The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1886-10-31

Il
every other occasion, as / have stated, /
voted in the affirmative.
The first bill that / want to call your at
Il tention to with reference to Mr.. H0wey's
vote wac the bill to forfeit the land grant
to the New Orleans, Baton Rouge and
| Vicksburg Railroad Company. 1t has al
ways been known as the " backbone land
grant," and the bill to forfeit that was
House bill 5,682. That was to be effected
by the repeal of the twenty-second section
| of the act Incorporating the Texas ana Pa
eific Railway Company. A vote was taken
on the question whether the House would
consider the bill, June %, 1884, found on
page s, 662 of the Congressional Record, and
it was lost by vote of, yeas IS, nays 12l,
and among the negative votes are recorded
the names of Messrs. Howey, Kean and
Phelps. On vote to lay on the table the
motion to reconsider that vote, Howey and
Kean voted in the affirmative Phelps did
not vote. That was proceeding by which
this measure was efectually smothered.
SOME HOUSE BILLS REVIEWED.
| The next bill is House bill 1S1, and was
reported by the committee to forfeit the
lands of the Oregon Central Railroad. The
bill was reported on the ground that this
| company had not earned the lands had
not complied with the conditions which
had been imposed in their charter, and
they therefore reported bill to forfeit all
the lands which had been granted under
that act, and that was the report Of the
committee. When the measure got into
the House substitute was offered, which
limited the operation of the forfeiture frem
| FORGETTING all the lands granted to this rail-
road to the land comprised within ninety
| seven miles; instead of forfeiting the lands
which had been granted, and which had
not been earned, it restricted the forfeit
ure to ninety-seven miles. On this ques-
| ten MIR. Howey voted in the affirmative,
Mr.. Kean and Mr.. Phelps were absent, and
that is found on page 1900.
The next is House bill 5,422, to compel
the Pacific Railway Company to pay for the
cost of surveying the lands granted to it.
Lands were granted to the Pacific railroad.
and in order for them to be properly dasig-
mated of course they had to be surveyed.
This bill was introduced for the purpose
of compelling the Pacific railroad to pay
the cost of the survey. It came up on
vote for consideration June IA, 1884, and
was lost, Howey and Kean voting in the
negative, Phelps absent-page 5,163. It
was afterwards brought up and amended
Howe, Kean and Phelps voting for the
amendment, and it placed the bill in such
condition that Judge Payscn of the Com
mittee on Public Lands then offered sub
stitute abandoning the bill as reported by
the committee, and that substitute adept
ed, but upon that there was no roll CALL
House bill 6,771, to amend the law with
reference to the indebtedness of the Paci-
flo railroad-the law to amend the act
known as the Thurman act" and involved
the payment of one hundred million dol
lars owed by those railroad companies to
tbs United States. 1t came up on vote
fer its consideration May 21st, 1884, and
was lost, Howe, Kean and Phelps all voting
s'no." 1t was afterwards passed on the
18th of June without roll cali, and then was
buried in the Senate.
At the second session, Jan. ~, 1885,
Mr.. Henley of California, raoved to pro-
coed to the House calendar to consider
these land grant forfeiture bills, and that
was carried. yeas 140, nays 106, Howey
and Ksan voting in the negative.
THE INTERSTATE BILL.
Inow come to bill which I suppose will
test the position of member of Congress
with reference to his leaning toward rail-
road corporations more than any other
bill, the bill that has been framed and
which has been sought to be passed in
tatlon against discrimination in freight
the bill known as the 'Interstate Com
merce Bill" That bill passed the House in
the Forty eighth Congress on Jnne7, 1884,
found in sixteen Congressional Record, page
554. On all amendments favored by rail-
roads You will find Howey, Kean and
Phelps in favor of the railroads and against
the people, and on the final vote, Howey,
Kean and Phelps are recorded in the mega
tive. This is your anti-corporatlon candi-
date.
When this bill came up in the House at
ths last session the test question in the |
House was on the amendment of Mr.. His
cock, of New York, who wanted the Sem
ate bill in place of the Reagan bill, and it
was the vote upon that question which was
the test vote In the House at the last ses-
sion. That vote was taken up on the 26th |
OF June, 1886, is found at page $3.50, and
there you will find my name recorded in |
favor Of the Reagan bill. Twas not present
when the final vote was taken, being con-
fined to my house by sickness.
But to return to Mr.. Howey.
RETURNING TO HovEy.
Bill, House of Representatives, 1904, to
repeal the Presumption Timber Culture and |
Desert Land acts. Now that is one Of the
acts which was recommended by the COM
mittee of the Knights Of Labor. 1t was
one of the bills that they made an attack
upon me about 1t is bill that favored;
It is a bill that my colleague stated on the
door OF the House that he was in favor of.
have since ascertsined by an examination
OF the record that when that bill came
back from the Senate the question came
up fer consideration on two separate days
when was present, and voted for it at
that time, although there was no roll call.
| (Appiause.) Now, this bill to repeal these
laws was introduced because it was alleged
thatit Was by the abuse of these laws while
| on ths statute books that these vast accu-
mutations of our public domain had been
gotten by the corporations and by single in
dividuals; and it was to doaway with the OPP
portunity by which one man or single GER
poration could secure millions of acres to
himself, that the lands should be kept for
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