Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-03-16
WORK AT THE CAPITAL.


Iest'icI we lISsTl III mere.
Correspondence OF THE HERALD.
WASHINGTON, ID. c.. March 5.-As
said in my last letter Congress is down
to solid work SO notable were the de-
bates and proceedings of Congress last
week that concerning it may be truth
fully said that probably in the same time
in the history of the country's legisla-
ton the Great American Eagle was
never spread in more glorious ampli-
tude in the National halls. Ex-Secre-
tary Blaine's eulogy is a noble and Just
tribute to the beautiful life and public
services of the late loved President Gar
field, 1t was delivered in the speakers
most impressive manner to an audience
of full three thousand people, assembled
from every part of the Republic This
with the attendant memorial proceed
ings comprised the business of Congress
for Mondays session. The Postoffice
appropriation bill brought out an ami
mated discussion by Hiscock, Bingham,
Robson, Casswell and others in the
House. Senator Miller, Grover and
Hoar exhausted their rhetoric and the
patience of many, in their arguments
on the Chinese immigration bill. Black
burn, KaSson and others wrestled over
the tariff question to-day. On the Ind
ian appropriation bill Hazelton, Scales
Robson, Haskell and Hooker had a
lively running delate. But Yesterday
was the field day in the House, the dis
cussion of the Consulor and Dip lomatio
appropriation bill leading to lively
partisan debate between Messrs Cox.
Robson, Hiscock, Charley Williams,
Springer and Lord.
THE WRONG NOT CORRECTED.
In the House the other day when the
Indian appropriation bill came up for
discussion Mr.. Hazelton attacked the
system of adjusting the salaries of Ind
ian agents thus
Mr.. Hazelton. "Mr. Chairman: of
course however able and ccgent an ar
gument l may make, however strong
the reasons | may present, do not ex-
pect to change the action of the Com
mittee on appropriations in its determi-
nation concerning the salaries of these
Indian agents But if there is one mat
ter of Legislation the merits of which
have been disregarded by this House,
viii not say by this committee, it is the
adjustment of some proper and just sys-
tenn of compromising for our Indian
agents. | have been here two Con-
crosses, and have always asked men,
bers of commettees why they could not
adjust and make equal and put upon a
fair basis of equity these salaries cover
ing the employment of Indian agents
throughout this great nation. There is
no system of salaries so outrageously
unfair, so wantingly unjust, as the one
to which | now address myself. The
question of comparative services, the
question of comparative responsibility,
has not been considered or reported or
acted on by the House. Not only the
present Indian Commissioner, but every
Indian Commissioner for the past ten
years.
Mr. Scales. ask the gentleman if
the estimates on which these appropria-
tons are based are not made and these
salaries fixed by the Indian Bureau of
the In erior Department
Mr.. Hazelton. Suppose they are.
That does not change the position | am
taking, that they are unjust and unfair.
and ought to be made more equitable.
return to my position that every Ind
ian Commissioner of this Government
for the last ten years has called on this
committee and called on this House to
place the salaries of these Indian agents
on fair and just basis, but every one
of those reports, every one of the de-
mands of the Indian Bureau, has been
disregarded and ignored by the commit
tee and this House, Such has been the
case for the time ] have been here, and,
as | learn, SO it has been for the last
fifteen or twenty years.
You put a man up on the forty-ninth
parallel where Sitting Bull was, you
give him charge of 1000 or 5000 In
dians, most of them hostile, YOU sur
round him with dangers and priyations
of every character, you increase his
responsibility and impose additional
duties on him, and yet you pay him
only 81 900. You then come down to
State of Wisconsin, where the Indians
are under the shadow of civilization,
where the agent can live in comfort in
a city of 10000 or 10000 inhabitants,
where he is relieved from additional re-
sponsibilities, where he is perfectly safe
in his life, his family, and his property.
and you pay him 81 500. Indeed YOU
pay the latter $500 more than the other.
although he does not do one-half as much
service. And so it is in New York; 50
it is in Kansas, and so it is all over the
Union. The rule has been established
that where there is the greatest respons-
Utility, where there isthe greatest bard
ships and hardest work, there you pay
your Indian agents the least salary.
| come to see these gentlemen, the
members of the Indian Committee
have done 50 for four years and beg
them that they will bring in something
from that committee that would correct
this outrage, ard check this wrong.
And what is their reply? "Well, we
don't know, hardly. We think the
committee on appropriations ought to
do it. 90 to the committee on APP
preparations. They say it is none Of
their business il is an Indian question.
Let the committee on Indian affairs first
handle that question, and then Won come
to us and we viii fix it, And so. Mr..
Chairman, il goes, and so it has gone,
back and forth, repeatedly, and will be
repeated so long as this Indian service
remains under the control of the civil
power of the Governml ut. There will
be repeated year after wear, the same
outrageous adjustment Of these salaries
and you cannot correct It. The Ameri-
can Congress is not strong enough or
sensible enough to correct this one out
rage. 1t has been there for twenty-five
years; it will be there for twenty-five
years longer
LIFE SAVING STATIONS.
A bill is before the House to Establish
lifc-saving stations on the Mississippi
river, similar 20 those situated on our
dangerous coasts. This service has ac-
complished great good in the saving Of
life and property from wrecked ocean
steamers, but whether its extensions TO
the rivers would be correspondingly
fruitful is the question Of doubtful Wis
dom. During the past ten years this
service has assisted at more than 300
wrecks, in which l2,254 lives were i'm
periled and 1864 were saved. The
value Of prol .rty saved during the time
is estimated at slj 900. The plan pro-
posed on the Mississippi is to establish
200 life-boat stations at points between
St. Paul and the river mouth, and pro-
vide the same with the necessary APP
paratus and supplies for the preserva-
ton Of life and property from shipwrcck
and destruction of vessels and all other
watercraft, ator near such beacon lights
as are now and may hereafter be estab-
Iished. The laws and regulations Of the