Los Angeles herald., 1890-03-28
WASHINGTON NEWS.
The Antitrust Bill Shelved
for Twenty Days.
The Judiciary Committee to
Pass Judgment Upon 1t.
Edmunds Makes a Savage Tirade
Against the Labor Unions.
The Wyoming Admission Bill Passes
the House on Nearly Strict
Party Vote.
Associated Press Dispatches. |


WASHINGTON, March 27.-In the Sen
ate today the House bill amending the
Census act to allow special agents IS a
day for subsistence when travelling, was
passed.
A bill was passed authorizing the
Secretary of War to purchase $500 tents
to shelter people driven out by floods in
the Mississippi valley.
Among the bills reported and placed
on the calendar was the Senate bill to
organize and establish the customs col
lection district of Puget Sound; the
House bill for the retirement of John G..
Fremont as Major-General.
The Senate bill appropriating 10000
additional for light ship for the mouth
of the Columbia river was passed.
The Senate bill suspending for one
year the statutes requiring steamers to
be provided with certain life-saving ap-
pliances, gun for throwing a line, etc.,
was passed.
The Antitrust Bill.
The Antitrust bill was then taken up.
When the amendment excepting from
the prohibitions of the law the combina-
tions of workmen and farmers came up,
Edmunds spoke at some length. He
favored going as far as the Constitution
permitted in suppressing and breaking
up trusts and monopolies. The people
could not shut their eyes to the fact that
if capital had combined, if the great in
dustrial establishments had combined
to regulate wages, the workmen had
also combined to defend themselves,
and so this country and other countries
for the last forty years had been turned
into great camps OF oppositions, where
there ought to be only one camp OF CO.
operative friends. Even in Washington,
where Congress had exclusive jurisdic
ton, all the trades had combinations
which were armed camps making ag
gressive warfare against the rest OF man
kind. Edmunds cited as an incident
the case of a skilled printer who wanted
employment in the Public Printing Of
fee, but could not be hired. The man
did not belong to particular combina-
ton, and the Public Printer was threat
ened with a strike if the man was
employed. If this sort of thing was not
tyranny, Edmunds did not know what
tyranny was.
Edmunds went on to argue that if
labor combinations put up wages fifty
per cent, the people who owned mines
and furnaces, ETC., had right to COM
bine to protect themselves SO as to get
such prices as would make up for the
increased cost Of production. He be-
lieved it better to reduce partial evil OF
even grinding monopolies than to at
tempt to step over the clear boundary
line established and maintained between
Congress and the legislative powers OF
States.
Platt also attacked the bill.
The motion by Walthall to refer the
bill and amendments to the judiciary
committee to report back in twenty days
was then agreed to.
Pension Bill Taken Up.
The Senate bill granting pensions to
ex-soldiers and sailors incapacitated for
manual labor, and to dependent relatives
of deceased soldiers and sailors, was
taken up, and Plumb argued in support
of his amendment made some time ago
extending the provisions to all who
served three months or more, etc.
Berry opposed the amendment as an
other form of the Service Pension bill.
Davis of the committee on pensions
also opposed it. He was not ready to goto
the extent of pensioning everybody ire
spective of dependency. The bill reported
by the committee would make an ap-
preparation of $36,000,0 necessary
in addition to the $9S,00O,000 how
needed. The Plumb amendment would
add at least $1S 200, 900 more.
Plumbs amendment was rejected and
the bill went over.
The House bill on the admission OF
Wyoming was ordered printed.
Adjourned.