The Portland daily press., 1880-07-07


| believe there has been as much said on
that particular reply of mine in connection
with salary business as anything else that
has been said. Now, have already an
swered that in the general remarks 1 have
made this evening-namely: when Demo-
crat from New Hampshire rose in his place
and put question to me, inquiring how
much money it would take out of the Treas
ury if this salary act passed. and put it in
the form of saying how much 'plunder'' it
would take, did not at first notice he used
the word ''plunder," and | answered, it
would take 81, 100000 out of the Treasury.
Then Mr.. Dawes rose and said: ''Did my
friend from Ohio notice the word 'plIInder?'
Does he acknowledge this to be plunder?''
| then said: ''No, don't acknowledge that
this is plunder. If any gentleman thinks
that he is taking more than is justly due
him in his conscience, let him call it plum
der if he pleases."
Now, an attempt has been made to make
it appear that Mr.. Garfield approved the sal
ary act because he answered this man that
he didn't regard it as robbery. l answer
now, do not regard it robbery and never
have. Now, one word more before leave
this question. l am glad the American peo-
pie rose up in indignation against that sal
airy increase. There were some unkind and
unjust things said by the people in their up
rising, but they rose against it and reDuked
it with power and might that has been of
very great service to the country during the
last winter. 1t could not have been re-
pealed but for the rebuke of the people, and
| could not have led, as l did lead in more
than S20,000,000 reduction of public ex-
penses, if / had not felt behind the weight
andshelp and reinforcement of the indigna-
tion OF the people in regard to that salary
increase. say it was an indecent thing to
do to increase the salary thus, and it was
e Al -
do to demand its repeal; and it was re-
pealed But let us, in discussing it, deal
with the subject according to the truth. /
now pause to inquire if any gentlemen in
the audience have any questions to ask touch
ing this salary, or anything concerning it.
If they have, shall be very glad to hear it.
The speaker here paused, but no questions
being asked he proceeded as follows:l
Ii not, pass to the subject my friend
over yonder has seemed so anxious | should
get to before l finished the last; and ap-
proacR question that in one sense is not
question at all, and in another sense it may
be. 1 understand that several persons in the
district are saying that Mr.. Garfield has
taken fee for so-called law opinion, but
which, in fact, was something which he
ought not to have done-which was in re-
ality kind of fee for his official influence
as member of the Committee ON Appro-
priations; or, to speak more plainly, that l
accepted pay for a service as a kind of
bribe, and that, too, in
THE DE GoLYER PAVEMENT.
Now. 1 have tried to state that in the
broadest way, with the broadest point for /.
ward. l ask the attention of this audience
for few moments to the testimony. In the
first place l want the audience to understand
that the city of Washington is governed by
its own laws and its own people, Just as
mn Wap hac baa ,a1 hx,
own corporate laws and authority. / re-
member perfectly we'll what has been pa
raded in the papers so much of late, that
Congress has full power to legislate over the
District of Columbia. Well, Congress has
full jurisdiction over the ten miles square of
what is now called the District of Columbia,
and Congress could, suppose, make all the
police regulations for the city of Washing
ton; but Congress always allowed the city Of
Washington to have its city council or legis-
lature. until the present time. We have
abolished it, because we had q cumbrous
machine. In the year 1871 law was passed
by Co sgress creating the Board. of Public
Works, appointing Governor and creating
Legislature for the district of Columbia.
That act stated what the Board of Public
Works could do and what the other branches
of the District Government could do, and
among other things it empowered the Leg
islature to levy taxes to make improvements
on the streets. The Legislature met the Board
of Public Works, who laid before them an
elaborated plan for improving the streets of
Washington, plan amounting to S6,0OO,-
600 in the first place, and the Legislature ac-
cepted the plan, and provided that the third
of the entire cost of carrying out that plan
should be paid by assessing the foot front on
the property holders, and the other two
thirds should be paid by money to be bor-
rowed by the city government; in other
words, by the issuing of bonds. The
city government of Washington borrowed
money and raised by special taxation enough
to carry on vast system of improvements.
When they got ready to execute their plans
q ans Of SffSTe 81 them
and in what way shall we go about the bus
ness of letting the pavement contract? In
order to settle that question they wrote TO
all the principal cities and found out ALI the
methods pursued by them, and finally ap-
pointed four leading officers of the army:
Gen. Humphrey, Chief Engineer; Gen Meigs,
Quartermaster-General the Surgeon-Gener-
al; and Gen. Babcock, of the Engineer
Corps; and those four men sat as an Advis-
ing Board, having no power but merely to
advise. They took up all kinds of pavement
ever made. Specimens were sent in. They
looked over the whole, and as result re-
commended this: "We recommend you, in
stead of letting this work to be done by the
lowest bidder with all the scheming straw
bids that may come in, to fix 2 tariff of
prices you will pay for different kinds of
pavements, and we recommend as follows:
If you put down concrete pavement, you
had better say you will pay so much
down. We have looked the cities
all over, and find that it is the proper
amount to pay; but for stone so much; and
for gravel SO much; and for wood so much"
Now, that Board of Public Works adopted
the plan and that schedule of prices, and,
having elected that if they put those various
kinds OF pavements down, they
they then said to all comers, "Bring in your
various kinds of pavements and show us
their merits, and when we have examined
them we will act" Then the various paw
ing companies and patentees all over the
country who had what they called good
pavements presented themselves; but in
almost all cases through their attorneys.
They sent men there to represent the rel
ative merits of the pavements. A pavement
company in Chicago employed Mr.. Parsons,
of Cleveland as early as the month of April,
1872, to go before the Board of Public Works
and present the merits of their pavement.
Mr.. Parsons had nothing whatever to do
with the question of prices; they had al
ready been settled in advance by the Board.
l.
Court at the time, and was inst about run
ming for Congress. He asked the Chief
Justice of the United States whether there
was any improperly in his taking that case
up and arguing it merely because he was an
appointee and under his direction, and the
Chief Justice responded there was none in
the world. He proceeded with the case un-
til the Sth day of June, when for the first
time heard anything about it. This was
two days before the adjournment of Con-
gress On that day Mr.. Parsons came to
me and said he had an important case; he
had worked a good while on it, but was
called away. He must leave. He did not
want to lose his fee in twas likely to lose
it unless the work was completed. He must
go at any rate. He asked me if / would ar
que the case for Kim; if would examine in
to the merits of this pavement and make
statement of it before the Board. l said: Il
will do it if on examination find the patent
what it purports to be-the best wood pave
ment there is; but can't do it until after
Congress adjourns." Congress adjourned
two days later. ea