Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-12
NAVAL APPROPRIATION BILL.
Mr.. Chandler on the Thomas Clause
THE SMALLS-ELLIOTT CONTEST.
It is Up Again in the House.
The Senate.

better enforcement OF the quarantine laws and
regulations of the United States and for the
| establishment of a national board OF health.
HOUSE BILLS PASSED.
The following House bills were taken from
the calendar and passed:
To authorize the Court of Claims to hear,
determine, and render final Judgment upon the
claim of the ''old settlers or Western Cherokee
| Indians
To pay $4,000 to Chas. F. Swain master of
the bark Philena, of New York, for going to
| rescuing shipwrecked seamen from an unin-
habited island near Cape Horn.
Granting right of way to the Pima land and
water company across Fort Lowell military
reservation in Arizona.
CLOSED DOORS.
The Senate then, at 12:45 proceeded to exec
| utive business, on motion of Mr.. Plumb, who
stated that he presumed it would not occupy
more than five minutes
Within the five minutes the executive busi-
ness was transacted and legislative business
resumed. Mr.. Evarts gave notice that as soon
| as the naval appropriation bill was disposed of
he would ask the Senate to consider the reso-
luton reported from the committee on privi-
leges and elections as to outrages in Washing
ton county, Texas, and directing that COM
mittee to revise the existing laws regulating
elections of members of Congress.
THE NAVAL APPROPRIATION BILL.
The Senate resumed consideration of the
naval appropriation bill the pending question
being Mr.. Chandler's amendment to strike out
the words requiring the new cruising monitor
to be constructed of the type and under the
plans and specifications of Mr.. Thomas. of Hi
nois. Mr.. Chandler continued his argument in
support OF the amendment, expressing his
DOUBTS WHETHER MR.. THOMAS HAD DONE ANY
THING WHATEVER
in the making of plans and specifications or
whether Mr.. Thomas had the skill and ability
to do SO. His understanding was that Mr..
Thomas had merely enumerated certain ideas as
| desideratum in ship, and that naval officers
now in the employment of the government had
made all the designs, plans. and specifications.
He thought 1t altogether wrong to put such a
provision in an appropriation bill, but If any,
body was to be recognized in that manner it
should be the men who had taken the ideas
| and designed the ship.
NOTIFICATIONS OF THE CLAUSE.
Mr.. Morgan suggested transposition of the
language so not to deprive Mr. Thomas of
the compliment which the House had designed
| to pay him. His language would be: 'Of the
| type furnished by Hon. John r. Thomas, and
to be constructed according to plans and speci-
fications to be furnished by the Navy depart
ment and approved by the Secretary of the
Navy"
Mr.. Hale suggested another modifca-
ton OF the language, which MIR. Morgan ac-
cepted, and which was adopted by the Senate
The clause was thus made to read: lone
armored steel cruising monitor of the
type approved and recommended by a naval
board in their report to the Secretary of the
Navy, and by him referred to and approved in
his letter to the chairman of the committee on
naval affairs of the House of Representatives,
| dated January 8, 1889, to be constructed ac-
cording to plans and specifications furnished
by the Navy department, to be approved by
| the Secretary of the Navy"
FOB THE PUBLIC GOOD.
| Mr.. Cullom said that Mr.. Thomas had de-
voted good deal of labor to the matter; but
he had done SO for the public good, and not
from any ambition to be specially identified by
name with the ship. And yet he (Mr. Cullom)
had private letter in his pocket from gentle
men, who had done the clerical work in
getting up the plans and specifications,
giving the entire credit of the invention to Mr..
Thomas.
Mr.. Chandler called attention to the provis-
| ion for premium for increased speed of the
cruising monitor beyond the maximum of II
knots per hour. He suggested that it would
be better to graduate the premiums to in
| creased horsepower.
| Mr.. Hale thought that the simpler way of
accomplishing the desired object was to in
crease the required maximum to 10 knots per
hour, and at his suggestion the bill was SO
| amended.
MR., TELLER MOVED AN AMENDMENT,
appropriating S10O, 900 for the purchase of guns
| Crom 1-pounders to 32-pounders) and small
arms of the Hurst Reinforce Cartridge and
| Arms company Of New jersey He gave an
| explanation of the merits claimed for the
| Hurst guns, large and small, and spoke of the
fact that gun inventors in this country have
had no encouragement from their own govern
ment and have sold their inventions to foreign
governments-particula Gn that connec-
tion) the Hotchkiss and the Maxim guns
House of Representatives.
THE PANAMA PROTECTION BILL.
On motion of Mr.. McCreary (Ky.) the Sem
ate bill to enable the President to protect the
interests of the United States in Panama was
referred to the committee on foreign affairs,
and leave granted to the committee to report
at any time.
| Mr. Townshend Qll. introduced bill appro-
| priating S50000 for a special display Of the
| farm products of the United States at the Paris
| exposition. Referred
| THE SOUTH CAROLINA CONTEST
| The House then resumed the consideration
of the Smalls-Elliott contested election case.
Mr.. OFerrell (Va.). a member of the COM
mittee on elections, defended the majority re-
| port He answered the criticism made by Mr.
! Rowell Oil. upon the election laws of South
| Carolina by the declaration that in many re-
spects they were the laws framed under a re-
publican administration. 1t was true that the
| registration law had been enacted by a demo-
cratic legislature but he argued that it was a
fair law and similar in its provisions to the law
of almost every state in the union.
| THE DEMOCRATS OF SOUTH CAROLINA
had been denounced for having created the
seventh district with a view of throwing the
negroes into one district. This might be-; but
| if gerrymandering was a crime, then the repub-
licans of the north had been guilty of the foul
est and blacklist crime. Passing to a considera-
| tion of the evidence, he contended that study
of the testimony would prove that there was no
weight to be given to the charge of fraud by
the canvassing board. Intimidation had been
rife on the part Of Smalls and his supporters,
| and the free exercise of the elective franchise
had been trampled under foot by the man to
whom the minority wished to give q seat on
this floor He read voluminous extracts from
| the testimony to substantate this assertion
He then proceeded to combat the position that
because a mans skin was black he necessarily
voted the republican ticket. When the fifteenth
| amendment to the constitution had been
adopted. and the negro given the right of suf-
| frage, IL had not been on the condition that he
should for all time vote the republican ticket.
The negro had not been relieved from the
bondage of slavery to put on the yoke of party
| servitude.
| LIMITING THE DEBArE.
| Mr. OFerralrs hour having expired an ef.