The Portland daily press., 1873-02-26

,,,o,, ,,igbt or early Tuesday morning,
:, COMMITTEES of the Whole the House took
- t1,o legislative, executive and judicial APP
~ ,nriation bill. Among the amendments
presented by the Committee was one increas
inc the salaries of various clerks of the House
and its Committees. In place of this Gen.
Butler moved to substitute the provision in
creasing the salary of the President to $40
ooo, that OF the Vice President, Justices of
tne supreme Court, and Speaker of the
House to $4,000 and that of Congressman
TO SIooo including the present Congress. A
heated debate followed in which Messrs.
Dawes, Hawley, Hoar, Garfield and Holman
vigorously opposed the proposition and Messrs.
Butler and Randall advocated it. The report
| OF the proceedings indicate that the conduct
| of some of the members was as unworthy as
| the measure under consideration. zen.
Buffers coarse jests were greeted with up
roarious laughter. Gen. Hawley denounced
it in the severest terms, saying: "We cannot
have, in my opinion, anything worse IMAM
the party which begirs six months alter the
most ardent professions OF economy 10 raise
orr own salaries, so that we may put in our
rockets $4,000 not dreamed about till two or
| three weeks ago. I know the country will
not approve of it; the party will not approve
of it: there is no reason for it.'
Considerable filibustering followed, during
which time Gen. Coburn of Indiana moved
to strike out all of the amendment except
that relating to the President and Vice Pres
ident; but in vain, Gen. Buffers amend
ment was adopted by tellers by vote of 81
to 66. Various other propositions were
adopted increasing salaries, amid great con-
fusion and at twenty minutes after one Tues
day morning the Committee rose and report
ed the bill to the House which then adj
journed.
This action of the House cannot be too Sc
verely censured. The naked proposition to
increase these salaries has once been voted
down by the House. Led by Gen. Butler,
its friends have succeeded in attaching it to
the most important of all the appropriation
bills. They hope to rally sufficient strength
from the Importance of the bill to carry
the measure through with it, or in case of the
defeat of the bill, to render an extra session
necessary.
Fortunately the bill must again come be-
fore the House and then there will be an OPP
portunity on the bare amendment to bring
the members to record on proposition that
will justly call down upon all who
favor it the denunciation of the country at
large. ~ fil lz
That the salary of the President, Vice
President and Justices ofthe Supreme Court
should be increased may be quite generally
admitted; but for members of the present
Congress to take $4,000 each from the treas
ury is no better than bank robbery though
made legal by Congress and puts the Credit
Mobilier and other transactions entirely in
the shade by its alarming audacity and utter
infamy.
The forty-second Congress has thus far
made record that its members may well be
proud Of, and which the country will gener-
ally approve. Let it not, under the lead of
Gen, Butler, in its last hours, do an act that
will brand it as mercenary and unworthy of
the nation.