Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-04
A LUDICROUS PLIGHT
Is That Into Which the Majority in
the House Bas Plunged Itself
OVER THE WORLDS FAIR QUESTION
The Speaker Compelled to Make Stand.
That's Embarrassing.
FlLIBUsTERERs GET THE WORST OF IT
rrnon A STAFF CORRESPONDENT,

rFRoM STAFF CORRESPONDENT,
WASHINGTON, Aug. a-The mountain
GUS Democratic majority Of the House has
been in such labor to-day as was never be-
fore seen in Congress, and it has apparently
brought forth ridiculous mouse.
Even if the 81, 600, 900 compromise con-
ceived BY the Council of Ten. or the peace
Commission" and accepted by the caucus
this afternoon, finds favor with the whole
House and with the Senate, it leaves the
filibusterers in ludicrous plight. They have
been denouncing the proposed appropria-
tion as steal, when 1t was asked as gilt.
They have opposed it as loan because they
were set against giving any encouragement
to the Farmers Alliance scheme that the
Government should loan money to private
persons. Now they propose as an unre-
served gift half the amount asked by the
Fair commissioners, and their boasted prin-
ciple is put in contempt from every point
of view
During the caucus this afternoon an ex-
traordinary and unprecedented scene was
presented in the corridors surrounding the
hall of Representatives. Doorkeepers, barred
every entrance to these corridors. Not
content with double ranks Of doorkeepers,
the chief of the Capitol police and several
of his men, all elegantly uniformed, were
summoned to assist at the maintenance of
this human Chinese wall.
Silent Contempt for Outsiders.
A Republican Senator or Representative
could not break through this Gordon of
guards to get down or up the stairs of the
House wing to committee rooms. Core
spondents could not penetrate to the press
gallery to do their writing, or to get posses
sion of matter temporarily left there. Or
dinary unofficial, unprotessional citizens
we're not even vouchsated an explanation,
but were looked at with silent contempt
No such foolery was ever INDUCED in by
the Senate, with the exception of q day or
two at the time when James L. Young, eI-
ecutive clerk of the Senate, was under fire.
Had solemn declaration of war been in
contemplation the precautions to insure
secrecy could not have been more elaborate.
The police we're not at all pleased with
their job. The Captain said to me that
such work was not within the line of their
duty; that there were enough doorkeepers
loaiing around to have guarded the corri-
dors thoroughly; that 1t was the first time
they had ever been called upon for such .
purpose, and he proposed that 1t would be
the last
A caucus of faction of the House has no
right or authority for such q proceeding
They are given the hall by the courtesy of
the whole House. and the innovation Of to-
day, wholly without precedent, was an inn
pudent and insulting intrusion upon the
rights Of others who had business in COM
mittee rooms and the press gallery.
Most Unpopular Compromise.
The general query tonight is, What will
the compromise amount to? It does not
meet with the approval of the most tanati-
cal, unreasonable and irresponsible of the
flibusterers. Kigore, the irrepressible,
swears with good, round, mouth-flling
Texan oaths that the caucus can 60 to an
other place; that he will not be bound by
it. When I say unreasonable, I mean gen.
orally speaking In this matter he is far
more logical than Holman, Dockery, Nc
Creary, McMillin and other prominent
Democrats. ...-t
81 am opposed to both grand and petty
larceny in this affair."" says Kilgore. 1.-THE
others have called the fve-miIlion bill
grand larceny, and now they are conniving
at petty larceny, if their first proposition
be true"
1t is pretty certain, however, that the
two-and-a- half-million bill will pass if filii
clustering can be stopped. This can only
be done by the adoption of cloture rule to
be reported by the Committee on Rules, or
by refusal of the Speaker to recognize
any dilatory motion. Either horn of the
dilemma is an embarrassing one for the
Speaker, as he has constantly ruled in
favor of the fullest liberty to obstruction,
and the great Democratic majority to re-
buke ex-Speaker Reed has adopted and up
held rules tor the encouragement of pre-
cisely the ridiculous situation in which the
House finds itself to-day.
Of course the friends of the appropriation
who accept the compromise will insist that
the Durborrow bill. cut from 1000, 600 to
81, 800, 600, shall be passed before the Sem
ate ive-million amendment is stricken from
the sundry civil bill. Any other course
would result in no appropriation at all
CIoture Almost Compulsory.
If the sundry civil bill be sent back to
conference committee. the Senate conferees
will not agree to the elimination of the five
million amendment until the Durborrow
bill is passed by the House. Therefore,
unless cloture rule be reported from the
Committee on Rules, of which quorum
could not be found to-day, or unless other
effective means be taken to silence the fill
busters, the fine conclusions of the Peace
Committee and of the caucus will go for
nothing.
Again, it is q matter of doubt whether
the Senate will agree to this compromise,
even if the House filibusters can be crushed.
Senator Allison said this evening that he
had come to no conclusion as to what posi-
tion even he personally would take. He
had not conferred with other Senators, nor
with the Worlds Fair Commissioners, and,
moreover, he iancied that the majority in
the House could not carry out its own pro-
gramme. He would wait for further infor-
nation and further developments before
forming an opinion.
After ali the efforts to compromise, there
fore, the only hope that an end may soon be
made of this tiresome matter rests with the
Speaker, that he, as Chairman of the Com
mittee on Rules, will call his colleague,
MI. Catchings, back to duty, and report a
rule which will tor the time being abolish
filibustering as effectively, almost, as it was
obliterated by the rulings of Mr.. Reed. 1t
will be bitter pill for the Democratic
leaders, all of whom now favor compromise
to swallow, but that appears to be the only
way out
RNTIRELY OUT OF PLACE