The Portland daily press., 1890-03-15

SHIPS: 90 ne went TO Mr.. Chase, who was
then Secretary Of the Treasury, and said
Mr.. Chase, IL you put on the duties you
propose. 1t will make difference of 25 per
cent to me in my shipping business"
What is % per cent to a patriotic man? P"
replied the great secretary.
It is bankruptcy" replied the Boston
that he holds to this day, that Salmon P.
Chase, while he might have been great
lawyer and patriot, was very poor busi-
ness man not to understand that 25 per cent
the wrong way makes a big difference to a
business man.
Mr.. Forbes is very anxious for the passage
by Congress of bill to allow an American
citizen to purchase foreign ship and sail it
under our flag in the foreign trade. leaving
the coasting trade to American built vessels.
He thinks that this would not hurt materi-
ally the shipbuilding business of Maine,
which builds most Of Its vessels for the coast
ing and not the foreign trade. He finds difi-
Guilty, however, in making the members of
Congress agree with him. Mr.. Forbes esti-
mates that it costs from Is to 25 per cent
more to build ship in the United States
than it does in England. He owns thou
sand ton ship which he had built in England.
Not being able to fly the American flag, and
not wishing to fly the British flag, he has
adopted this curious device. He has sold
0ne-slxteenth OF the vessel to merchant of
Hawaii. He has also transferred the other
fifteen sixteenths to him, taking mortgage
back for the amount and a charter for ninety
nine years, with the written agreement from
the Hawaiian to transfer the fifteen.six-
Forbes may de.gnase Theyn the HsWaan
flag Is hoisted. and the ship goes into trade
as If 1t were an American craft. "But l do
not like to have my property under the flag
of little power that is liable at any time to
be gobbled up or to be overturned by its own
revolutions" says Mr.. Forbes.
One of the most familiar figures around the
the Capitol this winter is Ex-Governor Per-
ham. of Maine. Washington climate agrees
with Governor Perham In the winter, and
every season of late he leaves Oxford county
when the cold weather comes on and spends
the winter in Washington. This year he has
enjoyed himself greatly, as Washington has
been great place for Maine man who takes
an interest in the doings of Congress. During
the contest over the quorum Governor Perham
was on hand every day, and if the swash-
bucklers from Georgia and Kentucky had at
al violence he might have been caught yio-
lating the pledge. OF general innocence which
ex-members are forced to give before being
allowed the privileges:of the floor, and Maine
would have enjoyed for brief period again
the privilege OF a representation from five
Congressional districts.
Governor Perham was a representative
from the Second District in the 3Sth Con-
gress, in 1868. His colleague from the First
District was L. d. M. Sweat, who managed
to hold on to all the initials of his name
through the roll calls Of the 3Sth Congress,
and is today one of the happiest and most
widely acquainted of all Names winter col
ony in Washington. Another colleague was
JohnH. Rice of Foxcroft, who also has been
visitor at the Capital this winter, we'll
preserved representative of the old line of
Maine public men. Another colleague was
young man, serving the first Of long series
of terms in the public service, James G.
Blaine. The fifth, and, at that time, the Sc.
nior member of the Maine delegation in the
lower house, is the only one of the five who
is not alive. Frederick Pike, the brilliant
representative from Calais. If the four sur
yiving members of this Maine delegation in
the 3Sth Congress could. have had a reunion
while they were all here this winter, the
that they could have brought
up would have been instructive to the STU
dent of the history of that period.
When the question of the quorum was un-
der discussion the point was made that the
were getting $13 day, and ought
to do something for this besides sitting and
obstructing business. sand that was not
the whole of it," said Disbursement Clerk
O'Brien to the PRESS correspondent the 9TH
er day. SIT is not only true that members
are paid $13 day, but it costs well up to
another $13 to pay the expenses of the ac
commodations and services which are given
to each member in the House of Representa-
tives wing of the Capitol. While it costs
about million and half of dollars a year
to pay the salaries and mileage Of the mem
bers of the House of Representatives for
year, it costs nearly another million to pay
the running expenses of the House of Rep
resentatives, for the heating and lighting,
the clerks, the laborers, the stationery, the
messengers, the pages, and the rest of the
army of the employees. AS it looks to me
this law making business is costing the peo-
pie enough for them to be getting some re-
turns. Ii you have ever thought of it, more
over, the men who have been obstructing
legislation come from the section of the coun-
try that does not bear a proportion of the
burdens anything like the proportion of rep
resentati0n accorded it in Congress-"