Los Angeles herald., 1890-07-31
Democrats Not Responsible
for Delays.
Senator COckrell Refutes Re-
publican ISLANDERS.
Business Retarded by the Reed
Regime in the House.
A Committee Appointed to Investigate
the Charges Against Pension
Commissioner Raum.
Associated Press Dispatches. /

TO tne uenclency appropriation Dill IRE
ferred to the committee on appropria-
tions) appropriating $50 900 for marking
the boundary line between the United
States and Mexico, and called attention
to its urgency.
The resolution offered yesterday by
Sherman, fixing the daily hour of meet
ing at 10 a. M, was taken up.
Cockrell said he would support the
resolution, and wanted to give few
reasons why. Some taunts had been
made recently by the senators of Rhode
Island and Maine (Aldrich and Frye)
about delay on the part of the Demo-
cratic minority. He wanted those SEN
ators to see the relative amount of work
done in the two houses. The senate
had, up to the 2Sth of July, passed 946
bills, and 499 other bills had been acted
upon by committees and been indefinitely
postponed, making the whole number
ofsenate bills actually disposed of, AS.
That was considerably more than one
third of all the bills introduced in the
senate. No such record had ever before
been made. The house, out of over 1O,-
900 bills introduced there, passed S65,
mere fraction of the whole. Out of all
the senate bills passed, the house had
only passed 231, while of the house bills
the senate passed 61S. How, he asked,
had so much work been done in the
senate? Had the minority been vast
ing time by interposing objections, or
by unnecessary discussion? Had the
minority consumed time (as the major
ity had done under the last administra-
tion), in criticising the executive, or
pleading the civil service law, to pre-
vent the removal of Democratic officials
before the end of their terms of office?
Nothing of the kind. Had not the bills
for the admission of Idaho and Wyom-
ity to pass, although everyone knew that
neither of them had sufficient popula-
tion to entitle it to representative in
the house. Those bills were passed only
through the inconceivable forbearance
and conservatism of the Democratic
minority, and yet the Democrats were
criticized the moment they wanted
little explanation and a little light on
the tariff bill. If there was Dem
ocratic majority in the senate, and
should it make an attempt to pass bill
for the admission of New Mexico and
Arizona as states, the senator from
Maine (Frye) would prance up and
down the center of the aisle, and the
senator from Vermont (Edmunds)
would raise his voice, and they would
roar like Gagged lions and scream like
chained hyenas laughter against the
action of the Democratic major
ity. Why, he asked, has not
the house disposed of more
bills than it has disposed of? The rea-
son was that it ignored in its organiza-
ton and in it's changed rules the funda-
mental principles of parliamentary dis
cusson. He quoted from letter written
by Thomas B. Reed in June, 1886, and
published in the Chautauquan. 1t would
be remembered, he said, that Reed was
once a member of the house of repre-
sentatives. One of the sentences in that
remarkable production was in these
is the very life of intelligent action"
Another sentence was: aThe needless
suppression of discussion is tyrannic,
whether done by king or a majority"
He challenged any Republican senator
to show where the Democratic minority
attempted any unnecessary delay.
The resolution was then agreed to.
The tariff bill was taken up, and Nor
rill addressedIthe senate.
Morrill, said the ill-natured denuncia-
tions of American manufacturers by the
oratorical free-traders indicated that
they preferred the prosperity of foreign
manufacturers to that of their own
countrymen, and that they would COM
pei the latter to manufacture as cheaply
as any foreigner, pay no higher wages,
or abandon their business. The real
purpose was finally to break down and
degrade the present scale of wages of
American workmen.
Coming to the question of the agri-
cultural depression, Morrill, said there
was a glut of misinformation dissent
mated on that subject, and the conceal
ment of the fact that the prices of farm
products are depressed throughout the
world. The only possible remedy within
the reach of the American farmer is
positive protection against foreign COM
petition and such encouragement to
other avocations as will increase
the consumers of their pro-
ducts. He asserted that in
1888, had it not been for the duty of 20
cents bushel on wheat, the wheat of
India would have snatched the market of
New York from the state Of Wisconsin,
as we'll as from all the other western
bIdtc6s dA LII AuOi USdSO liAeACOCCuhCOo
had been grossly exaggerated, and he
understood that the census reports
would show that farm mortgages in
Kansas and Maine were less than one
quarter of the amount which had been
represented. The charge that the
American farmers were hugely in debt,
or more 80 than the farmers of any
other country, was a gross calumny.
Markets which could not be found
abroad had to be made at home, and
they could only be made by protection.
Referring to the countries of Central
and South America, Morrill, said of the
agricultural products, cattle, sheep and
horses, they had an abundant and cheap
supply, not only for home consumption
but also for expectation. To carry any
of these products there is in vain. To
hope for finding market for them
there, would be like carrying Goals to
Newcastle"
On the question of sugar, Morrill, said
the adding of free sugar to the breakfast
table presented stronger case than tea
and coffee presented in 1872, for like
treatment. If the United States could
(as had been done by several European
countries) supply all its own sugar,
ninety million dollars would be kept at
home that was now sent to Cuba and
elsewhere, never to return.
l. M ~