established line from a U. S. port, as are of not less than 8,000 tons. and capable of a speed of not less than 20 knots an hour, according to the existing method of Government test for speed, of which not less than 90 per centum of the shares of the capital of the foreign corporation or association owning the same was owned Jan. 1, 1890, and his continued to be owned, until the passage of this act, by citizens of the U. S., including as such citizens corporations created under the laws of any of the States thereof, upon the American owners of such majority interest obtaining a full and complete transfer and title to such steamships from the foreign corporations owing the same; provided, that such American owners shall, subsequent to the date of this law, have built, or have contracted to build, in American shipyards, steamships of an aggre gate tonnage of not less in amount than that of the steamships so admitted to registry. Each steamship so built or contracted for to be of not less than 7,000 tons.

Any steamships so registered under the provision of this act may be taken and used by the U. S. as cruisers or transports upon payment to the owners of the fair actual value of the same at the time of the taking, and if there shall be a disagreement as to the fair actual value at the time of taking, then the same shall be determined by two impartial appraisers, one to be appointed by each of said parties, who, in case of disagreement, shall select a third, the award, of any two of the three so chosen to be final and conclusive.

The House passed the bill under a suspension of the rules, without recorded opposition. The Senate passed it, yeas 41 (Rep. 25, Dem. 15, Ind. 1), nays 10 (Rep. 4, Dem. 6.)

WORLD'S FAIR LEGISLATION.

The act of April 6, 1892. provides that no citizen of any other country shall be held liable for the infringement of any patent granted by the U. S., or of any trade-mark or label registered in the U. S., where the act complained of is or shall

be

performed in connection with the exhibition of any article or thing at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago.

The act of May 12, 1892, provides that any National bank located in Chicago may be designated by the World's Columbian Exposition to conduct a banking of fice upon the Exposition grounds, and, upon approval by the Controller of the Currency, may open and conduct such office as a branch of the bank, subject to the same restrictions and having the same rights; provided, that the branch shall not be operated for more than two years, between July 1, 1892, and July 1, 1894. The act of August 4, 1892, changes the date of the dedication of the buildings of the World's Columbian Exposition from October 12 to October 21, 1892.

the

The act of August 5, 1892, provides that for the purpose of aiding in defraying the cost of completing in a suitable manner the work of preparation for inaugurating the World's Columbian Exposition, there shall be coined at the mints of the U. S. silver half-dollars of the legal weight and fineness, not to exceed five million pieces, to be known as the Columbian half-dollar, struck in commemoration of the World's Columbian Exposition, the devices and designs upon which shall be prescribed by the Director of the Mint, with the approval of the Secretary of Treasury; and said silver coins shall be manufactured from uncurrent subsidiary silver coins now in the Treasury. All provisions of law relative to the coinage, legaltender quality, and redemption of the present subsidiary silver coins are applicable to the coins issued under this act, and when so recoined there is appropriated from the Treasury the said five millions of souvenir half-dollars, and the Secretary of the Treas. ary is authorized to pay the same to the World's Columbian Exposition, upon estimates and vouchers certified for labor done, materials furnished and services performed in prosecuting the work of preparing the Exposition for opening as vided by the act of April 25, 1890; provided, however, that before the Secretary of the Treasury shall pay to the Exposition any part of the five million silver coins satisfactory evidence shall be furnished him showing that the sum of at least $10,000,000 has been collected and disbursed as required by said act; and provided, that the Exposition shall furnish a satisfactory guarantee to the Secretary of the Treasury that any further sum actually necessary to complete the work of the Exposition to the opening has been or will be provided by the World's Columbian Exposition.

pro

The appropriation thus provided shall be upon condition that the Exposition maintain and pay all expenses, costs, and charges of the great departments organized for conducting the work of the Exposition out of the Exposition funds. Fifty thousand bronze medals and the necessary dies therefor with appropriate devices, emblems and inscriptions, celebrating the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America, shall bo prepared under the supervision of the Secretary of the Treasury at a cost not to exceed $60,000, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing shall prepare plates and make therefrom 50,000 vellum impressions for diplomas at a cost not to exceed $43,000. The medals and diplomas shall be delivered to the World's Columbian Commission, to be awarded to exhibitors in accordance with the provisions of the act of Congress approved April 25, 1890, and there is appropriated, from any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, $103,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to pay the expenditures authorized by this section; and authority may be granted by the Secretary of the Treasury to the holder of a medal, properly awarded to him, to have duplicates made at any of the mints of the United States from gold, or silver, or bronze, at the expense of the person desiring the same.

