1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 1131 

SENATE. 

.:.YlONDAY, Febn~a.ry 13, 1888. 

Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. J. G. BUTLER, D. D. 

The Journal of the proceedings of Thursday last was read and approved. EXECUTIVE COMl\fUNIC.A.TIONS. 

The PRESIDENT JJro tempm·e laid before the Senate a communication from tlle Secretary of War, transmitting, in response to a resolution of February 2, 1888, certain information as to the probable cost of 

making a channel 20() feet wide through the two sand-bars near Little 

~1angrove Point, Florida; which, with the accompanying papers, was 

referred to the Committee on Commerce, and ordered to be printed. 

He also laid before the Senate a communication from the Secretary 

of \Var, transmitting, inrespCfilse to a resolution of February 2, 1888, 

certain information as to the amount of money that can be profitably 

expended dming the next fiscal year in improving the northwest chunnelnear Key West, Flu.; which, with the accompanying papers, was refeiTed to the Committee on Commerce, and ordered to be printed. 

He also laid before the Senate a communication from the Secretary 

of the Interior, transmitting, in response to a resolution of J[1J1nary 25, 

1888, certain information as to the extent of the present area and boundarie. of the Creur d'Alene Indian reservation in the Territory of Idaho; 

which,' with the accompanying papers, was referred to the Committee 

on Indian Affairs, and ordered to be printed. 

UNION PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY. 

Th_e PRESIDENT pro tempore laid before the Senate a communication from the Secretary of the Interior, transmitting, for the use of the 

Senate, the report of the board of Govemment directors of the Union 

PacitkRailway Company madetotha.tDepartment, dated January21, 

1888; which was read. 

Mr. BUTLER. Will that report be printed? 

ThePRESIDENTp1·o tempo1·c. It will be ordered to be printed; but 

the Chair is not aware what disposition has been usually made of such 

reports, and it will lie on the table, subject to a motion to refer. 

.l\Ir. BUTLER. I move that the report be referred to the Select 

Committee on the Pacific Railroads. 

The PRESIDENT pr·o tempore. The Senator from South Carolina moves the reference of the communication of the Secretary of the Interior, with the accompanying report, to the Select Committee on the 

Pacific Ra.ilway Commission Report. If there be no objection, that 

order will be made. PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore presented the petition of 0. P. Me_... 

Mains, agent for settlers on the so-called Maxwell land grant, praying 

for au investigation of alleged official corruption: and for certain relief; 

which was referred to the Committee on Private Land Claims. 

He also presented the petition of John W. Buckpit, of Boston, Mass., 

praying for the appointment of a commis..'lion to investigate the charges 

alleged against the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church because 

of the practice of amicular confession; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor. 

He also presented resolutions adopted by the board of directors of 

the Maritime Association of the port of New York, praying aiel from 

Congress in opening the Nicaragua route between the Atlantic and 

Pacific Oceans; which was ordered to lie on the table. 

111r. PLATT. I present the memorial of certain citizens of Vinita, 

in the .Indian Territory, praying for the location of a United States 

court in the Indian Territory. I wish to say in reference to this petition that it is a printed petition which has been sent to me, and I do 

not know but that the same petition has already been submitted and 

referred. Mr. VEST. The bill on the subject has been reported from the Committee on the Judiciary, and is now upon the Calendar. 

l\Ir. PLATT. Then I ask to have the petition lie on the table. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. It will be so ordered. 

Mr. PALMEl~ presented the petition of James B. Angell, president, 

and 33 members of the faculty of the University of Michigan, praying 

that such books as are printed in modern languages oth~r than English 

be placed on the free-list; which was referred to the Committee on Finance. 

He also presented the petition of J. B. Knapp and 46 other citizens of 

Clinton County, Michigan, praying that the patent laws be so amended as to protect the innocent users of patented articles; which was referred 

to the Committee on Patents. 

1\Ir. WILSO~, of Iowa, presented a petition of the surviving mem- bers of the Thirty-seventh Regiment Iowa Infantry, praying for tlle 

passage of a bill granting them pensions; which was refened to the 

Committee on Pensions. 

He also presented a petition of Buena Vista Grange, No. 544, Patrons 

of Husbandry, of Newton, Iowa, praying for the passage of a bill re- quiring all adulterated lard to be stamped as ''Jardine;" which was referred to 'the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. · He also presented the petition of Daniel Hayes and others, members 

of a committee of business men, citizens of Muscatine, Iowa, praying 

for the establishlnent of an experimental station for the manufacture 

of sugar; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. 

l\lr. PAD DOCK presented a petition of prominent citizens of Lincoln, 

Nebr., praying that the Government bear its share of the expense of 

paving streets adjacent to the public buildings in that city; which was referred to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. 

He also presented a petition of the governor and other citizens of 

Nebraska, praying that a pension be granted to Mrs. Nancy Pollock, 

widow ofW. A. Pollock, of Nebraska; which was referred tothe Committee on Pensions. 

Mr. CHACE. I present the petition of E. A. Skillman (agent), of 

Washington, D. C., praying for the passage of a law to cancel certain 

lien certificates and relieve certain property of tha burden thereof. I 

wish to say distinctly that I present this petition by request and have no knowledge of its contents or its purport. I move the reference of 

the petition to the Committee on the District of Columbia. 

The motion was agreed to. 

Mr. CHACE presented a petition of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and other citizens, of Woodstown, N. J., praying for 

the better legal protection of young girls in the District of Columbia; 

which was referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia. 

11:1r. DAVIS presented a petition ofthe Woman's Christian Temper- ance Union of Uinnesota, officially signed, praying for the submission 

to the States of a prohibitory amendment to the Const.itution; which was referred to the Committt>-e on Education and Labor. ' 

He also presented a petition of 115 citizens of Minnesota, praying for 

prohibition in the District of Columbia; which was referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia. 

He also presented a petition of Abercrombie Post, Grand Army of 

the Republic, of Lisbon, Dak., praying for the passage of a bill repealing the limitation in the arrears-of-pension act; which was referred to 

the Committee on Pensions. 

l\lr. HARRIS. .I present the petition of John H. Edwards and other 

citizens of Weakley County, Tennes ee, praying that compensation be 

paid John H. Edwards for services rendered as an officer of t.he Army 

of the United States. I move its reference, with the accompanying 

letter, to the Committee on Military Affairs. 

'rhe motion was agreed to. 

Mr. HARRIS. I bold in my hand a memorial sent me by tQ.e Woman's Christian Temperance Union in this District, praying for the 

passage of a bill prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and importation of 

alcoholic beverages in the District of Columbin, purporting to be signed 

by 209 citizens of the District of Columbia. I move the reference of 

the petition to the Committee on the District of Columbia. 

The motion was agreed to. 

Mr. PASCO presented the petition of J. G. W. Kraker and 45 other 

citizens of Lanier, Fla.; the petition of W. II. Mabry and 20 ot.her 

citizens of Leesburgb, Fla., and the petition of N. L. Hopson and 20 

other citizens of Lake County, Florida, praying for an appropriation 

for the purpose of making a survey of the Ocklawaha River, in Florida; 

which were referred to the Committee on Commerce. ' 

He also presented the petition of Henry W. Long, of Marion County, 

Florida, praying legislation to change the basis for payment of fourthclass postmasters and to regulate their salaries; which was refened to 

the Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads. 

He also presented the petition of N. S. Dnnkler and 11 other clerks 

in the Jacksonville, Fla., post-office, praying for an increase of the sal- aries of post-office clerks; which was referred to the Committee on PostOffices and Post-Roads. · Mr. BATE presented a petition of members of the faculty of Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tenn., praying for the e~actment of an international copyright law for the fuller security of literary property; which was referred to the Committee on Patents. 

.Mr. TURPIE presented twopetit1onsof surviving soldiers and sailors 

of the Union Army and Navy, of Indiana., praying for the pa~~a;.;e of 

tbe per diem rated service pension bill; which were referred to the Committee on Pensions. 

He also presented a petition of the Woman's Christian Tempemnce 

Union of Indiana, officially signed, praying for the passage of an amend- ment to the Constitution prohibiting the manufuctme, exportation; 

intportation, and sale of ali alcoholic liquors; which was referred to 

the Committee on-Education and Labor. 

:Mr. BERRY. Ipres~ntapetitionofcitiiensofVinita:, in tbe Indi~ 

Territory, similar to the one presented by the Senator from Connecticut [Mr. PLATT], in favor of the establishment of a United States court 

in the Indian Territory. I move that the petition lie on the t-able. 

The motion was agreed to. 

:Mr. BERRY. I present a petition of school officials and other citizens of Hot Springs, Ark., praying for the donation by Congress of unsold lots located there belonging to the Government of the United 

States and situated in the original Hot Springs reservation, for school 

purposes. I move the reference of the petition to the Committee on Public Lands. 

The motion was agreed to. 

Mr. VEST presented a petition of the Woman's Christian Temper-
1132 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. FEBR1!ARY 13, 

ance Union of :Mh:souri, officially signed, praying for the submission to 

the States of a prohibitory amendment to the Constitution; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor. 

Mr. BUTLER presented the petition of John Rutledge, of Charleston, S. C., praying for the removal of his political disabilities; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. 

He also presented a petition of citizens of Columbia, S. C.1 praying 

that an appropriation be made for the improvement of the Congaree 

River; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce. 

M.r. BUTLER. ] present a petition of citizens of Vinita, in the Indian Territory, in regard to the establishment of a UJ;iited States court 

at that point, similar to those presented by the Senator from Connecticut 

[Mr. PLATT] and the Senator from Arkansas [Mr. BERRY]. I move that the petition lie on the table. 

The motion was agreed to. 

Mr. VOORHEES presented a petition of surviving soldiers and sailors of the Union .Army and Navy, praying for the· passage of the per 

diem rated service pension bill; which was referred to the Committee on Pension&". 

He also presented a petition of the Medical Society of.Grant County, 

Indiana, praying that the import duties now paid be removed from all 

medicines, medical and surgical appliances, and everything used in the -treatment or diagnosis of disease; which was referred to the Committee on Finance. 

Mr. REAGAN presented the petition of W. M. Harrison and other 

citiZens of Fort Worth, Tex., praying that an appropriation be made 

for a public building at that place; which was referred to the Commit- tee on Public Buildings and Grounds. Mr. GIBSON. I present four memorials-from different parts of the 

Southern States, remonstrating against the passage of Senate bill No. 

650, proposing to tax and regulate or suppress lard made from cotton- seed oil. I move that the memorials be referred to the Committee on .Agriculture and Forestry, and that·one of the memorials be printed, as they are similar, omitting the names. The motion was agreed to. 

Mr. BLAIR presented the petition of James Stewart, Isabella D. 

Ewing and 78 other citizens of Greenwich, N. J., praying for the passage of a law for the better legal protection of young girls in the District of Columbia; which was referred to the Committee on the District 

of Columbia. 

He also presented the petition of Joseph M. Hanson and other citi- zens of New Hampshire, praying for the enactment of a law providing 

for arbitration between nations; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. 

He also presented a petition of the Woman's Christian Temperance 

Union of East New Market, Dorchester County, Maryland, praying 

for the passage of the educational bill; which was ordered to He on the 

table. 

Mr. D.A WES presented a petition of inhabitants of Lynn, Mass., 

praying for a treaty of arbitration with Great Britain; which was re- ferred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. 

1\Ir. PL U.MB. I present petitions of a large number of citizens of 

Michigan, praying for the forfeiture of the lands granted to aid in the 

building of the Marquette, Houghton and Ontonagon and Ontonagon 

and Brule River Railroads in the State of Michigan. I move the refer- ence of the petitions to the Committee on Public Lands. · The motion was agreed to. 

Mr. PLUMB presented a petition of 217 citizens of the Third and 

Seventh Congressional districts of Kansas, praying for prohibition in 

the District of Columbia; which was referred to the Committee on the 

District of Columbia. 

He also presented a petition of the Woman'-s Christian Temperance 

Union of Kansas, officially signed, praying for the submission to the 

Statesof a prohibitory amendment to the Constitution; which was re- ferred to the Committee on Education and Labor. 

He also presented a petition of cattle breeders and owners, citizens of 

Kansas, praying for t,he passage of a bill providing for the extirpation 

of pleuro-pneumonia and other cattle diseases; which was referred to the 

Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. · He also presented the petition of Samuel Wilcoxson and other citi- zens of the ~ixth Congressional district of Kansas, praying that Con- gress take immediate steps to establish a system of telegraphy to be 

owned and controlled by the Government; which was referred to the 

Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads. 

He also presented a petition of the Board of Trade of the city of 

.Atchison, Kans., praying that an appropriation be made to arrest the 

erosion of the Missouri River at that point, whereby private property 

is threatened; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce. 

l\1r. FRYE presented a petition of F. L. Berry and other ex-Union 

soldiers and sailors of Maine, praying for the passage of a bill providing a pension of 1 cent for each day of service in the Army; which was referred to the Committee on Pensions. 

He also presented a petition of citizens of .Androscoggin and Cumberland Counties, Maine, praying for the conclusion of a treaty which shaH 

provide for the settlement by arbitration of any differences arising be-

);ween the United States and Great Britain; which was referred to the 

C.ommittee on Foreign Relations. 

l\1r • .ALLISON presented resolutions adopted by the Iowa Short-Horn 

Breeders' .Association, of Iowa, praying that the so-called Miller-Carey 

bill as now changed and agreed upon by the Commissioner of Agriculture, etc., be enacted into a law, and praying that an appropriation be 

made to aid in the suppression of pleuro-pneumonia; which were re- ferred to the Committee on .Agriculture and Forestry. ' 

He also presented a petition of the Business Men's .Association of 

Muscatine, Iowa, praying for the establishment of an experimental 

station for the manufacture of sugar in the State of Iowa; which was referred to the Committee on .Appropriations. 1\I:r. PLATT. I have received the address of the constitutional convention of Dakota to the Congress of the United States: asking for the 

division of Dakota and the admisl:iion of. South Dakota as a State. It 

is short, and is perhaps entitled to a place in the RECORD. .As the 

matter has been reported to the Senate, I ask that the memorial be 

printed in the RECORD, and also that it be printed in ~he usual document form and lie on the table. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. If there be no objection, the memo- rial will be printed in the RECORD, and printed for the use of the Senate, and lie on the table. 

Mr. BUTLER. Do I understand that the memorial is to be printed 

in the RECORD? 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Connecticut so 

asked. 

Mr. BUTLER. I object to that. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Shall the memorial be printed in the 

RECORD? 

:Mr. VEST. What is the memorial? 

The PRESIDENT p1·o tempore, It will be stated. 

The CHIEF CLERK. ".An address to the Congress of the United States 

by the constitutional convention of Dakota.'' 

Mr. PLATT. I am not particular about the matter; I do not wish 

to violate any rule of the Senate; but I supposed that this was a document of the character which, upon request, has always been printed in 

the RECORD. Of course, Dakota is not a State, and Southern Dakota 

is not a State. 

The facts are these: There was a c6nstitutional convention held in 

South Dakota in 1885 which adopted a constitution, and under which 

the Senate at its last session voted to a.dmit that portion of the 'I?erri- tory of Dakota which was thus org:mized under that constitutional con- vention. That convention did not adjomn sine die; it was last fall re- convened; and it has now addressed a memorial to the Congress of the 

United States; and it is that memorial which I present, and which I 

have usked mav be printed in the RECORD. 

'l.'he memorials of Territorial Legislatures and State Legislatures are 

always printed in the RECORD npon request. That is in accordance 

with our rules; and other important memorials have been, as is within 

the knowledge of every Senator, upon request, printed in the RECORD. 

This memorial is short, and will not much encumber the RECORD; and 

I thought under the circumstances it had such dignity and was of such 

importance that I ought to ask for its printing in the RECORD. 

:Mr. BUTLER. We have in the last two or three weeks had some extremely interesting lectures upon the subject of printing papers in 

the RECORD and encumbering the RECORD, which was intended, as I 

have always understood, to be a record oftheproceedingsofthisbody. 

Certainly within the last ten days the Senator from Ohio [Mr. SHERMAN] and, if I mistake not, the Senator from Connecticut himself, objected to the introduction and printing in the RECORD of some papers 

thought to be important by those who presented them. 

If this memorial is to be printed in the RECORD, I shall ask, as a matter of right to those who represent the other side of this question, 

that their memorial shall also be printed in the RECORD. I understood in the remarks made by Senators on the other side and 

on this that the printing of such papers in the RECORD is a violation 

of the rnle. It is a violation of the rule, I understand, for a Senator 

to read during the delivery of his remarks in ea,tenso a paper of that 

kind. He is required under the rule, as I have understood it, to state 

the substance of a petition. Perhaps I am wrong about that; it may 

be that a petition can be printed in the RECORD. The Chair nods 

assent to that proposition. 

I can see no good reason why this memorial should be printed in the 

RECORD when a great many others just as important have been excluded, 

and I shall object to it (I do not know what that objection will amount 

to) unless the other side of this question have the opportunity of 

having their views printed in the RECORD also. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Shall the memorial be printed in 

the RECORD? 

Mr. PI.:ATT. I do not wish to get in any wrangle over this matter. 

On the other' side of the Chamber a somewhat vigorous demand was made that the memorial of the constitutional convention of Utah should 

be printed in the RECORD, and the Senator from Florida [Mr. CALL], 

I think, read it, and therefore it went in the RECORD. If lam not mistaken, the Senator from South Carolina. at the time suggested to him 
-. 

,, 

1888.. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 1133 

that be could get it in the RECORD by reading it as part of his re- Mr. SAWYER presented a petition of members of the faculty of Lawmarks. renee University, at Appleton, Wis., praying for the enactment of an 

Mr. BUTLER. I did; and that is what called forth the observa- international copyright law; which was referred to the Committee on 

tions, I think, from the Senator himself~ and I am certain from the Sen- Patents. · ator from Ohio, that.it was clearly out of order. I therefore thought .Mr. COKE presented a petition of 200 citizens of Fort Worth, Tex., 

that inasmuch as t.hat vigorous proteSt was made on the other side praying that an appropriation be made for theconS'truction of a public 

against the publication of that memorial in the RECORD, I would try building for a post-office and other Government purposes in that city; 

and see what would be the effect of a vigorous protest when a similar which was referred to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. 

paper of that kind came in. 1t1r. FARWELL presented resolutions adopted by the Pure Food 

Mr. PLATT. I do not propose to resort to any such method to ob- Convention held at Washington January 19 and 20, 1888, favorin.g the 

bin the printing of this memorial in the RECORD. I desire to conform passage of a bill to extirpate cattle diseases; which were referred to the 

to the rules of the Senate, and if this is not strictly within the rules of Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. 

the Senate and the practice of the Senate, I do not ask for the printing Mr. VANCE. I present a memorial adopted by a convention of 

of the memorial in the RECORD. farmers of Virginia and North Carolina, which met in the city of DanThe PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair will state that it is a ques- ville the 1st day of this month, favoring certain legislation, and as it 

tion of practice, not a question under the rules. represents a very large class of people and is br.ief and to the point, I 

Mr. PLA.TT. Do I understand the Chair to say that it is not admis- ask that it be read. 

sible under the rule? The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from North Carolina 

The PRESIDENT p1·o tempore. The question does not properly arise asks that the memorial be read. 

under the rule, the rules being silent on the subject as to what the Mr. PLATT. I object. 

RECORD shall contain. It is clearly in order for the Senator to move to The PRESIDENT pro tempo1·e. The Senator from Connecticut obprint the memorial in the RECORD, if he desires. jects. 

Mr. VEST. I should like to make an inquiry, if the Senator will Mr. VANCE. I move that the memorial be referred to the Compermit me. Was the memorial from the constitutional convention of mittee on Finance. 

the Territory of Utah admitted to the RECORD under the action of the The motion was agreed to. 

Senate? Mr. CA.LL. IpresentthepetitionofW. E. RodenbaughandothercitThe PRESIDENT pro tempo1·e. As the Chair now recalls that inci- izensofFlorida, prayingforl.heimprovementoftheOcklawahaRiver,in 

dent, it was read by the Senator from Florida from his place, objection the State of Florida. The petition seta forth that if a canal is ever cut 

having been made to its being printed in the RECORD when presented. across the peninsula of Florida this is the natural route. I move the 

Mr. VEST. My recollection is that when the Senator from Florida reference of the petition to the Committee on Commerce. a ked that the Utah memorial be printed in the RECORD, there was ob- The motion was agreed to. 

jection made on the other side of the Chamber, and that objection was Mr. MORGAN. By request of the American Shipping Industrial 

sustained. League, I present certain resolutions which they have adopted, em- M:r. BUTLER. Not sustained by the Chair? bodying a policy which they desire the Congress of the United States 

Mr. VEST. I do riot mean to say that the Chair sustained it, but the to adopt in respect to the tonnage of ships. I move the reference of 

result of the colloquy and of the debate was that the Senator from the resolutions to the Committee on Commerce. 

Florida. was forced to read it himself; and I say if that was done in that The motion was agreed to. case the same objection ought to be valid in this. Mr. DANIEL presented resolutions adopted by the General Asseml\Ir. PLA.TT. I do not think that there is a pamllel between the two bly of Virginia, in favor of Senate bill No. 149, providing for the supcases; I utterly dissent from connecting the two cases, but I desire to pression of contagions pleuro-pneumonia and other cattle diseases; 

conform to what bas been the unwritten rule and the practice of the which were referred to the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. 

Senat-e. I therefore shall not insist upon thisaddress or memorial going He also presented the petition of George W. Palmer and other citiin the RECORD, but I want to give notice now that if I am in the Senate zeus of VirginiaJ praying for the passage of the Palmer bill, to provide 

there is an end to this matter of memorials and petitions of any kind for the extirpation of pleuro-pneumonia; which was referrecl to the 

whatever ~oing into the RECORD, if I can prevent it. Committee on Agriculture and Forestry . .Mr. BUTLER. I can assure the Senator that I shall join him in that, He also presented the petition of Giles B. Jackson and other citizens 

and I only regret that he had not arrived at that conclusion and that I of Richmond, Va., praying relief for the depositors of the Freedman's 

had not arrived at it before the vast amount of what I call stuff has Savings and Trust Company; which was referred to the Committee on been printed in the RECORD in the discussion of whatis known as the Finance. 

Blair bill in the Senate. If t.hat rule is to be enforced, I hope that my Mr. DOLPH presented a petition of the common council of the town 

friend from Connecticut will join me in excluding such matter here- of Pendleton, Oregon, asking that certain lands within the Umatilla 

after in regard to that measure as well as others. Indian reservation be sold to said town for burial and cemetery purThe PRESIDENT pro tempore. The motion to print is withdrawn. poses; which was referred to the Committee on Public Lands. 

