The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-01-21


claim him as terrible as an army with
banners, and more potent than forty,
or even eighty, Democratic majority
in this House. They have commenced
again their habit of holding him up
as an excuse for not passing a revenue
bill. But the gentleman from Penn
sylyania, Mr.. Randall, has in a SEN
tence disposed of that pretext, when
he says that by a majority vote of
this House at any day in either pre-
ceding Congress the majority could
have taken up measure for the les
sening of the surplus revenue. The
labor and business interests of this
country viii! no longer excuse the
majority for doing nothing by their
helpless discord. Why Mr., Speaker,
while these gentlemen were talking
l recurred to a list Of the appropria-
.tion bills of last session and their
stages of progression in this House.
1t is significant fact that while there
were in the last session OF the Forty
ninth Congress but forty-eight work.
ing days, there were on the calendar a
dozen appropriation bills at one time.
That the Democratic House, with
forty majority, for tWenty-three days
out of the forty-eight, did not con-
slider, or attempt tO.consider, single
one Of the appropriation bills in the
last short session. This Fiftieth Con-
gress is now here. We haye now
reached the l1th Of January; more
than thirty days of this Congress
have passed no bill of a public ma
ture has been passed, and no business
has been done by this House or by
the Democratic majority in this
body. The bottom trouble in this
House, in the last Congress, in the
one before that, and it seems that it
will be the same in the coming his
tory of the HOuse-the bOttOm
trouble is with the Democratic ma
jority, which is inert aud helpless,
rather than with any committee, and
the leaders seek to hide the incapacity
of the Democratic House for af1irma-
tive legislation by specially berating
the Appropriation Committee. 1t is
the same old scapegOat for this same
old sin of business incapacity.
"As member of the AppropFia-
ton Committee, l am frank to say
that former appropriation bills, and
all appropriation bills, ought to be
more rapidly put before the House,
but, in fact. in the last session, fol
| twenty-three days, the House refused
to consider single appropriation
bill, and now more than thirty days
have passed ofthe Congress and moth.
ing has been done. To find a scape-
goat may be pleasant to the feelings
of members and individual consti.
tuencies, but the burden is really on
the majority Of the House itself, by
reason of its incapacity to speedily
and orderly consider The business
| The gentleman frCm Pennsylvania
Mr.. RandalO errs when he says any
claim delayed the passage of the De.
ticiency bill. These were not the
things which prevented the passage
Of the bill by the Senate. 1t wa.
the long delay CT the Appropriation
| Committee, added To he chronic and
it seems TO me, the characteristic de-
lay Of Il Democratic majority, anG
when, ia the morning OF tae 4th O
March, the Deficiency Conference
Committee, of which | was a mem
ber, had agreed upon bill which
omitted these very items, the last cir
cumstance of delay was that The
President Of this nation had departed
from the custom of all WHO had gone
before him, and had notified Con
gress and the conferences that he wa.
too high to follow the path trodder
by Washington, jefferson, Lincoln
and Grant; for, in advance, he re
/, fused to come to the Capital, anC
} when he did surrender his purpose
it was already near noon and too latt
for the clerks to engross and for thu
President to sign the bill. 1t Wal
this combined delay Of the Demo
, cratic Appropriation Committee o
; the Democratic majority in thi
House, and again in control here
and, as the final cap-stone, the delay
of the President himself, illjudget
and too tardiIy retrieved at midday
, on March 4th, 1887, which caused al
this confusion in the departments
now hourly complained of, by th
failure of this Deficiency bill for 1887
now about to pass in 1888.
l will tell you how a Vernon
r butcher loads live hog without lift
! ing him. He backs his wagon up t.
= fhp non DlapnS twO plauxS Sidn IA,