Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-16

ashlngtC appropriations for tn
support of the gee. ,gical survey have bee
obtained year after year by system O
open, persistent lobbying, genteel in it
character, perhaps, but none the less OBJ
jectionabIe on that account
Lobbyists Able to checkmate Reform.
For many years Western Senators ant
Representatives have been baffed in thei
attempts to expose the alleged worthless
ness OF the surveys and cut down the appro
priations for their prosecution, but Majo
Powell, with the aid of LOBBYISTS and tn,
appointing power, has managed to check
mate them 1t is fact that for a long tim,
an official known as ''the executive officer o.
the bureau" has been employed, Whose
duties consist solely in seeing to it thai
Congressman shall be made to vote right.
1t is also said to be fact that almost
every prominent man of influence in Wash
ington has relative or friend on the pay
roll of the bureau, many of them holding
places that are absolute sinecures. The
sons and nephews of several we'll
known Congressman hold more OF
less arduous and well-paid Offices,
the most outrageous case of nepotisn
being that of the son of conspicuous
Democratic member of the House. The
son is young man of such dissipated
habits that he is totally unfit for the duty
can be ascertained, no part of his salary has
ever been withheld on this or any other
account
BarnacIes to Be Smoked Out
The object of Senator Carey's resolutions
is TO smoke out these barnacles and bring to
light the truth of the charges that have
been so freely made. If Major Pond shall
respond to the resolution frankly and fully,
without any attempt to withhold the
desired information, his reply will
make very interesting reading. The
Senators who are most directly interested in
learning the facts declare that they will
take nothing but the whole truth for an
answer, and if it is not forthcoming under
the present resolution they will have one
passed more sweeping in its PROVISIONS, and
from which there will be no esctpe.
1t has often been said that Congress needs
Young and fresh blood in its membership,
and the aptness of this was never more for
ciblv illustrated than in the ptesent fight
against the Geological Survey. The West
ern Senators have, as has b9en said, for
many years attempted to cut dbwn the ap-
preparation for the Geological bureau, but
have never s>oceedeG-until yesterday, when
tBe 4esired reform was brought about, owing
almost entirely to speech of the eloquent
and energetic Mr.. Wolcott, of Colorado.
Nothing Heretofore Accomplished.
Senator Stewart, of Nevada, and others
have hurled defiance and epithets at Maj jor
Powell and his bureau session after session
without accomplishing anything whatever.
Senator Wolcott. however, has a way of 60
ing at things that is very effective.
Yesterday he was so encour-
aged by his success the day be-
fore in wiping out of existence
large number of special land Office agents,
L. L. Al ofo b1io
employees in the entire Government service,
and who go about the West blackmailing
settlers and committing crimes for which
they should be put in JAIL instead of being
compensated by the Government.
Mr. Wolcott, in a very interesting speech,
attacked these special agents as enemies of
the people, and his remarks were indorsed
by Senators Stewart Teller, Allen,
Sanders, FELTON,, Cockrell and others,
who testified to the entire accuracy
of the Colorado Senator's charges.
The result of the young Senator's speech
was that the appropriation to pay these men
was reduced from 5000, 900, as provided in
the Senate bill, to $4,000, as originally
appropriated by the House This cuts off
the heads of many of them.
EIoquencs Not Thrown Awar.
Encouraged by his success in demolishing
the special agents the eloquent Senator, in
his peculiarly vigorous style, sailed into the
Geological Survey yesterday and boldly
moved to knock off several hundred thou
sand dollars of the contemplated appropria-
tion for its support. In support of this
motion he made speech that for frankness,
originality, brightness and good sense has
not been equaled in the Senate for many a
day.
~ He prefaced his remarks with a statement
that he was not an enemy, but devoted
friend TO scientific research, and that he was
in favor of giving all proper encouragement
to the pursuit of knowledge and its dissent
nation among the people. What he OBJ
iected to, however, was what he termed the
utter uselessness of the Government Geo
logical Survey and the wasteful eStrava-
gance of vast sums of money TO carry out
its Quixctio investigations, the result of
which no man could ever see or understand.
Mr.. Wolcott brought to light in this con-
nection the astonishing fact that the bureau
came INTO existence without direct authority
of law, in the shape of an amendment to an
appropriation bill, and that the vast sum of
Sc, So2, 405 has already been expended upon
the surveys. According to Mr.. Wolcott,
the sole authority under which the director
of the survey carries on his expensive in
vestigations is found in an amendment to
the appropriation bill providing money for
the completion of a geological map of the
United States.
Years of Labor Wasted.
In 1856 Major Powell assured the joint
Congressional committee that he would
complete the geological map in 20 wears,
and that it would cost SIS, 100000. His re-
mort, fled in 1890, shows that at the then
rate of progress 1t would take more than 100
years to complete the map, and that it
would cost the United States more
than 500, 600, 600, or probably in the
end more money than is involved
in the national debt and all this in spite of
the fac: that Prof Agassiz, the son of the
great Agassiz, reported to the committee in
August 1886 that the work was valueless
and expensive, and that the appropriations
for il we're useless.
As an illustration of his charge that the
reports Of the geological survey are never
. published until years after they have been
authorized, Senator Wolco:t made the fol-
lowing entertaining stavement: 'One of the
scientific men of the bureau was instructed
TO report upon a mining district, ID years
ago. There nave been thousands AID thou
sands of dollars expended upon that survey.
Mcanshiis the district was discovered was
rrospectea, was worked, was developed,
thoussnds of dollars taken out of it, and the
camp abandoned, but the report is not yet
furnished.