Mr. PLATT. Not the motion to print. REPORTS OF COID.IITTEES. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The motion to print in the RECORD Mr. PLUMB, from the Committee on Public Lands, to whom was reis withdrawn. The memorial will be printed in the usual fore and ferred the bill (H. R. 5723) to amend section 461 of the Revised Statutes, 

laid on the table. regulating fees for exemplifications of land-patents, and for other pur- Mr. BLODGETT presented a memorial of 73 railway conductors of poses, reported it without amendment. 

the §tate of New Jersey, remonstrating against the pa..c;sage of the bill Mr. VEST, from the Committee on Commerce, to whom was referred 

to license railway conductors; which was referred to the Committee on the bill (S. 282) to amend section 3734 of the Revised Statutes, and 

Interstate Commerce.' to provide for the erection of public buildings by contract with the 

He also presented a petition of the Woman's Christian Temperance lowest bidders, reported it without amendment. 

Union of Orange, N. J., officially signed, praying for the passage of a Ur. TELLER, from the Committee on Public Lands, to whom was law for the better protection of young girls in the District of Columbia; referred the bill (S. 1102) to aid the State of Colorado to support a which was referred to the Committee ?n the District of Colum~i~. school of mines, reported it with an amendment. 

Mr. HARRIS. A month or two. smce I presented the petition of Mr. DOLPH from the Committee on Public Lands to whom was 

William B. Stoke~, askin~ to be relieved as surety uron an officiall)ond . recommitted th'e bill (S.15) providing in certain cases fo~ the forfeiture 

exe<:nted_some. th_uty y~~s ago. I now presem, ha~g th_Is moment of wagon-road grants in theStateof Oregon, reported adversely thereon, receive~ It, a simil~r petition from the same party, bei~g venfied by t~e and the bill was postponed indefinitely. , 

affidavit of the petltw~er. The o~her was not so venfied. I move Its He also, from the same committee, reported a bill (S. 1939) providreference ~ the Committee on Clarms. ing in certain cases for the forfeiture of wagon-road grants in the State 

The motiOn was agreed to. . . , . . · of Oregon; which was read twice by its title. 

Mr. PAYNE presented a petition of the Woman s Chnstian Temper- Ur. BERRY from the Committee on Public Lands to whom was 

ance Union of O.hi_o, officially signed, praying fo~ tb~ submi~sion to the referred the joi'nt resolution (S. R. 38) to enable the S~cretary of the 

States of a prohlbit~ry amendment.to the Constitution; which was re- Interior to utilize the hot water now running to waste on the permaferred to the ComiDlttee on Educatwn and Labor. nent reser•ation at Hot Sprin!!S Ark. and for other purposes reported l\ir. TELLER presented a petition of the board of county commis- it with amendments. "" ' ' ' 

si~ne;s of Larimer County, Colorado, pra¥ing th.at .a suitable appro- He also, from the same committee, to whom was referred the bill (S. 

:pn.atw~ be made t? construct a sys~m of reservous m Colorado fo: the 17) for the relief of Thomas Guinean, reported it without amendment, 1rr1gatw~ of lands m that Sta.te; which was referred to the Committee and submitted a report thereon. 

on Public Lands. . 1\Ir.' FA ULKNEH, from the Committee on the District of Columbia., 

Mr .. M1TC~LL presented resolutiOns of _the mayor an~ common to whom was referred the bill (S. 249) to prevent the sale of adulter- co~cil of the city of Pe~dleton, Oregon, praym_g that t~at City be ~er- a ted food in the District of Columbia, reported it with an amendment. 

mit.ted to purchase certarn lands of the Umatil1a Indian reservation He also from the Committee on Pensions to whom was referred the f~r cemet~ry purposes; which were referred to the Committee on In· bill (S. 1B38) granting a pension to Willia~ Richardson, reported it 

d1an Affa1rs. without amendment, and submitted a report thereon. 

.I' 
1134 CONGRESSIONJ\_L RECORD-SENATE. FEBRUARY 13, 

~Ir. HAMPTON, from the Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (S. 1558) for the relief of William G. Galloway, 

reported it with an amendment, and submitted a report thereon. ~ Mr. VANCE, from the Committee on the District of Columbia, to who~r was referred.the bill (S. 1519) to change the location of a cer- tain alley in the city of Washington, reported it without amendment, 

and submitted a report thereon. . Mr. DAVIS, from the Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred 

the bill (S. 1910) for the relief of James Gaster, asked to be discharged 

from its further consideration, and that it be referred to the Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads; which was agreed to. 

He also, from the Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the 

bill (S. 1896) for the relief of Mrs. Eliza A. Cutler, asked to be discharged from its further consideration, and that it be referred to the 

Committee on Claims; which was agreed to. 

Mr. CHANDLER, from the Committee on Naval Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (S. 1428) to authorize the appointment of a hydrographer and assistant hydrographer of ilie Navy, reported it with an 

amendment, and submitted a report thereon. 

Mr. WILSON, of Iowa, from the Committee on Education and Labor,, to whom was referred the bill (S. 372) t-0 provide for a commission on the subject of the alcoholic liquor traffic, reported it with an amendment. 

Mr. DANIEL, from theCommitteeonPublicBuildingsand Grounds, 

to whom was referred the bill (S. 1294) for the erection of a public 

building in the city of Roanoke, Roanoke County, Virginia, reported 

it with amendments, and submitted a rep rt thereon. 

:Mr. SAWYER, from the Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads, 

to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 6439) authorizing the appo.intment of eleven division superintendents of railway mail service, re- ported it with amendments, and submitted a report the-reon. 

RELIEF OF THE DISTRICT POOR. 

l\Ir. PLUMB, from the Committee o;n Appropriations, reported a bill 

(S. 1938) making an additional approprin.tion for the relief of the poor 

of the District of Columbia; which was reud the first time by its title. 

Mr. PLUMB. I ask that the bill be read at length. 

The bill was read the second time at length, as follows: 

B e it enacted. etc. , That in addition to the snm of $15.000 appropriated by the act approved March 3, 1887. "making appropriations to provide for the expenses of t.he government of the District of Columbia for the fiscal year ending" June 30, 18S8, and for other purposes," for the relief of the poor of said District, there is hereby appropriated the sum of $15,000 for that purpose, one-half thereof out of any money in the T1·easury not ot-herwise appropriated, and one-half thereof out of the revenues of the District of Columbia, to be e xpended by the commis- sioners of the District, and to be immediately available. 

Mr. PLUMB. I ask the Senate to proceed to the consideration of . the bill now. Mr. PLATT. Is it from the Committee on Appropriations? 

Mr. PLUMB. It is from the Committee on Appropriations. The 

committee have had brought to their attention the fact that there is a very considerable amount of suffe1·ing at the present t¢le ln the city 

of Washington which it is beyond the power of the local authorities or 

apparently of private charity to relieve. Yielding _ to the solicitation 

which has been brought to bear on them, they venture to bring this bill 

before the Senate, and I am instructed by the committee to ask that 

it be considered now. By unanimous consent, the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, 

proceeded to consider the bil . The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to 

be engrossed for a. third reading, read the third time, and passed. 

HALL OF RECORDS. 

Mr. VEST. I am directed by the Committee on- Public Buildings 

and Grounds to report back favorably, without amendment, the bill(S. 

279) making appropriation for the purchase of ground and the erec- tion thereon, in the city of Washington, of a building to be nsed as a hall of records. The Senate has passed this bill unanimously three 

times, I tlrink-twice I am certain-and sent it to the Hou..o:e of Renre~ 

sentatives, where it has ne1er been considered. I ask the Senate to 

pass it again. 

By nnanimons consent, the Senate, as in Committee of tb..e Whole, 

proceeded to consider the bill. It propo es to appropriate $200,000 for 

the purchase of a site near the War Department and the erection thereon 

of a brick and metal fire-proof building, to be nsed for the safe-keeping 

of records of the executive, legisbtive, and judicial departments not 

required in the present executive, legislative, or judicial offices for constant reference; the building to be erected under the supervision and 

direction Of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department, on plans and specifications approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, the 

Secretary of War, and the Secretary of State. The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to 

be engrosse~ for a. third reading, read the third time, and pa-ssed. 

SUBTROPICAL EXPOSITIO:N AT JACKSONVILLE. 

Mr. CALL. The Committee on Appropriations instruct me toreport back the joint resolution (S. R. 35) appropriating $20,000 for the 

subtropical exposition at Jacksonville, Fla., with an ame-ndment in 

the nature of a substitute. I ask for its present consideration. 

The PRESIDENT JJ1"0 temp01·e. If there be no objection, the joint 

resolution will be regarded as before the Senate, as in Committee of the 

Whole, and the amendment reported by the Committee on Appropriations will be read . • Mr. HARRIS. Let that go over and be printed. Mr. CALL. The amendment has not been read yet. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator from Tennessee 

object to the reading of the proposed amendment? 

Mr. HARRIS. No; it may be read, as the joint resolution has been 

read. Let the amendment be read, bnt I object to its consideration. The CHIEF CLERK. It is proposed to strike out all after the resolv- ing clause, and in lieu thereof to insert: 

That the Secret.ary of the Interior shall send such exhibits from the National Museum as shall be selected by him, and the Commissioner of Agriculture such exhibits of plants, shrubs, and flowers as shall be selected by him, to the sub- tropical exposition at Jacksonvflle, Fla., for the year 1888; and for the purpose of paying the expenses of transporting such exhibits to and from said exposition, and of arranging and taking care of them while there, the sum of $10,000, or so much thereof as may be nece sary, is hereby appropriated, out of any money iu the Treasury not otherwise o.ppropriated, to be expended under the dil·ection of tbe Commissioner of Agriculture, and to be immediately available. 

The PRESIDENT pro tetn]Jore. Objection being made to the present 

consideration of the joint resolution, it lies over under the rule. 

BILLS INTRODuCED. 

:Mr. CULLOU introduced a bill (S. 1940) to provide for the con- struction of a. public building at Sterling, Ill.; which was read twice 

by its title, and referred to the Committee on Public Buildings and 

Grounds. 1\Ir. VE.ST introduced a. bill (S. 1941) for the erection of a public 

building at Helen~, Uont.; which was read twice by its title, and, 

with the accompanying paper, referred to the Committee on Public 

Buildings and Gro.unds. 

Mr. HOAH. introduced a bill (S. 1942) granting a pension to Mrs. 

Ellen Courtney; which was read twice by its title, and, with the ac- companying papers, referred to the Committee on Commerce. 

1Ir. PAL.ME.R (by request) introduced a bill (S. 1943) for the better 

protection of human liie on merchant steam-vessels of the United 

States; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Commerce. 

:rifr. VOORHEES introduced a bill (S.1944) to increase the pensions 

of those who have lost a limb, two limbs, or both eyes, and for other 

purposes; which was read twice. by its title, and, with the accompanying papers, referred to the Committee on Pensions. He also introduced a bill (S. 1945) granting a pension to Mary Forsythe ; which was read twice by its title, and, with the aceompanyingpapers, referred to the Committee on Pensions . 1\fr. MITCHELL introduced a bill (S. 1946) authorizing a sale of a 

portion of the Umatilla Indian reservation to the city of Pendleton, 

State of Oregon, for the purposes of a cemetery; which was read twice 

by its title, and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs. 

He also introduced a bill (S. 1947) to provide for the construction of a military telegraphic line alona the coast between Yaquina, on Yaquina Bay, and Marshfield, on Coos Bay, to connect with Alsea Bay, 

Siuslaw Bay, Gardner, on the Umpqua River, and Empire City, in the 

St..'lte of Oregon; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the 

Committee on Military Affairs. 

Mr. BERRY introduced a bill (S. 1948) to authorize the Fort Smith 

and Choctaw Bridge Company to construct a bridge ac-ross the Poteau 

River, on the lands of Mrs. M. A. Bower, in the Choctaw Nation, near Fort Smith, Ark.; which was read twice by its title, and referred to 

the Committee on Commerce. 

1Ir. REAGAN (by request) introduced a bill (S. 1949) for the relief 

of John D. Henderson's heirs; which was read twice by its title, and 

referred to the Committee on Claims. 

1\Ir. DAWES introduced a bill (S. 1950) to ratify and confirm an agreement with the Indians of Fort Berthold agency, in Dakota; which was read twice by its title, and referred to ihe Committee on Indian 

Affairs. 

l\Ir. PLATT introduced a bill (S. 1951) to prohibit members of Territorial Legislatures holding office; which wn.s 1·ead twice by its title, and, 

with the accompanying papers, refened to the Committee on Territories. 

He also introduced a bill (S. 1952) for the relief of Sigmund Bauer; 

which was read twice by its title, and, with the accompanying papers, 

referred to the Committee on Pensions. He also introduced a bill (S. 1953) to provide for the payment of the 

passage of General de Lafayet~e ancl family from France t-<>-the United 

States, in 1824, as the "guest of the nation," etc.; which was read 

twice by itc:; title, and, with the accompanying papers, referred· to the 

Committee on Foreign Relations. 

Mr. ALLISON introduced a bill (S. 1954) for the relief of .Mrs. Catherine Holliday; which was read twice by its title, and, with the ac- companying papers, referred to the Committee on Pensions. He also introduced a bill (S. 1955) for the relief of :Mrs. Juliet E. 

Guild; which was read twice by its title, and, with the accompanying 

papers, referred t--o the Committee on Military .Affairs. 
1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SEN ATE. 1135 

Mr. DA. VIS introduced a bill (S. 1956) granting a pension to William 

F. McMillan; which was read twice by its title, aml referred to the 

Committee on Pensions. 

He also introduced a bill (8.1957) granting a pension to Virtue Smith; 

which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Pensions. . 

He also introduced a bill (S. 1958) granting an increase of pension 

to Eleanm· B. Goodfellow; which was read twice by it.s title, and re- ferred to the Committee on Pensions. 

lie also introduced a bill (S. 1959) for the relief of James H. Bacon; 

which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on :Military Affairs. 

:blr. BLAIR introduced a bill (S. 1960) granting a pension to Willard 

Jackson; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Pensions. 

He also introduced a bill (S. 1961) granting a pension tO Catherine 

Yate; which was re..'l:d twice by its title, apd referred to the Committee on Pensions. 

Mr. SAWYER introduced a bill (S. 1962) for the relief of WilUam 

Wall and his heirs; which was read twice by its titl9,. and referred to 

the Committee on 11filitary Affairs. 

M1·. HISCOCK introduced a bill (S. 1963) for the relief of the heirs 

of the late Solomon Spitzer; which was read twice by its title, andreferred to the Committee on Claims. 

Mr. TURPIE (by request) introduced a bill (S. 1964) to gmnt pensions for service in the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps of the United 

States; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Pensions. 

.Mr. EUSTIS introduced a. bill (S. 1965) for the relief of A. Cusi- mano & Co.; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the 

Committee on Finance. 

Mr. PLUMB introduced a bill (S. 1966) granting an increase of pen- sion to Conrad Schmidt; which was read twice by its title, and re- ferred to the Committee on Pensions. 

He also introduced a bill (S. 1967) granting n. pension to Sarah J. 

Thompkins; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the 

Committee on Pensions. 

He also intl'Oduced a bill (S. 1968) gnmting a pension to Eliza. A. 

Talbott; which was read twice by its title, and refened to the Committee on Pensions. 

He also introduced n. bill (S. 1969) granting right of way to the J unc- tion City and Fort Riley Street Railway Company into and upon the 

Fort Riley military reservation, in the State of Kansas, and for other 

purposes; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Com- mittee on Military Affairs. ..L 

He also introduced a bill (S. 1970) to authorize the Kan&tS Valley 

Railroad Company to constrnct and operate a railway through the Fort 

Riley military reservation, in Kansas, and for oth~r purposes; which 

was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Military 

Affairs. 

He also introduced a bill (S. 1971) to re-examine the homestead claim 

of Ira Haworth; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the 

Committee on Public Lands. 

He also introduced a bill (S. 1972) granting a pension to J. W. 

Meadows; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Pensions. 

He also introduced a bill (S. 1973) granting a pension to John Black; 

which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Pensions. 

Mr. COKE introduced a bill (S. 1974) for the erection of a public 

building at Fort Worth, Tex.; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. 

Mr. CHANDLER introduced a bill (S. 1975) to increase the pension 

of the widow of the late Naval Constructor Edward Hartt; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Naval .Affairs. 

l\fr. DANillL introduced a bill (S. 1976) for the relief of the heirs of 

Mark Davis, deceased; which was read twice by its title; and referred 

to the Committee on Claims. 

He also introduced a bill (S. 1977) to restore to John W. Mears a fine 

improperly imposed on him; which was read twice by its title, and, 

with the accompanying paperst referred to the Committee on Claims. ~l r . .McPHERSON introduced a bill (S. 1978) for the erection of a puhlic building in Patei'SOn, N . .T.; which was read twice by its title, antl referred 'to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. 

~I r. TELLER introduced a bill (8. 1979) granting a pens~on to Elizabeth Dolan; which was read twice by it~ title, and referred to the 

Committee on Pensions. 

:Ur. PALMER introduced a bill (S. 1980) to confirm certain lands to 

the village of Sault Ste. Marie; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Private Land Claims. 

J le also introduced a bill (S. 1981) to provide for the erection of a 

pu ulic building for the use of the post-office and other Government 

offices at the city of :Muskegon, in the State of Michigan; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. 

Mr. PLATT (by request) introduced a bill (S. 1982) to authorize 

the Postmaster-General to imprint the United States postage stamp on letter-sheets; which was rend twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads. 

Mr. DOLPH introduced a bill (S. 1983) to pension Silas Beezley; 

which was 1·ead twice by its title, and referred to the COlllmittee on Pensions. 

Mr. WILSON, of Iowa (by request), introduced a bill (S. 1984) to 

incorporate the Hotel Republic Company of the District of Columbia; 

which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia. Mr. TELLER (by request) introduced a joint resolution (S. R. 51) 

declaring the waters of the Hndson River, for the purpose of the pro- tection of foreign and interstate commerce, from the sea as fa.r north- . waTdly as the tide ebbs and flows, to be in the exclusive jurisdiction 

of the United States of America; which was read twice by its title and 

referred to the Committee on Commerce. 

MESSAGE FRO:JI THE HOUSE. 

A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. CLARK, its 

Cle1·k, announced that the House had passed the following bill and 

joint resolution: 

A bill (S. 1346) to authorize the Choctaw Coal and Ru.ilway Company to construct and operate a railway through the Indian Territory, 

and for other purposes; and . A joint resolution (S. R. 50) appointing Andrew D. White a member 

of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. 

The message also announced that the Honse had passed the follow~g 

bills; in which it requested the concurrence of the Senate: 

A bill (H. R. 360) for the relief of Smith R. Mershon; 

A. bill (H. R. 369) granting a pension to Mrs. Esther B. Hayford; and 

A bill (H. R. 4909) for the relief of the estate of C. M. Briggs, de- ceased. 

ENROLLED BILL SIGNED. 

. The message further announced that the Speaker of the House had 

signed the enrolled bill (H. R. 2578) to authorize the construction of a 

bridge over the 111issouri River at or near the city of Lexington, :Mo.; 

and it was thereupon -signed by the President pro tempore. 

THE PUBLIC PRINTING. 

Mr. VEST introduced a joint resolution (S. R. 52) to regulate the 

printing of certain public documents; which was read the first time at 

length, as follows: 

ReJ>olt:ed, ek., Thut 'iOO copies of any document ordered by Congress shall b e printed, and that number shall be known as" the usu.a] number." No greater number shaH be printed unless ordered by either the Senate or House of Rep- resentntives· ru1d whenever a. specified number of copies shall be ordered of auy docum ~t the usual number of copies sho.ll not be printed or bound in ad- dition to such specified number as now provided by law. 

That of the following-named documents there shall be printed a'nd bound the 

following number of copies, namely : . . First. Of the documents accompanymg the annual report-s of the Executive 

Departments, 500 copies for members of the Senate and 1,000 copies for members 

of the House. Se<.-ond. Of the President's message, the annual reports of the Executive De- partments, and the abridgment of accompanying documents, unless otherwise 

orde1·ed by either House, 1,000 copies for members of the Senate and 3,000 for 

members of the House of Representati\"es. 

Thil·d. Of p apers relating toforeignaffairsf\Geompanyingthea~ual message of the President,500 copies form~mbers of the Senate and 1,000 cop1es for mem- bers of the House of Representatives. 

Fourth. Of the commercial relations annually prepared under the direction 

of the State Department , 500 copies for members of the Senate and 2,000 copies 

for members of the House of Representatives. 

Fifth. Of the annual report on the statistics of commerce and navigation, ex- ports and imports merchandise in transit, manufactures and registered and en- roBed vessels, pre'pared by the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, l,OO(J copies for 

members of the Senate and 3,000 copies for members of the House of :Repre- sentatives. 

Sixth. Of the public Journals of the Senate and of the House of Representatives, 1,500 copies. 

l\fr. VEST. It is my purpose, Mr. President, to move the reference 

of the joint resolution to the Committee on Printing, but I hope the 

Senate will indulge me in a very few observations with regard to the - resolution before it is referred. I do not see any member of the Com- mittee on Printinoo of the Senate present, but they will of course see my remarks in th~ CoNGRESSIONAL RECORD, and I ask their attention 

to what I now state, whether it be worthy of their consideration or not. 

In participating in the unpremeditated debate which came up in the 

Senate last Thursday on a report of the Committee on Printing, I took 

occasion to notice what I consider a palpable and gross abuse of the 

laws and practices obtaining now in regard to the printing of public 

documents. - The Associated Press made such reports of my few disconnectecl remarks that the impression seems to have gone throughout the 

country on the part of those persons who do not take the trouble to read 

the Cos GRESSIOX.AL RECORD, but only read the Associated Press dispatches, that I was burdened with a very large number of valuable pub- lic documents which I could not distribute and of which I wanted to get 

rid. The result is that my mail has been filled since that debate with 

applications from all portions of the United States, asking for full copies 

of the census reports, of the geological surveys, of the Medical History 

of the War of the Rebellion, of statistical. atlases, of ethnological re- ports, agricultural reports', Smithsonian reports-all except, as m7 

friend from Indiana [Mr. VOORHEES] suggests, the debate on theBlall' 

bill or documents appertaining thereto. [Laughter.] . ' 
1136 -cONGRESSIONAL REOORD-SENATE. FEBRUARY 13, 

Mr. President, I have endeavored in my feeble way to make it distinctly -understood-and I hope the reporters for the Associated Press 

.will take notice of what I say, because this has become a matter of 

personal interest--that the documents to which I referred were not such as I have now enumerated; they were documents issued to me for my 

personal use under the existing legislation of Congress, and they com- prise Journals of the House and Senate, bound copies of every resolution of inquiry adopted by either House of Congress, reports of bureaus, 

with long arrays of statistical information, which, as I said then and 

repeat now, no human being will ever read, unless it be some man sentenced to death whose sentence has been commuted to solitary imprisonment for life. 

