The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-07-01

provided for more employees under the
House of Representatives than there ever
were since the organization OF the Govern
ment. Some OF the salaries are cut down
and others are increased. but pretty soon
we will restore the salaries of those who
are cut down by the bill. But in the mean
time il will have gone to the
country that my friend from Indi-
ana, Judge Holman, acting for the
Committee on Appropriations, has re-
ported bill TO the House of Repre-
sentatives which contains n reduction of
$500 for the tally clerk and $3.50 for the
newspapers, and then we will all be happy.
They who have had their salaries put up
will not be sorry, because they will have
the credit of making reduction in the ex-
penditures of the Government, and those
who have been reduced in salary will not be
sorry, because they will by amendment get
just as much as they had before. And this
is craftsmanship.
"The Democratic Committee on Appro-
priations, against my protest, cut down the
salary and reduced the force in the Pension
Office, doing away with 80 clerks. That
was objected to on the Republican side by
myself and others because we think that
there ought to be an increase instead of a
decrease in the working force of the Pension
Office, so that the claims of thousands of
old soldiers, and the widows of old SOL
diers, that have been waiting for years for
pensions that are Justly due them could be
passed upon. | have urged that these claims
must some time be examined, and that the
sooner they are disposed of the better it
will be for the Pension Office and the Gov
eminent. 1t will cost no more to examine
them this year than it will next, and TO cut
down the force of examiners simply post
pones for an indefinite time certain num-
Der of claims that ought to be adjudicated.
The delay is an injury TO the old soldiers,
and is no economy to he Government.
Another point which : have repeatedly
called attention to, !. that il IS cos..ag
the Pension Office and kindred Offices
at the rate of five million dol
lars per annum and over to- trans
act the business in connection with the al
lowance and payment of pensions, most of
which is spent In obstructing claimants In
the allowance of their claims. The trouble
is that we Justly owe great many soldiers
of the late war pensions who can not make
the technical proof required by the Pension
Office to establish their claims. n is time
for Congress to clear away the technicali-
ties and distractions created by the prac-
tice of the Pension Office which keep Sc
many men who deserve pensions off the
pension roll. The tendency on the part of
some of the employees of the Office is to
obstruct or postpone the allowance OF
claims, for the moment this business is dis
posed of their occupation is gone, and they
would have to find other employment.
The Republican Senate has per-
formed its duty by passing bill
that provides that every soldier of the late
war who saw three months service and was
honorably discharged, and is or shall be-
come disabled from any cause, and is de-
pendent upon his own exertions for support,
and has no others not legally bound to sup
port him, shall have his name written upon
the pension rolls. The responsibility is
upon the House. The Republican side of
the House is ready and anxious to pass the
bill. and | said to the Democratic side of
the House: You are in the saddle, you have
the majority, and if you won't pass this
bill, or assist us to pass it, you will, and
ought to, receive the condemnation of the
country. If we pass this bill, we can soon
discharge a large part of the force in
the Pension Office, which now constitutes,
in one sense, civil pension list, and pay
the money TO the soldiers who are entitled
to it.
Il also called attention TO other branches
of the Government in which / think there
ought to be an increase of appropriation
One is the Labor Bureau. This bureau is
organized this wear for the first time. The
first report of the Commissioner has ju.t
been ordered printed, and those who have
seen advanced sheets speak very highly of
it. What we want of the Labor Bureau is
not this mans theory or that mans theory,
bat facts. We can make our own theories,
but We require facts. This year, for the
first time, the Commissioner of the Labor
n g L =
and IN appropriation of about 100000 is
asked. The committee recommended less
than half that sum. The Chief of the Bu-
reau was before us and made a clear and
effective statement of what he intended to
do. He asked money to enable him to
make a series of Investigations, but the
Democrats refused to appropriate for this
purpose. He wants to make first an in
vestigation into the number, causes, dura-
ton. results, and other features of all
strikes occurring since and during the year
1881. 2. An investigation into the hours
of labor, wages paid, method of payment,
hours of duty, condition, etc, of railroad
employees. 3. An investigation into the
kind and amount of work performed in the
penal institutions of the several States, the
several methods under which convicts are
or may be employed in such institutions,
ana as 10 all the 1actS pertaining 10 convict
labor and its influence upon the industries
of the country. 4. An investigation into
the distribution of products, the cost of
producing and distributing such products
so far as the leading articles of consump~
ton are concerned, tracing each article
from its production to its consumption, aud
gathering all the facts rs to cost and
method of distribution. >. An investiga-
ton into the employment, wages, con-
dition, etc., of the women workers of great
cities.
Every one who has studied the signif-
canoe of recent events will see the import
ance of these Investigations, and l shall
try, when this part of the bill is reached
to get the necessary appropriation. Various
questions are pressing upon us with great
force for solution. The country, with its
population of sixty or sixty five million, is
rapidly growing, our industries are diversi-
fed: we have half of the railroads in the
world; our wage workers are increasing by
hundreds and thousands every year, and as
matters growing out of these industries
press for solution there must be action by
Congress-, acton by State Legislatures,
action by force of public opinion. What
we want is education not only for the labor
ing men but for the men who do not labor.
We want the facts honestly gathered and
intelliOently collected so that we may have