264 CONGRESS. (!NTEB-STATE COMMERCE NATIONAL BANK ASSOCIATIONS.) 



or Territory will be considered eligible that has 

 not provided a free common-school system, full 

 details in regard to which must be filed by the 

 Governor with the Secretary of the Interior. In 

 no case is the amount granted to any State or 

 Territory to be greater for any one year than 

 the sum spent by that State or Territory for the 

 support of its schools during the previous year. 

 Part of the grant may be spent in the education 

 and training of teachers, but none of it in the 

 erection of school -buildings ; for that purpose 

 a special fund of $2,000,000 is provided for 

 the construction of school-houses in poor dis- 

 tricts, but in no case is the amount granted for 

 building a school-house to be more than $150, 

 or half the cost of the structure. The debate 

 on the measure was long, and several elaborate 

 arguments for and against it were presented ; 

 but the line of discussion was the same as that 

 followed in the Forty-eighth Congress. March 

 5, the Senate passed the bill by the following 

 vote: 



2? 



Logan, Mahone, Manderson, Miller of New York, 

 Mitchell of Oregon, Merrill, Palmer, Payne, Pugh, 

 Eansoin, Eiddleberger, Sawyer, Spooner, Teller, Vance, 

 Van Wyck, Voorhees, Walthall, Wilson of Iowa 36. 



NAYs-Cockrell, Coke, Fry, Gray, Hale, Harris, 

 Ingalls, Jones of Nevada, Maxey, Plumb, Wilson of 

 Maryland 11. 



ABSENT Aldrich, Allison, Beck, Brown, Butler, 

 Camden, Cameron, Chace, Dawes, Edmunds, Fair, 

 Gorman, Hampton, Harrison, Hawley, Jones of Flori- 

 da, McMillan, McPherson, Miller of California, Mitch- 

 ell of Pennsylvania. Morgan, Pike, Platt, Sabiu, 

 Saulsbury, Sewell, Sherman, Stanford, Vest 29. 



In the House, March 9, thy Senate bill was 

 referred to the Committee on Education; March 

 29 a measure identical with it was introduced 

 by Mr. Willis, of Kentucky, and referred to the 

 Committee on Labor, the majority of which 

 reported it back, April 27, with a substitute 

 providing that the sales of the public lands for 

 ten years be distributed among the States and 

 Territories for educational purposes, the expen- 

 diture not to exceed $7,500,000 in any single 

 year. No further action was taken. 



Inter-State Commerce. As usual for years much 

 of the attention of Congress was occupied by 

 this subject ; and, as usual, no final action was 

 taken. In the Senate, on Feb. 16, 1886, Mr. 

 Cullom, of Illinois, from a Select Committee on 

 Inter-State Commerce, reported a bill which 

 was debated and amended, and passed the Sen- 

 ate May 12, by a vote of 46 yeas to 4 nays. 

 The main features of this bill are, that it forbids 

 unreasonable and unjust charges for transpor- 

 tation and discrimination between persons or 

 localities, enjoins the publication of rates, and 

 provides for a comission with authority to 

 investigate the affairs of all common carriers 

 and command direct compliance with the law, 

 having the right to enforce their orders through 

 petition to the United States courts. May 22, 

 Mr. Reagan, of Texas, reported from the House 

 Committee on Commerce a substitute for the 



Senate bill. His measure simply declares what it 

 shall be unlawful for common carriers to do, and 

 certain things which they must do, making them 

 liable to a suit for damages brought by any per- 

 son injured through their acts or omissions, and 

 declaring the violation of the terms of the law 

 a misdemeanor. July 80, the House by a vote 

 of 134 yeas to 104 nays substituted Mr. Reagan's 

 bill for the Senate bill, and then passed the 

 measure by a vote of 192 to 40. The Senate 

 non-concurred' in the House amendment, and 

 July 31 a committee of conference was appoint- 

 ed, but no agreement was reached. The rival 

 measures are substantially the same as those 

 brought forward in the Forty-eighth Congress 

 and given in the " Annual Cyclopedia " for 

 1885. 



National Bank Associations. Feb. 11, 1886, Mr. 

 Adams, of Illinois, from the Committee on 

 Banks and Currency, reported the following 

 measure in the House of Representatives : 



^ Be it enacted, etc., That any national banking asso- 

 ciation may, with the approval of the Comptroller of 

 the Currency, by the vote of shareholders owning 

 two thirds of the^ stock of such association, increase 

 its capital stock, in accordance with existing laws, to 

 any sum approved by the said Comptroller, notwith- 

 standing the limit fixed in its original articles of asso- 

 ciation and determined by said Comptroller ; and no 

 increase of the capital stock of any national banking 

 association either within or beyond the limit fixed in 

 its original articles of association shall be made except 

 in the manner herein provided. 



SECTION 2. That any national banking association 

 may change its name or the place where its operations 

 of discount and deposit are to be carried on, with the 

 approval of the Comptroller of the Currency, by the 

 vote of shareholders owning two thirds of the stock 

 of such association. A duly authenticated notice 

 the vote and of the new name or location selected shall 

 be sent to the office of the Comptroller of the Cur- 

 rency ; but no change of name or location shall be 

 valid until the Comptroller shall have issued his cer- 

 tificate of approval of the same. 



SEO. 3. That all debts, liabilities, rights, provisions, 

 and powers of the association under its old name shall 

 devolve upon and inure to the association under its 

 new name. 



SEC. 4. That nothing in this act contained shall be 

 so construed as in any manner to release any national 

 banking association under its old name or at its old 

 location from any liability, or aflfect any^ action or pro- 

 ceeding in law in which said association may be or 

 become a party or interested. 



The measure passed the House by a vote of 

 130 to 120. The Senate amended it so as to 

 limit the change of location to any place in 

 the same State not more than thirty miles dis- 

 tant, and then passed it without a division. It 

 was approved by the President April 30. 



Miscellaneous. The River and Harbor bill 

 passed by Congress was an unusually heavy 

 one, as it appropriated $14,473,900. 



April 13, 1886, the Senate passed, by a vote 

 of 35 to 10, a resolution declaring that Con- 

 gress ought not to provide for the appointment 

 of a commission, on which the Governments of 

 the United States and Great Britain should be 

 represented, to consider the fishing rights of 

 the United States and British North America, 

 and settle points in dispute. 



