The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-03-25

After debate upon and amendments offered and
rejected, the committee rose and the bill was
passed-yeas 226, nays 5.
The House Immediately went into committee
of the whole-Mr. Hammond. Of Georgia, in the
chair-on the p~ostofice appropriation bill.
Mr.. Blount, of Georgia, chairman OF the com
mittee on postofices and post-roads. briefly ex-
| planned the provisions Of the bill 1t appropri-
ates. he said, $54. 1926, 598, as against an estimate
OF $o4. 1856, 166, and an p~riation of 500, 70O,-
990 for the current year.
The committee then rose, and Mr.. Blount
asked that all general debate on the bill be linn
tied to six hours. This was not considered a
sufficient length of time by the Republicans, and
Mr.. Burrows, of Michigan, moved to amend by
making the time ten hours.
The amendment was lost-179 to bland MIR.
Blount's motion was agreed to. The committee
then resumed its session.
Mr.. Dockery. Of Mississippi, said the appro-
priation bills which had been reported this ses-
sion showed that the assertions made that the
distribution of the appropriation bills would re-
suit in increased expenditures had been without
foundation.
MT. Burrows, of Michigan, called the attention
OF the committee to the fact that the estimate
for the pay of Railway postal clerks was too low.
AT the last session, Congress had appropriated
$Sl 900 for the purpose of re-establishing their
stated in the bill. The Postmaster general had
refused to execute the law, because this pur-
pose was not directly specified. II that officer
had examined the estimates, he could have there
discovered that the sum estimated could not
have been reached in any other way than by al
lowing $Sl, 600 for the pay of postal clerks at the
rate allowed by law. There was another instance
where the law was perfectly plain, yet for the
purpose of making that law a nuility, the Post
master general had found no difficulty in looking
beyond the law and outside of it for a reason on
which he could base his refusal to execute it.
This bill appropriated 1915, 900. for the transporta-
ton Of foreign mails. The conditional estimate
Of the department had been $780,,
stated that If it was the will
of Congress to pay American vessels the sum of
sea and inland postage. it would be necessary to
increase the appropriation to $425, 900. By reason
of the failure of the Postmaster-general to exc
cute the law passed by Congress at its last ses-
sion, the department had been thrown back on
the old statute which provided that the Post
master general should, in his discretion. pay to
American vessels the sea and inland postage.
He would, at the proper time, move to amend
this bill SO as to make the appropriation equal
to the full amount of the sea and inland postage.
and only regretted that, under the rules of the
House. he could not do more. After quoting
from statistics to show the small sums allowed
to American vessels for carrying the mails, Mr..
Burrows cited the law of last year, authorizing
the Postmaster-general TO onter into contracts
with such vessels at a rate not exceeding fifty
cents per nautical mile. 1t was known to all, and
| conceded by all, that the law remained a dead
letter. It was not executed, and the law of
Congress in this regard was entirely and wholly
nullifed.
The Postmaster general had given as an OK
cuse that on only two lines vas there any compe-
tition. What right had he to assume that the
advertisement for proposals would not invite
competitionf In the next breath the Postmaster
general said that it was impossible to execute the
law, because there was competition between San
Francisco and China and New York and Cuba.
Having given these reasons, the Postmaster
general supplemented bis argument with a tabu-
lation showing that if the government paid
m lines the sea postage it was paying
| them more than they received for Transporting
wheat or pork. It was the business of the Post
master general, when Congress had determined
to let the service 10 the lowest bidder. 70 make
an effort to execute the law, instead of sitting
down and declining to make the slightest move
toward its execution.
But the administration of the Postofice De-
| partment was subject to just criticism, not only
in regard to these matters, but in other particu-
lars of no little public concern. It had not only
nullifed the law touching the administration Of
the postal service, both domestic and for
eign. but with uncommon effrontery it
had aafed not only the spirit but the
letter of the civil-service law. Reaching, as the
Postofice Department did, into every State,
town and hamlet in this broad land, there was
no department of the public service in which the
administration could have given more convinc-
ing proof Of it's sincerity in the matter of reform
~ WV V " v y Af0 1ONh Nv
branch of the public service where this law had
been more w~antonly and openly defeated. From
the beginning until this hour the head of that
department had sought every opportunity. not
how he might execute the law, but how he might
defy it. He mr.. Burrowsl did not wish to be
understood as intimating that there had not been
any observance Of the civil-service law in any
department.. On the contrary, it might be af-
firmed that in all departments there had been eff
forts to nullify its effect. In season and out of
season, in private and in public, by speech and
platform, the Democratic party had made sol
emn protestations of devotion to the object of it's
cratic platforms from 1872 to 1884 the civil-serv-
ice plank, and ended by a citation from MIR.
Cleveland's letter Of acceptance, in which he
laid down the doctrine that the selection and re-
tention of subordinates in government employ
should depend on their ascerrained fitness
for the work. 1t had been, he said,
in virtue of such professions that the Democratic
party had been intrusted with national control.
Yet in sixty days after he entered upon his Office
the PosJmaster-general had issued one of the
most remarkable letters that had ever ema-
mated from any administration. 1t had been
marked CONFIDENTIAL, and had been directed to
the Democracy of Ohio and Virginia, expressing
the hope that he would be able to turn out two
posrmasters in each county. On the 4th of
March the President had declared that there
should be an application of business principles
to public affairs, and that the civil service law
should be in good faith enforced, and while the
echo of those words was ringing in the public
ears this Postmaster-g general was writing his
''confdentiap letter. The worst of the whole
business was the boasting of the Democratic
| party that it had brought the government back
to the practices Of the fathers, and that it had
reproduced the halcyon days of Jacksonian prin-
ciples and Jeffersonian honesty. The first six
Presidents in forty years had made seventy
three removals. The present Postofice Depart
ment has made more removals than that in forty
minutes. The present administration has de-
| nontfatad nGHOfaJc than chat hofnvo hraoR.
fast, as an appetizer. The people were sickened
with this boast of the Democratic party. 1t had
| ceased to draw, and it would be better to ring
down the curtain and put out the lights;
save the performance and the performers from
public ridicule and contempt, let it be taken
from the boards, or it would be Kissed off by q
Disguised public. And the browning infamy of
L Ahia mhnlo h,,rinnon lau in tho dirhnnorahlo