All appropriations herein made for or pertaining to the Exposition are upon the condition that the Exposition shall not be opened to the public on Sunday; and if the appropriations be accepted by the World's Columbian Exposition, upon that condition, it is made the duty of the World's Columbian Commission to make the neces sary modification of the rules of the Exposition corporation.

This bill, in its final shape, passed the Senate without discussion. In the House the vote was: Yeas, 131 (Reps. 82, Dems. 49); nays, 83 (Dems. 75, Inds. 8).

NATIONAL CONVENTIONS AND PLATFORMS OF

1892.

THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION.

The tenth Republican National Convention met at Minneapolis on June 7, 1892. J. Sloat Fassett, of New-York, was elected temporary chairman, and Wm. McKinley, jr., of Qhio, permanent chairman. The following platform was unanimously reported on June 10 from the Committee on Resolutions, Joseph B. Foraker, of Ohio, chairman, and was unanimously adopted by the convention at the evening session: REPUBLICAN PLATFORM ADOPTED AT MINNEAPOLIS, JUNE 10, 1892. "The representatives of the Republicans of the United States, assembled in general convention on the shores of the Mississippi River, the everlasting bond of indestructible Republic, whose most glorious chapter of history is the record of the Republican party, congratulate their countrymen on the majestic march of the Nation under the banners inscribed with the principles of our platform of 1888, vindicated

an

by victory at the polls and prosperity in our fields, workshops and mines, and make the following declaration of principles:

PROTECTION.-"We reaffirm the American doctrine of protection. We call attention to its growth abroad. We maintain that the prosperous condition of our country is largely due to the wise revenue legislation of the Republican Congress. We believe that all articles which cannot be produced in the United States, except luxuries, should be admitted free of duty, and that on all imports coming into competition with the prod ucts of American labor there should be levied duties equal to the difference between wages abroad and at home. We assert that the prices of manufactured articles of general consumption have been reduced under the operations of the tariff act of 1890. We denounce the efforts of the Democratic majority of the House of Representatives to destroy our tariff laws piecemeal, as is manifested by their attacks upon wool, lead and tead ores, the chief products of a number of States, and we ask the people for their judgment thereon.

RECIPROCITY.-"We point to the success of the Republican policy of reciprocity, under which our export trade has vastly increased, and new and enlarged markets have been opened for the products of our farms and workshops. We remind the people of the bitter opposition of the Democritic party to this practical business measure, an claim that, executed by a Republican Administration, our present laws will eventually give us control of the trade of the world.

SILVER-"The American people, from tradition and interest, favor bimetallism, and the Republican party demands the use of both gold and silver as standard money, with such restrictions and under suen provisions, to be determined Ly legislation, as will secure the maintenance of the parity of values of the two metals, so that the purchasing and debt-paying power of the dollar, whether of silver, gold or paper, shall be at all times equal. The interests of the producers of the country, its farmers and it workingmen, demand that every dollar, paper or coin, issued by the Government shall be as good as any other. We commend the wise and patriotic steps already taken by our Government to secure an international conference to adopt such measures as will insure a parity of value between gold and silver for use us money throughout the world. FREE BALLOT AND FAIR COUNT.-"We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to cast one free and unrestricted ballot in all public elections, and that such ballot shall be counted and returned as cast; that such lawa shall be enacted and enforced as will secure to every citizen, be he rich or poor, na tive or foreign born, white or black, this sovereign right guaranteed by the Constitution. The free and honest popular ballot, the just and equal representation of all the people, as well as their just and equal protection under the laws, are the foundation o our Republican institutions, and the party will never relax its efforts until the integ rity of the ballot and the purity of elections shall be fully guaranteed and protected in every State.

SOUTHERN OUTRAGES.-"We denounce the continued inhuman outrages perpetrated upon American citizens for political reasons in certain Southern States of the Union.

FOREIGN RELATIONS.-"We favor the extension of ou foreign commerce, the res toration of our mercantile marine by home-built ships and the creation of a Navy for the protection of our National interests and the honor of our flag; the maintenance of the most friendly relations with all foreign Powers, entangling alliances with none and the protection of the rights of our fishermen. We reaffirm our approval of the Monroe Doctrine, and believe in the achievement of the manifest destiny of the Republic in its broadest sense. We favor the enactment of more stringent laws and regulations for the restriction of criminal, pauper and contract immigration.

MISCELLANEOUS.-"We favor efficient legislation by Congress to protect the life and limbs of employes of transportation companies engaged in carrying on interstate commerce, and recommend legislation by the respective States that will protect employes engaged in State commerce, and in mining and manufacturing.

