Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-03-29
TELEGRAPHIC.
CONGRESSIONAL.

TELEGRAPHLC.
l., ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CONGRESSIONAL.
IS First SessiOn-44th Congress
. A .PslItical set.se In the House, Z
Which Ar. Blaine Floors lDema.
ocratic Up-Seart.
HOUSE.
Y WASHINGTON, March 81.
t Mr.. Caulfield, from the Judiciar
r Committee, reported bill making
a misdcmeanor for any person in til
employ of the United States to sole
= it or contribute funds for electio
! purposes, or to canvass i'm any cleo
J, tion in any State, county or distric
in the United States.
y Mr.. Hoar offered an amendment
8 providing that bill should not be con
strued to prevent voluntary contribu
! tions for purposes of circulating doc
uments or of procuring addresses Of
questions of public interest.
Mr.. Caulfield said that it was tn
,, object of the Judiciary Committee il
: reporting the bill, to cut off all apollo
gies and excuses and subterfuge o
every character.
, Mr.. Blaine-Does the language o
the bill include within its provision
! Senators and members of Congress
! Mr.. Caulfield-I do not conside
that it does, because they are not OF
ficers of the government.
Mr.. Blaine-Why not include them
Mr.. Caultield-If the gentleman de
sires to include them he may offer al
amendment for that purpose.
MI. Blaine-I shall certainly do sc
If am permitted, because my obser
J vation has been, and I think that tht
testimony oe the country will be tina,
there has been more corruption funds
contributed in campaigns for Con
gress, both by successful and defeated
candidates, than by whole gen
Grafton of government clerks q,
whom this bill aims. If you try tc
cut off five or ten dollar contributions
which the Lord knows ought to be
saved to these poor clerks, and allow
a candidate for Congress to pay from
5000 to $4,000 as l have heard OF
being done, then it seems to me the
bill is mere pretense and does not
strike at the evil at all. / move to
insert Senator and Representatives in
Congress.
Mr.. Caulfield-I refuse to yield any
further.
The Speaker-Does the gentleman
from Illinois yield for the amend
ment?
| Mr.. Caulfeld-No; cannot yield
Mr.. Blaine-The gentleman said he
would yield.
Mr.. Caulfield-Well, withdraw
what said.
/ Mr.. Blaine-Then the gentleman
declines to have Senators and Repre-
sentatives brought under the same
rule he wishes applied to department
clerks.
| Mr.. Caulfield-Other members OF
the Judiciary Committee have re.
ports to make. l wish to give them
an opportunity to do so. Whatever
personal or other experiences of any
sort Mr.. Blaine may have had, he
knew nothing of such things.
Mr.. Blaine said in the seven cam.
paigns he had run, he had never paid
a postage stamp for improper pur.
poses, but L can indicate gentlemen
who have run for Congress who have
spent $4,000 in elections. L wish to
have test made in this case, and
move to reconsider the vote by which
the main question was ordered, and
it will be for the House to say, on the
yeas and nays, whether it will include
Senators and members of Congress in
this bill.
A member-And candidate for
Congress
/ Mr.. Blaine-No, not that. 1t is too
indefinite. The yeas and nays were
ordered on the motion to reconsider.
Mr.. Caulfield offered to admit the
amendment, but the offer was receiv-
ed with triumphal shouts of Irregular
| orders from the Republican side Ot
the House.
The vote to reconsider was-yeas
206, navs 4.
i Mr.. Blaine then offered the pro
posed amendment to the bill prohib
iting election contributions from
government clerks. The amendment
is to include Senator'S, Representatives
and delegates in Congress and to add
the words land contributions OF
money or other valuable things, a.
herein prohibited by any Senator
Representative or delegate in Con
gress, while he was a candidate fol
Congress, shall, in addition to tn,
penalties herein prescribed, operat,
as a disqualification to holding hi
seat"
Amendments were also offered by
Messrs. Reagan, Hewitt of Alabama
, and Brown of Kentucky, which ar,
to be considered next time the bill
comes up.
Speeches were made by Hubbel
against the Morrison tariff bill ant
by Foster, of Ohio, a member of tn
Appropriation Committee, in criti
cism of the reductions proposed il
! Legislative appropriation bill, claim
! ing that they are of years ago by
/ Democratic House, and which h
! ter when Speaker.
i In the course of Mr.. Holman's re
marks the question turned on a new
rule adopted this session, allowing
apportionments 10 be reported at les
!, than rates fixed by law.
Mr.. Blaine gave it as his opinio
that the new rule would prove to b
!. the trojan horse, on which, under de
vice of retrenchment, all sorts o
matters foreign to the subject of til
= bill could be engrafted as an apprC
priation bill ard subjected to the &C
: ton of the Senate and Of the Confer
z ence Committees.
Mr.. Blaine said the grades Of Dc
0 in 1854 at $1,000, 81, 400, 1000, an
S 81, 800, and had never been increas
0 ed since, while the pay Of member
9 Of Congress, which was at the sam
!. time fixed at $1,000, had since gon
up to 5000, an increase of 60 pc
i cent, and now he said the democrat
g majority in the House tried to mil
lead the country by representing ths
: they are willing to submit their ow
3 salaries to the same shaving and di!
Z count to which other salaries wer
!. subjected. They took ten per cen
off their own salaries, which ha
been advanced 60 per cent, and the
: took 10 per cent. off the pay of poe
!. clerks who had not had any advane
: since 1854. If they were sincere the
r should put the salary of members {
& Congress where it was in 1854, an
g then put the planning machine of te
o lper cent. on that and go before Il
: country honestly. (Applause in Il
galleries.l
IL Mr.. Holman said he agreed full
with the gentleman from Maine q
II that question, but he (Holman coul
. not be diverted by that speech, a
q though a very good one, from Il
Q question which he had been discus
= ing.
g After long discussion, the Con
L mittee rose without action on the bill
=, WASHINGTON, March %.
The House took up the bill reportt
l A. ,ls s..;a