Morning journal and courier., 1888-12-19
Fiftieth Congress-Second Session
WASHINGTON, Dec. IS. TEE TARIFF BILL.

amendment restricting it to the House of Representatives; and that also went over without action till tomorrow.
 The SeHste then resumed consideration of the tariff bill, taking it up at paragraph 15O in reference to wire rods. MT. Turpie's amendment to insert the words ''six mills" in place of ''6-10 of cent" was defeated. Mir. Vest sent to the clerks desk and had read communication from the New Haven Wire company, asking to be protected against the American wre rod manufactu- rers and that the duty on wire rods be re- duced to 40 of a cent per pound from 6-1O. He moved to amend the paragraph to that effect. MT. Allison opposed the amend. ment and it was rejected; yeas IS, nays 23.
 Paragraph 151 relating to fwire made of iron and steel" It was amended as to read: "All iron or steel wire valued at more than ten cents per pound shall pay duty of not less than 35 per cent. ad valorem." No amendment was offered to paragraphs 152, 163, 154 and Mr. Vests amendment to para graph 155 was rejected. Paragraphs 156 to 159 inclusive, coming under the head of "gen- eral provisions" received no amendments. Paragraphs 160 to 165 inclusive were read and no amendments offered. Paragraphs 166 to 173, inclusive, relating to copper and cutters were passed over informally at the suggestion of MT. Allison, who said that the offer. Paragraph No. 174, relating to gold leaf was also passed over informally at the suggestion of MT. Vance.
 The Senate, having disposed of about three pages of the bill, proceeded to the considera- tion of executive business and then ad- journed.
 HoUsE.-Mr. Springer of Illinois stated that he would not call up the territorial bills to-day. There would be meeting of the committee on territories to morrow and it would then be determined when those meas
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 The legislative appropriation bill was then called up and spicy debate followed on mos tion to increase the civil service commission.
 THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION,
 Mr. Cummings of New York moved to strike out the whole clause relating to the civil service commission. He did this, he said, because it seemed that every bill that was introduced in the House to repeal the civil service act had been buried in commit- tee, and he saw no other way of reaching the subject than by curtailing the commission by striking out the appropriations for it's maintenance. He believed the commission to be undemocratic; he believed that it fa- vored certain voters at the expense of other voters, and he knew that if the rules of the commission were applied to members of the House ive-eights of them would never reach the floor. Oaughter.)
 Mr. Spinola of New York looked upon the motion of his colleague as healthy one Qaughter). One with which seven -eighths of the people of the country sympathized and one with which three-quarters of the gentle men on the other side sympathized daughter on Republican side).
 Yes, sir, he continued, three-fourths of the members on that side are honestly and sin cerely inwardly opposed to the civil service law, and this side if you would poll it, and poll it honestly, would be unanimous Qaugh- ter). We would be on this side of the House unanimous because we would be acting in accordance with the request of an overwhelm- ing majority of the people of the country. This is why we would be unanimous.
 After some further debate Mir. Randall re- quested Mir. Cummings to withdraw his mo- tion. As long as the civil service law was on the statute book he was in favor of appro- priating money to enforce it.
 Mir. Cummings replied that he would glad- ly withdraw his motion if he saw any other way of reaching the civil service commission. Bills had been introduced with the object with doing away with the commission, but every measure had been buried in committee. MT. Brown, of Indiana, said that while he did not believe that the Democratic party was ostracised by the recent election, he did be- lieve that if the election had established principle in politics, every man who was op- posed to the execution of that principle had been in fairness ostracized by the vote and ought not to be permitted to participate in the government in any official relation. But this did not mean that the tammany system should be adopted in the national election.
 The debate was continued at great length, but often at wide range from the point in or der. Finally the motion of Mir. Cummings to strike out the whole section relating to the civil service commission was rejected, 20 yeas to 13S nays. The reading of the bill was then concluded and the committee hav- ing arisen the bill was passed.