Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-02-03
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
IHE SLOW PROGRESS MADE Ply THE
PRESENT CONGRESS.

The Reading Strike Investigation-The
stir over The Funding Act-Are The
Four Per Cents Invalid "A Tariff
| Bill.
From Our Regular Correspondence
WAsHINGToN: d. c., Jan. 80.
One of the most interesting contests of
the season will begin on the floor of the
House on Tuesday If the commerce COM
mittee succeeds in getting up its two re-
ports on the proposed Reading railroad
strike investigation. The majority re.
port will recommend the reference of
the whole matter to the Interstate COM
merce commission, while Mr.. Raynor. Of
Maryland, will present the minority re-
port in favor of an investigation byi Il
special committee of Congress- From
expressions of opinion gathered from
many members your correspondent be-
| lieves that majority of the House
will favor the minority report if
they are given an opportunity to
vote on it, but that they will get
| that opportunity is by no means
| certain as in the first place, in order to
get the question up for consideration, it
Will be necessary to get the unanimous
consent of the House, and that is always Il
doubtful thing. 1t is claimed by those who
| favor the minority report that the ques-
tOn of Congressional jurisdiction has al
ready been decided by the United States
supreme Court in "a case appealed by the
| Reading company in resistance of an al
| tempt on the part of the State of Pennsy J.
vauia to tax their freights, which case
was decided in favor OF the railroad; the
court claiming that Congress alone haf
/ jurisdiction over them.
| & is tp he hQUpG that he committee may
succeed in getting the question fairly be
fore the House and IN gettinga square vote
on it, thus letting the country know
just where the members stand on such
! questions,
! The principal topic of conversation i'll
financial and official circles just now is
the resolution intro iuced by Representa-
tive Plumb of Illinois, asking for an in
vestigatlon of the facts as to the passage
and engrossment OF the funding act un-
bonds were issued. 1t is thought by those
who have looked into the matter that this
resolution will lead up to some of the
most important and at the same time,
sensational disclosures, in regard to the
loose mauner of conducting congressional
legislation. 1t will involve the validity
of all the United States four per cent
bonds now outstanding and if Mr.. Plumb
is not seriously mistaken will lead to many
curious disclosures.
What first attracted Mr.. Plumb's atten-
tion to the matter was the fact that the
journals of the House and Senate showed
that the bill as passed provided that the
government might redeem these bonds at
pleasure "for 80 years" instead of after
80 years. as the published law puts it
He then examined the engrossed bill and
found that the word for had been erased
all but the "f," which was left in the
same ink as the rest of the bill, and that
the letters "a before ald ter after the
"f' had been written in with another ink,
the change being easily noticeable even at
casual glance over the bill. Ii all indi-
Gated clear case of tampering with bill
after the same had been passed by Con
gress, and very expensive tampering it
was for the government, which is estimat-
ed to have already lost on account of ii
something like 5000, 900, ,O00 through hav-
ing paid a premium on the purchase of
bonds when the law gave it a
right to redeem these bonds at
pleasure Mr.. Plumb called the atten-
ton of Senator Edmunds to the matter,
and he, after looking into it very care
fully, said that it seemed to him that the
bonds issued under this act were invalid
or else were redeemable by the govern
ment at will. The resolution is now in
the hands of the House judiciary commit
tee, and 1t is probable there will be hear
ing on it some time next week. In the
meantime the questions most prominent
in the matter, are, who did the tamper-
Perhaps the proposed investigation will
answer these questions, but the chances