The clerk of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds told me within the last .half hourthathesent to the basement of this Capitol 

last week twenty-five bags of these documents, having no room for them 

in the committee-room. The shelves and glass cases are now full. 

There are in the basement of this Capitol, as I have ascertained upon 

inquiry, over two thousand bags of these documents to-day. There is 

but one living man who knows exactly what they are, and if he should 

die it would require a committeeofinquiry to ascertain their location. 

There is not a committee-room in the Capitol that is not filled with 

them. If a Senator desires any of this information, if he wishes to 

know what Congress has done or to know what has been reported from 

a bureau, all of us are well aware that our practice is not to go to these 

volumes, but to address a note to Ur. Amzi Smith, in the documentr9om, who immediately sends us the volume, with the proper record. 

I do not object to the publication bythis Government of valuable 

information for the people. I object to the wasting of money by the 

hundreds of thousands of dollars upon this trash, this refuse matter, 

this debris, which is never used by anybody after it has been published. 

The Senator from Ohio [1\Ir. SHERMAN] a short time ago informed me 

that when he entered public life be undertook to preserve the books 

that were issued for his personal use, and that he had kept six or seven thousand volumes, not one of which he had had occasion to refer to at 

all. 

The Senatorfrom Nebraska [:M:r. MANDERSON] said to me the other 

day that the fact that! could not give away these public documents in 

the State of :Missouri was an argnment for the Blair bill, and rather 

intimated that the educational facilities of tbat people were a little 

under par. Mr. President, I would not insult the most benighted Republican in Missouri by sending him one of these documents [laughter], much less a Democrat. What must be the Senator's estimate of 

the intellectual capacity of one of his constituents when be sends him a Journal of the Senate or the Honse of Representatives? A brother 

Senator told me the other day, after the debate, that he bad never 

found but one use for them, and that was in the remote counties of his 

State to young lawyers just going into pradice who were unable to buy 

a very full library, and he disposed of a few of them for the purpose of 

being arrayed on their shelves, because they are bound in law sheep or calf and make a show as if they were legal auth_o:rities. It is represented that a certain man who acquired an immense fortune determined 

to buy a private library, but the instinct of economy came. in at that 

time, so he simply bought the outside covering, without any contents, 

and arrayed them in his library, and they answered all his purposes 

and those of his family. [Laughter.] 

Mr. President, since that debate I have made some inquiries on this 

subject, and I have been astonished at the condition of the laws in re,;, 

gard to the public printing as they now stand. I spent days in the 

Printing Office and in the document-room of the Senate, and if the 

Senate will indulge ine for a few moments I will give the result of my 

explorations. If there is any feature of the public service which needs a little attention on the part of Congress I think it is that in regard to 

printing. 

The present law on the subject of printing to which I ask the attention of my colleagues is as follows: 

SEc. 3i91. There shall be printed 750 copies of every bill or joint resolution or- dered by either House of Congress, or required by any rule thereof to be printed, 

unless a. different number shall be specifically ordered. 

SEc. 3792. Fifteen hundred and fifty copies of any document ordered by Con- gress shall be printed, and that number shall be known as the usual number. No greater number shall be printed unless ordered by either House or as hereinafter provided. 

Whenever any document shall be ordered printed by Congress the law 

saysThere shall be printed, in addition to the number in each case stated, the 

"usual number" of copies for binding and distribution among those entitled to receive them; and this shall apply to all unexecuted orders now in the office of 

the Public Printer. 

In other words, when a Senator moves that 500 copies of a certain - document be pTinted, under this law the Public Printer prints in addition to the 500 copies .1,550 copies more-2, 050 copies instead of 500 are printed if a Senator simply mo\es that a document be printed; and that 

has obtained in this country for years. 

l\fr. C.A.LL. Is that authorized hy the section the ~enator has just 

'read? 

Mr. VEST. Yes sir. It says that w believer any document or report 

shall be ordered prin~ by Congress there shall be printed, in addition 

to the number in each case stated, the usual number of copies, which 

is 1,550. Now, mark you, this is not for printi.Dg, but for binding and 

distribution among those. entitled to receive the same, "and this shall 

apply to all unexecuted ordel'S." Any public document which any 

Senator here moves to have printed to the number of 500 or lOQ copies, 

when ordered, under this law the Public Printer prints 1,550 copies more and binds them. The usual_ number is 1,550. If no specific 

number is mentioned and there is simply an order to print, 1,550 copies are always printed. 

But that is not all of it. There are not only printed of the public 

Journals of the Senate and House of Represen ta ti ves 1, 550 copies; the 

number provided by section 3792, which I have just rea-d, is 1,550 

copies, and the number authorized by the paragraph which I have just 

read is 1,550, and 50 copies are ordered by section 3799 for the purpose 

of exchang~ with foreign countries. So we print, instead of 1;550 and 

50 added, making 1,600, 3,150 copies, by a mistake in the revision of the 

statutes, and that has been going on for years. One thousand copies 

are for w~at are called the reserved numbers; about 1,550 are sent to 

the document-room and distributed amongst members of Congress, 

bound and distributed, with no law for it; but I ascertained from the 

Pnqlic Printer and froru. the superintendent of the document-room that 

it is a tradition or practice that bas grown up without any written law on the subject at all. Further the law provides: 

SEC. 3798.. Of'thedocuments named in this section there shall be printed and 

bound, in addition to the usual number for Congress, the following numbers of 

copies, namely: 

l<'irst. Of the documents accompanying the annual reports of the Executive 

Departments, 1,000 copies for the use oft he mem hers of the Senate and 2,000 copies 

for the use of the members of the House of Representatives. · 

These are all the little minutire which accompany the reports of the 

different Secretaries-Treasury, Navy, War, Interior, etc. The report 

of the Secretary of the Interior em braces fi. ve volumes, of the Secretary 

of the Treasury six volumes, and we print of them 1, 000 copies for the 

use of the Senate and 2, 000 copies for the use of members of the House. 

Second. Of the President's message, the annual reports of the Executive 

Departments, and the abridgment of accompanying documents, unless otherwise ordered by either House. 10,000 copies for the use of the members of the 

Senate and 25,000 copies for the use of the members of the House of Representatives, etc. [See section 75.] 

Thh·d. Of papers relatingto foreign affairs, accompanying the annual mes- sage of the Pt·esident, 2,000 copies for the use of the members of the Senate 

and 4,000 copies for the use of the members of the House of Representatives. 

Fourth. Of the commercial relations, annually prepared under the direction of the State Department, 2,000 copies for the use of the members of the 

Senate and 3,000 copies for the use of the members of the House of Represents.• 

tives. [See section 208.] 

Fifth. Of the annual report on the statisti~ of commerce and navigation, ex- ports and imports, merchandise in transit, manufactures, and registered and 

enrolled vessels, prepared by the special commissioner of the revenue, 2,000 

copies for the use of the members of the Senate and 6,150 copies for the use of 

the members of the House of Representatives. [See sections 336, 340.] 

Sixth. Of the public J on.rnals of the Senate and of the House of Representatives, 1,550 copies. 

By a mistake in the Revised Statutes the distribution required of 

the Senate Journal is3,194, theHouseofRepresentatives3,128, but we 

print 2,150 only. 

What has been the result of this nebulous and contradictory legislation? To each member of the Senate and House of Representatives 

there have been distributed, bound in calf or sheep, in the four Con-• gresses, commencing with the Forty-sixth, 729 volumes. Of the Journals of the Senate and House and of bureau reports, which, I undertake to say, are as absolutely worthless as any trash that ever was dumped out under the authority of a municipal corporation, 729 vol- umes have been issued in these four Congresses to each member of the 

Senate and House of Representatives and each Delegate from a Territory. I find on inquiry at the Printing Office that not one of these 

volumes has cost less t·han $2, and some of them cost as high as $2.85 

and $3 apiece. There are 76 Senators and 334 Members and Delegates 

of the House, making 410 together in the two Houses. The number 

of public documents sent to each in the Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, 

Forty-eighth, and Forty-ninth Congresses is 729, making 300,348 volumes at $2 apiece, making $600,696, or $150,174 in each Congress, and 

this for the personal use of Senators, Members, and Delegates alone, for 

personal reference alone. 

Besides this there have been printed and bound of these documents, 

this same trash and rubbish, in these four Congresses, all documents 

accompanying the annual reports of the Executive Departments, 12,000; 

of the President's message and abridgment, 140,000; of papers relating 

to foreign affairs accompanying the President's message, 24,000; of Commercial Relations, 20,000; of Commerce and Navigation, 32,600; of 

Journals of the Senate and House, 12,600, making 241,200 of these volumes, which, at the lowest price, the minimum cost in the Printing 

Office, $2, would amount to $482,400. Inotherwords, we havethrown 

away in these four Congresses alone $1,200,000 of the public money. 

Sir, I alluded a few minutes ago to the letters I bud received asking 

for the valuable publications from the Printing Office, and I made 

that statement not only on account of the personal: inconvenience 

to myself from :receiving these letters, but to emphasize the fact 

that there is a demand throughout the country for valuable publications, and that demand is not satisfied. Instead of this money being 

thrown away under the present system it should be applied to the pu~ 
1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 1137 

lication of works that .the people desire and that would <to some good 

towards distributing public intelligence and information amongst our 

constituents. The consideration of this matter has drawn me into an 

inquiry on the subject. I have received, with my brother Senators, 

729 volumes of these works during the past four Congresses, and a con- siderable number of them are now on hand. 

Under the law every library in the United States is supplied by the 

Secretary of the Interior with these publications. The result is that 

when any Senator or Representative offers them to a library in his State, 

the reply comes back, "We have already received them from the Interior Department." Weare compelled, then, tokeepthemhereand stow 

them away, or we mock the intelligence of our constituents by sending them ·this trash, which I say no man, unless put into solitary confinement for life, would undertake to examine. This Capitol is full of 

them from cellar to garret, every committee-room is full of them, the 

Departments are full of them, and still the stream of publication goes on. 

I have contributed what little I could to the discovery of the nuisance. I hope the Committee on Printing will adopt some amendment 

of these laws that will do away with what is beco~g an intolerable 

evil. 

The joint resolution was read the second time by its title, and re- ferred to the Committee on Printing. 

Mr. PAD DOCK. I desire to state on bebaJf of my colleague [Mr. 

MANDERSON], the chairman of the Committee on Printing, that he is 

unavoidably detained from the Senate to-day, otherwise he would undoubtedly be glad to consider the question to which the Senator from 

Missouri bas called attention, and make reply to some of the references 

made to him and his committee by the Senator from .Missouri in the course of his remarks. 

I desire to state, so far as I am concerned, that I should be glad myse)f to receive for my constituents a goodly number of documents such 

as my friend has furnished a statement ot: There are some hundreds 

of thousands of pioneers upon homesteads on the frontier in my State, 

and the same is true in greater or less degree of the other States and 

Territories of the newer West, who are hungry and thirsty for knowledge of any and all kinds, and who would be glad to receive anything 

upon any subject that might be considered worthy of the attention of 

Congress or of committees or .. commissions acting under its direction 

and upon which reports have been made and printed. Undoubtedly 

there have beep some abuses; I do not know to what extent, because I 

have not been here for some years; but as for myself, a new Senator, 

having no documents of any kind worth mentioning for distribution, I 

should be glad to receive from my friend or from any other source five 

or six thousand of even these disparaged documents which be has described. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The joint resolution has been disposed of. 

SEGREGATION OF IR.RIGABLE LANDS. 

~Ir. STEW .ART submitted the following resolution; which was considered by unanimous consent, and agreed to: 

Resol1:ed, That the Secretary of the Interior be request-ed to inform the Senate if in his opinion it is desh-able to authorize the organization in his Department known as the Geological Survey to seg'l"egate lands ofthe public domain capa- ble of irdgation, in the sections of the United States where irrigation is re- quired, from other landsJ and to lay out suitable places to be reserved for reser- voirs and rights of way 10r ditches and canals for the purposes of irrigation. 

• THE 1\IAIL· SERVICE. 

Mr. REAGAN. On Thursday last I a-skecl that the resolution which 

went on the Calendar in relation to the Post-Office Department might 

go over until to-clay, and if it be in order, and the Senate will consent, 

I should like to take it up, because I desire to submit some remarks on the resolution. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair. will call it up after the 

cone! usion of business under the order of '' concurrent ancl other res- olutions." The Chair must first receive original resolutions. 

PRINTING OF TABIFF DOCUMENTS. 

Mr. FAULKNER s~bmitted the following resolution; which was 

read, and, with the accompanying papers, referred to the Committee on 

Printing: 

Resolved, That there be printed for the use of the Senate, to be paid for out of the contingent fund, 8,000 copies of Treasury Department Document No. 937, 

embracing "The tariff on imports into the United States and the free-list, as contained in the act of March 3, 1883; also, the Hawaiian reciprocity treaty, and extracts from the navigation and oleomargarine acts." 

On Thursday last, it will be remembered, the Senator from Kansas 

[Mr. PLUMB] indulged in a criticism in regard to the expenditure of 

money thus far by the commission who have in charge the construction 

of the Congressional Library. I was out of the Chamber at the time 

and w ben I returned I was informed that an attack bad been made, 

and I supposed it was as to the delay of the work, which had already 

been complained of, and I answered accordingly. I do not regret that 

I made answer upon that point, but at the close of the colloquy between 

the Senator from Kansas and myself be challenged any explanation of 

the expense account upon which be had dwelt, and I undertook to 

respond. 

Now, before I do that-and I shall occupy not much time of the 

Senate-! desire to ca,ll the attention of Senators to the responsibility 

which belongs to this work and where it rests, and for that purpose I 

will ask the Secretary to read the first section of the act of April15, 

1886, authorizing the construction of the building. 

The Secretary read as follows: 

That a fire-proof building, for the accommodation of the Library of Congress, shall be erected east of the Capitol, and either between B street north and East Capitol street and First street east and Second street east, or between B street south and East Capitol street and First street east and Second street east, and as the commission hereinafter provided shall determine; and the construction of said building, substantiallv according to the plan submitted to the Joint Se- lect Committee on Additional Accommodations for the Lib1·~ry of Congress, by John L. Smithmeyer, in the Italian renaissance style of architecture, with such modifications as may be found necessary or advantageous, without materially 

increasing the cost of the building, shall be in charge of a commission composed of the Secretary of the Interior, the Architect of the Capitol Extension, and the Libradan of Congress, who shall be authorized and directed to m.ake con·' tracts for the construction thereof, after proper advertisements· and the re· ception of bids; and the sum of $500,0:>0 is herehy appropriated, out of any money in the 'l'reasury not otherwise appropriat-ed, to comJ;llence the construc- tion of said building; and the moneys appropriated for said building shall be disbursed by the Secretary of the Interior. 

:Mr. VOORHEES. Mr. President, that was what we thought was 

best after six years of careful consideration and labor by joint committees and by both Houses of Congress. I have bad it read now to call 

the attention of the Senate to the fact that the work is in charge of 

three officers ofthe Government who can be paid no additional salary, 

each one being a salaried officer-the Secreta.ry of the Interior, the Librarian of Congress, and the Architect of this Capitol. 

I call attention to the further fact that they, and they alone, can 

make contracts, advertise for bids, receive bids, employ labor, skilled 

and otherwise, in this work, and disburse all the money appropriated. 

In other words, when this matter is simplified, the architect of this 

building does not disburse a dollar, signs no voucher, can not employ, 

of his own will and power, a single human being, can make no contract, 

can consider no bid; be can only act in regard to all matters as be is 

directed and controlled by the commission. He himself is an employe 

of the commission and is paid for his work. So that whatever has 

been done or undone, whether well done or ill done, the responsibility 

rests upon the commission. If there ha.s been delay, or if there has 

been extravagance in the expenditure of money, we know very well 

where to place it. 

It is needless for me to say, knowing the character of this commission, that in my judgment there has not been the slj.ghtest impropriety 

in the expenditure of moneys or in anything else. The bill, one section of which I have bad read, was approved on tpe 15th of April, 

1886, less than two years ago. The first summer was largely consumed 

in cleru·ing the ground, which was almost compactly built up with 

many valuable buildings. They had to be purchased pursuant to the 

law and then removed. 

Sir,' in 1872 the bill for the construction of the State, War, and Navy 

Department became a law, more than fifteen years ago, and it is only 

just now being finished and fully occupied. I do not cite this as an 

example to be emulated, by any means. I expect to see the books of 

this Congress and of this Government in the new Library building in 

less than one-third that time; but it does seem to me, and I say it with 

all kindness, for I have no disposition otherwise, that those who have 

seen that work going on for fifteen years are somewhat uncharitable 

when they seem to expect this Library building to be almost completed 

in less than two years. Especially does tbis.appear when it is understood that the Library building in contemplation is 21,000 square feet 

larger than the State, War, and Navy. It is 21,000 feet larger than 

that entire Department. It is to be the largest library building in the 

world; there will be none to compare with it; and consequ{lntly each 

THE LIBRARY BUILDING. step taken should be with the utmost circumspection, skill, prudence, 

Mr. VOORHEES. 

sideration. 

I offer a resolution and ask for its present con- and care. I shall tum now, however, to the specific charges made by the SenThe PRESIDENT pro tempore. The resolution will be read. 

The CHIEF CLERK read the resolution, as follows: 

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, directed to furnish to the Senate the report made to him as chairman of the commission for the construction of a building for the Library of Congress by John L. Smith- meyer, architect, dated February 1, 1888, and that the same be printed for the use of the Senate and the commission. 

:Mr. VOORHEES. Mr. President, before action is taken upon the 

resolution I desire; with the consent of the Senate, to make a few re" 

marks. 

XIX-7~ 

• 

ator from Kansas, the items of· expense which he read without expla-

• nation. Let us see bow they sound accompanied by the statement of 

facts which I have in my band. 

The first item cited by the Senator, charging extravagance, was 

$38,000.' Sir, this amount was expended in the tearing down andrewoval of upwards of forty-five buildings; the leveling of the grounds; 

removing water, gas, and sewer pipes; removing curb-stones; taking 

up asphalt pavements on li'irststreetand Pennsylvania avenue; remov- ing trees; filling up cellars under the forty-five houses; filling up cisterns, wells, and out-houses; surveying and staking out the site; dig-
·1138 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. FEBRUARY 13, I• 

ging out the bed of an old creek which ran through the site, and grading in front of the grou?ds. . . I am willing for that Item to speak for Itself. I can add nothmg. 

Mt. PLUMB. Will the Senator allow me to interrupt him there? 

Mr. VOORHEES. Certainly. ·Mr. PLUMB. Do I understand that he says this work of which he 

speaks was done out of that $38,000? 

Mr. VOORHEES. I do. I mean what I say. If lam wrong, I am open to correction by the Senator. • Mr. PLUMB. If the Senator will look at pages 14 and 15 of thereport of the commissioners he will see at once that no such labor as he 

speaks of was embraced in the $38,000 that I referred to the other day. 

Mr. VOORHEES. Sir, I will stand or fall on the substantial accuracy of the statement I ~ve made. Such ·is ~y information from a most reliable source. I will not take up the trme of the Senate by 

turning to the pages of the report to see whether it agrees or not. I 

know that my statement corresponds with the facts. • The second item cited by the Senator from Kansas was $1,821.15 tor 

office expenses. This includes the necessary material, mathematical instruments, compasses, T-squares, brushes, coloring paints, rules, paper, 

drawing-pencils, pens, in~{s, etc., with~)Ut which the work could no~ be 

performed; also the printmg of advertisements for proposals, as requued 

by lnw, for excavat!n~ the so~l, excavation of trenc~es for foun~~tio?S• 

for laying and furrushing dmmag~ system, for heatmg and ve~ltil.atrng 

pipes, for laying concrete foundations, and for the necessary bmdmg of a few architectural works. · It will be observed before we are done that this is a large work; it 

is not a small or ordinary building that we are now engaged in. 

The third item is $2,612.16-office furniture, drawing-bo~rds, cases, 

awnin!!S. This amount includes the :fitting up of the rooms of the com- missio~ and its secretary, disbursing agent, clerk, and messenger, with 

desks, tables, chairs, type-wri_ting machines, copy-presses, sat:es, etc., on the :first floor. and the :fittmg up of quarters for the archikctural 

force on the second floor, with necessary desks, drawing-tables, drawing-boards, cases for safe-keeping_ of instr~ents, plans, and working 

drawings; also the necessary awmngs to sh1eld the draughtsmen from 

the sun in the prosecution of their work. . The fourth item is $1,954.17 for :fitting up offices at 145 East Cap1tol 

street. This amount -includes the removing of partitions, propping up 

joists in upper stories of building in place of these partitions, enlarging rooms for use of draughtsmen (the front room in the old residence selected for that purpose not affording necessary accom~odation~) ! also re- moval of bath-rooms, water-closets, etc., and for refittmg, 1·ep:urrng, and 

the furnishing of stoves and other heating apparatus. This item also 

includes the :fitting up of old building No. a Second street for weighing the buildin~ material brought to the premises, and for making tests 

of lime, cement, etc. 

Thefifth item is $919.66for blue-priatroom. Thisiiemincludesthe 

construction and :fitting up on the roof of the office building of a ''blueprint room.'' By ~his process the .nume~ous copies of pl~ns and workina- drawings reqmred for the vanous bidders on the different work, 

and for contractors during the prosecution of such work, are most ac- curately and economically made. At the present time no department 

of the Government• where drawings are made and multiplied for the purposes abovestatedis without such a room. A single copy of a plan made 

by the old process of copying by hand would cost as much as se\eral 

hundred of them made by this process, and is less accurate. It also saves the expense of paying for photographing views of the progress of 

the work as they become necessary from time to ~ime. . The sixth item is $261.51 for fuel and gas. ThiS amount IS neeessary 

from the fact that twenty-seven men who are employed in sedentary 

work have to be liept comfortable' during the winter. Perhaps t~e 

Senator willsaythat twenty-seven men are a large number engaged m draughting and other sedentary work, but it is only necessary to rep~y 

that ea.ch stone that is to go into this building is to be computed m square inches, and its weight and its resisting power and all its other 

qualities scientifically tested. It is an enormous work. It staggered me when I came face to face with it and saw what had to be done. I 

knew but little on the subject, and yet I presume I am no more ignorant and no more wise than most of my brother Senators on the question of the const.ruction of one of these great Government buildings. 

It is an enormous and elaborate work, or certainly the Department I 

have spoken of at the west end of the A venue would not have taken 

fifteen years to complete. . . . . . The seventh item is $573 for laborer and Jamtor. ThlS Item IS for 

the pay of men employed to keep the house clean, attend to the :fires, 

water-closets, etc. 

