Morning journal and courier., 1890-05-17
THE FIFTY-FlRsr CONGRESS.

THE FlFTY-FlRsT CONGRESS.
 MT. Shefman's Amendment offered to
 the Silver Bill-The OhIo Senator
 objects to an Amendment offered by
 MT. Plumb ana Proceeds to . Discus
 In the House.
 WASHINGTON, D. O., May 1e.-The silver bill was at 12;3O p. m. taken up and MT. Sherman offered his amendment.
 MT. Plumb's amendment to Mr. Sherman's amendment was then read to insert the fol- lowing:
 "And hereafter no funds available for the payment of the public debt dncluding such as are kept for the redemption of treasury notes) shall be retained in the treasury to the extent of $11O, O,o00,o ,ooo."
 MT. Sherman opposed Mr. Plumb's amend ment as putting restraint upon the treasury department and preventing it from paying government obligations as they became due. As hundred millions had to be reserved for the redemption of treasury notes it would leave only ten millions for current business. The interest on the public debt required the quarterly payment of O,OO0,- UUO and that amount had to be on hand. It Woo uVeCA4y ALL pO6SlUl6 tO u6yo tuo uauN6 of the secretary of the treasury tied up in such manner. No bank would be allowed to do business that did not have reserve of rom ten to twenty per cent. to meet current | liabilities. MT. Plumb defended and advo- cated the amendment offered by him. He argued that the treasury department should have nothing whatever to do with the cura rency supply of the country. The secretary seemed to think himself the keystone, the | linchpin of the financial institutions of the | country and that he had to take into &C., count the barometrical condition of things in New York. He wished that the secretary | would take into account the barometrieal condition of other places than New treasury (except for the needs of the government itself which had been before that time in circulation was an economic crime. He wanted so far as he could by his l vote and influence to dissociate the treasury department from the business of the people of the United States. He did not want the secretary of the treasury to be the instru- ment of speculation in Wall street or else- l where. He did not want the bulls and bears of New York to be speculating on what the government was going to do about retaining or putting out money. He did not want to have treasury "points' peddIed on Wall street as coming from persons near the throne. He did not want to see the treasury department made the football of speculation. As matter affecting 8 matter affecting the interest of the Amer- ican people, congress ought to put limit on the amount of money to be kept on hand in the treasury so whatever the result might be it could never be imputed to the secretary that he had used his great discretionary pow CTS either unwisely or wickedly.
 Mir. Vest said he was in sympathy with the general purpose of Mir. Plumb's amend ment, but he suggested whether ten millions l reserve was not too small.
 MT. Sherman-That is fixed by law at $100, 100000. The secretary has no discre- tion in the matter.
 Coming to the discussion of the silver bill itself Mr. Sherman said: do not like some of the features of the bill. I may be driven to support it. Some of the friends of the bill seem to have abandoned it already. There are some good features in it which I like very well If we can agree upon some measure that will furnish to the people of tho United States more money (for I think we want it) and will also tend to advance | silver bullion nearer and nearer and up to the standard of gold am willing to vote for such a measure. But do not want to em. bark upon the wide sea of free coinage of silver drawing from a body of three billion of silver, and I do not want congress to pledge itself to buy all of that silver which may be oGered-silver melted from the pots of India, l vote for any such bill. Let those who would take the risk of such speculation take it; not I. But anything whatever that can be done by this bill or any other bill to give us more good paper money based on actual deposits. of gold and silver bullion or that will raise the value of silver I will favor I would buy every ounce of silver produced ia this country, keep it | in the treasury vaults and issue certificates upon it based on it's market value to any extent that may be desired. And I would make them 8 legal tender, so that they would travel all over the world, be az good as gold and be on par with gold. But this other measure which has been debated at such voluminous length and with such ful- | some eulogy which invites us into competi- | tion with all the world in the free coinage of silver II do not want any of it in mine' to use slang phrase.
 As long as our money can be maintained up to the highest standard of the most civil lized nations of the world will go hand in hand with those gentlemen to do ! anything that can be done to increase the volume of our currency, based on bullion or coin; because I do regard silver (as we'll as gold) as one of the metals chosen by the almighty as currency. But gold and silver have varied from the very beginning of time, sometimes up and sometimes down, and they are varying now from day to day in the markets of the world. If we can adopt measure that will make use of both silver and gold and keep them together at par with each other I will vote for 1t. If not will content myself by simply voting in the negative.
 The discussion was continued by Messrs. Cockrell, Aldrich, Ingalls, Farwell, Harris and Edmunds, chiefly on the point of the gold reserve of $100, ,000. 900 for the redemp- tion of treasury notes, after which the dis. cussion turned on the monthly debt states
 ment of the treasury.
 The silver bill went over without action. | HOUSE.
 The house to day went into committee oi
 the whole on the whole on the tariff bill. A
 number of verbal amendments were on mo-
 ton of MT. Mckinley made to the bill. MT.
 Mckinley offered an amendment specifically l including glass chimneys in the clause relat-
 ing to thin blown glass at a duty of 10 cents
 dozen and 40 per cent. ad valorem.
 The rates of duty on glass were discussed for some time and finally Mir. Mckinley amendment was adopted.
 MT. Mckinley then offered a series O. ! amendments (many of them unimportant
 which were all adopted.
 The duty on sugar of milk was reduced . from ten to eight cents a pound. A rebat | was provided of duties on imported salt uset l yarn made of jute was increased from 30 tt 35 per csnt ad valorem.
 Binding twine composed of manila, jute o sisal grass was taken from the clause impos 3 ing duty of 111 cents a pound and trans ferred to the 1L cent class. The claus
 relative to carpets was amended 50 as to pro
 vide that carpets made of jute or other veg
 etable material shall pay six cents per squar yard and mats, rugs and screens eight cents - The duty on burlaps not exceeding sixt! , ! inches in width was changed from 1A to F cents per pound. The duty on bags fo |. grain, made of burlap, was fixed at cent Fla pound. Russian camel's hair wa 1 brought under the head of wools 0 2 class 3. The duty of S2 per cent. ad valorer was placed on woels of the third class and O Russian camel's hair of the third class, tn : ! value on which shall be IS cents or less f pound including charges. The duty of 6 . per cent. is imposed on wools of the thir class exceeding in value 1S cents a pound. ]. is provided that on woolen and worsted yarn
 valued at not more than 30 cents per pound
 the duty shall be two an one-half times th
 duty imposed on pound of unwsshed voc of the first class and in addition thereto 3 n per cent. advalorem.
 - MT. McMillan opposed an amendmen