Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-03-16
CONGRESSIONAL.
Plumb Attacks the Pen
sion Claim Agents.
TELLER TALKS ON THE TARIFF
Forfeiture of the Northern and
Southern Pacific Land
Grants Urged.

A~Apc W 6ONs
GAsso ciated Press Dispatches to the HERALD
WASHINGTON, March 15.-In the
Senate to-day Plumb sent to the
Clerks desk and had read a letter
written by Washington firm of pen
sion agents to a Kansas ex-soldier,
saying that some time ago they had
written to him, asking that they be
allowed to take his pension claim to
Congress, and had not heard from
him in.reply; that they we're conver-
SAINT with his claim and believed that,
if properly presented, Congress would
not refuse a special pension; that their
fee was $25, of which $40 was payable
in advance; that S36 special pension
bills were passed by the last Congress
and a still larger number would prob
ably be passed by the presentC congress
that this was the best time for the
presentation of cases to Congress, las the
country was on the eve of Presiden-
tial election and the parties and indi-
viduals were on their mettle to make
record. Plumb expressed the be-
lief that large amounts were being OBJ
tanned through such representation,
although the writer's could render no
service whatever. Not only would an
attorney not be permitted to appear
before the Pension Committee, but
he could perform no useful service
whatever in connection with special
pension cases. 1t was an outrage
Quitting it mildly, for men to be i'm
posed upon in that way. He asked
that the Pension Committee take the
letter and consider it, and make a re-
port to the Senate so that
such swindling of ex-soldiers
should not be continued.
After further discussion, in which
Mr.. Dolph referred to claim
agents agreement, which he had
seen, to receive 35 per cent. OF the
amount of direct tax to be refunded
to certain State, the letter was re-
ferred to the Committee on Pensions.
LEGISLATIVE MEASURES.
The following were among the bills
reported and placed on the calendar:
10 ratify and confirm the agree
ment with the Grosventre and other
Indians in Montana; for the forma-
ton and admission into the Union
of the States Of Washington and
North Dakota, with minority reports
the House bill for the purchase of
certain swords of Major General
James Shields
Dolph offered resolution, which
was laid over, calling on the Secretary
Of the Treasury for information as to
the prohibition of fur seal fisheries in
the waters of Alaska or the Behring
Sea beyond marine league from the
shore.
TELLER's ADDRESS.
Teller proceeded to- address the
Senate on the subject of the Presi-
dents message. He said he noticed
that the Senators who had spoken on
the Presidents side of the questi n
had shown disposition to avoid the
real issue presented by the President,
and had attempted to make it appear
that the message was not of the char
acter which everybody outside OF Off
cial circles at home and abroad
had declared it to be. 1t would not
do for friends of the administration to
assert that this was an attempt on
the part Of the President and his
friends to modify, revise or correct
the tariff. No such intent could be
gathered from his message. 1t had
been received everywhere as an at
tack not on the defective tariff, not
to remedy Inconsistencies, but to de-
stroy the protective system. The
President had spoken OF that system
as vicious, inequitable and illogical.
His former Secretary of the Treasury
had spoken of it as brutal method.
THE DEFENDERS OF THE MEASURE
Had spoken in terms Of opprobrium,
contempt and detestation. not Of the
tariff or OF its inconsistencies, or in
congruities, but of the protective
system. 1t was therefore understood
outside of the Senate chamber to be
an attack on system which had pro-
tected American labor and American
manufactures against competition
with foreign labor and foreign capital.
It had been stated by the Senator
from Georgia (Colquitt), that the
Democratic party had always been a
free trade party. He denied that
George Washington had been pre-
nounced protective tariff man, but
he knew that his Democratic friends
did not care much for that. because
they did not regard George
Washington as having had cor
rect views of the fundamental
principles of government. Franklin,
Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison and
Monroe, had been all protective tar
iff men, in fact there never had been
Democratic President until Grover
Cleveland, who had not, at some
stage of his political history, been an
open advocate of the protective tariff.
In the National Democratic platform
of 1872, when the Democratic party
was nominated, the most active, pro-
gressive, protective tariff man on the
continent was Greeley. 1t was stated
that
THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF
Was question to be left to the Con-
gressional districts without any inter
ference from the executive. In 1876
when the Democrats nominated Til
den, the party had declared itself for
the first time in history in favor Of ga
tariff for revenue only" which was
synonymous with free trade. In 1880
it was impossible for any one to say
what the Democratic platform in
tended to say on the subject. In
1884 nobody supposed that the Demo.
cratic party in its platform intended
to announce the doctrine Of free trade.
Nobody could say that it attacked the
doctrine of protection, and nobody
could have supposed that an
executive elected on that platform
would ever have delivered the mes
sage which Mr.. Cleveland sent to
II l. l.