The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-03-23
GRESSION
SENATE.

tEsmatssrH SENATE. ai& "a
WASHINGTON, March l5.--Davis illinois,
presented the memorial of the Chicago news
papers asking for the abolition Of the duty
on unsized paper and paper material. Davis,
while regrettingit was impracticable to reform
the tariff as a whole, saw no reason for moi
making this desirable change. .".
johnson, Williams, Beck and others pre-
sented similar petitions. t.s5..
Bayard, from the committee on judiciary
reported favorably a bill prohibiting the arrest
Of elected officers Oh election days.
WASHINGTON, March DEMONSTRATION
was resumed Of the star routs bill. The
post-otice department disregarding the law
prohibiting an expenditure in excess of the
appropriation, or making contracts involving
the government for the payment OF money in
excess of the Appropriation, which deficiency,
unless supplied, threatens to deprive the
people of the necessary mail services to which
they are entitled. 1t therefore enacts that
81, Lilo: 600, or so much thereof as may be
necessary, be appropriated to meet the expen-
SEES of the inland mail transportation, or star
service routes, for the remainder of the cur
rent fiscal year. During the remainder of
the year nc further expediting of service or
increasing of trips on any star route shall be
made. The further sum of 100000 was
appropriated for placing new services accord
ing to law, provided that the Postmaster
General shall. hereafter have the owe to
expedite amy contract there is now existing,
or hereafter given, to a rate OF pay not to
exceed fifty per cent. per annum upon the
contract as originally let.
Wallace explained the bill and gave the
views of the committee. The Postmaster
General, on December s, said the deficiency
was ST., 720, 600, and asked the appropriation
of s. 100000 to cover it the Sixth Auditor
says 81, 10000 will cover it. These are very
strange figures; they demonstrate that either
the postofice department did not know its
own needs or the Sixth Auditor of the treas
ury does not know What the service needs for
its completion to the end of the year, for
there is a difference of $3.50 900 between their
estimates. The conclusion is forced upon us
that they did not know their own wants, or
else had some other purpose to serve for the
increase or expedition of the service, and
proposed to have enough money to do all the
department agreed to do during the year.
1t is our duty, of course, TO take a charitable
view of the subject, and the committee simply
calls attention to the discrepancy in the
figures. The Senate bill appropriates $l,llO.-
900, the amount shown to be sufficient
by the Sixth Auditor, so that from
every standpoint the Senate bill is better than
the House bill. The people want fast mails,
and contractors in good faith should not suffer
by reason Of wrong action by the govern
ment. 1t is better for us to wait until we can
put our hand on the wrong doer and discern
where the corruption exists, if it does exist,
and then punish the contractor or officer
found guilty. We would not be warranted,
in the absence of any proof of fraud or cor
rupt conduct, III stlikingdoWnthoSe contracts.
At the same time let the House continue its
search for the thieves, and, if they do find
them, the Senate committee on appropriations
will be the first. without distinction OF party,
to punish the scoundrels. Whether in the
department or out of it, when wrong is found,
the Senate, acting in its judicial capacity, will
be ready to strike, l have no doubt. l have
no defense of the post-otfice department for
these inexplicable figures or for the attempt to
eXpend more money than the law authorized,
but the simple fact that there is in this case a
requirement nj that the service should go on OH
its present basis, and that there is no ground
in fact Or law for stopping the service,
warranted us in reporting the bill as we have
and to sustain the contracts to the end of the
year, and if we find, before the bill for next
year is completed, that these wrongs 10 exist,
and that any of these people are connected
with it, / will be the first to aid in forteiting
any contracts SO held but we believe that the
demands Of business require the service to be
kept up, and in the absence of proof of cor
ruptlOn We make no change, but simply
return the amended bill AMI ask its passage.
Sena3or Maxey supported the bill as it was
amended, but did not concur in the preamble.
The Postmaster-G Genera had acted under the
law. and if the law was a bad one it should
be repealed. That was for Congress to de-
eide, but the PcstmasterGeueral should not
10 .a,~1 ~ .,.,,N 10 d. Nu t,u a.. Ii.
cretion vested in him. There has been much
said about some Of these routes, the Yuma
route especially, and he himself was probably
more than any oLher man responsible for The
increase on that route. He and other repre-
sentatives of the country had urged an in
creaS on the Postmaster-General, and he had
granted it, and the result had fully justified
this action, for that country was being settled
up with remarkable rapidity. Congress was
doing a good thing for the whole people in en-
tending mail facilities and helping to build
the country UP.
Senator Beck insisted that the preamble was
justified. by the acts Of the Postmaster
General, who was required to furnish esti-
mates for the existing service and what he
thought necessary for the increase. He said
S2,0O0,OW was sufficient, and Congress gave
him every dollar that he asked, and eight
days afterward he called attention to the
deficiency for star service, and asked for
100000 more, and shortly thereafter the
Sixth Auditor said ST, 110,O00 was enough.
These contradictory statements should have
aroused suspicion at once, and the Depart
ment is required to make up the blue book
giving full information of its action for the
Use of Congress. For the first time on record
this blue book has been divided into two
parts, the second part, containing all the in
formation regarding routes and contracts,
being kept back until March or April, for the
purpose of Withholding information which
would have enabled Congress to know what
the Department had been doing, and Brady
was obliged TO admit that there was no other
necessity tor this action on the part of the
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