The eighth item is $868. I will say in advanc~ that if it is thoug_ht 

best to economize on a horse and buggy, here IS the place to do 1t. 

There has been a great deal of complaint about a coupe being employed. 

I call it a buggy. The Senator may call it a coupe if he chooses, but 

in the plain vernacular of my country we speak of a horse and buggy. 

This reads: 

Ooupe and two horses-

! will explain thatOne to replace horse sold and proceeds covered into the Treasury. 

So that there are no two horses. It_is only a one-horse chaise. 

Coupe and two h.orses, ~arness, robe, and "!Jlank~t~. The a:r;chite~~ considered 

it necessary to a proper dtScha.rge of the duties enJomed by his positiOn to make a. request of the commission for a. horse and coupe. It was utterly impraclica- ble for him to cover the <listances necessary to be made in the ordinary public conveyances which confined him within certain limits and would have enforced 

the consumption of much time. The travel from 145 East Capitol street to En.s- by's wharf, atthefoot of Twenty-second street,and thence to navy-yard, involving about nine miles, would have kept him on the street and drawn him from 

the important and necessary duties of his office. He could not inspect xnaterial 

by telephone. The origin.al cost of the horse and second-hand coupe in use wn increased by the unfortunate fact that the horse firstpurchRsed became unsound; was conde.mned by a veterinary surgeon, and had to be sold, the amount thus 

realized being covered into the Treasury. Hence the item for two horses and 

driver. 

I have nothing more about this to say. If anybody objects to that 

item, it can be very easily remedied. 

The ninth item is $540.49, for livery bills for carriage, horse, repairs. 

Inasmuch as the horse must be fed and the carriage kept in cleanly con- dition, the above charge is both proper aud moderate. 

The tenth item is $35.11 for washing towels. I am following these 

items seriatim, because the Senator from Kan...~ cut out the work in that 

way. On this point I have to say that in a house where twenty-seven 

men are employed as draughtsmen and clerks, all of whom must have 

clean hands, from the nature of their business, this amount for washing towels covering a period of more than a year, at 25 cents a dozen, 

is a very proper one. The eleventh item is 75 cents, for notary's fees. I promised that I 

would try, although not a great success as a :financier, to answer this 

:financial problem. That is my apology for taking up so much time. 

The law requires that if an article is urgently needed and obtained, an affidavit to that effect must be made before a notary, for which a charge 

of25 cents is levied each time. 

The twelfth item is $25. 30 for cleaning windows and putting away fu$11. 

The only light which penetrates into the house is through the windows, 

and as we need much light, they must be kept clean. The fuel must 

be put away when it arriv-es from the coal-yard, otherwise it would be 

carried away by others. 

The thirteenth item is $11.25 for lantern and oil for watchmen. 

There must be watchmen in the building and outside, to prevent trespass, nuisance, and danger from :fire, this last danger to be ap~re· 

heuded for a variety of reasons, the house being old, the heatmg 

apparatus and stoves being likewise, and a carpenter shop beneath 

a-dding to the peril. These facts~ combined with the combustible ma- terial everywhere present, such as papers, drawings, etc., give serious cause ior alarm. The watchmen must have lanterns and oil. 

The fourteenth item is $216 for ma,king models for architect. The 

person who does this work is the one who was jeered at for being a sculptor, and it was queried in a critical way, as I see by the REOORD, 

what the architect of the Library needed with a sculptor! There is no architect who, being employed on a monumental structure such as this, 

does not require his ideas to be graphically illustrated by modelsmodels which afford him a correct idea of proportion necessary in point 

of depth, width, and heights, etc., more especially in a grand reading- room. The modeler, or we might call him a sculptor in this cnse, is 

borrowed from the Supervising Architect of the Treasury, and is only 

paid for the time he is needed by this office. His pay ($5 per day) is 

exceedingly reasonable. 

Again: .Miscellaneous supplies, $54.07. This item includes hardw.:e 

and lumber for making and repairing draughting-boards and office furniture, supplies for the carpenter shop, etc. 

The :fifteenth item is $5,639.08 for secretary, accountant, disbursing 

ao-ent, and messenger. This item is fully explained in the accompanyi{;cr letter from the secretary of the commiEsion, addressed to the archite~t, February 11, as is also the seventeenth item, mentioned by s~nator PLUMB in his remarks before the Senate, as given by the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD of February 10, page 1130, under the caption, ''Employes in charge of horses and carts.'' 

I understand there was a great deal of amusement creat-ed by the 

charge made by the Senator that there was an item of expe!lse made in 

paying women who had charge of horses and carts. Her~ 1~ the letter 

to which I have alluded, from the secretary of the commiSSion: 

0FFICJll OF THE COliUILSSION FOR THE 

CONSTRUCTION OF THE CoNGRESSIONAL LmRARY BUILDING, 

No. 145 EAST CAPITOL STREET, 

1Vashington, D. C., FebruanJ 11, 1888. 

Sr:a: In response to your v erbal request for an explanation of the item c~arged 

in the report of the Commissi~n for Construction of the Congressiona~. L1bra:ry Building, in response to re;>oluhon o~ the Senate of January 4,1!>88, fo~· salanes 

and pay of office employes, * • "' secreta ry, a.coountant, dtsbursmg a~ent, 

and messen!!"er $5,639:08," I would state that this item is for the services of the secretary ot'the commission since August 7, 1886; of the accountant sinc,e :\farch 21 1887 · of the disbursing agent since August 23, 1887; of messenger smce No- v~mbel~ 18, 1886, and perce~tage paid the disbursing clerk of the Department ?f 

the Interior for making d1sbw·sements under the act approved March 3, 1885. The rates of pay are as follows; Per annum. 

~1ri~~~t~i~:~i-::::::::::::~:::::::::::.::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: s~:a Messenger, S50 per month. 

The disbursing clerk of the Interior Department was paid the sum of ~3.23 

for disbursing previous to September 1, 1887. 
1888. ·. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 1139 

In regard to the list of persons designated in the "Blu~ Book" as employed in the constnwtion of the Congressional Library building, this list was made .under the provisions of the act of Congress of December 15, 1817, and is a list of persons so employed or borne on the rolls on the 1st day of .July, 1887, both per~ 

xnanently and temporarily employed. Since that tin;le nearly all the lal:)orers and all the horses and carts and the wagons and teams have been discharged, so that at the present time there are but ten laborers, or persons design11.ted a.s IJUCb, employed. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. CocKRELL in the chair). The 

Senator from Indiana will suspend. It is the duty of the Chair to lay 

before the Senate the unfinished business, being the bill (S. 371) to aid 

in the establishment and temporary support of common schools. 

Mr. VOORHEES. Let me have ten minutes. 

Mr. VEST. I hope'the Senator will be permitted to proceed. 

Mr. BLAIR. The Senator from Kansas [Mr. PLUJ)IB] is entitled to 

the f,oor on the unfinished business. 

Mr. PLUMB. I will yield. 

Mr. VOORHEES. I will not detain the Senate· long. 

Mr. BLAIR. Very well. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. If there be no objection, the Senator 

from Indiana will proceed. 

Mr. BLAIR. The time for taking ~he final vote on the educational 

bill, by unanimous consent, was fixed for Wednesday, at 3 o'clock. This 

delay was to a~commodate Senators wbo are opposed to the bill, and I 

do not feel that I am at liberty to assent to the use of the. time without the consent of those who wish to speak against the bill. This, 

however, is done with the consent of the Senator from Kansas. 

Mr. VOORHEES. I am verymuchobligedto theSenator fromNew 

Hampshire and also to the Senator from Kansas. 

Referring to thi:> listthe secretary of the commission continuesReferring to this list, the blanks sent to this office were filled out, and under the title of" horses and caPts'' the names of the owners oft be horses and carts, etc., which were then employed were written. '!'be same was tho case in regru-d to the owner of the wagon and team then employed. It is not known io this office how or for what purpose the words" in charge of" werE) inserted before the words" horses and carts," and "wagon and team," respectively. The hor_es and earls and t.he wagon and team wert,) hired from the persons designAted. 

Thus the horses and carts were hired from some poor women, and it WM made to appear that they were in charge of then); but they were 

only hired, They weresimplyhi:ted,and the women, their owners, were paid, 

Respectfully, 

Mr . .J. L. SM1TIDUEYER, 

.J. U. TRAINER, 

Secretm·y of Oommissio1l. 

A1·ohilect of thB Cmtgl'e.$SionaL IAbrary Building. 

The sixteenth item is $23,200 for architect, assist..'tnt architect, com- puter, civil engineer, experts, dmughtsruen, clerks, mesaengers, and 

modeler. 

The pay-roll will show that the compensations given to these gentle- men are fnir und reasonable. The architect vouches for the fact that 

they perform their duties and earn their pa.y. The modeler, or "scul~ 

tor,'' so culled, as well as the rest of this technical force, is doing nee~ 

essary work iu a<lvance of the construction of the building. 

:Ur. President, I have been connected with this work for the last 

eight years, and it is very near my he..·u:t. If I thought theTe W!l.S an irregularity or impropriety on the part of any one, I would be the :Q_rst 

to cry aloud and spare not. I have thought ib proper and respectlful 

to the Senate and to the country to make this fmnk and thorough ex- positton of what is goipg on. 

Suppose the Architect of this Ca..,.._ ,Jl, or of the Department that is now just being :finished, to which J. have already alluded, had been 

called on for a statem<mt of his affahs, and inspected at a_ny period, we 

would have found the same kind of work being done, und no more faithfully or safely than it has been done here. It is not possible that this 

work should be in saier hands-a cabinet minister, a librarian known 

and respected, not merely by us here, but by the people of this entire 

country, ttnd known and respected in the libraries of Europe; also an old and trusted official in the person of the Capitol Architect. Why, I 

should like to know, would the commission, as now composed, make 

delays, and fail tQ push this work forward? 

Sir, I can say regarding the extraordinary charge that there is no honest purpose to push this work to (1, completion, that so far as I know, 

and I know well, this commission has worked steadily and persistently 

to forward every step of tbe work and has \lSed every lawful meaos to secure contractors of energy and responsibility to forwm·d it. 

So far us the Librarian is concerned, what must be his desire'? The 

completion of this building is a. matter of personal relief to him. No man lnbors under greater embarmssmeut or has a severer task to perform than he has. To delay the work on the new Library entails on 

him n.dditionul labor in <:ari.ng for the vast collection of books over which he now presides. He is constantly called upon to prod nee, and does 

P.roduce, from that multifarious collection, not only books and information for Con~ress and the Departments, the Judicial'y, and the general 

public, .b:1t also publ~cations ~to:ed in evidence of copyright, musical 

COlllpos~tw.ns, en~rav~gs, penochcals demanded for inspection, and to 

settle legal qnestlons 1n cases of copyright. The 1dea that Mr. Spofford, or indcetl ;my other g entlerr.HUl charged with this duty should 

delay it is wholly inadmissible. ' 

Now, in :regard to another branCh of controversy relative to the ma- terials to be used, I wish to say simply this: Unless material, both 

stone and cement, responds to scientific tests it can not go in that build- ing. If it did the men who allow such material to go there ought to 

be impeached and thrown from office. There are certain scientific 

tests to which every atom that goes into the construction of that magnificent building can aud must be rigidly subjected, and its strength, 

its durability, ascertained beforehand. The marble or the granite can and must and will be tested as to its power to resist fire, what weight 

it will bear, what diseoloration may come, aud so with everything else, . and if the architect of the Library is not competent' for such work M 

that he ought not to remain an hour. 

But who is Mr. Smithmeyer'? He is one of the oldest architect.<; of 

the Amel'ican Association, and he is president of the Ar<:hitects' Asso· 

ciation of this city. He is likewise president of the Civil Engineers' 

A~ociation of this city, a man of the highest capacity and of unquestioned integrity. In this connection-for I do not wish to detain the 

Senate longer-I shall send to the desk and ask to have read an article from a periodical entitled The American Architect and Building 

News, published in Boston, and recognized as the foremost authority on architecture in the United States. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The paper will be read. 

The Chief Clerk read as follows: . 

In obedience to an order passed by the United States Senate January 4, a special report has been prepared upon the construction of the Oongressio.nal 

Library building, which is now printed, and offers some interesting details in re~ard to this great public work. Although the report does not go out of its way to refer to pel'Sonal matters, it seems not unlikely that the occasion for its p1·cparation is to be sought in the outrageous attacks made in the newsp:~.pers 

on the integrity of tile architect in regard to the tests which he applt.,<i to the cement which was furnished by the contractor for making the concrete to be used in the foundation of the building. The fact appears to have been that the specification!! required that the cement should pass the ordinary tests, showing a tensile sh·ength of 300 pounds per square inch aftet• one day in air a.nd six days in water, and leaving not m01·ethan 10 per cent. residuum upon a sieve of2,500 meshes to the square inch. - The samples furnished by one of the bidders fulfilled both these requirements l!<nd the cont.roct was awarded to him. On commeocing the work, however, the contractor t1ent to the building a lot of cement of a brand not included among those which he had submitted by sample for the original test, The a.rchit.ect promptly rejected this, as not being in accordance with the contract, which was, of course, based upon the samples accompanying the original tender. 'l'he com- Ulission in charge of the construction of the building, however, on being ap- pcai.ed to, instructed the a1·cbitect to test the new cement, which had not pre- viously been offered by any bidder, and to accept it if bo found it capable of passing the tests required in the specifications. Seventy-two samples were, in pursuance of this direction, tested, only sixteen of which showed a tensile strength of 300 pou::1ds, as 1·eqnired, while most of the othe1·s were far below the stand:U"d, the lowest being 78 pounds. This alone wou.ld necessitat~ the rejection of the cement as being inferior to the plain and reasonable demands of the specification, but lltlr. Smithmeyerfoundalso that it was very quick-setting, and this quality, always a dangerous one in Portland cement and particnlarly so in cement to oe used for concrete, seemed to him as well as to several other experts to whom be submitted it, quite sufficient to condemn it for the purposes of the Librarybuiiding, independent of other considerations. On the second and final rejection of the cement of the new brand the con- tractor sent a quantity of the cement of one of the brands submitted by him with his bid, and perhaps the oldest and best known in this country of all the Portl!\nd cements. Tht:l watchful architect immediately took samples ft•om· the banels delivered and tested them a.s before. Instead, however, of showing a tensile strength averaging 7 pounds to the square inch, as uid the samples subrtJitt.ed with the bid, the sa.mples from the barrels deli~red on tlfe work gave an average t~nsilc strength of only 233 pounds, only four specimens out of t.wo hundred and seventy tested by different experts reaching the strength demanded by the contract. J\Ioreover, some of the con tractor's certJent proved more quicksetting than that which had been already rejected, and an engineer officer of the Army, who ought to be a good judge, wrote to the architect to say that in his opinion the cement was probably not what the brands on the barrels indi- cated it to be. In private work the UJ;cbitect, under such circumstances, would simply order the contractor to remove the whole of the cement from the ground at once; but in 'Va.shington, whe1·e an immense amount of influence can. be brought to bear npon public officers, this is not so easy, and the contracter, together with those who sold him the condemned cements, appeared by counsel before the com- missioners, criticising the tests, and urging the acceptance of the cement with- out reg-ard to the architect's opinion of it, while a parag1·apb appeared in the press dispatches all over the country to the effoct that the architect of the Li- brary building had been detected in a scheme for keeping out., by arbitrary and unreasonable tests, cements of excellent quality, in order to compel the use in the building of a paPt.icular brand, in the sale of which he had a personal interest. Fortunately, the people of the United States have found in Mr. SmiU11neyer an architect who not only understands the art which he professes, but suffers neither :personal influence nor cruel calumny to turn him from the path of vigilant fidel· 1Ly to the trust reposed in him, and, whilo he makes in his part of the report no complaints or accusations in rega.rd to any person, nnd assumes no airs of in- jured professional dignity, all architects will cordially sympathize with him in his modest suggestion that considerations of generosity toward contractors ought not to justify the relaxation of_ requirements indispensable to sound construc- tion, and that for this reason the judgment of the architect in matters within his province ought to be sustained, even if be should seem at times too strict in the construction of his specifications. In this particular case, it certainly can not be said that a standard of 300 pounds tensile strength after seven days is too strict, and, in view of the danger from the swelling of some quick-setting ce- ments, the architect ought to have the privilege, which, indeed, the specification 

expressly reserves to him, of "subjecting the cement to such other tests as he mAy require," so that ~1r. Smithmeyer can hardly be accused of having been too strict in his interpretation of the specification. In one of the tests, which was made independently for the commissioners by Generall\1. C. Meigs, a question of considerable technical importance was 

brought up. Although the cement sent to the building fell below the required tensile strength, Gcnerall\1eigs expressed the opinion in his report to the com· missioners that it was "quite good enough for the foundations of the Library of Congress," and stronger than any cement known to him n.s having been used in the foundations of any United States building in ''V"ashington, anci went on to say tl.u\.t "these. concrete foundations are to be subjected to compressive strains only," and that "the tensile strength is used in the exaJpjnation of the mateda.l, 
1140 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. FEBRUARY 13, 

because the test is easier and cheaper, and not because the concret.e is expected to be pulled, exposed to tensile strains." - Now, although this is unquestionably the case with concrete foundations in 

soil of uniform resistance, it would not be so where the concrete lay upon a subsoil of unequal consistency. We once knew a cellar floor laid with concrete under the direction of a clever architect, in a building the walls of which stood on piles driven through a soft made ground to a firm stratum. If the concrete were !aiel on the made ground the settlement which was constantly going on in 

this would carry down the portions of the floor not attached to the walls, caus- ing cracks and inequalities of surface, and the architect, understanding this, 

solved the problem by making the concrete layer of sufficient thickness and of 

materials st1·ong enongh to form a bridge over the whole space between the 

walls capable of carrying all the weight that would be likely to come upon it, 

without any help from the ground beneath. 

.As in a less degree a.- concrete layer on ground which is soft in places and 

hm·d in others, may serve to relieve the soft spots by bridging on them, and 

thus carrying off the strain to the harder places around them, it would certainly appear that a considerable transverse strength was necessary in concrete under 

such conditions, which, as 1\Ir. Smithmeyer's report says, are those which una- voidably exist under the Library building. .As the transverse strain on a mass imperfectly supported below, and subjected to a vertical load is composed of a compressive strain in the upper portions, and a tensile strain in the lower part, 

and is limited by the capacity of the material for bearing the kind of strain to which it yields most readily, it is of great importance in such cases that. concrete which presents an almost unlimited r esist ance to compression should have a maximum tensile strength, as on this its power of sustaining a transverse strain 

entirely depends, and it seems to us that Mr. Smithmeyer was, U1erefore, per- fectly justitied in specifying a reasonable tensile strength for the cement to be 

used, and that he was bound to reject cement which would have gh·en him a concrete possessing only three-fourths of the strength which he belie\·ed neces- sary for givint?: perfect security against the strains which he considered likely· to come upon it. 

:M:r. VOORHEES. Mr. President, that is all I desire to say or submit at this time. 

Mr. HARRIS. I ask the indulgence of the Senator from Kansas [Mr. PLIDIB] who is entitled to the floor, and the Senator from New 

Hampshire [Mr. BLAIR], in charge of the educational bill, for about 

three minutes until I can ask the Senate to consider a little bill which 

bas passed the Senate four times, the last time being about ten days 

ago, but the House of Representatives about the same time passed this 

bill :md sent it to us, and it is now reported back and is Order of Busi- ness 278, being the bill (H. R: 19) for the relief of H. B. Wilson, administrator of the estate of William Tinder, deceased. It wilJ. not take 

-t.b1·ee minutes. I ask the consent of the Senate to consider it at this 

time. 

1\ir. CHANDLER. I ask the Senator to yield until the resolution 

offered by the Senator from Indiana [l\'fr. VOORHEES] is disposed of. It 

will take but a moment. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The regular business was laid before 

the Senate at 2 o'clock. Unanimous consent will be required to fmther consider the resolution. 

Mr. CHANDLER. The Senator from Indiana offered a resolution 

and asked for its present consideration, and I think it had better be 

acted upon at this time, and I will myself take but a moment if 1he 

Senate will indulge me. , The resolution calls for a report made on the 1st day of February by 

:Mr. Smithmeyer to the Library Commission, and asks that it may be 

transmitted to the Senate for the information of the Senate and of the 

commission, and it seems to me entirely proper and desirable that that 

resolution should be adopted at this time. 

The question as to the extravagance of the expenditures made by 

this commission was certainly raised by the Senator from Kansas [:Mr. 

PLUM13] on Thursday last, and has been very properly discussed by the 

Senator from Indiana [Mr. VOORHEES] to-day. The Senaoor from Indiana, however, has also introduced a question of the cement to be 

used for a foundation for the new Library building, and he discussed 

that question the other day, and has discussed it again to-day. Tills 

question was first raised by the report of the commission, which was presented to the Senate on the 9th of January and referred to 

the Select Committee on Additional Accommodations for the Library 

of Congress and ordered to be printed. On a subsequent day, on the 

24th of January, the contractor, Elias E. Barnes, presented a petition, 

which has been printed as Miscellaneous Document No. 40, which was referred to the same committee, in which he prays for an investigation 

of this question of cem.ent. There has been no meeting of the com- mittee, of which I have the honor to be a member, but this debate 

has been precipitated. As I h~ve said, the chairman of the committee 

has pretty distinctly expressed his opinion by designating this cement as "rotten cement." I think, therefore, that under the circumstances 

1t is expedient that there be an investigation made by the committee, 

the chairman of which is the Senator from Indiana. 

Ur. VOORHEES. The Senator from New Hampshire will allow me a moment. The Senator is aware of the reason why there has been 

some delay in calling the committee together. There was some irregularity as to the number, and there was a hitch that caused delay which 

would have been corrected sooner but for the illness of the Speaker of 

the House of Representatives. There will be no further delay on that 

subject, and we shall soon get together. · J'vlr. CH.A..t.'I"DLER. I understand the reason given by the Senator, 

an<l I find no fault because a meeting of tbe committee has not been 

called, and I find no fault because the Senator from Indiana has de~med 

it important to express his views with reference to this cement, forcertainly I would be the last person to desire that inferior cement should 

be used in the construction of this building. But inasmuch as the Senator has put on recorJ the opinion of the ·editor of the American Architect, I think in justice to the contractor who e petition is now before 

the committee, there should also be given to the Senate the letter of 

Mr. Howard Fleming in reference to this cement, which I will ask to 

have read. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the reading of 

the letter? If not it will be read. 

Mr. VOORHEES. Whose letter is it? 