"The Republican party has always been the champion of the oppressed, and recog nizes the dignity of manhood, irrespective of faith, color or nationality; it sympathizes with the cause of Home Rule in Ireland, and protests against the persecution of the Jews in Russia.

The ultimate reliance of free popular government is the intelligence of the people and the maintenance of freedom among men. We therefore declare anew our devotion to liberty of thought and conscience, of speech and press, and approve all agencies and instrumentalities which contribute to the education of the children of the land; but, while insisting upon the fullest measure of religious liberty, we are opposed to any union of Church and State.

TRUSTS.-"We reaffirm our opposition, declared in the Republican platform of 1888, to all combinations of capital organized in trust or otherwise, to control arbitrarily the condition of trade among our citizens. We heartily indore the action already taken upon this subject, and ask for such further legislation as may be required to remedy any defects in existing laws and to render their enforcement more complete and effective.

the

POSTOFFICE REFORMS.-"We approve the policy of extending to towns, villages and rural communities the advantages of the free delivery service now enjoyed by larger cities of the country, and reaffirm the declaration contained in the Republican platform of 1888, pledging the reduction of letter postage to one cent at the earliest possible moment consistent with the maintenance of the Postoffice Department and the highest class of postal service.

CIVIL SERVICE.-"We commend the spirit and evilence of reform in the Civil Sørvice, and the wise and consistent enforcement by the Republican party of the laws regulating the same.

NICARAGUA CANAL.-"The construction of the Nicaragua Canal is of the highest importance to the American people, both as a measure of National defence and to build up and maintain American commerce, and it should be controlled by the United States Government.

TERRITORIES.-"We favor the admission of the remaining Territories at the earli est practicable date, having due regard to the interests of the people of the Territories and of the United States. All the Federal officers appointed for the Territories should be selected from bona fide residents thereof, and the right of self-government be accorded as far as practicable.

should

ARID LANDS.-"We favor cession, subject to the Homestead laws, of the arid public lands to the States and Territories in which they lie, under such Congressional restrictions as to disposition, reclamation and occupancy by settlers as will secure the maximum benefits to the people.

COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.-"The World's Columbian Exposition is a great National undertaking, and Congress should promptly enact such reasonable legisla tion in aid thereof as will insure a discharge of the expenses and obligations incident thereto, and the attainment of results commensurate with the dignity and progress of the Nation.

INTEMPERANCE.-"We sympathize with all wise and legitimate efforts to lessen and prevent the evils of intemperance and promote morality.

PENSIONS.-"Ever mindful of the services and sacrifices of the men who saved the life of the Nation, we pledge anew to the veteran soldiers of tht Republic a watchful care and recognition of their just claims upon a gratefur people.

HARRISON'S ADMINISTRATION.-"We commend the able, patriotic and thoroughly American Administration of President Harrison. Under it the country has enjoyed remarkable prosperity, and the dignity and honor of the Nation at home and abroad have been faithfully maintained, and we offer the record of pledges kept as a guarantee of faithful performance in the future."

THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS.

On June 11 Senator E. O. Wolcott, of Colorado, nominated for President James G. Blaine. R. W. Thompson, of Indiana, ex-Secretary of the Navy, nominated Benjamin Harrison. On the first ballot President Harrison was chosen for re-election. The vote by States was as follows:

New-Hampah'e 4

New-Jersey 18

New-York

27

0

North Carolina 17 2-3 2 2-3 1
North Dakota. 2

Ohio

1

Oregon

1

Rhode Island.

Pennsylvania. 19

South Carolina 13

5

Arizona

New-Mexico..

Oklahoma

Texas

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

Wisconsin

Wyoming

Dist Columbia

Utah

22

8

9

1

West Virginia 12

0

19

0

Kentucky, 1 absent. Delegates present, 0904 1-3; necessary to choice, 453. Harri0 son's plurality, 166.

At the evening session State Senator Edmund O'Connor, of New-York, nominated Whitelaw Reid, of New-York, for Vice-President. The nonnation was made unani

mous.

THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION.

This body met in Chicago on June 21, 1892. William C. Owens, of Kentucky, was made temporary chairman, and William L. Wilson, of West Virginia, permanent chairman.

