, 1889-01-24
In the House.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23.-Ths house
went into committee of the whole on the
sundry evil bill.
Lawler of Illinois offered an amend
ment appropriating $4,000 for repairs
and preserving the custom house building
mt Chicago. Agreed to.
Landes OF Illinois moved to strike out
the clause of the bill providing for the
use OF steam presses in the bureau of
engraving and printing; that a royalty
shall be paid not exceeding ! cent per
1000 impressions.
A long discussion ensued as to the rela.
tive merits of hand press and steam press
work, during which ButterwoIth said
that the organization of hand press print
ers had declared war upon steam machines
and had determined that they should 20.
Ii they ought to go on their merits. let
them go; but if they ought not to go on
their merits, the fact hat these gentlemen
desired them to go was not the slightest
reason for putting them out. He had
been told that the men who worked on
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while gong to and from their work by
hand printers. If this was true the sec
Rotary OF the treasury and the superin
teudent of the bureau ought to be im
peached Tor not vindIcatlng the right
of man to earn his bread. A committee
had been appointed by the house to look
into the character OF the work done by
steam presses, and he was solicitous to
know whether the witne"ees testified as
they would have testified had it been a
foreigner established in the bureau.
Quite a cOlloquy ensued between But
tcrworth, and FOran, of Ohio, and Far
quhar. of New York, i'll which the latter
spoke for the organized mechanics of the
land, who had, he said, been the men
who built and kept up the industries ot
the country.
Butterworth said he approved the COM
bination OF labor, but he did not approve
force being used to exclude any American
from any walk in life. 1t was needless
for members to shut their eyes to the fact
that some Of those organizations starved
the widows and orphans into compliance
with their behests. He had not suggested
that the Knights of Labor were opposed
TO the introduction of labor-saving ma
chincry, but he knew that sometimes mis-
guided men, under the belief hat it was
against their interest, had protested and
fought, even to use violence, against their
introduction. All he insisted on was that
members should stand by their deliberate
judgment and not yield to the suggestion
that 1t would shorten their political life
not to do so. BE denied the right of any
association to say to this boy that he
should not learn the trade of his father,
Against that right he inveighed. So
long as huckstcrlng politics yielded to the
trade winds set i'll motion here or there.
just SO long would our free institutions be
In danger, not because men did not know
better. but because they had not the cour-
age to do better. If this house had done
lis duty the children OF the men who had
made and kept this republic would not be
crowded out of employment by the ship
loads of lIazzlrOnl from Europe, who
landed daily on our shores. An immi-
grant who brought in energy, thought,
some money, moral make up and man
hood, was welcome, but We were having
thrown upon our shores every hour men
who represented nothing upon Gods
earth except an appetite, n stomach and
an alimentary canal. Neither house of
congress had dared in the face of political
necessity to stand by the homes of the
country. He hoped this congress would
do b before the session was over, but he
protested that no association in the
world had the right to punish him
and starve him to death because he hired
this man or that.
Grain of Texas said he was surprised to
see the distinguished representative of
the Republican party, which had posed
as the friend and champion of laboring
men, because they had done what capital
had done-organized themselves for their
own protection. 1t was by organization
that they compelled their employers to
pay the nate of wages they demand and
were able to attain their present rates.
Farquhar offered an amendment that
none OF the money appropriated should
be used in the repair of steam presses,
aud White of New York amended by fix
ing the royalty at 81 per 1000 impress
sions.
Pending the vote on any of the amend
ments the committee rose and the house
adjourned.
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