Evening journal., 1892-07-05
BLAND NOW CONFIDENT.
The Stewart Bill Will Pass, He
Says, if a Vote Is Taken.
A POSSIBLE DEMOuRATIO oOMBINE

The Free Tin Plate and the Pension Men
May Unite with the Free Coinage Men
on a Basis OF Reciprocity in Voting for
These Measures.
WAsHINGTov, July 5.-Alr. Bland, Of Mis-
souri,, the leader Of the free coinage forces
IN the house, hurried back to Washington
from Missouri when he was wired that the
silver bill had passed the senate He viii
call meeting of the committee on coinage,
weights and measures for Wednesday to
consider the bill, and it is almost certain
that a favorable report viii be agreed upon
and made speedily
Mr.. Bland said that he had not had
chance to talk with members of the coinage
committee OF with senators friendly to free
silver, nor had he made full investigation
of. the subject On looking the bill over he
had been confronted with the fear that it
would have to be amended
at seems TO me, he said, 'that by re-
pealing the act Of 1890 this bill.deprives the
eighty odd million Of silver certificates of
their legal tender quality This would adj
nit Of a veto by the president without re-
ference to the question Of silver coinage,
upon the grounds that the acts repudiated
the certificates as lawful money. The legal
tender quality given these certificates when
they were issued must be preserved, and if
this act, by an inadvertence. deprives them
Of that quality it must be amended before
it is passed by the house.
''Of course there was no intention on the
part Of the gentlemen proposing the bill to
destroy the legal tender character Of these
certificates, and it may be that they have
looked into the matter and discovered that
it is all right, but it seems to me that there
has been an oversight which must be cor
rected.p
Bland Says It win Pass.
Mr.. Bland said it was unfortunate If tho
bill was to be amended, rs il would have to
go back to the senate for further action. and
its enemies might then be able to talk it to
death. He thought, however, that it was
better to amend it than to pass it as it
stands, if it took the legal tender quality
from more than SsO,OOOOOO in the hands Of
the people.
Il am, as have said p he added, "talk-
ing without having consulted with those
who prepared the bill. and il may be that I
am mistaken; hope I amn Mr.. Bland ex-
pressed himself as confident that the bin
could be passed if brought TO vote, and if il
turned out that no amendment was neces-
sary the matter would be very simple
The committee on rules Of the house will
probably decide to fix on Thursday Of this
week as a suspension day, the purpose be-
ing to secure the passage Of the tin plate
bill, action on the conference report on the
river and harbor bill and on several other
measures, and it is likely that n resolution,
introduced by Mr. Pierce, Of Tennessee, an
ardent free coinage man, providing that on
a day agreed on it shall be in order to move
a suspension Of rules to pass public measures
which have been previously discussed by a
majority vote. To pass bills under suspsn-
sion requires a two-thirds vote, but in view
of the determination Of the Republicans to
prevent the passage Of the free tin plate
bill at all hazards, it may be that Mr.
Pierce's proposition viii be adopted
A New Reciprocity.
There is some talk among congressman
now Of a probable combination Of Demo
cratic members on the silver, tin plate and
pension bills, the idea being for advocates
Of each measure to help the advocates Of
the Others by their votes This proposed
reciprocity win find its greatest difficulty in
the fact that members in favor Of pension
legislation and the tin plate BILL but who
are opposed to free coinage, viii not agree
TO vote for the silver bill under any condi-
tion whatever
In regard to Mr. BANDS statement that
the Stewart bill viii have to be amended in
order to prevent its being practical repu-
diation Of silver certificates now outstand-
ing Senator Stewart called attention to
Section thirteen Of the Revised Statutes.
which, he said, proves Mr. Bland's asser-
ton wholly unfounded. Section thirteen is
as follows
THE repeal Of any statute shall not have
effect TO release or extinguish any penalty
forfeiture or liability incurred under such
statute unless the repeating act so ex
pressly provides, and such statute shall be
treated as still in force for the purpose oi
sustaining any proper action or prosecution
for the enforcement for such penalty, for
feiture or liability