45

42

Totals

535 1-6 182 1-3 182

4

DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM, ADOPTED AT CHICAGO, JUNE 22, 1892. "The representatives of the Democratic party of the United States, in National convention assembled, do reaffirm their allegiance to the principles of the party as formulaced by Jefferson and exemplified by the long and illustrious une of his successors in Democratic leadership from Madison to Cleveland; we believe the public weliare demands that these principles be applied to the conduct of the Federal Government through the accession to power of the party that advocates them, and we solemnly deClare that the need of a return to these fundamental principles of a free popular government based on home rule and individual liberty was never more urgent than now, when the tendency to centralize all power at the Federal Capital has become a menace to the reserved rights of the States that strikes at the very roots of our Government under the Constitution as framed by the fathers of the Republic.

ELECTIONS BILL.-"We warn the people of our common country, jealous for the preservation of their free institutions, that the policy of Federal control of elections, to which the Republican party has committed itself, is fraught with the gravest dangers, scarcely less momentous than would result from a revolution practically establishing monarchy on the ruins of the Republic. It strikes at the North as well as the South, and injures the colored citizens even more than the white; it means a horde of deputy marshals at every polling place armed with Federal power, returning boards appointed and controlled by Federal authority, the outrage of the electoral rights of the people in the several States, subjugation of the colored people to the control of the party in power and the reviving of race antagonisms now happily abated, of the utmost peril to the safety and happiness of all, a measure deliberately and justly described by a leading Republican Senator as 'the most infamous bill that ever crossed the threshold of the Senate.' Such a policy, if sanction .d by law, would mean the dominance of a self-perpetuating oligarchy of office-holders, and the party first intrusted with its machinery could be dislodged from power only by an appeal to the reserved rights of the people to resist oppression which is inherent in all self-governing communities. Two years ago this revolutionary policy was emphatically condemned by the people at the polls, but in contempt of that verdict the Republican party has defiantly declared in its latest authoritative utterance that its success in the coming elections will mean the enactment of the Force bill, and the usurpation of despotic control over elections in all the States. Believing that the preservation of republican government in the United States is dependent upon the defeat of this policy of legalized force and fraud, we invite the support of all citizens who desire to see the Consti-sution maintained in its integrity with the laws pursuant thereto which have given our country a hundred years of unexampled prosperity; and we pledge the Democratic party, if it be intrusted with power, not only to the defeat of the Force bill, but also to relentless opposition to the Republican policy of profligate expenditure which, in the short space of two years, has squandered an enormous surplus, emptied an overflow. ing Treasury, after piling new burdens of taxation upon the already overtaxed labor of the country.

TARIFF "We denounce Republican protection as a fraud, a robbery of the great majority of the American people for the benefit of the few. We declare it to be @ fundamental principle of the Democratic party that the Federal Government has no constitutional power to impose and collect tariff duties, except for the purpose of revenue only, and we demand that the collection of such taxes shall be limited to the necessities of the Government when honestly and economically administered. We de nounce the McKinley Tariff law enacted by the LIst Congress Que the culminating atrocity of class legislation; we indorse the efforts made by the Democrats of the present Congress to modify its most oppressive feature in the direction of free raw materials and cheaper manufactured goods that enter into general consumption, and w promise its repeal as one of the beneficent results that will follow the action of the people in intru ting power to the Democratic party. Since the McKinley tariff went into operation there have been ten reductions of the wages of the laboring man to one increase. We deny that there has been any increase of prosperity to the country since that tariff went into operation, and we point to the dulness and distress, the wage reductions and strikes in the iron trade as the best possible evidence that such prosperity has resulted from the McKinley act. We call the attention of thoughtful Americans to the fact that after thirty years of restrictive taxes against the importation of foreign wealth. in exchange for our agricultural surplus, the homes and farms of the country have become burdened with a real estate mortgage debt of over $ 500.000.000, exclusive of all other forms of indebtedness; that in one of the chief agricultural States of the West there appears a real estate mortgage debt averaging $165 per capita of the total population, and that similar conditions and tendencies are shown to exist in other agricultural exporting States. We denounce a policy which fosters no industry so much as it does that of the sheriff.

no

RECIPROCITY.-"Trado interchange on the basis o reciprocal advantages to the countries participating is a time-honored doctrine of the Democratic faith, but we de nounce the sham reciprocity which juggles with the people's desire for enlarged foreign markets and freer exchanges by pretending to establish closer trade relations for a country whose articles of export are almost exclusively agricultural products with other Countries that are also agricultural, while erecting a custom-house barrier of prohibitive tariff taxes against the rich and the countries of the world that stand ready to take our entire surplus of products and to exchange therefor commodities which are necessaries and comforts of life among our people.

TRUSTS.-"We recognize in the trusts and con.tations which are designed to en. able capital to secure more than its just share of the joint product of capital and labor, a