Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1890-04-03
INGALLS, STYLE.
"A Sample of the Senator'S
Speeches.
He Replies to Opponents of His
Amendment to the Antitrust Bill
Aimed at Futures" and Combines
Fun in the Senate.

WASHINGTON, D. c.. March Ex-senator
ingalls, replied 10 the opposing arguments
against his amendment TO Senator Sherman s
antitrust bill. intended to put a stop to
gambling in farm productions.
Mr.. ingalls, said that his amendment was
not intended in any manner whatever to in
terfere with the bargains, purchases sales, or
exchange of any products of which the par
ties might be possessed, or Of which they
might be the producers, or which they in
tended actually to deliver. 1t was directed
against that gigantic. modern invention
known as dealing in futures" which was
just as nefarious. and just as reputable as the
poker table or the faro bank. In those deal
ings in futures, there were agreements to sell
often fifty times the amount of product IN
the market. the sole purpose being to enable
those who neither toll nor spun, but who
were clad IN purple and Jared sumptuously
every day. 10 settle upon the LIST OF October
for the 1st of November, the difference in
prices on which they had bet and the market
price of the article on that day. His amend
nent had been met at every stage of the pro-
ceedings by the interpoSition of some ques-
ton of order. or some question of etiquette,
or some question of conStitutionaiity. The
senator from Louisiana. (Mr. Eustis), and
other senators had questioned the sincerity,
the good faith. the intelligence of those who
offered or adhered to the amendment. and
had desired to know if it wa. a sham battle,
or if those in favor of it were playing the
part of Don QUiXOte, and the senator from
Missouri. Mr.. Vest, had intlmated that the
amendment vas offered ut the dictatiOn of
no Farmers Alliance - Il N
be frightened from its propriety," and if
senators trembling, and In state OF treplda-
zion, had endeayUred to 90 that great act of
justice. The people of the United States
Sir. ingalls, continued, had reasonable
degree of respect Tor the constitution, but
they were not afraid of it. The constitution
was growth, and not manufacture, and
the constitution of 1880, b. reason OF the
operation Of the viii of the people who made
ii. was vastly different instrument from the
constitution of 1853. Its authors would not
know it. They had made it for specific
purpose, not for the object of enabling coun-
try lawyers to devise definitions or to raise
obstacles and barriers to the will of the peo-
pie. But the constitution was perpetually
invoked by narrow and rigid and illiberal
constructlonlsts as an impossible barrier
against every benefit to better the condition
of the people. Senator's supporting this bill
had been tainted with bad faith, with false
chivalry. with fighting sham battles, because
they attempted to carry into effect provi-
sion that WAS entirely within the limits and
purview of the constitution. He could not
conceive anything more humorous, more
qualified to make the sides of the nation shake
with derisive laughter. than to have the sena-
tor from Louisiana Mr.. Eustis) and the
senator from Mississippi (Mr. George and
the senator from Missouri (Mr. Vest, and
their associates, rise with terror on every oc-
casion and plead the constitution with SIM
ulation OF terror as If the miuutest abroga-
ton OF that sacred instrument would make
freedom shrek. Those gentlemen had spent
a considerable time IN endeayoring to destroy
that constitution. What, he asked. was the
secret of their new found reverence for their
constitution: Had they borne it away in the
ark of the covenent for four years and then
brought il back as its chosen guardians:
And did that permit them TO taurt those who
endeayor To carry out the ideas of national
growth and progress with being violators of
the constitution: 1t seemed to him that it
would be little more becoming for those
senators who were scourging them and hold
ing them up to public castigation to remem-
Der that their view of the constitution had
not been maintained by the people of the
United States. There had been no step in
national progress in the last thirty-tive years
against which the senator from Louisiana
and the senator from Mississippi and the
senator from Missouri had not risen and de-
clared that II was against the constitution.
He recollected that there was once a great
demonstration to prove that there was no
power IN the constitution to coerce state
which saw tit 70 go out of the union, but yet
the people had found it. They found it
somewhere in Its latent resources, public
welfare" blessings of liberty" or some
where else. They had been told that the
abolition of slavery was without warrant in
the constitution. but it had been found, and
when it could not be found in the letter it
was amended by the sword. And that was
fair warning to those who attempted to eStab-
lish verbal and ingual interpretations against
the will OF the people, that whenever the elias
ITCHY, the capacity to carry out the wish and
will of the people was not sufficient in the
constitution, there would always be found q
way to amend II. They had been told when
the reconstruction measures were up that
there was no constitutional power to recon-
struct: they had been told that there was no
constitutional power TO make paper a legal
tender. and they had been told that there was
no constitutional power 10 resume specie
payment. He commended to these constru-
erS of the constitution the contemplation of
the result of their criticisms during the last
thirty years, and suggested to them whether
II was not barely possible for them TO be mis-
taken IN invoking the constitution against
the effort to remove the burden of the mon
strous and crying evil against which the bill
nd amendment were intended.