Mr. CHANDLER. It is from Mr. Howard Fleming. I have no desire to delay the Senate. If there is no objection it may l.le printed in 

the RECORD without reading . Ur. VOORHEES. It may argue myself unknown to say that I do 

not know who Mr. Howard Fleming is. I should like to be adyised of 

his relation to this subject. 

Mr. CHANDLER. I think he has a knowledge of this cement, and 

I suppose quite as much knowledge as the editor of the Architect, whose 

opiuion bas been put in by the Senator from Indiana. Mr. VOORHEES. I have no ohjection to having it read. 

Mr. CHANDLER. I do not desire to have it read if unanimous con· sent may be given for printing it without reading. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. If there be no objection the paper will 

be printed in the RECORD in connection with the Senaoor's remarks. 

The Chair hears no objection. 

The letter is as follows: 

To the EdUors of the .American .Architect: NEW YORK, February 4, 1888. 

DEAR Sms: In your issue of this date you rema rk upon the report presented 

by Mr. J. L. Smithmeyer to the United States Senate o n January 4, which gives 

his reasons for the rejection of the Portland cement for the concrete foundations 

of the Congressional Library building, and your editorial has the color of an indorsement of this action. There are two sides to everycontroversy,aud the contractor for the worl!: has 

yet to be hem·d from. 

Knowing something of the statu qtw and assured that you net upon the principle , l<'iat justitia ruat·crelum, I trust you will &"ive this communication equal 

pnblicity t-o vindicate the reputation and integnty of those affected. The first lot of cement purchased by the contractor Wl.j,'! Black Cross Portland, as it liad pro"\'"ed a safe cement for concrete and was indot· ed by eminent engi- neers and contractors. The report made by the inexperienced person employed 

by Mr. Smithmeyer to test cement being incorrect, it was not considered, and tests were made by Capt. T. ,V. Symons, United States Engineer Corps, and .A. G. 

!11cnocal, of the Washington navy-yard, which demonstrated that the cementex- eeeded the architect's specifications, namely, to stand o. tensile strain of 300 

pounds on the square inch at age of seven days, and leave not more than lOper cent. residuum on a sieve of2,500 meshes to the square inch. Qaptain Symons 

reported that the cement set in five minutes, and therefore it should be con- demned. 

Mr. Menocal reported that the cement set in twenty-five minutes, and pas ed no opinion. Investigation of the methods employed for testing the set of cement by Captain Symons proved that the gauger was not accustomed to test Port- land, his time being more e3pecially devoted to testing the slow-setting natural 

cements, of which large quantities are used in the District. After mixing up sufficient Black Cross to make a. bar briquette and pressing it into the mold, it was shaken out upon absorptive paper, the en tire operation cousu ming less than 

three minutes. The cement was then tapped with the finger,and when it failed t-o take an impression it was considered set. On this method of testing for set the ceme.at is condemned by Mr. Smithmeyer. An expert, or one familiar with cement·, recognizes thnt to shake cement out on absorptive material draws out the moisture quicker than is intended, and a scale will form sufficient to prevent an impression being made by the finger-tip. 

Further, the warmth of the finger will tend to dry out the cement at that poillt. It was suggested that if the quick. setting of the cement was due to faulty manu- factu re the tensile strength at longe r date would give some indication of it, 

and therefore further briquettes were made up at the same time and broken at seYen days and thirty-five days with the result of 356 pounds and 501 pounds, re- spectively, on the square inch, conclusively proving that the set registered was incorrect and that the cemen~ was safe and sound. In the report submitted by 

the architect no mention is made of this fact, which is on record. The contract- ors not being permitted to use Black Cross, and another cement that the archi- tect ordered them to obtain being also condemned, it became necessary to pre- sent the matter last November before the Library commis ion. The chairman, 

Secretary Lamar, decided that General I\!. C . .1\Ieigs should test and report on the cement, for which his practical knowledge well fitted him. 

On December 2 General Meigs reported in the following words: "Tlie Black- cross cement has a tensile strength of 459 pounds to the square inch at age of se>en days, much more than the specifications require. In regard to rate of 

setting I find it as ·intimated on block 12, a qltick-setting cement, s~itfening- in 

twenty-five minutes after beginning to temper it with water. Thjs morning I tempered a batch of it, and after waiting some time took it downstair~ to my office. After mixing it in the second story I forgot t-o look at it again till after a lapse of eighty-four minutes. It then took some pressure to make a distinct 

impression on it with a three-sixteenths inch brass wire, bu~ it was easily writ- ten on with the point of a penknife. I am of the opinion that skillful workmen will be able to make a strong concrete of Black Cross cement." 

The cement, therefore, did not fall below the required tensile strength, as the 

types unfortunately state in your editorial, and when it can be written upon with the point of a knife eighty-four minut.es after mixing, it is not a. quick-setting and dangerous cement. . 1 

A request to permit the placing of some concrete made_ with this cement ac- cording t-o specifications in situ A.nd its action watched was refused by the archi- tect, aUhough accompanied with the offer that if the concrete was condemned 

it should be replaced with cement he selected. ..AB cold weather was approaching, when no work could be done, the concrete would have ::~evera.l months of 

service t-rial, and the rejection of the offer was unreasonable. 

When this cement is being used by the contractors for the Croton aqueduct 

(all of which is subjected to a rigid test by the engineers, as it is employed in 

situa tions exacting more than is required in the Congressional Library foundations), and not a single complaint has been made of the 25,000 barrels already delivered, it is incredible thatrit is the worthless material the arabitect imputes it to be, and there is foundation for the assertions which your article intimates 

have been circulated in press dispatches all ove r the country. The reputation of a well-known manufacturer and the honor of an importing merchant are not to be lightly impeached, even hy the political influence that has been brought to bear in this case, which is dero~atory to the profession that should be orna- mented by the architect of the Congressional Library building. 

Yours, truly, HOWARD FLEMING. 
1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 1141 

Mr. CHANDLER. Now I hope the resolution will be passed. 

The resolution was agreed to. -

l\Ir. PLUMB. I wish to say in regard to the matt€r to which the 

Senator from Indiana [Mr. VooRHEES] has just addressed himself, that 

I can not now respond to the careful statement he has presented, so as to do justice to the subject. 

I understand him to maintain, as the argument of the commission, 

that there has been no extravagance, no unnecessary expenditure of 

public money in connection with the Library building up to this date. 

Upon that point, without having the details at h:md, I take issue with 

him, and I think I shall be able to show to the Senate some time when 

I shall have had a chance to examine his statement that he is mistaken, 

and that not only has there been extravagance, but incompetence, and 

that if we are desirous of having a Library building, as I know he 

sincerely is, we shall have to make a clean out from beginning to end of 

the entire establishment now connected with that construction. That, 

at all events, is my belief, and I think the sooner it is done the better. 

But I will not detain the Senate any further on this point now. It 

bas been arranged that I should say what I have to say about the pending order, being the educational bill at this time. 

MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE. 

A message from theHouseofRepresentatives by Mr. CLARK, its Clerk, 

announced that the House bad concurred in the amendment of the Senate to the bill (H. R. 5514) to amend section 4883 o the Revised Statutes. 

ENROLLED BILLS SIG ~ED. 

The message also announced that the Speaker of the House bad signed 

the following enrolled bills; and they were thereupon signed by the 

President pro tempore: 

A bill (H. R. 297 4) for the relief of John Snoddy; 

A bill (S. 1754) for the relief of Henry H. Marmaduke, of· Missouri; 

ancl 

A bill (S. 1022) to relinquis~ the interest of the United Sta.tes in 

certain lands in Kansas. 

WILLB.M TINDER. 

r. HARRIS. Now I renew myrequest that Order ofBusiness278 

be considered. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee asks unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Order of 

Business 278, House bill19, the title of which will be stated. 

The CHIEF CLERK. A bill (II. R. 19) for the relief of H. B. Wilson, 

administrator of the estate of ~illiam Tinder, deceased. 

By unanimous consent, the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill. It provides for the payment to H. B. Wilson, 

administrator oftheestateofWilliam Tinder, deceased, of $5,000, in full 

satisfaction of the claims of the estate of Tinder for money paid by his 

estate upon a judgment of forfeiture upo~ a bond for the appearance 

of one Evans, who was charged with crime by indictment :ln the circuit court of the United States for the district of West Tenne~ee, and 

who was afterward captured by the administrator and returned to the 

custody of the court and convicted and punished for the crime with 

which he was charged, 

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendme:pt, ordered to a third reading, read the third time, and passed. 

ADULTERATION OF FOOD. 

Mr. MORGAN submitted the following resolution; which 'was ordered to lie on the table and be printed: 

Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary are directed to inquire and re- port1. Whether Congress has power to enact laws to prohibit within the States the adulteration of food. 2. Whether, if such power exists, it results from and is a part of the power of tax:atioc,or whether it results from and is confined to the power to regulate commerce between the States or with foreign countries, or whether it is a dis- tinctive power otherwise granted to Con.!rress in the Constitution. 

POWERS OF PACIFIC RAILWAY COMMITTEE. 

Mr. FRYE submitte~ the following resolution; which wasreferred to 

the Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the 

Senate: 

Resolved, That the select committee, to which was referred the message of the President of the United States, transmitting the reports of the commissioners appointed by the Presidt>nt to examine into the affairs of the Pacific railways, 

appointed unde1· resolution of the Senate of January 25, 1888, in pursuing their investigation, shall have power to send for persons and papers, to administer the necessary oaths, to employ a stenographer and such clerical and other as- sistance as it may deem necessary; and that said committee have aut.hority to cause its proceedings and testimony taken to be printed from time to time, as it may see fit, exclusively for its use; and such expense as may result from said investigation shall be paid out of the contingent fund of the Senate, upon vouch- ers to be approv d by the chairman of said committee and by the Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate. 

AID TO CQ:\!MON. SCHOOLS. 

The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, resumed the consideration of the bill (S. 371) to aid in the establishment and temporary support of common schools, the pending question being on the amendment 

proposed by Mr. PLUMB. 

Mr. PLUMB withholds his remarks for revision. [See Appendix.] 

Mr. REAGAN. If no other Senator desires to oc~npy the floor on the pending bill at this time, I ask that it be informally laid aside, so 

that I may submit some remarks upon the subject of the resolution offeren by the Senator from Kansas [Mr. PLD'MB]. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Texas asks unan- imous consent that. the unfinished business may be informally laid aside 

to enable him to request the Senate to proceed to the consideration of 

the resolution offered by the Senator from Kansas on a former day. 

Ur. BLAIR. If no one desires to speak against the bill, I have no 

objection; but if any one desires the floor to oppose the passage of the 

bill, I, of course, should object. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection to the request 

made by the Senator from Texas? The Chair hears none. 

P. B. SINNOTT. . 

Jlrfr. MITCHELL. The Senatorfrom Texas kindly yields to me that 

I may ask unanimous consent that the bill (S. 570) for the relief P. B. 

Sinnott, late Indian agent at Grande Ronde agency, State of Oregon, be 

recommitted to the Committee on Claims, which meets to-morrow. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The bill will be recommitted to the 

Committee on Claims, if there Le no objection~ The C!iair lays before 

the Senate sundry bills from the House of Representatives for reference. 

HOUSE BILLS REFERRED. 

The bill (H. n. 360) for the relief of Smith R. ·Mershon was read 

twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Claims. 

The bill (H. R. 309) granting a pension to Mrs. Esther B. Hayford was read twice by its title, and referred t9 the Committee on Pensions. 

The bill (H. R. 4909) for the relief of the estate of C. N. Briggs, deceased, was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on 

Claims. 

THE MAJL SERVICE. 

The Senate resumed the consideration of the resolution submitted by ~fr. PLUMB January 30, 1888; which was read, as follows: Whereas there have been for many months serious complaints as to the inef- ficient character of the mail service, especially in the 'Vest and South, and the same continue, indicating that the trouble is of a permanent character: Resolt:ed, That the Committee on Post-offices and Post-Roads be instructed to make thorough inquiry into the cause of such inefficient mail service, andre- port to the Senate their conclusions thereon, with suggestion as to remedy. 

Mr. REAGAN. Ur. President, the serious arraignment which haS 

been made of the Post-Office Department, and of the management of 

the postal service, by several Senators, in the course of the discussion 

of the resolution under consideration, offered by the Senator from Kan ass [Jiir. PLUMB], surprised me, as I bad not before heard of such complaints, and has caused me to look into the subject perhaps more closely 

than I otherwise should have done, in order that I migh_} ascertain 

whether these charges and complaints were justified by facts or not. 

And I feel that it is alike due to the late Postmaster-General and his 

subordinates and to the public that I should present to the Sena~e 

some o( the facts which have come to my knowledge by these inquiries. 

From these it will doubtless appear either that Senators have been 

misled by false clamor, or that, in consequence of the conspicuously 

impro•ed service aud economies of that Department, which is so well 

C..'tlculated to reflect credit on and secure popular favor to the present 

administration of the Government., it has been thought necessary, as a political move, to offset these beneficial effects by denouncing the man- agement of the postal service as inefficient and unsatisfactory. 

The number of these attacks and the factthattheyaresimultaneously 

made in both branches of Congress, and by Republican newspapers in 

chorus in different parts of the country, indicate that it. is a partisan 

political move rather than an effort to secure better and cheaper service, 

and an effort to break the force of the contrast between the manner in 

which the service of that Department is now being conducted and the manner in which it has been conducted under preceding, Republican 

ad ministrations. 

For a better understanding of the subject I will call attention to some of the charges which have been so made, premising that most of the 

charges have been made on the irresponsible and unverified statements 

of newspapers, and -all these with one exception Republican papers, not 

supposed to be specially friendly to the present Administration. 

These charges are in effect that the service in the West and Southwest, and especially in Kansas and Nebraska, was being conducted in 

utter disregard of the rights of the people; that notwithstanding the 

great increase of population the stupid attempt on the part of the Administrati6n to make a record for economy bas cut down the clerical 

force necessary to properly distribute the mails at laJ"ge' offices and in 

the mail trains; that appeals to the Department at Washington for adequate help to take care of this important public service are unheeded; 

that the service was never so bad, nor so badly administere~ in the last 

eighteen years as at present; that the mail service of the country, and 

especially of the West, is utterly demoralized; that a railway postal 

clerk bad refused to recei•e and carry a package of daily newspape~; 

that the new appointees are inexperienced and inefficient, etc., etc. 

I propose to inquire whether these charges are true or false. 

And first, I will take the case of the publishers of the Daily Gazette, 
~. 

1142 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. FEBRUARY 13, 

of "Kansas, whose. complaint, presented by the Senator from Kansas 

[Mr. P~UMB], is thata postal railway clerk refused toreceivepa<!kages 

of that paper direct from the office of publication. 

I ask the Secretary to read first a communication from the chief clerk 

of the railway mail service, and then the indorsements at the bottom, 

giving the names and rank of the officers. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Secretary will read as requested, 

if there be no objection. 

The Secretary read as follows: 

RAILWAY :MAIL SERVICE, OFFICE OF CHIEF CLERK, Kamas Oity, Mo., Januar-y 24, 1888. 

Sm: I am advised that on your trip leaving Kansas City, January 20, p.m., the entire edition of the Abilene Daily Gazette for dispatch on your train was refused by your crew, although the proper certificate from the postmaster at that place accompanied the papers. I desire a. full explanation of the matter with the return of this letter. 

Very respectfully, 

L. w. TuMANS, 

Railway Postal Clerk, Kansas Oity, Mo. 

G. W . HUNTER, 

Ohuf Cle-~·k. 

_llndorsement.] 

KANsAS CITY, Mo., January 27,1888. 

Sm: In General Order No. ill, issued by Superintendent R. M. Thomas, sec- tion 1 calls particular attention to a portion of section. 980 of the Postal Laws and - Regulations of 1887, which reads:· "Postal clerks are prohibited from receiving newspapers and periodicals from publishers and news agents unless the same are accompanied by a certificate from the postmaster that the postage has been paid. The papers should be weighed either by the postmaster or a clerk em- ployed in his office. If papers are brought to car even accompanied by a certifi- cate from the postmaster, where clerks have any reason to doubt their having been weighed as stated they will at once report to this office. Under no circum- stance should they be received without a. certificate." On January 16 you issued an order calling attention to the section above quoted and requesting all clerks under your charge to make a. prompt report to you of what post-offices along our respective lines papers were received direct from publishing house. On my trip leaving Kansas City, Mo., January 16, I made inquiry of themes- senger delivering this publication at the car as to where it was weighed. He replied at the Gazette office. In making my 1·eport of this fact to you,I also attached the certificate of weight, also calling your attention to the fact that it was merely a certificate of the amount of weight, and not a certificate showing that the postage bad been paid. 

This was not complying with section 980 of the Postal Laws and Regulations, but in direct violation, and would refuse to accept this publication under the usual certificate, unless otherwise ordered. Not receiving any order from you or SuperintendentR. M. Thomas to accept them upon presentation of that certificate, I deemed it my duty t~ refuse them until the law was properly complied with, and therefore refused the publica- tion on my trip west, January 20. Very respectfully, L. W. TUMANS, 

Railway Postal Clerk. K. 0. ELLIS. 

N. B.- Before refusing papers I asked messenger where they were weighed. He t·eplied at Gazette office. I then asked him if the postage had been paid and he replied, No. 

GEORGE W. HUNTER, 

Chief Olerk Railtoay Mail Se1vice. 

Mr. REAGAN. I will rea-d a portion of section 980 of the Postal 

Laws and Regulations, 1887, as follows: 

Clerks are prohibited from receiving newspapers and periodicals from pub- lishers and news agents unless the same are accompanied by a certificate from the postmaster that the postage has been paid. 

That is the way these publications come directly from the office of 

publication. I now ask the Secretary to read the communication which 

I send to the desk. 

The Secretary read as follows: 

RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE, OFFICE OE SUPERINTENDENT, 

St. Louis, Mo., January 31, 1888. 

SIR: I inclose you herewith, for your information, some papers concerning the mailing of the Daily Gazette, published at Abilene, Kans., direct on postal cars in accordance with the provisions of section 980, Postal Laws and Regulations. You will notice that on January 20, clerk iri charge, L. W. Tumans, Kansas City and Denver railway post-office, refused to accept two sacks of this paper on account of the required certificate not being furnished. I have advised the postmaster at Abilene, by letter to-day, that the sample certificate inclosed is not o. proper one, and that he should arrange a new form in a~ordance with the r equirements of section 980, certifying that the postage has been prepaid. As to the clipping from the Gazette of January 20, and the accompanying correspond- ence, I do not think it necessary to offer any explanations or report in connection with the same more than to state that when the proper certificates are arranged for the postmaster at Abilene there will be no difficulty whatever about having the papers promptly received at the postal car. . Very respectfully, 

Ron. T. E. NASH, 

Gene1·at Superintende-nt, Washington, D. 0. 

R. M. THOMAS, 

Superintendent. 

Mr. REAGAN. In a separate paragraph in the same editorial column of the Daily Gazette, from which the Senator from Kansas quoted, 

is a separate editorial paragraph, in which it is said, ''The incompetent Republican route agents are making the mail service a. farce." If 

this paper is a good witness against the Department it ought to be con- sidered equally trustworthy as against Republican office-holders. The 

papers just read show that the complaint of that paper was the result 

of the failure of the publishers to pay the postage on their packages, 

and not because of any fault in the service. And to show the vigilance 

of the Department in correcting irregularities when complaints are made, 

I call attention to the fact that complaint in this case was made to the 

Department on the 22d of January; that an investigation was ordered 

on the 24th, and completed on the 31st of that month, the day on which 

the Senator from Kansas introduced his resolution for this investiga- tion. 

In reference to the complaint of the late Mr. Rounds, mentioned by 

the Senator from Nebraska [Mr. MANDERSON], I give the following 

statement from the Post-Office Department: 

In rel~tion t~ the letter written to Senator MA-1<--nERSON by the late S. P. Rounds, on June 16, 1887, !:lr. Rounds made complaint to the general superin- tendent of railway mail service that his paper was not being properly distrib- uted, and the matter was immediately investigated by an assistant superintend- ent of this service who has been connected with the Department for a great many years, who visited Omaha and carefully examined into the workings of that post-office and the mail routes in that neighborhood. In his report, dated July 6, he stated: 

"Until a recent date, within five or six weeks, the errors made in the mailing 

department of the Omaha Republican were numerous, and it was not an infre- quent thing for our clerks to find in the mn.ils large numbers of single-wrapped 

packages of that paper without address. The young ma.n employed by that company became wearied by the errors reported and requested Chief Clerk 

Griffin, of the railway mail service, to throw them into the waste-basket. A new clerk was employed by the company with no better success, and recently another change was made. "' "' * We have carefully revised the galleys of both daily and weekly, in the latter finding a few more than sixty errors, which 

have been conected." 

When this report came in, the general superintendent advised Mr. Taylor, the secretary and treasurer of that company, what had been done, and asked him to report the matter if there were any more complaints. 

So it will be seen that the complaints rested distinctly and solely on the inefficiency ofthe mailing clerk oftheOmaho. paper whichcom- plained. o,fthe irr~arity on the part of the Post-Office Department. 

This statement adds that "no complaint has been made from the 

Capital, of Topeka, Kans., on which an investigation might have been 

based. Nor has any been received from the secretary and business 

manager of the Kansas City Journal." 

So these complaints seem to have come to Congress, and not to the 

Post-Office Department, where they can be corrected. In a great department like the Post-Office Department, with over 100,000 officers and employes, carrying the mails for 60,000,000 of peo- ple, occupying a territory of more thl\fi- 3,000,000 square miles, carry- ing 5,834,690,875 parcels over 85,264,035 miles of mail routes traveled, 

excluding river and ocean mail service, during the last fiscal year, that 

there should be some cases of irregularity is but to admit thn.t this 

service is performed by human agency and is not therefore perfect. 

But I shall present to yon facts which it seem to me show that on the 

whole the postal service of this country is in better condition, carried on with greater regularity, and at relatively less cost now, than at any 

time heretofore. And I think it due to Mr. Vilas, the late Postmaster-General, to say that, with some knowledge of the history of 

that Department, I doubt if he has ever had an equal in clear concep· tion of its uses, merits, defects, and management, unless I may except 

two of his predecessors, Amos Kendall and J ndge McLean. 

If we ~ver reach the time when there areno complaints against postmasters, school-teachers, and millers, I think we may then congratulate 

ourselves that the millennium has come. The report of the Postmaster-General shows tbat on July 1, 1886, 

there were in operation 123,745.15 miles of r-aHway carrying the mails; 

that this was increased to 130,958.53 miles on the 1st of July, 1887; 

that this was further increased, so that·on the 31st'"ofJanuary, 1888, the 

mails were being carried over 136,207.72 miles of railroad. There are nine divisions of the postal railway se-rvice, wh1ch I shall 

'3pecify, because I shall have occasion to contrast the amount of service put upon each of these divisions by the Post-Office Department. They are: 1. 

