Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-29

enough to demonstrate the fact. and that th'
Committee on Rules would report a rule K
I may add that moved that the House ad
1ourn on Thursday night at the instance o.
the Speaker, and with his emphatic state
ment that he would report rule cutting of
| nnDuster1ng motions and bring the bill to 9
vote
The next day being Friday, went into
the Speakers room and met Judge Crisp
He then advised the introduction of rule
to De voted on to-day (Mondayl. prevent
ing all fIibustering motions and compel.
ing vote upon the bill. He sat down and
at his request and suggestion, and had 1t re.
ferred to his committee, with the distinct
understanding that the rule would be re.
hfs wanting a position Of a maJoritye Of the
| Democrats until this morning, when we
ought to have been voting upon the order
ITSELF Then the Speaker said he would not
report the rule unless a majority Of the
Democrats petitioned tor 1t.
Not a Hint About q Petition.
he said nothing about petition ON Thurs.
day night, before the House adjourned. Had
he intimated then that he wanted petition,
| we would have gone to work and got the
members Of the party voting for the bill,
which was majority Of them, to have signed
a. petition, no doubt but no intimation of
that sort was given by the Speaker. We
considered that the roll call of the House,
showing, as it did, a large majority Of the
Democratic party in favor of the bill, q suf-
ficient warrant for him to act according to
| the wishes of the Democratic party, as
shown upon the record. About the time or
| the meeting of the House this morning
went into his committee room, and for the
hrst time learned that he had changed his
mind
A telegram appeared in a New York paper
this morning, stating that its correspondent
had information from the highest authority
that Speaker Crisp would exact a petition
before acting upon this rule. That was the
first 1ntimation that had Of anything of
that character. The Speaker had given
number OF the free coinage members of the
Democratic party to understand that he
proposed to have vote either to-day or 10
morrow upon this rule. We had telegra phed
ior oraosentees. W g had made every exertion to
nave our men in the House and to have
them present. When we found the attitude
OF the Speaker had changed It created con-
fusion and CONSERVATION among the free
coinage advocates. They felt they had been
deceived and disappointed by the action of
the Speaker. He had given them no chance
70 get petition. OF course they regarded It
that he had made pledges and promises, as
indicated in the New York papers dispatch
to our opponents-pledges and promises
that he did not advise the friends OF free
coinage he had made.
The consequence ia, that at q critical
moment they saw the Speaker had deserted
them, and many members, especially those
VINO were personally the followers OF Mr..
Grisp, are now refusing to sign any petition.
very uncertain whether, under the circum-
stances, majority can be got for that
purpose.
The Speaker Accused Of Duplieity.
The fact that the Speaker himself has
changed his attitude toward the measure
and has deceived the friends of the bill by
his action has caused q great many free
coinage people to weaken in their position,
and see atthls time but very little hope of
getting majority of the members on a petit
ton asking that the rule be reported, or
course the Speaker has great weight and
power, and since he has shown disposition
to let the bill lie on the table, members who
this will leave us with the bill having not |
only the anti-free coinage men its opponents
but also the Speaker opposed to it and those |
who personally follow him. |
What may be the outcome of It cannot |
say. We can count a sufficient number of |
members who have been voting against con.
sideration of the bill. who state emphatscally |
that they will vote for the bill IL It ever |
comes up on its passage, to give it from 10 to |
20 majority. |
Speaker Crisp was shown MI. Bland's |
statement this evening, and said be was sur. |
prised that Mr.. Bland should have SO far |
forgotten himself and the true situation as |
to endeavor to mislead the public BY such |
a statement. In justifying his position, Mr.
Crisp said that when the rules were being
considered he had in caucus pledged his
party that no rule should be reported pro.
hibiting flibustering or putting off dila-
tory motions except at the request of ma
jority of the Democratic members of Con-
gress. A majority of the Democrats re-
quested that time be fixed for the consid-
Grafton of the free coinage bill, but making
no reference therein to any change of the
rules.
Reco1lections of the Speaker.
The Speaker said that as well as he recol-
lected, Mr.. Bland did want to incorporate
some limitation of the right of the House to
hlibuster or wanted a continuing order, but
the committee determined that until the
necessity for such rule was demonstrated
they would not report it. The bill was
taken up and debated for three days, and
finally saved from the table by the casting
vote of the Speaker. Mr. Crisp said this
Tie vote was great surprise to all parties,
because when the original order was made
It was generally understood that the ma
ority in favor of free coinage was 80 to 40.
A majority of the Democrats voted against
;abling the bill, and thereby demonstrated
hat they favored its passage
Speaker Crisp said that he assumed that
hese gentlemen SO voting were in favor of
| rule which would bring the House to a |
lirect vote on the bill and prevent ilibuster-
ng, and SO believing, he said to Mr.. Bland
hat he had no doubt the committee would
eport a rule. He also said to Mr. Bland
hat in his judgment there had been suf-
icient flibustering to demonstrate the i'm
of the passage of the bill without |
rule to bring the House to direct vote,
BIand's Backers Desert Him Rapidlv
The Speaker also drew the resolution in
reduced by Mr. Bland. still believing that
hose gentlemen who voted against tablinp
he bill were in favor of forcing a direct
'ote upon the measure. But after that time.
riends of the silver bill, as decided friends |
sMr. Bland, said theSpeaker, had come to him
nd said they did not desire their vote
gainst tabling the bill to be construed into
request that rule prohibiting ilibuster-
ng should be reported; that while they
avored the free coinage of silver, and
7anted to vote for it, they opposed any rule
n a Democratic House which would cut off
be right to filibuster.
The Speaker said that upon this state ..
,ent he made some inquiry among other
riends of the bill, and found quite a num-
er who did not desire the committee TO re- :
ort any rule to bring the House to direct !
ote. Whereupon, he thought, in pur-
uance of his statement in the caucus and
n pursuance of the idea upon which he has
cted, that he was the servant and not the
laster of the House; and that it was his duty +
D consult the wishes of majority OF his I