Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-04-24
passed under suspension Of the rules and
without debate He reminded Mr.. Cox, as the
professed friend of the laboring man, that this
was the only bill which went dirently to benefit

teen million dollars. One of the greatest diff
| culties the committee had had was to keep
down the appropriation. he denied that tho
committee had been influenced in the slightest
the bill and asserted that it had been influ-
enced only by considerations Of public good.
| Mr.. Cox, of New York, disclaimed anv inten.
ton to reflect on the integrity of the member
| of the committee on commerce, but he claimed
the right, II possible Of reforming the bad
presidents in support of this parliamentary
privilege of protest, and said that in this case
it was resorted to in the interest of the pubic
to stop, if possible. an insidious and corrupt
system of legislation. He found in the bill
proposition for the survey of rivers where there
| some of them. AS had been said, a man could
| not find dam by the mill site, and could not
find mill by damned sight. (Laughter)
Most of the rivers provided for by the bill
were not worth dam. (Laughter.) He found
| In the bill provision for river in Kentucky,
and he was told by Kentucky member that
! the only way to make that river thoroughfare
was t., MacAdamize it..
Mr. Ellis, referring to the remarks of MIR.
Reagan about the disappointed member who
mad not got as large an appropriation as he
| wanted, and who had thereupon signed the
| protest, said the members name was Ellis, and
| he came from the State of Louisiana In re-
gard to the protest, he could not see why any
one should object to it. He appeared before
| the committee on commerce, asking for an APP
preparation for the improvement of the harbor
| of New Orleans. The committee had voted
but $50,0OO for that purpose while it had
given large appropriations for unmentionable
| rivers in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Roberts handed him copy of the bill,
| and challenged him to name the river in Penn
sylvania to which he alluded.
MIR. Ellis looked at the bill and spelled out
the name of Keskemenitas.
Dir. White, Pa, here broke into the discus
sion, and declared that Ellis education must
have been neglected, when he did not know
where the Keskemenitas river was. Laugh
ter.) That was the old Indian name for river
| in western Pennsylvania. 1t was one Of the
tributaries of the Allegheny river, which was
one of the arteries Of wealth Of western Penn.
sylvanla, penetrating, as it did, tie ore e oas
river. also mentioned in the bill, traversed
W ern Pennsylvania.
MIR. Wright asked his colleague to state where
that trout stream, the Keskemenitas, was, and
also where the Connemaugh, il that was the
! name, was. Laughtcr)
Mr.. White-The gentleman aspires to be n
candidate for the executive office of Pennsyl-
vania, but if he does not know the geography
of his state better than that, he ought not to
aspire to such high position. daughter and
| Mr.. Wright-If h ave to support appropria-
tions for the navigation Of trout streams,
don't want to be Governor of Pennsylvania,
! MIR. White-The people of Pennsylvania may
agree with you in that respect Will my col
league cay before the House and country, that
! he does not know the location of the Keske-
| menitas and the Connemaugh rivers in Penn
sylvania?
Mr.. Wright-They are new names to me. I
never heard of them before. Loud laughter
and great confusion and disorder.
Mr.. White-In the old Democratic days it
| was tkN
| that made the western limit of the Pennsylva-
MIA canal region, which helped to contribute to
the power OF the Democratic party.
Oh, no. shouted Mr.. Townsend, of New York;
it was the Moaorgahela that always helped the
Democratic party. Continued laughter and
uproar.
| Mr.. Wright want to know whether that APP
| preparation was made at the desire of my col
| league?
MIR. White--It was, and am proud Of my
| success.
| Mr.. Wright-Are they navigable streams?
| Mr.sWhite-They are.
! Mr.. Wright-How wide are they?
| Mr.. White Stretching out his arms to their
full extent, which the members assumed to be
dumb show answer to the question, and pro-
yok;ng immoderate laughter.) Over Two hun
dred yards. My colleague could not swim
across either of them. He would lose his wind
before he got across.
Mr.. Bridges asked Mr.. White whether, in low
| wafer. person COulO DOU step across thcmI
| Mr.. White, indignantly-No, sir. You could
not step across them. The gentleman ought to
know something about the great oil region Of
| Pennsylvania.
Mr. Bridger-I do know something about it.
Mr. White--l wantit known to the people Of
Pennsylvania that the gentleman has ibeled
my part of that State. Laughter and up
roar.
Mr.. Ellis resuming the floor, referred to the
fact that Bridger and Wright had never heard
OF the keskemenitas, and added that the
speaker had assured him that he had no knowl-
edge of such river.
! The Speaker stated that did not think It
was navlgable.
| Mr.. Roberts sent to the clerks desk and had
read from last years record the names of Cald-
! we'll, Robson of Indiana, Candle, Hamilton
and Ellis as having voted to suspend the rules
and pass the river and harbor bill, the same
| gentlemen having this year signed the protest.
Mr.. Hamilton said the bill of last wear he
had not examined, but had taken it on the
faith of the committee, and had voted for it..
He found he had been grossly mistaken, and he
would never take another bill on the faith of O
committee. Never, never, never. Iaughter.)
Mr.. Wright, Pa, again brought up the ques-
ton OF the two streams in the Allegheny
Mountains, and cited his colleague to renew the
contest. In the heat of discussion they gracu-
ally approached each other from opposite sides
of the chamber, and amid indiscribable uproar
and confusion, wrangled as to b, size of the
streams. Mr.. White Honrished a book contain
ing an engineers report on the subject, and
| when in answer to Mr.. Wright's oft repeated
! question, White spread out a map on which
| the streams were indicated. Mr.. WRIGHT
I pointed at the map with an air Of contemptp-
| GUS triumph, and said that the width of the
] sheet of paper was the width of these streams
He seized and waived the map in Whites face,
for they had come close together and White
made a motion as if he would throw the vol
ume at Wright's head, and all through the
session, there were shouts of laughter, uproar,
confusion, and unbounded disorder.
| Finally, after four and half hours con-
sumed In this manner, the Speaker enforced or
der, and proceeded to state the decision at which
ne had arrived on the point as to whether the
protest presented q question of privilege. He
referred to presidents in the Sd, 28th.
Sist 36th, and seth Congress, in
which protests had been received and read, and
On the journal. He intimated his own opinion
that no harm could come from letting the pro
test be entered on the journal. but following
the manual which governed him, he recognized
that the question related to the privileges of
the House, and he would, therefore, submit it
directly to the House.
The question was therefore put to the House
whether the paper in itself presented a ques-
ton of privilege. The question was put. and
decided in the negative, yeas 50, nays l8.
MIR. M1les then moved that as matter Of
courtesy to those who signed the protest, it be
entered on the journal. Rejected.
! MIR. Durham, from the conference COMMITTEES
on the deficiency bill for temporary clerks in
the treasury department, reported the commit