Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-01-24
ARALLY FOR BLAIR'SB BILL
APPROPRIATIONS MAY ORIGI-
NATE IN THE SENATE.

NATE IN THE SENATE.
The House Votes Rather Against its Past
Principles to Save the Favorite Edu-
catiODaI Proposition from Death-Mr.
Hammond Takes a Prominent Part in
the Debate.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 23.-In the House
to-day Mr.. Hurd, as a privileged ques-
ton, offered a preamble and resolution
reciting that certain bills appropriating
money from the Treasury originated in
the Senate are now on the Speakers ta-
BILE, to wit: the Blair educational bill and
many others, and it asserted that these
bills are in violation of the privileges of
the House to exclusively originate bills
for raising revenue, and directing the ,Ju-
dietary Committee to inquire into the
power OF the Senate to originate bills APP
propriating revenue and report to the
House at any time.
Mr.. Hammond inquired whether if the
resolution were adopted the House could
still consider the Blair bill in its regular
order. The Speaker answered in the at
hrmatiYe. Mr.. Hurd said that for many
years he had viewed with apprehension
the increasing number of appropriation
bills originating in the Senate When
interest he had not seen fit to interpOse
an objection, but when the Senate origin
ated bill appropciating 500, 900, and
affecting great public purpose, The time
had arrived when the question should be
determined whether the Senate possessed
the power which it claimed to exercise.
Mr.. Herbert, of Alabama, inquired
where, in the constitution, any dis
tinctiOn could be found between the
n ipin
appropriating specific sum for specific
object, and bills apprOpriating a specific
sum for general purpose, as in the case
of the Blair bill.
THE DANGEB IN THE SYSTEM.
Mr.. Hurd denied the power of the Sen
ate TO originate either character Of
bill. He believed that the adoption of the
doctrine contended tor by the Senate
would be utterly destructive of the object
sought by the founders of the government,
which object was to give to Representa-
tlVes power over the peoples money.
This power was the most potent of the
instruments against encrOachments OF
executive power. Liberty could only be
preserved by preserving its muniments,
and of ali those he knew of none greater
than that OF the power over the peoples
money by the peoples Representatives
Applause.
Mr.. Hammond, Of Georgia, called at
tentiOn to the fact that in the FOrty-siXth
Congress a similar point had been raised
against the right of the Senate to Origi-
nate bill for the purchase of addi-
tiOnal ground for the Bureau of EngraY-
ing and Printing. The question had been
referred to the Judiciary Committee, and
OF 10 members of that committee 10 had
decided that the Senate had a right
to originate that bill and
all bills of like character
If the Judiciary Committee of to-day were
pOlled on the floor he Yentured the asser-
tiOn that twO-thirds of its members would
say that the Senate could originate an
appropriation bill. He argued that an
appropriation bill was not a bill raising
revenue. Raising revenue was bringing
up money from the pockets of the people
to the eXchequer of the government, and
constitutional convention had limited
the prerOgatiVe of the House to that and
not to appropriations.
Mr.. Dibble, of South Carolina, made a
constitutional argument in support of the
power of the Senate, and pointed out that
II the rules Of the House a distinction
was made between bills raising revenue
and bills apprODriating money.
Mr.. Herbert, of Alabama, viewing the
question in the light of the action of the
constitutional convention, cOntended that
the exclusive power to originate revenue
bills did not include power to originate
appropriation bills.
CLIP AT THE sENATE's WINGS.
j. 5. Wise, of Virginia, thought that if
the proposition advanced by the gentle
man from Ohio was correct, which he de-
MED, it would emasculate the Senate ut
terly, and ridiculed the doctrine that
money did not become money until it had
been collected and spent. The great dam
ger which threatened the government was
the ignorance of the people, and to say
that the Senate could not pass measure
to avert the danger was to say that the
Senate was not a coordinate power of the
government. This privileged question
was direct attack on what he conceived
to be the most important measure before
Congress.
Mr., Cox, of North Carolina. while
maintaining the right of the Senate to
originate appropriation bills, spoke good
word for the Blair educational bill.
Mr.. Willis regarded the resolution as an
unusual and extraordinary one. The aim
it had in view was to call in question the
cOnsttutiOnality of the educational bill.
The point would have been better made
against some bill less worthy than this
From month to month he had been trying
to get action on this bill, which, under the
infamous system of the House rules, was
buried on the Speaker table. Mr.. Willis
uON6U 10 lay JuG UlOLlOn on lQG table.
This was agreed to by 127 yeas to 1913
nays.
Before the announcement Of the vote
Mr.. Warner, of Ohio, changed his vote
from the negative TO the affirmative, for
the purpose of moving a reconsideration.
The motion to reconsider was tabled by
l4l yeas to 131 nays.
WHY HURD WAS BEATEN.
The NEWS correspondent learns that it
was because Mr.. Hurd's resolution en-
dangered the educational bill that it met
such general opposition and was finally
voted down. The popularity of the edu-
catlOnal Dill among the Southern men on
the Democratic side rendered Mr.. Hurd's
doctrine, although acceptable generally,
very unpalatable to-day. One by one Mr..
Hammond, of Georgia, Mr.. Dibble, of
South Carolina, and other Southern men,
stood up to assert the right of the Senate
to originate bills making apprO priatiOns,
making common cause with Messrs.
Reed, Long of Massachusetts, and
other Republicans, who cOntended that
the Senate had that right, since the prOpO-
sitiOn to prevent the Senate from Origi-
mating appropriation bills was voted
down in different forms in the COnstitu-
tiOnal Convention. Mr.. Hammond made
the striking assertion that half the bills
appropriating money, passed by Congress,
had originated in the Senate. The vote
by which the Hurd resolution was laid on
the table, 127 to 1913, does not indicate the
full strength of the educational bill. 1t
will, its friends say, have much larger