Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-13
SENATORS SATISFIED
With the Present Manner OF Securing
Their Election to Office.
MUCH IGNORANCE AMONG VOTERS
Stated as Sufficient Reason For Giving
Them No More Power.
THE SILVER QUESTION AGAIN BOBS UP

WASHINGTON, April 12-After the
routine morning business the resolution OF.
fered Yesterday by Mr.. Stewart in relation
to the purchase of silver and the coinage OF
standard silver dollars having been taken
I'D and amended (on motion of Mr.. Sher-
mani by inserting the words land detail
ed statement of the amount purchased each
day," Mr. Stewart proceeded to address
the Senate on the subject. He was not
sure, he said, that he fully understood the
last monthly statement of the Treasury De.
paItment as to the financial condition of the
Treasury. Having cited the figures as set
forth in the April statement, he remarked
that the entire amount of gold In the Treas
urv lin excess of the outstanding gold GER
tificates) was less than one-eighth of the sill
yer and paper for which redemption
demand might be made on it
Mr.. Stewards Grave Silver Logic.
Mr. Stewart gave the amount of gold in the
Treasury as SIPS SIS 900, and saiG that If the
gold standard was to be maintained the
silver act of 1890 would have to be repealed,
and the Secretary of the Treasury would
have to be authorized to sell bonds in order
to accumulate gold enough to redeem the
ing. but nc public man, he said, would dare
to make such q nonstrous proposition. Ii,
however, silver was to be maintained as
money. the silver in the dollar would have to
be made of equal value to the gold dollar: and
that could only be done through the coinage
of silver on the same terms as applied to the
coinage of gold.
the Presidents and the administration toward
silver, and mentioned, as a matter of com
mon report that sellers of silver to the Gov
60 II 1fr-0r sf1
yer to fill their orders after they had occu-
pied the market and kept others out-thus
depressing prices. Whether this was true or
not would be shown, he said, when the Sec
retary of the Treasury sent his answer to
the pending resolution. The resolution went
over till tomorrow
Will Not Crafty the FarIners' Alliance.
The joint resolution heretofore introduced
by Mr.. Palmer proposing a constitutional
amendment for the election of United States
Senators by the people was taken up and
Mr.. Chandler addressed the Senate in oppo-
sition to it. The time might come, he said,
when he would be convinced that such a
proposition might be submitted: but he Was
not convinced of it at the present time. He
would therefore state some OF his objections
to it.
He said that there was no demand for the
change, that there had been no grievance
shown, no injury done, no suggestion that
unless the change was made, rich men
would break into the Senate. He did not
propose to crafty the Farmers Alliance
by voting for constitutional amendment
for which he thought there was no occasion.
Mr.. Chandler went on to speak of the evil
OF caucus government, and to argue that the
present system of elecuing Senators was
much less liable to fraud and abuse He then
turned his attention to Nj. Palmer and his
political record, finding special fault with
an allusion in Mr.. Palmer's speech, some
time ago to the last election of General
Logan to the Senate by a trick. He thought
that the Senator might have allowed that
distinguished man to rest quietly in his
grave, without attempting to put upon his
name any tsint whatever
A Trick in General Logan's Election.
MI. Palmer disclaimed any idea of reflect
ing on General Logan in that ma tier and
gave a short history of the way in which
General Logan had been elected on that oc-
casion. A vacancy in a Democratic legisla-
tive district had been filled through the
secret candidacy unknown to the Demo
cratic voters) of Republican named
Weaver, who had gone through the district
as an insurance agent and been elected be-
fore the Democrats knew that there was any
opposition in the district. He. had cliar-
acteriZed this as a trick, and 1t had been
laughed at as such in Illinois; but he had
not intimated that General Logan had had
any knowledge of it.
Mr.. Chandler resumed and finished HIS
speech against the constitutional amend
ment. Another objection which he urged
frage in the United States. He spoke of the
suppression of popular suffrage in the three
States of South Carolina, Mississippi and
Louisiana, and of the degraded condition of
the voters in all the great cities of the
Union. The vote in New York City, he said,
was cast by the ignorant, the degraded, the
criminal classes OF that city.
Striking at Ignorant Voters.
And there was coming into the country an
enormous influx of foreigners, unable to
read and write, degraded in every way, in
capable of casting intelligent ballot, and
who, as soon as they reached the country,
were made voters without reference to the
provisions of the naturalization laws, when
ever great political party determined to
bring them to the polls. This was the shock
ing and horrible condition of the suffrage in
America: and instead of undertaking to re-
store the suffrage to purity and integrity,
the Senators who had made such long
speeches in support of the Constitutional
amendment were gravely proposing to en-
large the sphere of popular elections and to
make the first important amendment to the
Constitution in 100 years.
Mr. Palmer replied at considerable length
to the remarks which Mr.. Chandler had
made, personal to himself, relating to his
political history. He briefly related the
history and said he had left the Republican
party when that party left its own principles
and became tariff and protectionist party.
He said that Mr.. Chandler's speech reminded
him of good old Baptist preacher who said
that he could preach against slavery and
drinking whisky from any text in the Bible.
No Reason to Fear the Popular Vote.
So the Senator from New Hampshire
seemed to be able to preach in regard to
certain matters, from any text.
Mr. Palmer had no fear of the popular
vote. Most of the evils that could be traced
to popular influences were nothing as COM
pared with the evil that could be found
where the popular will and the popular in
terests were disregarded. The Senator from
New Hampshire had spoken of him as Re-
publican. Not only that, but he (Mr.
Palmer), had helped to make the Republican
party. He had been the President of the
frst Republican state convention ever held
in the State of illinois, While the Republi-
can party was devoted to the uses for
which it was made, no grander or nobler
party had existed. 1t was only after it fell
into the hands of men who controlled it for
the advancement of their own private in
terests that it had become the foe to the
country which it was now.
Mr.. Cullom had also something to say
about the political incident which resulted
in General Logan's last election to the Senate.
He asserted that there was no fraud in it.
He did not know whether General Logan
knew anything about it or not, but he knew
that in all that long controversy-from the
middle of January to the l9Sh OF May-it had
never been insinuated that there had been
corruption or fraud on the part of anybody.
Where Two Fools Met.
If his colleague left the Republican party
on account of its protectionist principles it
was somewhat strange, he thought, that he
should have continued in it so long-the
Morrill, tariff having been enacted in 1862.
After this Illinois branch of the discussion
had continued for over an hour, Mr.. Hawley
expressed the opinion that what took place
in Illinois 25 or 80 years ago was of little
importance now; and he related another
anecdote of General Logan, when somebody