The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-08-03
PARTIES AS PENSIONERS
THE DEMOCRACY PROVEN THE
SOLDIERS BEST FRIEND.

Inan Cne nepuDnCanS Dlo III eno
Same Length of Time.
WASHINGTON, Aug 2.-The house to-day
went into committee of the whole on the
deficiency appropriation bill. Mr.. Hovey
of Indiana offered formal amendment in
order to get the floor and reply to the
speech of Mr.. Matson of Indiana, printed IN
the Congressional Record Of Sunday last,
upon the subject of pensions, which speech
Mr.. Hovey said had not been delivered in
the house. Mr.. Hovey's speech started a
long debate upon the question of which of
the political parties had been most liberal
in its dealings with the soldiers of the late
| war.
In reply to Mr.. Hovey's claim that the
republican party alone was entitled to
| credit in this repect, Mr.. Mckinney of New
| Hampshire said that during the three years
| the present administration had been in
power the union soldiers had received
| greater consideration than they had ever
received in a like period during the years of
the republican administrations. Every in
| telligent man knows that to be true, but
| for party purposes the republicans had per-
verted the facts and sent broadcast the
| assertion that the present administration
| and the party which supported it were
| enemies of the union soldier.
FIGURES TELL THE STORY.
During the last three years of the repub-
| lican administration the total number of
pension claims issued was 19l ,22l. During
the three years of the present democratic
| administration these claims numbered 359-
| 454 The republican administration in three
years disbursed $1S 1893, 600 In three years
the democratic administration has dis
| bursed $2l, ,399 900. This did not indicate
| that the soldiers had suffered under the
democratic administration. He then de-
| Tended the President from tho charge
of being an enemy of the soldier.
! He had, during his term of office,
| signed 1854 private bills as against 1924
signed by all the republican Presidents
| from Lincoln to Arthur. He had signed
bills carrying general pension legislation
| which applied to 144. $50 persons and the
| only general pension bill he had vetoed was
the dependent pension bill, and in that veto
| ne was sustained by the soldiers them
| selves.
MORE CONSIDERATION THAN CONGRESS.
| He (Mr. Mckinney maintained that
| President Cleveland had really been much
more consderate of the rights of the soldiers
| than had congress. He did not believe tnat
| these pension bills were thoroughly exam
ined by the committees. A republican rep
| sentative had confessed to him that Presi-
| dent Cleveland was right in nine cases out
of ten when he vetoed private pension bills.
The president had not been unmindful of
| the claims of the soldiers. Sixteen out of
the seventeen pension agents appointed by
him were soldiers, aud he had signed bills
for the retirement of very many of the war
| generals Soldiers had been removed from
Office-republican Soldiers-but their places
had been filled with democratic soldiers
| CONFEDERATE FLAGS
Mr.. Mckinney then declared that no
confederate flags had been returned except
| by the republicans, and referred in that
| connection to Adj. Gen. Drum, whose letter
to the President on the subject he pro
posed to have printed in the Record.
Mr.. Cutcheon of Michigan, in replying to
Mr.. Mckinney asserted that every pen
sioner on the rolls was there by virtue of
republican legislation, and that not a name
had been added by the democratic party
| except of those persons whose names had
been restored to the rolls after participation
in the late war against the government.
All pension legislation, with that single
exception, was of republican origin.
Touching on the subject of the battle flags,
MIR. Cutcheon criticised the Presidents
action in issuing the order for their return,
and declared that the President had beon
forced TO rescind it by the voice of the great
loyal north, which had come laundering
down upon him like cyclone. He (Mr.
Cutcheon) had never heard that anybody
in the late confederacy had asked for the
return of those flags.
TRIBUTE TO DIxIE's HEROES
The confederates had defended their flag
with courage and blood and life, and when
their flag went down those who had fought
under it accepted the situation and never
asked for the return Of their flags. A flag
meant something. The flag that fi0aUed
over the speakers desk meant something,
1t meant home. order, law, liberty.
1t meant children and kindred.
That was what those who fol-
lowed it fought for. What did the other
flag meant 1t meant the doctrine of seces-
sion, and the mon who had followed it said
that that doctrine was dead. 1t meant that
those who supported it were against the
constitution. Were they against it nowl
If the flags had been returned, what would
have been done with themi
GOING TO DECAY.
1t was better that they should rot and
be motheaten in the attics of the war de-
partment building than he returned to the
hands of the men who had bravely borne
them. They could never mean again what
they had once meant and the repu blican
party did not propose that these symbols of
disunion and war upon the constitution
should ever 90 back into the hands of those
who bore them on the battlefield.
| Consideration Of the bill was then re-
sumed, and for some time ran smoothly
until Mr.. Dochery of Missouri precpitated
a Drief tariff debate by a few remarks on
the subject of the surplus. During it's
progress ar. Bynum of Indiana said he was
not violating any of the condolences OF the
COMMITTEES room in stating that when the
Mills bill was being considered in commit
tee, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr
Kelley had made a motion to repeal the en-
tire tobacco tax.
HOW THEY VOTED.
On that motion Messrs Kelley and Reed
voted In the affirmative, and Messrs. Nc
Knley, Browne and Burroughs voted
against it, He cited this as showing that a
majority Of the Republicans as represented
on the committee were not in favor Of the
repeal of the tobacco tax.
Mr.. Dingley declared that il the tobacco
provision Of the Mills bill had been put
Into separate bill it could have been passed
at any time.
Mr.. Compton Of Maryland, as the repre-
sentative Of tobacco growing district, an
nounced his readiness to meet the issue
squarely in his district in support Of the
Mills bill.
Pending further debate, the COMMITTEES
rose and the house at 5 o'clock adjourned.
Our Rotations With Canada.
WARRINGTON, Aug. 2-ln the senate TO-