Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-03-01

by the District of Columbia. which Away
nominated from the heart not from the pock
ct. This part Of Vests speech createt
great amusement.) In conclusion Yes
said: Partisan or non-partisan, my con
victions require me to vote against the bill
say here now l hope il may '.die the death
in the other branch of the national Congress
and if not there, at the hands of the execu-
tive. If that be unparliamentary make the
most of it"
Messrs, Teller, Plat and Plnmb replied
to Mr.. Vest.
Without voting the Senate went into Sc.
cret session and adjourned.
House.
Mr.. Kelly of Pennsylvania, rising to a
question of personal privilege, sent to the
clerks desk and had read dispatch from
Washington to a Boston paper, in which he
is given as authority for the statement that it
would be policy of the republicans of the
House To obstruct the passage of any tariff
measure befoIe the meeting of the national
convention at ST. Louis. He owed it he
said to his republican colleagues, as well as
to himself, to say that he had not indica ted
such a'police for them or himself. He had
made no statement from which fair minded
toutu uSVutt suNH u CtuStu-
sion. When the republicans should be all
ed upon to consider the draft or project of a
tariff bill which they heard were being pre-
pared, it would be time for them TO deter
mine their policy.
The House went into the committee of the
whole for the consideration of the bill au-
thorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to
purchase bonds with the surplus.
Mr.. Mills explained the dolbts of the Sec
retary of the Treasury as TO his authority
under the law of 1881, to purchase bonds
with the surplus beyond the period covered
by that bill. The Secretary asked Congress
to make his authority undoubted
Mr.. Mckinley contended that the act of
1881 gave ample authority. The integrity
of that bill had never been questioned till
the President questioned it, The President
based his refusal to apply the surplus to the
redemption of bonds on the ground that the
1881 law was part of an appropriation bill
The same ground would apply To half the
public statutes, including the law which
raised the Presidents salary. The admins
tration's friends should explain why the sur
plus had not been paid out honestly and log
ically on the government debt, stopping the
interest charges. He thought the ulterior
object of the bill and the Presidents action
was to create scare and break down the
protective system. The present bill was un-
necessary.
Mr.. Weaver of Iowa, said that the coun-
try was in the grasp of monstrous cohl-
blooded money trust The surplus was not
in the treasury but in the National banks, a
score of which had been stuffed for quarter
of century past with government money,
wrung from the people by unjust and un-
necessary taxation. He mentioned six great
banks presided over by ex-treasury officials.
1t was "A public scandal and shame that the
government granted money to be placed in
banks TO avoid financial panic, If the bill
was passed and the effect of it was to call
out this money, it would bring a greater
stringency than that of last October. If the
bill was passed the business men had better
stand from under. At the proper time he
would offer substitute authorizing the pur-
chase of bonds at par
Mr. Reed of Maine said he always felt
that the management of the finances by the
Treasury to be too serious for partisan
action. He had once or twice defended the
administration of the treasury management,
but he believed its present action worthy of
criticism. 1t had been necessary to vest in
the treasury department some discretioning
powers. The past year the Secretary has
been called upon to exercise these discre-
tonary powers and has failed to do so. The
10th Congress left the Secretary ample
power to meet the surplus exigency. Why
had it not been metz To defend and quibble
that the power was lacking because given in
an appropriation bill, was a strange attitude
for democratic party, which formerly
would not be suited unless every law was on
an appropriation bill. 1t had been the Sc
cretary's duty TO get the surplus out of the
treasury. There was one simple way to pur-
chase bonds. instead the money has been
loaned TO National Banks. The emergency
had come through the neglect of demo
cratic Congress, though not by the absence
of wisdom by some of their better men.
Both Orlando Potter and Mr.. White had
proposed bills by which every dollar of the
National debt could be demandable and pay
able by the government without the disman-
agement of finance. Why had not this been
done? Because the men pursued the empty
vision of the free trade policy to be accom-
plised not by merits, but by outside pressure.
The fear of panic misleading feelings, but
not by affecting judgment. He believed the
present financial condition of the country a
part of the conspiracy against protection.
The surplus was accumulated with regard 10
the effect upon the people, SO that they would
camor for something that would lead in All
mpracticable direction, in which chairman
after chairman of the ways and means com
mittee had endeayored to lead the House
When the 50th Congress came this spectacle
met 1.-THE President with a mes
saga message which neglected every
interest of this vast empire, which placed tt
one side every question, except the tariff
bill. The president said on the tariff ant
surplus, Congress must act. WHAT has beer
done? Three months have rolled by. The
committee on ways and means had never
spent one day Oh the tariff That obJec
had never been mentioned in the committee
room in full public meeting. (applaus'
and laughter on the Republican side) Tn,
special message decaimlng there was onl.
one thing on earth which demanded the at
tention OF Congress AMI that subject wa
utterly unmentioned for two long months IL
/ the committee to which that unique messag,
was consigned. That was called business
| LaughterJ lie didn't wonder the subject o
| manufactures approached from the lonl
distance Of Texas and Arkansas might re
/ quire some time to be overtaken. but surel.
/ the heavy pressure of the surplus, whc
ought at least to be pressure of 1000 pound
| to the square inch, ought TO have give
/ force enough to cause one whisper to b
heard in the committee on ways and mean
to which had been consigned the messag
of the President where it now rested in elo
auent silence. He had heard from variou
sources that there was being matured some
/. thing that would soon get out of seclusio
and be pTesen' ed to the members of the com
mittee. But thus far it was singular ful
fillment of the scrlptural idea ths
the thing had been hid from the wise an
prudent and revealed TO the gentlemen upo
majority of the committee. The troubl
with the country was not a trouble of taxa
ton but trouble of accumulation of none
in the treasury. The first duty of the con
mittee on ways and means should have bee
to make some provision whereby the bonde
debt might be made redeemsble by the treas
ury. Then the people would have been vi
disturbed by the exterior influences an
might have had opportunity to calmly an
carefully consider the question of the re
duc;ion Of taxation. But the method of pi
ing up money in the treasury, to attack tn
general business of the country, for the pni
pose OF attacking the system Of protection
deserved and would receive the condemns