The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-09-20
BLAINE AND THE THURMAN
ACT.

of Vermont in the National Conven-
ton of 1880, to withhold their votes
from Blaine because he had opposed
righteous legislation, proposed for the
purpose of forcing two corporations
to pay the money which the people
had lent them.
The government had loaned to the
Union Pacific and Central Pacific
railroad companies, SIS, O92, 1872 in
bonds, and had agreed to pay the ill.,
terest on the bonds for thirty years.
At the end of that time the compa-
Mes debt to the government, prin-
cipal and interest, would be $l54,-
258 ,O39. There was a prior lien upon
the property amounting to about
$50, OOO, 900. Could the government
expect to recover its none? The
companies were required to pay to
the government, to be used In set
Ting a part of this enormous debt,
five per cent. of their net earnings
and one-half of the sum paid by the
government for transportation. If
! the companies should make these
payments faithfully the UriOn Pa
cific's debt would be thereby reduced
in 80 years by $40, 600, COO, and the
| Central Pacific's debt by $15, 900 600,
so that at the end of the period the
amount due and unpaid would be
about $l2O, 900, 900, overshadowed by a
$50, OOO, 600 mortgage. When the de-
bate began in 1873, the companies
had been paying dividends of from
s to II per cent. to shareholders, but
as Senator Thurman said, chad not
provided one dollar of q sinking fund
to pay their Indebtedness to the
government" They had been evad-
ing the law. The Thurman bill,
prepared oy Thurman and Ed
munds, and reported by the Senate
Judiciary Committee, provided that
the companies should establiah a
sinking fund for the payment of the
debt, by paying a sum equal to %
per cent. of their net earnings. |
Even under this arrangement the
entire debt would not be secured at
the end of the period, but it was be-
lieved that it would be impossible to |
pass a bill requiring a larger contli-
button.
Immediately another bill, prepared
by the companies, was introduced
by Stephen w. Dorsey, then a
Senator from Arkansas, and a sub.
'servient railroad committee reported,
through Stanley Matthews, a similar
bill, which provided, as II Senator
said, for IAN indefinite postpone
surrender of from SAC, f6Ott;, 700 to ST."
100000 of cur debt to these COM
panies." The debate began, and had
been in progress for three weeks
when Senator Blaine took part in it.
1t is very plain that the authors of
the Thurman bill regarded him as
most dangerous of the companies
friends. He at first carried on
kind of guerrilla warfare against
the bills advocates. He did
not openly support Dorsey's bill, nor
1ld ne openly oppose the Thurman
Dill, but he offered an amendment to
he latter providing that after it r
mould become a law Congress should q
bind Itself to legisIate no farther in r
'egard to the companies for twenty n
'ears if they should comply with the !,
.w. The railroad lobby and the q
abroad senators hailed this with q
oy, Tor they saw that neither the -
Jersey bill. MOI the Matthews bill
ou'd be passed. Congress was asked p,
0 tie its hands for twenty years Fl
'ithout any provisions as to the q,
hanges that might occur and the b
'audulent acts the company might q,
e guilty of. 1t was made known -,
uring the debate that Blaine had =.
ken this amendment to Thurman. w
the latter's residence and urged ox
M to accept it. II have seen," said r.
le Ohio Senator in n of his =.
'eeches," Senators besieged at their No
vn houses by the railroad lcbbv.u al
AS the end of the debate drew nigh 10,
e advocates of the Thurman bill. ~
common consent, trained their m,
ms on the Blaine amendment. "a ~
e most dangerous proposition then
sight. Matthews withdrew his No
Il, and the companies, whose 1ob- or,
lists thronged the galleries, staked tin
cir interests upon the fate of do,
alne's proposition. Thurman de- In,
red that if the amendment should NO.
adopted it would "be the best bar. aro
n the compares had ever made,' So
denounced it in the following ma
rds: O..
his Government had better lose am,
'ry dollar due, and that is am
become due to it from these tor
apanies, than to give that ,.r
1T which it has to alter, amend o.r
'epeal the charter. The worst at tho
upon the bill that could be made. tho
knows very we'll tn: t with that n
vision fastened on to this bill the v;s,
would not be worth the paper on ond
Oh it is written, but it would be non
worse than nothing; he knows bert
it would be a %deathblow to this f.;tt
1t cannot survive a day. tho !,
an hour perhaps, after that ofic
ndment is adopted. 1t is q stab han,
'e very heart Of the bill; it is as ha va
as any stab could possibly be. dav,.
nator Edmurdl, sarcasticallv If j..
King of the "swcet innocence" Il me
virtue of Blaine, showed that il r.
amendment might prevent the
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