Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1894-01-18
Washington Letter.
tFFOm our Regular Correspondent

House have taken the bits between their
teeth and driver Cleveland sits helpless
and unable to stop them in their mad
rush for the bluffs which oyerhang the
bottomless chasm of oblivion. From
the beginning of the extra session and
until this week Mr.. Cleveland has man
aged by will power. cajolery and pat
ronage, 10 absolutely control the demo-
cratic majority, but that control ended
when majority of one compelled the
eleven democrats Of the Ways and
Mems committee to decide in favor Of
a 2-per cent tax on all incomes. individ-
ual and cooperate of $4,000 and over.
There can be no doubt that this action
was brought about by tue populst sem
timent which so largely controls demcl
Gratis from the south and west. Nor
that it will make it all the easier to de-
feat the Cleveland tariff bill, to which
it is to be attached as an amendment
along with the increased tax on cigar
cites and whiskey and the tax on play
ing cards agreed to at the same time.
The adoption of tue iudividual income
tax was direct revolt against Mr..
Cleveland's rule as he has been from
the first opposed to it.
1t is not surprising that the demo-
cratic bosses of the House had decided
that the final vote on the Cleveland
tariff bill should be taken on the 18th
of this month; there is so little that can
be said in its favor that they want the
agony over as soon as possible, but
democratic absentseism has already
caused them to extend the time until
the 22d inst. Neither republicans nor
dissatisfied democrats expect that the
bill will be either defeated or materially
changed in the House, although it is
said that Mr.. Cleveland will try to mus
ter up enough democratic votes to de-
feat the income tax amendment. 1t is
IN the Senate that the bill can and will
be defeated, il the words of dissatisfied
democratic senators can be depended
upon, and Republican senators do not
allow themselves to be persuaded into
helping dissatisfied democrats to secure
special amendments. IL the democratic
Senators can be forced to vote for or
against the bill Just as it is sent from
the House there arc good reasons for
believing that Hill and Murphy of New
York; Smith of New Jersey, German
of Maryland; Faulkner of West Virgil
MIA, and Morgan and Pugh, of Alabama,
win vote against it. If they do the bill
will be defeated with two votes to spare,
even il the populist senators vote for it,
as they probably VIII on account of the
income lax.
"A guilty conscience needs no ac-
cuser" Although the Hawaiian inves-
tigation ordered by the Senate has just
got fairly started members OF the adj
ministration are already trying to dis
count the effect of the unfaYorable re-
port which they know the facts brought
out will compel the committee to make,
and party pressure is being brought to
bear on the democrats on the commit
tee, in order to get them to let Mr..
Cleveland down as easy as possible in
that report, not for his own sake but
for the good of their party. II they
keep on as they have started they will
not have any party to speak Of by 1885,
Prof. William d. Alexander, who has
been surveyor general of Hawaii for
twenty years, gave important testimony
to the committee. He charges that
paramount Blount suppressed all the
really important information he gave
him in Hawaii.
Senator Frye introduced resolution
in the Senate, reciting that in the opin-
ion of the Senate there should be no
interference on the part of this govern
ment with Hawaii, either by moral In
fluence or by force, pending the inves-
tigation, and requested that it lie on the
table until he gets an opportunity to
call it up and move its reference to the
Committee on Foreign Relations. When
he calls it up he will make few re-
marks that will not be pleasant reading
to tie administration or its supporters.
The democratic opposition to the in
come tax is growing and it is not con-
fined 10 the administration and the
eastern members, either. Representa-
tive Black, of Illinois, who was Com
missioner of Pensions under the first
Cleveland administration, says of it:
81 am opposed to an income tax be-
cause it corrupts the public morals. It
is an inquisitorial tax. Every man who