First division. -comprising the New England States; George E. Da~e, super• intendent, Boston, Mass. Seco-nd division.-Comprising New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela- ware, and the Eastern Shore of :rtfaryla.nd; R. C. Jackson, superintendent, New York,N. Y. Thi1·d division.-Comprising Maryland (excluding the Eastern Shore), Vir· ginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia; 0. W. Vick- ery, superintendent, Washington, D. C. Fou1·th di'Vision.-Comprising South Carolina, Georgia, Florida., Alabama., Mis· sissippi, and Louisiana; B.l\1. Turner, superintendent, Atlanta, Ga. Pifth division.-Comprising Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee; Joseph B. Gwin, superintendent, Cincinnati, Ohio. . Si:J;th divis-ion.-Comprising Wisconsin, illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, 1\Hnnesota, upper peninsula of Michigan, Dakota, and Wyoming; James E. White, super- intendent, Chicago, Ill. 

Seventh division.-Comprising Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Tex~. Colorado, New Mexico, and Indian Territory; Ernest ,V. Warfield, superinlendent.,:St. Louis Mo. Eighth division.-comprising California., Neva-da, Oregon, Alaska, Arizona, 

Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Washington; James L. Wilder, superintendent, San Francisco, Cal. 

lo·inth division.-Comprising the through mails via Buffalo, Suspension Bridge, 

Toledo, and Detroit, the lines of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, and the lower peninsula of Michigan; W. G. Lo>ell, superintendent, 

Cleveland, Ohio. z. 1\Ioses, assistant superintendent, attached to the office of the Third Assist- ant Postmaster-General, Division of Registration. 

Nebraska is in the sixth division and Kansas is in the seventh. 

Of the increase of7,213.38 miles of railway mail service during the 

fiscal year ending June 30, 1887, 2,481.64 miles were in the division 

which contains Nebraska, and 2,648 miles were in the division which 

includes Kansas. Of the increase of 7,213.38· miles of railway mail 

service for that year, the two divisions above named were allowed 
/ 1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. -1143· 

5,129.64 miles, ·while the other seven divisions were increased but 

2,083. 74 miles, those two divisions getting more than five-sevenths of 

the whole increase. 

The increase of the miles of railway mail service during the seven 

months which ended January 31, 1888, was 5,249.19 miles. Of this, 

2,059.72 miles were in the Nebraska division and 2,135.36 miles were in the Kansas division, making 4,314.63 miles in these two divisions, 

while t.here was only an increase in this service of 934.56 miles in the 

other seven divisions. 

It thus appears that the increase in the postal railway service in nineteen months, ending January 31, 1888, was 12,462.57 miles, of which 

9,824. 72 miles were in the two divisions which embrace Nebraska and 

Kansas, while there were but 2,637.85 miles of increase in the other 

seven divisions. 

Now, for a better understanding of what these figures mean, it is 

proper to state that divisions 6 and 7 of the railway mail service em- brace the following States, namely: Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, :Minnesota, upper peninsula of Michigan, Dakota, Wyoming, 

Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, and the Indian Territory. These lie entirely in theW est, and show the very great 

preponderance of increase of that class of service in the West over the 

other sections of the country. 

The percentage of increase of the railway mail service for the last 

nineteen months is 10.07. 

2. 

Table showing tlte increase in tlte mileage of railway post-office service, by 

divisions, fron~ July 1, 1886, to Janua1-y 31, 1888. 

Divisions. 

Incr Increase in 

Total mile Total mile- d ineru:i' Total mile- seven age June age June :l y~a:- age Janu- months of 

30,1886. 30, 1887. 1886-'B7. ary 31, 1888. current 

Firstdivision ............ , 7,168.58 7,184..24 

Second division........ 14,105.67 14,328. SO Thirddivision .......... 6, 560.56 6,827.58 

Fourth division.. ..... 11,595.51 12~076. 14 

Fifth division........... 19,342. 25 19, &"2. 75 

Sixth division........... 31,263.53 33, 7'hl.l7 Seventh division...... 20, 3-10. 83 22, 988. 83 Eighth division........ 6, 344. 43 6, 779. 61 

Ninth division ......... 7, 023.79 7, 195. 31 

Total ............... ,123, 74.5.15 1 130, 958.53 1 

year. 

15. 66 7,184. 24 1 ................. . 223. 23 14, 401.72 72. 82 267.02 6, 973. 22 145. 64 

480.63 12,527. 36 451. 22 

490. 50 20, 044. 99 212. 24 2, 481. 6-! 35, 804. 89 2, 059. 72 2, 648. 00 25,124.19 2, 135. 36 

435. 18 6, 951. 80 172.19 

1TI.52 7,195.31 ................ .. 

7, 213.381136, 207.721 5, 249.19 

Percentage of increase in mileage during last nineteen months, 10. 07. 

These fa-cts I submit as a full and overwhel!!ling answer to the 

charges of neglect by the Department to provide sufficient railway 

po tal facilities for the West and Southwest. And we have heard of 

no complaints as to the insufficiency of the star-route service. 

I also submit a table, marked 3, giving the States and Territories in 

which the largest increase in the railway mail service was putinoperation during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887, and for the seven 

months from July 1, 1887, to January 31, 1888. - The total increase for 

the fiscal year which ended June 30, 1887,was 5,069.44 miles. Of 

this increase Kansas received 1,393.06 miles and Nebraska received 

754.66 miles, each having a larger increase than any other State, the 

two together receiving more than two-fifths of the increase for those 

eleven States and the Indian Territory for that year. The increase of 

the railway postal service for these States and Territories for the seven months which ended January 31, 1888, was 6,021.61 miles. Ofthis 

increase Kansas received 1,350.66 miles and Nebrruka 965.72 miles, 

the two together receiving2,326.38 miles, being about two-fifths of the 

whole increase in these States for that period, showing also an increase 

of4,474.10 miles of railway mail service in those two States in the 

nineteen months which ended January 31, 1888. While this increase 

shows the prosperity and rnpid growth and development of those States, 

it also shows that the Post-Office Department was keeping the increase 

of postal facilities up with their splendid progress. 

States and Territories. 

3. 

Railroad service Railroad service 

established dur- established from Total miles. 

ing year ended July 1, 1887, to June 30,1887. January 31,1888. 

llffles. Miles. 

Indian Ten·itory................. .............................. 321.91 321.91 

Arkansas........................... .............................. 154. S6 154.96 Colorado............................. ...... ............ ............ 368. 45 368. 45 

illinois................................ 576. 48 468. 74 1, 045. 22 Minnesota ......................... 417.75 229. 47 647.22 Iowa................................... 335. 35 413. 20 748. 55 Texas .. .. .. .. .. ... .. . . ....... •••. .... 603. 68 602. 33 1, 206. 01 Florida................................ 271.00 66.52 337.52 Kansas................................ 1, 393.06 l, 350. 66 2, 743. 72 

Nebraska .. .. ........ ............... 754. 66 965. 72 1, 720. 38 

Dakota........................... .... 44.9. 13 1, <Y79. 66 1, 528. 79 

Oregon............................... 268.33 None. 268.33 1--------------·:--------------!-----·----- Total.......................... 5,069.44"1 6,021.621 ll,091.06 

I also present tables5 and 6. Table 5 shows the total length of mail 

routes in the States of Kansas and Nebraska; the length of tlle star 

routes; the length of the railway routes; the number of miles traveled 

on star routes; the number of miles traveled on milroad routes, and 

the total of miles traveled in both methods in those two States during 

the fiscal year which ended June 30, 1887. 

Table 6 shows the amounts paid to railway postal clerks and mail 

messengers; the cost of transportation; the total cost of the service, and excess of postal expenditures of all kinds over postal receipts of all 

kinds, in thosetwoStates forthefiscalyearwhichendedJune30, 1887. 

These two tables explain themselves. 

5. 

Mail transportation in Kansas and Nebraska, June 30, 1887. 

States. ll~~~~ Number of miles traveled annually. 

of routes. 

Kansas ............ 

1

5, 391. 63 

Nebra.ska ........ IO, 094.72 

Star. Railroad. 

Star. 

9, 217.25 16,174.38 13,220,558.50 

5, 841. 52 4, 253. 20 11, 6¥· 228. 27 

Railroad. ~ Total. 

5, 882, 086. 75 ' 102, 645. 25 

3, 880, 530. 36 5, 524, 7'"0>8. 63 

6. 

Cost of mail transportation in Kansas and Nebraska, June 30, 1887. 

Payment to railway Cost of 

postalclerks transporta.-

and mail tion. 

States. 

messengers. 

Total. 

Excess of 

postal ex- penditures 

of all kinds over postal receipts of all kinds. 

Kansas .................. _......... $111,358.75 S777,315.67 $888,674.42 $269,189.77 

Nebraska........................ Ill, 943.49 002,607.58 1, 014,551. <Y7 592,258.05 

Total. ..................... -.................... , .................... -.. -.. -.. -.. -.. -.... -.-.. -.. -.. ·l--66-1-,-44.-7-.-82 

. 

I submit the following table, marked G, which shows the number 

of pieces of mail matter distributed by railway postal clerks during the 

fiscal year ending June 30, 1885, June 30, 1886, and June 30, 1887, in 

each of the railway divisions, and the aggregates for each year, showing the great and steady increase of said matter to be handled: 

G. 

Statement showinq tlte number of pieces of ordinary '1'11ail matter distributed 

by milway pof5t-ojjice clerks during the fllJcal years of1884-'85, 1885-'86, 

and 1886-'87. 

Divisions. 

First division ................................. .. Second division ............................... . Third division ............................... .. 

~ht~i~i:f~~~:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Sixth division ................................. . Seventh division ............................ .. Eighth division ............................... . Ninth division ............................... .. 

1 1884-'85. 

397, 920,790 

610,714,650 

259, 212, 200 

362, 805, 340 

877,192,590 

993, 733, 060 773, 284, 050 162, 504, 570 

510, 692, 150 

1885-'86. 

437, 864, 610 

665, 999, 985 267, 855,940 

378, 687, 860 933, 003, 320 1, <Y72, 872, 890 

84.0, 648, 300 

174,304,460 

558, 284, no 

1886-'87. 

455, 635, 755 

730, 048, 880 299, 048, 780 

419, 665, 270 1, 024., 865,900 

1, 191,179,190 

937, 570, 330 181, 870, 310 594, 806, 460 

Total........................................ 4, 948, 059, 400 5, 329, 521, 475 5, 834, 690, 875 

Increase 1886 over 1885,381,462,075; per cent. of increase, 7.70. Increase 1887 over 1886, 505,169,400; per cent. of increase, 9.47. 

Whatever of irregularities may have occurred in the service in these 

States, it is apparent the Department has endeavored to give them all 

needed facilities. And the same is true of the other Western and Southwestern States, and indeed of all the States. I am indebted to General 

Knott, Second Assistant Postmaster-General, for the following statement of the fast mails for the supply of Kansas and Nebraska and the 

West and Southwest: 

In January, 1885, there was established on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, in connection with the fast mail from New York to Chicago, a fast 

mail from Chicago to the Union Pacific Transfer opposite Omaha. The addi~ 

tional cost incurred in consequence of the establishment of this fast mail from 

Chicago to Omaha is illustrated by a comparison of the figures of the cost of the 

service on that road between those two points before and after the fast mail was established. The pay per annum of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad between those two points, Chicago and Omaha, prior to the establishment of 

this fa-st mail was $176,968.69. A reweighing and a readjustment of the p ay of this 

road took place immediat-ely after the establishment of this fast mail, in pursu- ance of the arrangement between the Department and the road, and it resulted 

in an increase in the cost of railway mail transportation on that road of $1.95,- 370.91, the total cost being $3i21

339.60. In March, 1887, that road was weighed in regular order in the quadrenrual weighing which took place in the section em- bracing that road, and the result of the adjustment of the pay thereon between 

those two points on such weighing was an increase in the pay of that road of 

$61,678, the total pay being fixed at $434,017.62, showing that the additional cost of that fast mail thus established and kept up by the Department under con• 
' . 

' 0 

1144 UONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. FEBRUARY 13, 

tract with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad from the period ofits 

establishment to the date of its last weighing was $257,048.93. In the benefits of the extraordinary mail facilities thus obtained by this large 

expenditure for this fast mail Nebraska participates, and largely, although in 

the above estimate of the cost of the service in that State on June 30 last, in 

the report of the .Auditor, no share of the cost of this extraordinary service is 

apportioned to that State. -

THE INCREASE OF POST.\L FACILITIES SECURED TO KANSAS AND NEBRASKA TIY 

THIS FAST MAIL. 

The establishment of this fast mail from Chicago to Union Pacific Trans- fer, the causes which led to it, and the ex~rao!dinary additiona~ o:ai_l fa:cil~ties 

which it furnished to the States and Territories west of the MISSlSSIPPI River was the subject of a communication addressed byRon. 'William F. Vilas to the 

President of t-he Senate under date of March 8, 1886, inclosing a letter from this 

office to the Postmaster-General, which enters fully ints the question and exhibits in a very clear light the postal advantages accruing toNebraskaand Kansas and the States and Territories west of these States in consequence of the establishment of this line. Its advantages may be summarized in t-hestatementthat 

the mails for Kansas and Nebrasko. were expedited twenty-four hours, Kansas receiving the benefit of this expedition of the mails over the Kansas City, St. Joe and Council Bluffs Railroad from Union Pacific Transfer, and Nebraska. by 

the Union Pacific Railroad and the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad in 

Nebraska and their connections. In .further explanation of the details of this 

fast mail service and the mail facilities furnished by it to these populous com- munities I herewith append as a part of this letter a copy of Senate Executive Document No. 88, Forty-ninth Congress, first session, containing the communication referred to. The efforts then made by this office for the improvement of 

the service and the extension of increased mail facilities to the region of the 

country west of the Mississippi River, and in that document fully set forth, ha ¥e been continued by this office with undiminished vigor and without any abate- ment t-o this day, as is abundantly demonstrated by the facts and figures above 

stated and hereinafter set forth. 

FAST MAIL TO ST. LOUIS AND KANSAS CITY. 

On ?.larch 12, 1887, Postmaster-General Vilas contracted with the Pennsyl- ' 'ania and the Missouri Pacific Railroad Companies for a fast mail from New York via Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Columbus, and Indianapolis, to St. Louis and Kans~s City. This fast line connects at Harrisburg with mails from Baltimore 

and Washington. The additional annual rate of cost of this fast mail is $199/~95.20, 

not including the increased cost for additional railway mail <:Jerks reqmred to work the heavy mails carried on this line. With this fast mail line the Atchison, 

Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad makes close connection at Kansas City and gives an expedition of from twelve to twenty-four hours, equal to a full commercial 

day to the mails throughout the States of Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. 

The' mails for South and Southwest Missouri, Texas, and Indian Territory are also ad~·anced from six to twelve hours by this mail. By the Bw·Iington and 

Missouri River Railroad in Nebraska and the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska. 

Railroad the State of Nebraska shares fully in the benefits of the service thus 

expedited by this fast mail line. No part, however, of the additional cost for this 

important service is charged against either of these States in the statement of 

the Auditor above referred to. 

This shows the active vigilance of the Department in extending the 

fast mail service to theW est and Southwest. And the facts that I have 

presented ought, it seems to me, to protect that Department from the 

unfriendly criticisms which have been made against it. 

The report. of the Postmaster-General, pages 42 and 43, shows the annual increase of miles of railroad transportation for the last :fiscal year 

to have been 5.6 percent. over the preceding year, and that the annual 

increase of the cost of this service was only 4. 22 per cent., thus showing that the increase of the se1·vice was relatively much greater than 

the increase of its eost. 

In answer to the charge of parsimony on the part of the Department 

in not providing a sufficient number of railway postal clerks in theW est 

and Southwest, I submit the following facts: 

The number of railway postal clerks in the service on the 30th of 

June, 1886, was4,573. The number in the service on the 30th of June, 

1887, was 4,851. The_ number in service on the 31st of January, 1888, 

was 4, 988. The increa-se of these clerks for the fiscal year 1886--:'87 was 

278, and the increase for seven months of the present fiscal year from 

July 1, 1887, to January 31, 1888, was 137. The aggregate increase 

for the nineteen months from July 1, 1886, to January 31, 1~8, was 

415. Of this number, division No. 6, which includes Nebraska., received 106; and the seventh division, which includes Kansa-s, received 

122, these two divisions being allowed an increase for these nineteen 

months of 228 railway postal clerks, while the other seven divisions 

were altogether only allowed an increase of 187, more than one-half of 

the increase of railway postal clerks for the last nineteen months ha.ving 

been given to the two divisions of the West and Southwest, which include the States of Kansa-s and Nebraska. 

The percentage of increase of railway postal clerks for the nineteen 

months from July 1, 1886, to January 31, 1888, was 9.08, which, as is 

seen, was very nearly the same rate as the increase of rail way mail 

scrvice for the same period . • 

7. 

Table showi11g tlte gain in tlte number of railway postal clerks by di'l:isions 

fr01n July 1, 1886, w January 31, 1888-nineteen months. 

.§.o ~~ ·~~ ]~ .s~~ ~ ~ .n i:~ _;xs ::: .;:;~ ~ ;:::~ ~·;::@ ~,....- :g,..._ :llt,> .... r--: Ulo~~ .... Divisions. .s2iil ;:::g s::= :go~ d!~ho:~ ~1a 

Ul~ al<!) a;;:sz! ~d""~ ~~g~ ~p. ~s:: ~§ ~§;xs "' t;. ...... ~bi)g ~.:; Q) ~ 1-)..... g ~ ~ ~ :ll ~ ~ g .s ~ 0 61-) 0 1-C 1-C 1-C 

F-ir_s_t_d-iv_i_s-io-n-.. -.. -.. -.. -.. -.. -.-.-.. -.. 

1

--403-~ ~---3- ----1-~----4 

Second division................ 623 647 660 24. 13 37 Third division.................. 281 288 288 7 0 7 

Fourth division................ 326 361 375 3.3 14 ~ 49 Fifth division.................... 782 815 822 33 7 - 40 Sixth division................... 973 1, 037 1, 079 64 42 106 

Seventh division............... 586 662 708 76 46 122 Eighth division................. 135 154 165 19 11 30 Ninth division.................. 464. 481 484 17 3 20 

Total .. .... .. ........... .... 4, 573 4, 851 4, 988 278 137 415 

Percentage of increase in clerks during last nineteen months, 9. 08. 

This certainly indicates liberality rather than parsimony towards the 

West and Southwest, and especially towards Kansas and Nebraska. 

It is charged that the deficiencies in the railway mail service are 

largely due to the want' of experience and qualification of new appointees. These appointees are required to stand successfully an examination as to their qualifications and capacity for this service before 

they can be commissioned. For instance, 1,000 cards, representing as 

many post-offices, are drawn at random, and as each is drawn the candid.tte is asked what mail route the office named is on, and his being 

commissioned depends on his making correct answers to a sufficient 

number of such inquiries. -

I- submit a table marked D, which shows the average percentage 

in correctness in case examinations of permanent and probationary 

clerks for several years, from 1882 to 1887, inclusive, embracing three 

years under former administrations and three years under the present 

administration. From this table it will be seen that the percentage of 

correctness of permanent clerks for the years 1882, 1883, and 1884 under 

former administrations was, respectively, 77.05, 87.46 and 78.10; while 

the percentage of the same class of clerks for the years 1885, 1886, and 

1887, under the present administration was, respectively, 82.23, 81.06, 

and 87. 50. This shows a decided improvement in the qualifications of 

this class of clerks; and the examination of 1887, I am informed, shows 

the highest average of correctness which has ever been atta.ined. This 

table shows a like improvement under the present administration in 

the average of correctness in the examination of the probationary clerks. 

D. 

Percentages in correctness of case examinations of permanent and probationary clerks. 

Year ended June 30-

1882 .................... ; ............................................................. .. 1883 ................ ............. . ................................................. .. 1884 ................................................................................... . 1885 ................................................................................. .. 1886 ................................................................................. .. 1887 .................................................................................. . 

I

Perm.anentl Probaclerks. tioners. 

77.05 

87.46 

78.10 

82.23 

81.61 

87.50 

80.49 

80.37 

81.fl 

83.11 

82.68 

85.34. 

This is the real and the best test of the qualifications of this class. of 

clerks, and shows improvement instead of reduced efficiency in this 

branch of the service. 

To secure greater efficiency in this branch of the service the Department has adopted a rule nQt to appoint persons to it who are over thirty-· 

five years of age, except in the case of Union soldiers who are otherwise well qualified. 

I also submit Tables E and F, showing case examinations of the ten 

clerks making the pest examillations during the month of December, 

1887, in each of the sixth and seventh divisions, embracing the railway 

postal clerks in the West and Southwest, from which it will be seen 

the standard of correctness is very high; and a reference to the dates of 

appointment of these clerks will reveal the fact that the new appointees, 

that is, those appointed in the years 1885, 1886, and 1887, show at least 

as high merit as those appointed under former administrations. 

E. 

Summary of case examinati~ns in seventh division for month of Decemher, 1887. 

Permanent Proba- Total. clerks. tioners. 

