The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-09-16


ing the proposed pay" Not content
with this expression, he continued;
Mr.. Garfield have nothing further
to say, except that l wish the House t
weigh well the danger of refusing t
concur in this report, The confereei
have spent ten full hours of hard worl
in prep ring it for tho consideration o
the House; and | ask the gentlemen tC
consider the responsibility thrown upol
them in acting upon this question.
call for Il vote.
The Speaker-The hour allotted to the
gentlem IN from Ohio to Gloss debate ha,
expired
Mr., Holman L rise to parliamentary
inquiry, there being but one slbject
the salary alone, in refcren Z to which
there is Il division of opinion. If the
House refuse to sustain this point, will
it not be in order to recommit to the
same committee?
The Sp 'allcr-It would be, or to order
new conference,
Mr. Holman We have twenty hours
left In which that can be done.
Mr. Holmln demanded the yeas and
nays The yeas and nays were ordered.
The Speaker-The chair has decided
he would not entertain motion to lay
upon'the table conference report. He
is aware this ruling is somewhat differ
ent from that made by previous orcu-
pants of the chair. He has, however,
uniformly decided q conference report
could not be laid on the table, because it
would carry the bill with it, If the
House rejects the report, that leaves the
appropriation bill for another confer
ence committee To lay the report of
the Committee of Conference on the
table would carry the bill with it, and
therefore the Chair has never entertained
Iuny such motion. That is the reason of
his decision.
Mr.. Donnan-I ask that the rule be
read which prohibits its members from
voting on a question in which they are
interested.
The Speaker--That has no application
here whatever.
The question was taken, and it was de-
cided in the affirmative-yeas l02, nays
96, not voting 42.
The actual result of this legislation
was
A GENERAL STEAL.
Five reporters of the House were made
permanent officers, with a salary of ST.,
$50 each, exclusive of extras. Even
this wanton extravaganza did not sui
fee for the corruptioniSts. Their hand
was IN, and they made the peoples
money fly by proviso giving 10 per
cent. in addition to all the employees OF
Congress whose salaries had been thus
raised, and to others who had not the
effrontery to demand an increase, and
then to date this percentage back two
years, as th9y did for themselves,
Pressed by popular resentment and
the dread OF the coming elections, Con-
gress reluctantly repealed this legis-
lation at the recent session. But later
they undid a portion of what they had
done before, and raised many salaries
still higher than they stood in the bill
of abominations The reporters, for in
stance, are allowed $4,000 a year. when
they only average nine months of work
on Congress Of two years, and have
all the rest of the time at their own dis
position. So, too, with other officers of
the Senate and House.
The official record shows that James A.
Garfield not only made and signed the
report of the Conference Committee,
recommending the passage of the bill,
but that, on the reading Of the bill in
the House, he Immediately demanded
the previous question on agreeing to
the report, which demand, as he well
knew, had the effect to cut off all de-
bate, except one hour assigned to him
under the rules, as the advocate of the
measure. This demand was supported
by vote of 103 to S4. Nor was this
all. Had he declined to use the hour
assigned to him, or, had he occupied
that time in opposing the passage of the
bill, there might have been some grounds
for the claim that he had opposed its
passage and used his influence against
it. But he did neither, He occupied
forty-fve minutes of that hour, and
occupied it in defending the bill and
advocating its passage. Thus Mr. Gar
field not only reported the bill, voted
in its favor, and spoke in its support,
but finally adopted the only course pos
sible by which its adoption was rendered
irreyocable.