Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-02-28
PORTY-BIGnTR CONGRBSS.
sen ATE.

WASHINGTON. Feb. %.
Mr.. Dawes, from the committee on Indian
affairs, reported favorably a bill providing
for the allotment of lands in severalty to In-
dians residing on the UmabiIla reservation in
Oregon.
Mr.. Van Wyck offered the following reso-
luton, for which he asked immediate consid.
Grafton
Resolved, That the committee on post
offices and post roads be directed to inquire
whether at any time the Western Union and
Baltimore Ohio Telegraph companies, or
any officers or employees of said companies,
have entered into . contract or negotiation
for the purpose of consolidating said COM
panies. or making combination for any pur-
pose.
The House bill repeating the test oath was
taken up and passed, after being modified by
the amendment proposed BY the Senate ju-
dietary committee, providing that no persons
Who held commissions in the United States
army or navy before the var. and was after
| wards engaged in the military, naval or civil
service of the so-called confederate States,
shall be appointed to any position in the army
or navy of the United States.
The Senate resumed consideration of the
bill to provide for the construction of steel
cruisers.
Mr.. Jones of Florida, while agreeing with
much that had been said by the opponents of
the bill, with respect to extravaganza and bad
management in the past conduct Of the gov
could not, he said, agree with them in oppos-
ition to the bill upon the general question Of
necessity for greater efficiency in the navy
While he would not say that the United
States wanted any such fleets as those of
England and France, he would not hesisate
to say that it was the most imperative duty
10 give the country at the earliest practicable
moment navy that would be able to sustain
national honor.
Mr.. Mcpherson said that his amendment
merely proposed to suspend for the time be-
ing the duplicating of the ships now building.
and which will be finished in December, until
we have an opportunity to test them.
! Mr.. Hale said it would be a delay of a year
and the vessels-the large cruisers-which
the senator from New Jersey objected to
were precisely those on which the most stress
was laid by the naval advisory board.
| Mr.. Cockrell inquired whether the country
had been or was going to be attacked.
| Mr.. Hale replied that it was easy to ask
snch questions. The country had been going
along for 10 years in an easy, happy, go-lucky
way, which, he presumed, suited the gentle
man from Missouri; but he thought it hardly
probable that it would be able to get along so
well during the next 90 years.
| Mr. Beck criticised severely the past pol
icy of the navy department. especially with
regard to the management of the navy yards,
and insisted that as long as the government
could import material at an average of 40 per
cent less than private ividuals, the navy
yards should, and under proper management
would be able to build naval ships more
cheaply than private individuals could pos
siby.
| Mr. Vest stated that to his mind the debate
had proceeded upon false basis. There
was no danger of war, there was no public
sentiment asking for so large an outlay. The
public sentiment that gentleman imagined to
exist was in the secretary of the navy and
officers of the navy. But few minutes ago,
while in the corridor, he (Vest) had been
appealed to. An officer of the navy, an old
personal friend, had appealed to him. saying
'For Gods sake. Vest, vote for this bill. P"
Mr. Vest had told him that he was mistaken
it was for John Roach's sake he meant.
The Almighty had nothing to do with it.
Roach had been here for 20 years, assaiing
every man who did not put money in his
| pocket When the steel vessels were put up
to public competition there were but two bids
! in response. one of Cramp and one of Roach.
Nobody else in the country, under the terms
of the bill, could bid for them. Mr.. Hale
said, az to Roach, that the committee on
naval affairs was the sponsor of this bill, and
| that the committee had never seen or heard
| of John Roach in connection with 1t. Mr..
| Hale said other bids had been put in. but the
the bid of John Roach wos in the aggregate
$500, 900 lower than the bid of any other
| builder Mr.. Hale defied the senator from
Missouri or Kentucky to find in the admins
tration of the navy department for the last
two or three years expenditures of single
dollar injudiciously or for which value had
not been received For his part if there were
a democratic administration, he (Hale) would
not be raking around among all the muck
| heaps of the past and inslnuating that every
body that held a government office was cor
rupt
MIR. Vest thought Mr.. Hale's interruption
something of an oratiOn- in which epItaphs
shot like meteors from the northern skies
"Who,'' he enquired. drought in this ques-
ton of inefficiency of the navy yards. Was
| it not an ally of the Senator from Maine, his
assistant adiutant general?" (Aluding to
Butler.) .Who did not know that these
navy yards were the hot beds of political cor
ruption?'
| Mr. Butler, with great warmth OF manner,
repelled the assertion that he was the ally
of the adjutant general OF of anybody on this
question. II am here" he said, ''discharg-
Ing what believe public duty, and will say
to the Senator from Missouri that he had
better call a spade a spade, that when he op-
poses this bill he had better state in plain
terms and not in flights of rhetoric from the
northern skies. what his real objection to the
bill is. Is it that he has no confidence in the
honesty OF the present administration of the
navy department.! Is 1t thonght that perhaps
some political advantage might accrue to the
marty to which he and my self do not belong,
If we vote this sum of money to build these
ships. hope am as loyal to my party as
is the senator from Missouri, but he will
pardon me, Mr.. President, if | refuse the
subordinate high public duty to the achieve
ment of party advantages.
A sharp colloquy followed between Messrs
Butler, Vest and Mcpherson. as to whether
the two latter had been approached by anyone