Total number of examinations for month .... : ...................................................................................................................................... . 316 102 418 

Total number of cards handled .................... ........................................................ : .............................................................................. . Total number of cards correct ........................... .................................................................. ................................................ ................. . 178,366 57,175 235,541 

167,496 48,618 216,ll4 

Total number of cards not known ...................................................................................................................................................... .. 

~~~:;:::~~~~:~~-~~~-~~-~~-~.~.i~~~~~.~~~~~:::::::::::·::.::::::·.::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::.-:::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::: 

1,182 3,978 5,160 

9,688 4,579 14,267 93.91 85.03 91. 7i 
1888. CONGRESSIONAL REOORD-SENATE. 1145 

Names of ten clerks mal.-ing best case examinat-wn during month. 

Name. Date of ap- Age. pointment. Railway post-office. Examined on- Number of cards 

handled. 

Percen ta.ge correct. Remarks. 

S. T. Carroll ......................... . J.M.Sarver .. ....................... . J. C. Talliaferro .. ................. . C. B. Green ......................... .. W. T. M. Ferguson .............. . R. E. Lozier ......................... . T.C.Baker ......................... .. F. Bernhard ........................ .. ·w. V. Kretsinger ................ .. 0. L. Teachout .................... .. 

33 May 4, I885 Denver and San Antonio ... Texas schedule ...... . 23 Apr. 24, 1886 K ansas City and Denver.... Kansas offices ....... .. 20 Aug. 31,1886 Bolivar and N. 0. Spring ...... Missouri schedule .. . 42 l\Iay 22, 1882 Denver and Houston.......... Texas schedule ..... . 24 ·July 16,1885 Denver and San Antonio .......... do ...................... . 32 June 9, 18&'> St. Louis and Atchison ........ Kansas offices ........ . 27 Dec. 16,1885 Denver and San Antonio .... Texas schedule ...... .. 35 Mar. 16, 1882 Palestine and Laredo ............... do ...................... . 27 July 26,1883 Denver and San Ant-onio ......... do ..................... .. 47 July 27,1881 Denver and Houston ................ do ........... .. ......... . 

1,140 

1,741 

1,090 

I,l47 

1,147 

987 

1,I47 

I,I45 

I,147 

1,146 

IOO 

99.71 

99.72 

99.9I 

99.83 

99.80 

99.65 

99.83 

99.83 

99.74 

Two hours twelve minutes. 

Onehour. - Forty-four minutes. One hour twenty minutes. One hour four minutes. 

Forty-six minutes. One hour thirty-four minutes One hour fifty minutes. Two hours thirteen minutes. Two hours thirty minutes. 

Number of years in sen·ice. I ----~----~----~----~----~----~----~---.-----7----- Proba- Total 

number 

of clerks. 

Total 

number 10 or of cards. over. 9. 8. 7. 6. 

tioners. 5. 3. 2. 1. 

---+-----·----------------------------------- ----- ------------'------------------------ -------·1--------11 -·-----'--

1 3 6 137 1,505 1,144 7 17 H 1,513 11,941 5,578 7 8 12 3,191 4.,559 6,915 4 9 12 1,839 3,303 6,252 2 5 7 385 2,860 6,364 7 9 4,964 6,202 2 ~ 7 498 320 5,638 4 4 1,522 4,121 2 3 1,241 1,995 

··········· ........... 5 ooooooooou (,011 2 2 ::::::::::: 1,329 2,212 

I 

100:97! Number of examinations........................................ ........... ........... I 1 3 1 6 Number of cards......... ............................................ ........... ........... 181 183 546 182 1,125 

Number of examinations......................................... ........... 1 1 1 3 9 8 

Numbcrofcards ................................................................. 647 18I 598 3,277 4.,642 4,435 

Number of examinations....................................... 4 2 6 3 4. I5 

~~:~~ ~~~~!i~~ti~~~·:::::::.:·:::::::.:::::::::::::::::::::: 3, 7~ 91~ ............ ~·.~~.. 54~ 2,~ ':,~ Number of cards.. .. ... .. . ...... .. . ......... ........ ... .... ......... 896 1, 135 ............ . . . .. ...... 364 496 2. 047 

96 5 Number of examinations....................................... I ........... ........... 2 1 3 2 ) Number of cards..................................................... 902 ...................... 1. 747 182 2, 417 385 

:11 ~~~m ~~~:~:~·::::::::·:::~:::H~:::·:·::·:::::~::: :~~:~: ::::T:: :::::::::: :::::t :.·.~- :~~~: ::::~ : { Number of cards..................................................... ........... ............ ........... 598 ........... 24.8 1, 526 

92 5 Number of examinations....................................... 1 1 ........... ... ........ .. ......... .... .... .. 1 } Number of cards ................... ~.. ..... ............... ........ . 100 210 ........... ........... ........... ........... 908 

.

90

911 Numberofexaminations....................................... 1 ................................. 1 ........... 1 Number of cards ..................................................... ! 612,........... ........... ........... 1,147 ............ ! 140 Number of examinations.............................................................................................. 1 1 Number of cards ........................................................................... '1' ............................... 1 137 140 

4 26 689 ............................ 5;692 9 70 .................. .. 4, 296 ...... ..... ...... 37,108 17 78 ................. . 6, 691 .. .. . . . . . . . . . ... ... 39, 315 10 47 ................. . 5, 857j·· ................ 22, 189 8 31 ................ .. 4,676 ...... ...... ...... 19, 918 4 25 ................. . 2, 197 ... ............... 17,537 6 20 .................. . 4., 057 . . . .. .. .. . . . . . .... 12, 457 8 2I ................ . 4, 590 ... ... ... .. . ...... 12,605 7 15 ................. . 3, 548 ........... ' ...... 8, 002 2 10 ................. . 480 .................. 6,390 5 11 ................. . 3, 061 . . . . . ... . . . ....... 6, 779 

F. 

Sutmnary of case examinations in sixth dwision fm· mortth of December, 1887. 

Permanent Probn- Total. clerks. tioners. 

Total number of examinations for month ................................................. ........................ .................................................................... . 60 95 155 Total number of cards handled ........................................................................................................................................................... . Total number of cards correct ............................................................................................................................................................... . Total number of cards not known ................................. ........................................................................................................................ . 

~~!~~~t':t~~~~:r~~.~~~-~i.~~~~~~~~-i~~~~~-~~~.:.·:::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::·.·.::::::::·:.::::::·::.:::::::·.·.:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::.:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 1 

Name. 

Names of ten clerks making best case examination during month . 

.A I Date of ap- ge. pointment. Rail way post-office. Examined on- Number of cards 

handled. 

91,776 103,699 195,4715 

84,594 

2,606 

4,576 

92.17 

Percentage 

correct. 

78,853 163,447 - 15,655 I8,261 

9,191 13,767 76.04 83.61 

Remarks. 

------------------------------ ----~------l·------------------------------(----------------· ---------- ---------- ·--------·--

Smith, H. 0 ...................... ......... ........... . 1\lcKinley, ,V. C ..................................... . Veatch, C. A ............................... ........... . Strain,P ................................................ . Stice, J. H .............................................. . Dunlap, George E ................................. . Sullivan, T. J ........................ ................. . Burgermeister, L .................. .. : .............. . Gallup,N .............................................. . Wavruneck, J ........................................ . 26 July i3, 1887 3~ 1\far., 1887 42 Feb. 1, 1872 25 May 16, 1885 44 Jn.n. 28, 1883 24 Oct. 1, 1886 36 Aug.18, 1886 21 Feb. 10, 1887 38 April!, 1874 (?} July 26, 1887 

St·. Paul and Elroy ............................... Wisconsin ............. .. Danville and Cairo ....................... ........ Illinois .................. .. Chicago and St. Louis........................... l\Iissouri ............... .. Bloomington and R.ood House............ lllinois ................... . ......... do ..................................................... do ...................... . JI.Iarquetteand Davenport ..................... Iowa ...................... .. California and Davenport .......................... do ...................... .. Chicago and Minneapolis ..................... Minnesota ............. . Chicago and Cedar :Rapids.................... Iowa ..................... .. Ashland and Milwaukee ...................... Wisconsin ............. .. 

10 or over. '). 8. 

Number of years in service. 

7. Q. 5. 4. .. 3. 2. 1. 

1,511 

2 256 

2:130 

2 256 2',256 

1,670 

1,670 

1,177 

1,670 

1,511 

Probationers. 

99 Time, I. 46. 99 Time, 4. 00. 99 Time, 3. 50. 98 Timl.>, 3. 30. 99 Time, 3. 00. 99 Time, 1. Q.'). 

99 Time, 1. 10. 99 Time, 0. 55. 99 Time, 2. 05. 99 Time, 2.35. 

Total 

number 

of clerks. 

Total 

number 

of cards. 

---1------------------------------1----- -------------- ----------------1-----l-------1------

Number of examinations...................................................................................... ................................. ................................. 2 2 ................ . Number of cards. .................................................... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ............ ........... ........... ........... 325 .................. 325 Number of examinations........................................ 2 ........... ........... ........... ............ 1 •I 1 3 5 8 21 ................. . Number of cards .. ................................................... 3,800 ......... , ................................... 1,670 1,088 1,670 4,422 10,179 .................. 29,395 

Number of examinations........................................ 1 ........... ........... ........... I 1 1 5 3 1 3 16 ................. . 

~~~~~ ~~ ~a~·i·~~·ii~ri·~::::: ;:::::::::::::::::::.:·:::::::::::: 65i ::::::::::: ::::::::::: ::::::::::: 1, 67~ 1, 06~ 1, C55 7, ~ 3, 89f 2 2, ~ ............. 16 . ......... ~~:~~-~ 

~~:~~ ~~ ~~!·i~~ti~~~:.::·:::::::::: ::::::::::::: ::::::::::: : .~:~~-~ .. :::::::::::::::::::::: ....... 1 ... ~:~~-- .~:~ .. ::::::::::: 02~ .::.~~.. 2 •.••.• ~ ... ~ ................ 4 .......... ~.~:.~ 

,. 
.. 1146 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. FEERUARY 13, 

The honorable Senator from Rhode Island [Mr. CH.AcE], my colleague on the Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads, has told us 

that the complaints against the Post-Office Department are not con- fined to the Westortothe railroad transportation. And he adds "that 

it is a notorious fact that the mails are slower, that they are not so well 

handled, that they are not so well distributed as formerly.'' He assumes that the greatest cause for this arises from the fact that the Department has attempted to change the clerical force too rapidly, and 

that samples of merchandise sent out reach their destination by express sooner than the invoices of them when sent by mail. No particular 

instances of this kind are stated so that investigation might follow, nor are we informed that complaints of this kind have been maile to the 

Department, to ~nable it to correct any errors in this respect. 

:Mr. CHACE. Will the Senator from Texas allow me to interrupt 

him? 

Mr. ~EAGAN. Certainly. ~Ir. CHACE. If the Department want to investigate it they can come right to me. It has occurred in my own business this very fall. 

Mr. REAGAN. I suggest to the Seaator from Rhode Island that he 

go to the Department when he has just cause of complaint, and that 

the Department should not come to him. 

Mr. CHACE. Allow me to suggest to the Senator from Texas that 

when this resolution was before the Senate gentlemen on his side proposed to put the fault on the Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads. 

Mr. REAGAN. I did not know that. I do not know that the Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads bas any re<!ponsibility about it. 

1\Ir. CHACE. I imagine not. 

M:r. REAGAN. The city of Providence, where the Senator claims 

these irregularities occurred, seems to be pretty well supplied with mail 

facilities. The mails from Boston to Providence leave Boston at 5.03 

7.00, and 9.00 a. m. and at 12.00 m., 1.00, 3.00, 4.30, and 11.00 p. m, 

daily, giving that city eight mails a day from Boston. From Providence 

the mails go to Boston at5.30, 9.00,10.00, and11.45 a.m., and at 1.00, 

3.30, 5.30, and 11.4.5 p. m., giving eight mails from Providence to Bos- -ton daily. The niails from.New York to Providence leave New York 

at 5.00 and 8.00 a.m. and at 1.00, 4.00, and 11.00 p. m., making five 

mails a day from New York to Providence. The mails leave Providence for New York at 12.25, 9.00, and 11.00 a.m. and at 2.03 and 

5.10 p. m., showing five mails each way daily between Providence and 

New York. 

From this it would seem Providence need not complain of inadequate 

postal facilibes. 

In reference to the Senator's complaint that the Department had 

changed its clerical force too rapidly, and that postal facilities were less 

reliable on account of the inexperience of new appointee<!, I have to say 

that the records of the Senate show that the appointment of Charles H. 

George as postmaster at Providence to succeed Henry W. Gardner, aRepuiJlican, was confirmed by the Senate on the 23d of January, 1888. 

And on the subject of the appointment and removal of postmasters 

by the present Administration, I have to say that it is notorious that 

under the civil-service law and regulations the President has habitually refused to make l'emovals from office on account of the political 

opinions of the incumbent, though in most instances, not in all, where 

vacancies have occurred, he has appointed Democrats. 

~Ir. ALDRICH. Will the Senator from Texas allow me to ask him a question? 

1\Ir. REAGAN. Certainly. 

Mr. ALDRICH. The Senator says that the President has declined 

to make !'emova.ls on account of political reasons. Mr. REAGAN. So I understand. Mr. ALDRICH. The term of the gentleman whose name he has 

just read, Mr. Gardner, would not have expired until about a year after 

his removal. I should like to ask on what ground he was removed. 

Mr. REAGAN. On that point I am not able to answer the Senator. 

Mr. ALDRICH. There could be no other except political reasons in 

that case. · 

lli. REAGAN. I am not able to answer. 1\Ir. CHACE. And if the Senator will permit me, he has just been 

attempting to prove that the post-office at Providence has been very 

well managed; and that being the case, if the office was well managed, 

what other reason could there be for the removal of the postmaster 

there except political reasons? • 1\Ir. REAGAN. Well, what I have to say on that comes in at an- other point. There were removals made, and I shall show directly how mn,ny these were and for what causes, and that, I trust, will be satisfactory to Senators. I shall read it in a few moments. _ 

Mr. CHACE. I wish the Senator would tell us what the reason was 

for the Temoval of the postmaster at Providence, when he has proved 

to his own satisfaction that the office has been well managed. 

Mr. REAGAN. Of course the Senator does not expect me to know 

the causes for the removal and appointment of postmaster~. The question is one that he must know I cannot answer; but, as I stated before, 

I will show him what the causes were for removals that were made, as I understand and as the Department informs me, and I beg that Senators will allow me to proceed to that statement. 

Mr. CHACE. If the Senator will excuse me, I understood him to 

allude to me personally. 

Mr. REAGAN. I simply summarized the charges which the Senn.· 

tor made against the Department, and I am offering the evidence to 

show that the probability was that there was no real ground for these 

charges. · 

Mr. CHACE. Now, I trust, and in fact I know, that the Senator 

from Texas is so just that he will not make those statements in regard 

to myself without giving me an opportunity to correct them right 

here. 

Mr. REAGAN. The Senator will have ample time when I am 

through. If then he finds that I have said anything I ought not to 

have said. he can correct me. On :March 4,1885, there were 2, 339 postmasters of the classes appointed 

by the President. Of these 5 were discontinued and 201 were relegated to the fourth class, leaving 2,133 postmasters of this class. 

The following statement shows the comparativestatusofthe incumbents of these offices at the end of the fiscal year 1887: 

New appointments on expiration of commissions....................................... 876 

New appointments on voluntary resignations............................................. 475 

New appointments on deaths..... .................................................................. 65 New appointments on suspensions or removals.......................................... 509 

Reappointments on expirations of commissions.......................................... 27 

Appointments to offices tecoming Presidential.................... ...... ................. 170 Reappointments to offices becoming Presidential...... ........................ ... ... ... 28 

Total ... ..................................................................... " ....... ._ .................. 2,150 

Offices unchanged since March 4, 1885...... ...... ...... ......... ...•..... ....................... 313 

Out of this number there have been but509 removals, while 313 of the 

original Republican employes remained in office at that date, and 1,621 

were appointments made in consequence of the expirations of commis- sions, voluntary resignations, deaths, or reappointments, and to offices 

which have become Presidential sin<;eUarch4,1885. Tbereportofthe 

Postmaster-General shows that there were on the 1st of July last 52,821 

postmasters of the fourth class. The total number of appointments in all 

these offices up to that date was 36,252. Of these 16,345 were made in 

consequence of resignations, 1, 243 on accoun~ of deaths, and 6, 599 on account of the establishment of new offices. Only 12,065 were made 

in consequence of removals, and 16,569 appointed by former administrations remain in office. 

lli. HOAR. Will the Senator allow me to ask him a question, that 

I may understand his figures? 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator from Texas yield 

to the Senator from Massachusetts? . Mr. REAGAN. Certainly. 

1\Ir. HOAR. Does the Senator either claim or believe that that large 

number of resignations that he speaks of, for which appointments were 

made, were voluntary, were not resignations demanded by the President? 

1\Ir. REAGAN. I have no way to answer that but by the report of 

the Postmaster-General, in which he says they were voluntary. The 

Postmaster-General says in his report that they were voluntary resignations. 

1\fr. HOAR. An extraordinary instance of voluntary resignation! 

1\Ir. REAGAN. I have no doubt the Postmaster-General has done a good many things that are extraordinary to the Senator from Massachusetts. 

Mr. HOAR. He does a great many. 

~Ir. REAGAN. While many changes in these offices have occurred, 

but few of them comparatively have been removal£; for political reasons, 

and these few for active partisanship which it would have been im~ 

proper to tolerate. . The report of the Postmaster· General, pages 42 and 43, shows the an- nual increase of miles of railroad transportation of the mails for the last 

fiscal year over the preceding year to have been 5.6 per cent., and that 

the annual increase of the cost of this service is only 4. 2 per cent., thus 

showing an increase of service and a relative decrease of cost. 

His report, page 45, shows that on the 30th of June, 1885, the num- ber of star routes stood at 12,371, aggregating232,222 miles in length, 

and requiring annual tmvelof83,027,321 miles, atacostof 6.52cents per 

mile; and thaton thefirstdayofthe current fiscalyearthe routes numbered 14,368, an increase of 1, 997; their total length was 236,896 miles, an addition of 4,674 miles; their aggregate annual mileage of travel 

was 85,133,077, being 2,105, 756 miles more of service, at the rate of 

cost of 5.921 cents per mile, a gain roundly of 6 mills to the mile of 

travel in decreased cost-an aggregate reduction in the cost of this 

branch of the service of $640,000, notwithstanding the great increase of 

the service. 

This report also shows, page 46, that the rate of cost of the mail-messenger service at the close of the last year was $829 548.61, and that 

there had been an increase of 163 messengers over the previous year, 

and a decrease of $5,311.39 in the annual rate of pay. The total ex- penditure was $8-25,338. 17, being $40,801.53 less than the cost for the 

year ending .June 30, 1885; 

On page 45 of this report it is shown that with the addition of a line 

of steam-ship service between Tampa and Havana, at a cost of $54,000, 

and an increase in steam·ship routes elsewhere, there was :. net decrease in the cost of this service as compared with the year before of 

$13,229.82. 
1888. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 1147 

I will read on this subject from pages 34 and 35 of the report of the 

Postmaster-General: POST-OFFICE SUPPLIES. 

The improved methods of business in the division of post-office supplies have ·been before brought to your attention, but deserve renewed mention from ob- servance of their results upon the last year's transactions. In 1886 it was shown 

that with an actual increase in supplies provided and issued of some 18 or 19 per cent. there was a decrease of cost of nearly 19 per cent. from the preceding year. Equally satisfactory results have followed upon the work of the past year in economy, and some further perfection of the business syst-em bas been 

secured. The increase in the quantity ofsupplie~ furnished has necessarily been 

great, in consequence of the enlarged bflsiness of the whole service and the 

greater number of offices which have come to be furnished unde1· the legislation 

of recent years. Yet the entire cost of all supplies for the yeru:, in quantity fully 

30 per cent. more than in 1885, has been more than $20,000 less, and the amount of the appropriation, which was reduced below that of 1885, that remains unex- pended is $65,859.23, besides a stock of goods on hand amounting at the close of 

the year to$35,120.05. 

The volume of business may be judged from some of the principal items of 

issues: 60.486,900 blanks, 112,403 books, 193,091,700 facing-slips, 17,500 marking, 

rating, and canceling stamps, 778,152 pounds of twine, 21,747 reams of wrapping paper, 13,575 pounds of canceling ink, 506,200 slide labels, and a long list of other 

articles, shown in the report of the First Assistant Postmaster-General. The 

number of requisitions supplied was 287,055 as against 162,640 in 1885. 

Pages 30 to 33 of the Postmaster-General's report show that with ·much enlargement of the free-deli very serviee there has been a decrease 

of the rate of cost below the increased rate of service, though, especially 

since the 1st of July last, there has been a very large addition to the num- be1· of free-delivery offices, whereby ne..'trly twiee as many offices are now served in this manner as in 1885. This resulted from the law passed 

last Congress extending free-delivery service to cities of smaller population and revenues. 

In the matter of the appropriations from the' Treasury for the support 

of the Post-Office Department, as will appear from the tables on pages 

81 and 82 of the Postmaster-General's report, it will be seen that :tor the 

year 1885 the sum of the appropriations for items for the Department and 

for the salaries of the officers, clerks, etc,, was $824,399.15, and the sum of 

the expenditm·es for those purposes for that year was$808,648.87, leaving a. balance unexpended of $15,750.28. The appropriations for the 

same items of expense for the year which ended J nne 30, 1887, amounted 

to $832,611, while the ~xpenditures for that year aggregated only 

$793,008.81, leaving a balance unexpended of $30,002.19; thus showing that while the appropriations for 1887 were greater than for 1885, 

the expenditures were $15,640.06less. The real reduction, however, was much greater thau this, as shown on page 83 of the PostmasterGeneral's report, because during the year 1887 the Department building 

had to be freshly painted, its gas-pipes and much of its plumbing re- newed, and the requisite furniture supplied; and that year Marini's 

Han had to be rented at a cost of $6,000. 

In looking atthese comparisons we should bear in mind that the fiscal 

year which ended June 30, 1885,_ was the last year of Republican administration, and that the fiscal year which ended June 30, 1887, was the second yearofDemocraticadministration, and theforegoing figures 

illustrate the economies of these respective adln.inistrations; and tbat 

nowithstanding the constant and rapid expansion and increase of the 

service, while its efficiency was being increased, as I have shown in a former part of my remarks, its cost to the people has been steadily re- duced in almost or quite every department of the service. 

Besides increasing aud extending the railway mail service, the starroute service, the steam-boat and the ocean service, eorresponding with 

the growth and development of the country, the Postmaster-General 

has negotiated postal treaties with the Republic of Mexico and with 

the Dominion of Canada, by which mail matter may be transmitted 

from either country to the othe.r on the payment of the postage of the 

country from which such matter is sent. This substantially extends our postal system so as to cover the continent of North America, and 

will be of great benefit and convenience to all the countries concerned. 

And inasmuch as packages of merchandise of 4 pounds. and 6 ounces weight may be so sent without the delays and expense to which they 

have heretofore been liable at custom-houses, these treaties will be of 

great value to our merchants especially, as itsogreatlyfacilitatestrade 

in such mailable packages. 

1 h::tve before me a newspaper, the Two Republics, published in the 

city of Mexico, in which appears the card of a purchasing agency, offering to purchase in either country for transmission to the olher. Agencies like this, supplied with catalogues, price-lists, and samples, are no doubt destined to become important commercial agencies. 

The Postmaster-General has also recently concluded postal treaties 

with Jamaica, Barbadoes, and the Bahamas for the transmission by 

mall to. and from the countries named of articles of merchandise, and 

all mall matter, except letters, post cards, and written matter, in 

amounts not exceeding 11 pounds in weight, the packages to be not more than 2 feet long, and their greatest girth not to exceed 4 feet. 

Letter mail, post cards, and written matter to continue to be exchanged as now, under the Universal Postal Union. These treaties will be of 

great commercial value, and they will result in gi vin()' lar()'er employment and compensation to the ships which carry our ~ails between the 

United States and those islands. 

