Morning journal and courier., 1888-07-27
Fiftieth Congress--First Session.

1 WASHINGTON, July 26.
SENATE.-After number of bills reportes
from committees had been placed on the cal
endar, number of House bills were consid
/ sred, after which Mr.. Allison fRep.. La.
moved to proceed to the consideration of tn,
army appropriation bill, stating that it wal
| important that it should be passed to-day.
Mr. Frye Rep., Me.) said he had given no
| tice yesterday that he would call up the fish
cries treaty to-day. He was. compelled K
yield to the army appropriation biIi, bu. b,
renewed the notice that he would antagonizs
everything else for the consideration of tn.
| treaty, regarding it as exceedingly Important
that it should be pressed to ANAL action.
Mr.. Allison's motion was agreed to, and
the Senate resumed the consideration of the
army and navy appropriation bill, the pend
ing question being on the amendment offered
by Mr.. Hawley appropriating $3.50, 600 fol
an arnory gun factory at the Watervliei
arsenal, New York; $1,000, 600 for the pur-
chase of steel for high-power coast defence
gus; $500, 200 for the purchase of submarine
mines; and $1Oo, 900 for submarine control.
liable torpedos. The amendment was agreed
to without division, and, after the adop-
ton of a few other amendments, the bill was
reported back from the committee of the
whole to the Senate.
Mr.. Berry Dem, Ark, } called for separ-
ate vote On Mr.. Hawley's amendment, and
proceeded to address the Senate in opposi-
ton to it.
Mr.. German also opposed the amendment.
He was opposed to making appropriations
for the manufacture of large guns exclusive
" in government workshops, but if large ap-
propriations were to be made for such pur-
poses the Senate ought to go into the matter
fully and appropriate enough to enable the
mechanics and manufacturers outside of gov
eminent shops to come forward and compete
and to have all the various inventions tested
under rules to be established by the war de-
partment. He knew that the subject could
not be well considered just now, but If the
should propose as an amendment a PROPOSE
ton that had been thoroughly considered
elsewhere (meaning the House COMMITTEES on
appropriations appropriating thirty-eight
million dollars to be expended in certain
amounts yearly up to 1902. Mr.. Cor
man then sent to the desk and had
read very lengthy project of law
testing of new guns and for the supply of a
certain number of those that had stood the
test of 200 rounds. Mr.. German said that
that paper had been prepared with great care
by gentleman whose duty it had been to
examine the question. There were some pro-
visions in it which he would modify but
there was no opportunity to consider it and
therefore, however imperfect it might belt
was presented for the purpose of bringing to
the attention of the Senate the question
whether in she manufacture of heavy ordi-
nance, 1t was intended to rely on the govern
ment shops alone and to exclude the genius
and enterprise of all other people in the
country. He had read letter from an in
ventor and successful manufacturer of guns
whose name he suppressed, approving his
views.
Mr.. Hawley said he knew who the writer
was and that he had never built any large
guns. The bill which had been Just read had
o<a5 Co.
It had come from no committee and was a
whole volume of legislation in itself. He
ventured to say that it was not approved by
more than one man in the world, and that
was the man who wrote it, except perhaps
three or four persons whose particular plans
for guns it attempted to revive. On the con-
trarY the amendment which he (Hawleyl had
proposed was supported by the senator's (Mr.
Germany own Secretary of War. The old
shops and iron yards were covered with the
ruins of guns which would not be approved
by anyone outside of an insane asylum. The
amendment proposed by the senator from
Maryland proposed an expenditure of $40,-
000, 900 in fifteen years in the nourishment
of every crank who ever failed in
his application to the government.
The extraordinary things proposed in it were
beyond number. It proposed twenty-inch
steel guns, to say nothing of the cast iron
abortion. A twanty-inch steel gun could not
be built for half a million dollars. It could
not be managed or fired. A ship would have
sailed half around the globe before second
shot from IL could be fred. 1t was the wild
dream of a respectable inventor whom he
knew well and who had given him his dream
from year to year. but never had been able to
get committee to agree to his scheme. He
made the point of order against Mr.. Germans
amendment that it had not been estimated by
any department and that it came from COM
mittee.
The question was then taken on Mr. Cor
mans amendment and it was rejected with
out division.
Mr.. Hawley's amendment was then agreed
to, yeas "a, nays IS, and the bill was passed.
Mr.. Allison gave notice that he would to-
morrow ask the Senate to take mp and con-
slider the sundry civil bill.
The Senate then proceeded to the eonsid-
Grafton of the fisheries treaty in open exec
utive session and was addressed by Mr..
Wilson, of Maryland, in favor of its ratifica-
ton. If the treaty were to be rejected then,
he said, the only honorable remedy left
would be an appeal to arms and not resort
to petty and contemplate spectacle of re-
taIiation. That man, he said, would be
moral coward who would be deferred by the
against the treaty from considering the ques-
ton on its real merits. The true
question in the case was not whether the
contention of the British or of the American
government on the points at issue was the
soundef, but was simply whether the British
contention had not SO much in it that was
reasonable as to render the question at issue
and honesty debatable one and such as
honest and reasonable men endeavoring to
avoid struggle might hope by mutual conoes-
sion to adjust. He justified the reasonable.
ness of the British contention as to the con
struetion of the treaty of 1918, aud said that
there was not q nation on earth that would
al as inv cdi 0&in re
BILE bays as the Bays of Chaleurs,
which was essential to its national
honor and security. There was no
power on earth more interested than the
United States in maintaining the principle
on which the treaty rested both now and in
the future especially with reference to the
great northwestern fisheries, whose impor
tance time would develop into proportions
such rs would throw the northeastern fab
cries into comparative insignifcance. It
would be well to remember that it might be
extremely prejudicial to the United States to
have the narrow and selfish view taken as to
the eastern side of the continent thrust home
upon 1t as to the western side. Who, he
asked, would not feel outraged IL the United
States government was to grant the right of
fishing In the Chesapeake Bay 10 people of
Canada, whereby Canadian fishermen would
be induced to swarm into those waters
and give the Americans taste of the bitter
a tcentury. To contend that there was no
substantial principle in the demand of Great
Britain was TO ask the enlightened sentiment
of the world to shut it's eyes to facts. Was
it, he asked, fair and honorable when treaty
was presented that removed many grounds
on which American fishing vessels had been
harrassed to claim as an insuperable objec-
ton to that treaty that the United
States was already clearly entitled to all the
advantages offered under its doubtful con-
struction of existing treaties. If there was
any reasonable doubt as to that construction,
which every fair-minded man had to
coneede, then 1t was a fraud on the
American people to claim that construction
as being so absolutely certain as to call for q
rejection of the treaty. 1t was al crime
against the American people and against their
good name to plead that certainly as ground
for rejection of the treaty and thereby to
launch them on the stormy sea of retaliation,
which in view of the Aeree invocations to
passion and hatred heard in the Senate il was
vain to say would not lead to war. He
should be derelict to his duty If he did not
vote for the treaty. While he should have
much preferred to avow such conviction in