The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-01-21
RILEY AND SPRINGER.
A Little Spae Growing Out of the Latt

A Little Spae Growing Out OF the Latter's
Connection with Centennial Matters.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 20.-In the House, to-day,
Mr.. Springer, rising to question Of privilege,
sent to the Clerks desk and had read an extract
from the speech made yesterday by Mr.. Kelley,
of Pennsylvania. to the effect that member OF
the Congress which had made an appropriation
for the Phila delphIa centennial land who was
member of the present Housed had claimed a fee
OF $4,000 for having astutely inserted clause
in the bill making the loan upon which he could
20 into the court and enforce it's payment. Dir.
Springer said he had doubt that he was the
member referred TO by the gentleman. He had
moved an amendment. in the Forty-fourth Con
gress. TO the Centennial appropriation bill,
which changed that appropriation from a con-
eressional donation to a loan. AT the close of
the exposition the board of finance was of the
opinion that the money belonged to the stock
holders and not to the governments. The United
States attorney at Philadelphia was instructed
to bring suit against the board OF finance, and
suit brought 1t decided that the
money belonged to the board. He Mr.. Springerl
went to Attorney general Taft and asked
him to appeal the case to the Supreme Court
This was done, and the Attorney general had
desired him to appear on behalf of the United
States. This suggestion, he wished 1t distinctly
understood, had first come from Attorney gen
eral Taft. He did appear in the case. and the
Suprame Court reversed the decision of the
court below aud ordered the money to be paid
into the Treasury That ended his connection
in the case as a lawyer. He had never demand
ed fee for his services. He did file one petit
ton asking that his case should be referred to
the Court of Claims. with the right of appeal
for a determination as to whether his services
dietary had asked him to fix a sum, but he had
declined to do SO, as he did not desire any COM
Der. He hoped that the gentleman would, in
view of these facts. retract the statement he
had made.
Mr.. Kelley said that he had not meant to do
min did ha IN do
when he reafhrmed, in the language of the Rec
ord, what he said yesterday. If there was
wrong to the gentlemen In that statement he Mr..
Kelley regretted 1t. He was no longer young
as he had been when he entered the bar but since
that time he had followed the lessons derived
from the seniors of the bar. One of those les
sons was that no man was entitled to fee in
litigation which he had engendered. The gen.
tleman would not deny that he had called the
attention of United States officials to the fact
that there was a clause in the bill that he had
caused to be inserted. and that he had gone into
court to press that clause, after the district at
torney had declined to pursue the case further.
savory now.
Mr. Springer INQUIRED, categorically, whether
the gentleman insisted that no had claimed a
fee for the insertion of the amendment
Mr.. Kelley replied that he did not think that
the gentleman claimed a fee for inserting that
clause. What he meant to say was that know
ing the purport of his own clause, the gentle
man was the one man among the SO, 900, 900 of
American citizens who felt that the subscribers
to the exposition stock ought to be made to pay,
and who. following his own tracks. hunted them
until he stripped them OF their investment patri-
otto it
Mr. Springer replied that if the gentleman
stated that he demanded fee for inserting the
clause, he stated what not true If the
gentleman meant to say that he pushed the
with all the skill and ability Of which he
possessed, he admitted il. 1t was the proudest
record he had made since he had been mem
Der of Congress, and that was the opinion of
his constituents who had returned him six
times since he had made that record.