Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1882-10-05

81 virginia interrupnng the senator
said: II viii say 70 my friend ths
that estimate does not include the pen
sion appropriation bill. The sppro
lpriation, Isuppose. i for that alone i
lS40,000,000 more" Mr.. Sherman
) then says: SIT includes only th,
I present pension bill, but not the def.
cheney which will be pretty large. w,
have largely increased the ability tC
| pass upon pension cases. Now, then
| going along, without keeping you toe
long: 1--WE know very well the state Of
the river and harbor bill. Take al
these things into consideration and you
cannot estimate the amount OF the ap.
preparations oy Congress this year al
less than $50, 100000 more than the
appropriations made last year. Add
that $50, 600, 900 to the amount OF the
expenditures last year snd'-then be
gives what the result would be.
Now, then, my friends, you find that
what said is literally true, based up
on good authority; that this Congress
has been needlessly extravagant in its
appropriations.
THE INFAMOUS RIVER AND HARBoR STEAL
!, Now let me be understood upon the
river and harbor BILL / will tell you
: where the evil of that was. At Cleve-
land, Black River, Sandusky and
along our lakes they did not get one
half, perhaps not one-third or one
fourth what they ought to have. lam
in favor of internal improvements,
national ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
that will benefit the whole country, in.
crease our navigation, open up our
waterways, bring the lakes and the
riversln competition with our railroads
in order that the great mass of pro-
duce of our farms can have cheap
transportation by land and by water to
the sea and to Europe. For their bene-
fit want all that. But when you
come to make appropriation for streams
that are not found on any United
States map in America [applause] or
on any map even local, county, state or
otherwise, ] am opposed to 1t. Now
how is that thing done? | will tell
you. Instead of having bill in which
Black river would have probably $l5,,
900 or $40, 900, Unnecessary appropria-
tion, they say, "No, cut that down to
$1,000 or $4,000 and put the balance
of the $40, 900 on Coon Run and Black
Fork, and then we will get John
Smith and John Brown to vote for It
with you" So they rob this port here
in order to get votes on the floor for
the infamous bill. Now, | feel with
the President that 1t is alarming, that
it is startling, that it is dangerous, that
it is demoralizing-I believe that it is
the word the President used-demor-
alizing to this country, these river and
harbor appropriations, conducted by
the methods now resorted to. If that
veto Of the President had been sus-
tanned they would have gone into the
committee room and in one hour they
would have cut out the appropriations
for those little Coon runs and would
have whitfield the appropriations down
to about six or eight millions of dol
lars, one-tnird of the sum that was
allowed and it would have been passed,
perhaps by an almost unanimous vote,
and justice would have been done the
public and this iniquitous measure
would have been defeated. Now, what
will be the result? It will be precisely
what the President said it would. There
were eleven millions appropriated by
the last Congress and almost nineteen
millions by this and, mark you, unless
Congress is rebuked by the people the
appropriations next year will be thirtv
millions; because rabbit runs will come
in with coon runs and every fellow
will want slice Of the public treasury.
WAR CLAIMS.
Now, cannot spend any more time
in that direction, for | must briefly and
hastily refer to one or two other means
of extravaganza that this overaowing
treasury gave rise to; and refer to 1t
more because / have never had cam
paign where the question did not arise
among the people. At my first elect
ion wherever | went I was asked,
"How do you stand on war claims?" l
said then and | have found it true
since. l have no doubt that nine -tenths
of the war claims are basely and wick
edlv fraudulent; that there are now
eighteen o, twenty years after the war,
claims never heard Of in Congress until
now piled up in that committee room
by the cord. Well, unfortunately or
otherwise your present Speaker made
it my luck to 60 on that committee
and we went to work. The claims be.
gan to come up and it was soon de-
veloped in committee who were favor
able and who were unfavorable. Our
brothe- Holman from Indiana, the
universal objector in the House, hap.
pened to be on that committee with
me. OF course, then, I had some little
relief. Now | want to give you q few
illustrations of the work of that COM
mittee. There are hundreds of mil.
lions OF dollars of claims there that
they are pressing to get through. Some
Of them have been passed on an6 some
Of them have never been heard OF, but
they have their lobbies at every corner