St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-02-29
THE SENATE.
The Day Spent in Debate on the
Pension Bill.

Pension Bill.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2S.-The senate
resumed consideration of the bill grant
i9g pensions 10 eX-soldiers and sailors
who are imcapacitated from the per-
Torrance of manual labor, and provid-
ing for pensions to dependent relatives
of deceased soldiers and sailors, the
question being on the adoption of Mr..
Calls amendment, making the bill apply
also to those who served in the war
with Mexico or (fOr thirty days in any
of the Indian wars. The amendment
was agreed to. Mr.. Cullom said that it
seemed to him that the farther the cOun-
try got away from the late war, the less
was being done or attempted to be done
for the eX-sOldierS. Mr.. Henderson APP
pealed to the senate to pass the bill. as
it had been formulated by the pension
committee of the g. A. II. Mr.. Davis,
who has charge of the bill, conceded
with Mr.. Henderson in the opinion that
all of the amendments adopted yester-
day should be struck out and the bill
left as reported unanimously from the
committee on pensions. 1t had been
prepared, he said, by a committee rep
reSenting 100000 members of the G.. A.
r., who knew the wants to be remedied
and the needs to be supplied. They
had said: I'VE will be content with
this. We ask no more for the present.
We trust to the future for the further
relief to which we are entitled" Mr..
Plumb intimated that there was some
thing of "a juggle" concealed in the
bill. The effort Seemed<o be to get up
a bill not to meet the wishes of con-
greSS, but to meet the wishes of SOnt-
tn ~l-
change the bill by dotting an ''i'' or
crossing ST." and yet no one was able
to say what the G.. A. r. desire to ac-
compliSh by it. Mr.. Henderson
CoNTRADICTED THE STATEMENT
that the u. A. X did not desire the pas
sage of the bill, and said that the vote
In 2,7lS posts had been LOG, 16O for the
bill to 5000 against it. Mr.. Plumb
asked Mr.. Faulkner whether he believed
the president would veto the bill. The
presiding officer (A1I. Ingalls, here inter-
fered, and said that it had been ALWAYS
held to be breach of order to refer in
debate to the action of the executive.
Mr.. Plumb expressed his regret that the
chair had not thought so when the SEN
ator from West Virginia was speaking.
The Presiding Officer-The chair had
intended, before this, to say, and does
take occasion now to say. that it has
never been held to be in order, in de-
bate in the senate, to refer TO the opin-
Ion OF the executive or to the action of
the executive as an argument for or
against pending legislation.
Mr.. Faulkner diSclaimed all personal
knowledge Of the views of the executive
in the matter. Mr.. Plumb said he had
not supposed that the senator from West
Virginia had talked to the president
about it. But, however it was, whether
by analysis, by induction, or otherwise,
1t was plain to be seen that an effort
was made to get bill which the presi-
dent would sign, and that was to be the
limit, the verge OF what the senate was
to do.
Mr.. Henderson said he was at a loss IN
conceive how the executive was so inn
maculate and unapproachable that his
action was not to be criticised. He
claimed the right not only in his ca
pacity as senator, but as q citizen. to
crltlclSe even the acts of the president.
He had not discussed the probable ac-
ton of the president OH the bill eycept
to suggest the desire to have a bill
passed that would
PROBABLY BECOME A LAW.
Mr.. Blackburn said that he depre-
Gated the violation of that very proper
rule which prohibited senator or rep
reSentative from undertaking to infln-
ence legislative action by any refer
ence to the presumed course of the eX-
ecutive. He had heard that rule VIC
lated by three senators. MIR. Davis. Mr..
Henderson and Mr.. Blair. These sena-
tors had all said that the bill had to be
framed and fashioned to avoid a veto
message at the hands of the executive.
He did not know what authority they
had for the statement, put he did know
that there was but one political organi-
cation in the country to-day which was
in perfect marching order, ready to take
the field with knapSacks packed and all
things ready. 1t was the Grand Army
of the Republic, which represented the
only efficiently organized political sys-
tenn on the continent to-day. After fur
Their debate by Messrs. Teller, Hoar.
Blackburn, Blair and Henderson. the
bill went over without action and the
senate proceeded to executive business
and soon adjourned