The making ofthese treaties attests the wisdom and ac~ive foresight of the Postmaster-General. 

The facts which I have presented, together with the reforms of the 

service recommended in several particulars by the Postmaster-General 

in his annual report, attest the thoroughness of his understanding of the 

postai service and its needs, and justifY, I think, what I said in the 

outset as to his high merits as an officer, and reflect great credit on his 

administration of that Department. Whatever complaints may have 

been made against the service of the Department during tQ_e present 

administration, the facts show that it has been faithfully, honestly, 

economically, and efficiently conducted, with no ·charges of peculation, 

embezzlement, star-route robberies, or fraud against it. It has been a 

clean, honest administration of that Department of which our people 

and country may well feel proud. . The PRESIDENT pro tempo-re. If there be no objection, the resolution 

will be considered agreed to. 

Mr. PADDOCK. Did I understand t.hat the resolution to which 

the Senator from Texas has been addressing his remarks was agreed to? 

The PRESIDENT pro tmnpm·e. If there be no objection. ' 

Mr. PADDOCK. It had better lie over. 

The PR~SIDENT pro tempore. The resolution will resume its place on the Calendar of resolutions at the request of the Senator from Nebraska. 

PUBLIC BUILDING AT NEW ARK, N. J. 

Ur. McPHERSON. I desire to call up for consideration Order o.t;. 

Business 163, Senate bill 601. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempm·e. The Senator from New Jersey asks 

unanimous consent that the pending business may be still further laid 

aside that the Senate may now consider the bill referred to by him. 

There being no objection, the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, 

proceeded to consider the bill lS. 601) for the extension and repair of 

the public building at Newark, N.J. 

The bill was reported by the Committee on Public Buildings and 

Grounds with an amendment to strike out all after the enaeting clause 

and insert: 

That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized to pur- chase or acquire by condemnation sufficientadditionalland adjoining the United 

States custom-house and post-office building, and cause such changes and im- provements to be made in the building thereon, and to erect such addition 

thereto as, in his judgment, may be necessary to render the same suitable for 

thelrausaction of the public business; and for the purpose herein mentioned, 

the sum of $350,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be immediately 

available, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated out of any money in the 

Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 

The amendment was agreed to. 

The bill was reported to the Senate as amended, and the amendme~t 

was concurred in. 

The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the 

third time, and passed. 

The title was amended so as to read: 

A bill to aut.borize the purchase of additional ground in Newark, N. J., ad- joining the custom-house and post-office building, and for the improvement of 

the building thereon, nnd the erection of additions thereto. 

PUDLIC BUILDING AT PORTLAND, OREGON. 

l\:1r. DOLPH. I ask that Senate bill20, a public-building bill, which 

has passed the Senate twice, may be now considered. By unanimous consent, the Selia.te, as in Committee of the Whole,- proceeded to consider the bill (S. 20) to provide for the construction of a public building at Portland, Oregon. The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment. 

1\Ir. SAULSBURY. I should like to inquire of the Senator from 

Oregon what has become of the public building that was at Portland ? 

There was a public building there that I understood cost about $600,000. 

I do not know that my information is correct. . Mr. DOLPH. The entire building is required at present for the post-office and the courts. There is a large amount of rent being paid 

for public offices there. This bill has been reported twice, and passed 

the Senate in the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses. The custom-house itself must be taken out of the present building certainly 

within the next year. The United Statescollectorofinternal revenue :flas had to remove his office since tbe last report was made and the bill 

passed the Senate before. We are paying something like $10,000 annual 

rent now, and it will increase. Besides, the present building is not in a proper location for a custom-house. 

Mr. SAULSBURY. I do not know anything about the nece..c;sities 

of the city of Portland in reference to this matter. I merely knew that 

there was a public building there, a very considerable public building, a few years ago, and it was used for a custom-house as well as for other 

public purposes. I believe we are going too far and spending too much 

money in erecting such extravagant buildings as are being put up 

throughout the country. There are a great many localities which need 

public buildings; small towns of four and :five thousand inhabitants 

that wonld be glad to have some of this money that we are putting 

into such large buildings. I want public buildings; I think the people ought to be accommodated; but I do not think that such heavy 

amounts should be expended in one or two localities and other places 

deprived of public buildings. 

As to the necessity for this building I am not informed, but as a general rule we are appropriating to· the la.rge cities too much money 

and letting smaller places, where the people pay taxes (for all contribute, 

·-
1148 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENA~'E. FEBRU.A.ItY 13, 

though perhaps not to the same amount as in the larger cities), be deprived entirely of any a<!commodation for public buildings of any kind. 

Mr. DOLPH. This appropriation will only afford a very plain building for necessary Government purposes. 

The bill was ordered to be engross~d for a third reading, read the 

third time, and passed. 

J ... ANDS IN COLORADO. 

Mr. TELLER. I ask the Senate to take up Senate bill No. -424, 

Order of Business 109. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Shall the regular order be further 

laid aside for the consideration of the bill named? 

There being no objection, the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, 

proceeded to consider the bill (S. 424) relating to lands in Colorado 

lately occupied by the Uncompahgre and White River Ute Indians. 

The .bill was reported from the Committee on Pul;>lic Lands with 

amendments; in line 6, after the word" previously," insert "and elsewhere," and after the word "acres," in line 7, insert "within said 

reservation;" so as to make the bill read: 

Be it enacted, etc., That actual and bona fide settlers on lands subject to pre- emption under existing laws witllin the late Uncompahgre and White River Ute Indian reservation, in Colorado, who have previously and elsewhere taken 

land under the pre-emption laws, may take an additional160 acres, within said 

reservation, by paying therefor $1.25 per acre, at any time after a bona fide residence on said land of two years, and within thirty-three months after filing declaratory statement therefor. Proof of actual residence and improvement of the 

land for not less than two years shall be made to the satisfaction of the register 

and the xeceiver, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe. 

The amendments were agreed to. 

The bill was reported to the Senate as amended, and the amendments were concurred in. 

The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third 

time, and passed. 

HARRIET H. ROBINSON. 

Mr. HOAR. I ask the Senate to lay aside the educational bill further 

to take up Order of Business 133, Senate bill No. 416. 

There being noobjection, the Senate, asin Committee of the Whole, 

proceeded to consider the bill (S. 416) for the relief of Mrs. Harriet H. 

Robinson. It directs the Secretary of the Treasury to ascertain the 

nmonnt paid to the United States by WilliamS. Robinson, late of the 

city of Mealden, Mass., as an income tax upon his salary, and to repay 

ihe amount so ascertained to Harriet H. Robinson, widow and executrix 

of the last will of William H. Robinson. 

Mr. HOAR. Malden is the name of the place. 

The PRESIDENT pro temp01·e. It stands in the bill "Mealden." 

Mr. HOAR. That can be corrected by unanimous consent. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The "e" before "a" will be stricken 

out if there be no objection. . . The bill was reported to the Sen1te, ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and passed. 

A. B. NORTON. 

Mr. HARRIS. r move that the Senate proceed to the consideration 

of executive business. 

Mr, SPOONER. Mr. President-- . 

~Ir. HARRIS. I yield to the Senator from Wisconsin [Mr. SPOO~ER] 

if he desires. 

Mr. SPOONER. I ask unanimous consent to proceed to the consideration of Calendar Order 47. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Wisconsin moves to proceed to the consideration of the bill (S. 1071) for the relief of A. B. 

Norton. 

fr. COCKRELL. Let it be read for information. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The bill will be read for information, 

subject to objection. · .. The bill was read, and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, 

proceeded to its consideration. It provides for the payment to A. B. 

Norton, late postmaster at Dallas, Tex., of $1,853, being the amount 

paid by him involuntarily, under protest and moral duress, to the inspectors of the Post-Office Department, in the year 1877, on account of 

certain money-order remittances made by the postmasters at Cleburne 

and Granbury, Tex. 

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to 

be engrossed for a. third reading, read the third time, and passed. 

INDIAN SCHOOL AT CARSON CITY. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator from Tennessee 

yield further? 

Mr. DAWES. I wish the Senator would let us have a few moments. 

Mr. HARRIS. I withdraw the motion. 

Mr. STEW ART. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed 

to the consideration of Order of Business 231, being the bill (S. 1103) 

to provide for an Indian school at Carson City, Nev. 

By unanimous consent, the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, 

proceeded to consider the bill (S. 1103) to provide for an Indian school 

at Carson City, Nev. 

Mr. COCKRELL. I should like to hear some report on that bill. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The amendments of the committee 

will be first read. 

The :first amendment reported from the Committee on Indian Affairs 

was in line 4, after the word ''lands,'' to insert '' not less than 200 

acres;" so as to make the section read: 

That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized to accept 

from the State of Nevada any lands, not less than 200 acres, which may be donated by that State to the United States for the purpose of establishing an In- dian school, and also to receive from that State, or any corporation or person, any donation t~t may be made for the purposes of said school. 

Mr. STEW ART. The measure is recommended bv the Commissioner 

of Indian .A.:trairs. w 

.Mr. COCKRELL. I should like to hear his recommendation. 

Mr. STEW ART. It will be shown you, and I will state my general 

knowledge of the matter. 

We have never asked anything for the Washoe tribe of Indians at 

all. I have been of the opinion, and have often stated here, that we had better let them take care of themselve:3. The Piute tribe have 

had but very little, though they are quite numerous-! think about 

twelve or fifteen thousand dollars a year. There are now over 1,500 

Indian children in and near Carson City that need education. They 

have grown up there; they are our neighbors. Much has been said 

hy the Indian Department· to me, and I have been rather censured 

for not desiring a large appropriation for the Indians in Nevada. Now, 

they have the children there, and it has become a necessity that they 

shall be educated. 

There are about 1,500 that could be educated at this school, and 

there is no school convenient for them. 

The chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs understands the 

situation. This is to be an industrial school. The county in which 

I live has got the Legislature to authorize them to appropriate$10,000 

for the purpose. The citizen~ have already bonght some land, and the 

good people there are taking an interest in the education of these 

children. 

I do not believe that lavish expenditures on grown-up Indians will 

amOlmt to very much; but here we have children, 1,500 of them; and 

there is no means of educating them, and the citizens have taken the 

subject in hand, and feel very much interested in it. The money will 

certainly be of great use if we can get it for that purpose. 

:Mr. COCKRELL. How many Indians are there? 

Mr. STEWART. I do not know now many Indians, but Professor 

Young last year undertook ·to ascertain as near as he could how many 

Indian children there were, and he came to the conclusion that in the 

western part of the State there were about 1, 500 children; I do not know 

how many Indians. There are three tribes of Indians, and they are quite numerous. There are the Pintes, the Washoes, and the Sho~hones 

in the State, besides some minor tribes. 

1\Ir. DAWES. I have a letter here from the Department addressed 

to myself upou this subject; also a letter from the Department addressed to H. M. Yerington, Jewett W. Adams, and S. L. Lee, Indian 

school commission, Carson City, Nev., and a strong letter from the Commissioner of Indian .A.:trairs to the Secretary of the Interior, all setting 

out the n~dof this establishment. · .Mr. COCKRELL. I should like to hear them. This looks like a. strange proceeding to give 200 acres of land, worth 10 cents an acre, 

and then appropriate$50,000 for a school. There are only two Indian 

reservations in Nevada, according to the official map, one on the ex- treme western border of the State, and one, the Shoshone reservation, 

on the extreme northern border. There are plenty of other places 

where there are large bodies of Indians; and now to appropriate 

$50,000 for this school seems strange. · Mr. STEW ART. It looks to me exactly right, and it seems to me strange that gentlemen should talk about the small reservations. We 

have not allowed our State to be occupied by reservations and given 

up for that purpose. We have not been asking for large Indian appropriations. I think my record on that question is pretty clear. I have 

been complained of in all the Departments because I would no.t propose to give enough to the Indians; but the time has arrived when 

they have these children growing up there, and something must be done 

with them. They are about the towns without being educated. A measure like this has been recommended by the Commissioner of Indian .A.:trairs for several years, and our people have taken hold of it. 

The s-enator talks about 200 acres being worth 10 cents an acre. The 

land is quite valuable within about half ,a mile of Carson City. The 

people have taken bold of it in good earnest. Bec.:<tuse we have not got 

large reservations, because we have not been extravagant in appropriations for the Indian service in Nevada, is no reason why you should 

not educate these children. · 

.M1-. COCKRELL. How far is the Indian reservation from Carson? 

Mr. STEW ART. The reservations are each about 40 miles distant- one one way and the other the other; but the Washoe tribe of Indians 

is a good tribe. There are six or eight hundred in the tribe; two or three hundred children of that tribe live in Carson, and they never have had a dollar from the Government. Our people have employed 

them, and they have gotten along without a dollar's appropriation. 

There has been no dollar ever appropriated for these Indians, and they are doing very welL 

,-
188'8. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 1149 

Mr. COCKRELL. Then why demoralize them with this appropriation? 

Mr. STEW ART. I ask an appropriation for the children' now; I 

would not ask it for adult Indians while we can employ them; but I 

ask 'it for these children, and I would not ask it unless it was neces- sary. 

M.r. COCKRELL. I want to hear these statements read. 

Mr. BERRY. I move that the Senate do now adjourn: 

Mr. COCKRELL. I should like to have those papers spread in the 

RECORD, so that we shall have them before us to-morrow. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. That will be done, if there be no objection. 

The papers are as follows: DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, 

Washi11gton , April 9, 1887. 

GENTLEMEN : I am in receipt of your communicat.ion of the 31st of Jan uary 

}:tt~~c~~~fis~!~~{ :f I!~el;d~~~c!cit ~t i~ t~!t~t:te~a Legislature providing 

I am gratified to s ee that Nevada m a n ifests such an interest in the education of her Indians. The generous offerofafarmof160aC£es andof $10,000forbuilding purposes merits prompt accepta nce by the Government. But I regret to say that the last session of Congress instead of increasing slightly reduced appro- priations fo1· Indian education, so that it will be with difficulty that school work now in progress can be properly continued during the coming fiscal year. Therefore I not would be justified in saying at this time that so soon as your buildings are completed the office will furnish and open an Indian school therein. But I can say, and will do so, that if you desire to put up the building and to transfer the same, with the land, to the Indian Office, the office will ac- cept it and will open a school therein for Indians of Nevada whenever a Gov- ernment appropriation therefor shall have been obtained. Meantime, if you desire it, the office will send a special agent to examine the location offered and to report upon its fitness for the purpose intended. Also the office can send yon copies of pl a ns which have been adopted for its school buildings, from which you will be able to gain an idea of the kind of buildings 

needed, and what will be the capacity of a building which $10,000 will erect. I hope that it may be possible to secure from the next session of Congre ss an appropriation for the support of this proposed Nevada school, and if it is made "immediately available" it may be possible to start the school within the next fiscal year. 

Yours, respectfully, A. B. UPSHAW, Acting Commissione-r. 

H. M. YERINGTON, JEWETT w. ADAMS, s. L. LEE, 

lndian School Commission, Carson City, Ne-v. 

DEPARTME~"T OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, 

Washington, Jan.uary 'J:l, 1888. 

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the letter of Hon. H. L. 

DAWES,chairmanoftheSenateCoJlllllitteeonindianAffairs,transmittingacopy 

of "a bill (S. 1103) to provide for an Indian school at Carson City, Nev." refeiTed to this office for report, and in relation thereto I h~ve to respectfully advise yon that during the past year correspondence was had with several gentlemen on the subject of establishing a school for the Indians of Nevada, and they were informed that it would be impossible for the India n Office, with the appropria- tion then available, to establish such a school. Inclosed herewith you will find copy of a letter on this subject, addressed to the school commissioners at Carson City, Nev., on April 9, 1887, which gives the views of this office on the subject at that time. The establishment of. a large industri.al training school for the-Indians of Ne- vada is greatly needed, as they are almost without school accommodations. There is only one reservation boarding school and one day school at present in operation. · The majority of the Indians in that State are not on any reservation, and are homeless wanderers. If a good school were put in operation many of the young Indians could be induced to attend and receive a course of instruction which would tend to make them useful and self-supporting citizens of the State. I have examined the inclosed bill and heartily agree with the object of it. The letter of Hon. H. L. DA WEB, with inclosure, is herewith returned. Very respectfully, 

The Hon. SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. J . D. C. ATKINS, Commission~. 

DEPARTliiENT OF THE INTERIOR, 

Washington, JanuaTY 30, 1888. 

Sm: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt by this Department on Jan- uary 23, 1888, of your letter of the same date, inclosing bill (S. 1103) to provide for an Indian school at Carson City, Nev., with the request that it be examined and reported back with my views and recommendations thereon. I n response thereto I transmit herewith a communication under date of the 27th instant, with its inclosures, from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to whom the matter was referred for report, wherein he states that :Qe heartily agrees with the object of the bill for the reason that the establishment of a large industrial training school for the Indians of Nevada is greatly needed, as they are almost without school accommodations. I beg to add further, for the information of the committee, that the Indians for whose benefit the proposed school would be maintained, if established and provided for, are those upon and in the vicinity of the reservation in Nevada under the jurisdiction of the Nevada and the Western Shoshone agencies, num- bering in all about 8,000 Indians, among whom there are probably 1,200 chil- dren; of these, educational facilities are provided for only 180 pupils, 75 in a boarding school and 105 in day schools. In the last annual report from both of those agencies it is stated that the ex- isting schools have been filled to their utmost capacity, and thatadditionalschool accommodations are required. From the Nevada agency eighteen of the more advanced pupils were sent to the industrial school at Grand Junction, Colo., which theagentreportshad ademoralizingeffectupontheirpa.rents, who mourn for them as lost, or as they would the dea.d;andalso upon the remaining pupils and upon their parents, who fear that their children will be sent a w ay when they arrive at the same proficiency. 

P a rticularly pertinent to the proposition now under consideration a re thefol- low in ~ rema rks of the agent of th~ Nevada agency, Nevada:: " r smcerely hope that success Will crown the efforts of those who a re takino- an interest in h aving an appropria tion made for the erection of a build ing and the establishment of an industrial training school in Carson City, or somewhere within the borders of this State, as I firmly believe it would provetbevery best thing which could be done for the rising generation of aborigines of this State, 

• 

and my opinion is fortified 'by the act.ion of the last State Legislature in session, when it appropriated $10,000 to be expended for that purpose. The India us are praying for such a school, where children can- be taught withm their reach. * * • There are enough Pah-Ute children of school a g e to fill a half dozen school-houses, provided there was some means devised for collecting them and compelling t heir attendance at school." There appears, therefore, to be no question of the need for increased school facilities for the Indians on and near the rese rvations iq Nevada, and the con_. di tion and necessities of these people are such as to warrant the belief that their .educational and industrial needs will require the fostering care of the Govern- ment for some time to come. The estimated cost for esta blishing industrial tra ining schools for Indian edl1- ca tional purposes, erecting, furnishing, and eq uipp ing the necessary buildings, etc. (not including purchase of land), is found , from bids offered for and from cost of work on those alread y established, to be from $200to ~'250perpupil. The smaller the school the larger is the estimated cost per pupil. For $50,000 an in- dus trial training school can probably b e established at or in the vicinity of Car- son City, Nev., that will accommoda te 250 or more Indian pupils, unless cost of material and labor is very much higher t here than in other localities. The cost of maintaining such a school will not be less than $175per pupil per annum, the rate allowed for the schools at Chilocco, Ind. T., Sa lem, Oregon, LaWI·ence, 

Kans., and others (see 24 Stat., page 455). The industrial tra ining school at Salem, Oregon, with capacity for 200 pupils, is the only one yet esta blish ed for the Indians on the P a cific coa-st. The Indians on that coast are m a inly self-supporting, and the annual expenditures made for them are very small when compared with the large sums expended for many of the tribes and bands residing in the more easterly sections of the country. - As the successful cultivation of the soil in Nevada depends largely upon its proper irrigation, the India n children residing therein should be trained to farm-work in a school where tbe farming is done on irrigated land. I therefore think that it is v ery desirable that such u. s.ehool shonld be estab- lished somewhere in the locality indicated in the bill under consideration. The bill should, howe'\"er, in my opinion, be so amended as to leave it to the discretion of the Secr etary of the Inte rior whether any land or other dona- tion made for the purpose of the school by the Sta te of Nevada, or otherwise, sha.ll be accepted and used therefor; s that the suitability of location or pro- posed advantages shall be within Departmental determination. Very respectfully, WM. F. VILAS, Secretary. 

Th: CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAffiS, 

United States &nate. 

The PRESIDENT pro mpore. Before submitting the motion of 

the Senator from Arkansas, the Chair will lay before the Senate the un- finished business, being the bill (S. 371) to aid in the establishment and 

temporary support of common schools. The Senator from Arkansas [Mr. 

BERRY] moves that the Senate adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to; and (at 5 o'clock and 2 minutes p. m.) 

the Senate adjourned until to-morrow, Tuesday, February 14, 1888, at 

12 O-'clock m. · 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

:MoNDAY, February 13, 1888. 

The House met at 12 o'clock m. Prayer by Rev. Dr. B:&USH, presi- dent of Dakota University. 

The Journal of Friday's proceedings was rea-d and approved. 

SECTION 4883, REVISED STATUTES. 

The SPEAKER laid before the House the bill (H. R. 5514) to amend 

section4883oftheRevised Statutesofthe United States, returned from 

the Senate with an amendment. 

The SPEAKER. The Senate an;1endment to this bill is simply a change in the title; and if there be no objection the amendment will 

be concurred in. There was no objection, and it was so ordered. 

REFERENCE OF SEN ATE BILLS. 

The SPEAKER laid before the House bills of the Senate; which were severally read a first and second time, and referred as follows, namely: 

The bill (S. 1723) for the completion of the public building in the 

city of Pensacola, Fla., as originally designed-to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. 

The bill (S. 832) to provide an additionalxq.ode of taking depositions 

of witnesses in causes pending in courts of the United States-to too 

Committee on the Judiciary. 

The bill (S. 140) for the erection of a bronze statue to Spencer F. 

Baird, late Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution-to the Committee on the Library. 

The joint resolution (S. R. 4) providing for the distribution of un- distributed copies of the Rebellion Record, and other public documentsto the Committee on Printing. 

LEAVE OF ABSENCE. 

By unanimous consent, leave of absence was granted as follows : To Mr. CoNGER, inqe:finitely, on account of sickness in his family. 

To Mr. OWEN, for two days, on account of important business. 

To Mr. NUTTING, for ten days, on account of important business. 

To Mr. OSBORNE, until Friday next, on account of business engagements. 

ENROLLED BILL SIGNED. 

Mr. FISHER, from the Committee on Enrolled Bills, rep~n ted that 

they had examined and found duly enrolled a bill of the following title; 

when the Speaker signed the same, namely: 

, ,