The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-11
REPEAL OF THE BANK TAX.
The Democratic Caucus Declares in
Favor Of II.

The Bill to That Effect to Be Consid-
cred as Rider to the Brawley Bill.
The Caucus Attended by lo2 Demo-
cratic Members-Very Little Diver
sity of Opinion on the ACCESSIBILITY
of Repeal in Some Form.
Washington, April 1O.-The demo-
cratic caucus. after a session of two
hours and a half this evening, adopted
the following resolutions without a dis
senting vote:
Resolved. That it is the sense Of this caucus
that the prohibitory tax Of 10 per cent. on
state bank issue be repealed.
Resolved, That when the bill, known as
the Brawley and Springer bill, which the
committee on banking and currency has
ordered reported to the House, is called up
for action. an amendment be offered repeal
ing the prohibitory tax on state banks: that
ample time be afforded for discussion, and il
necessary to secure this, the committee on
rules be requested to take proper action.
Exactly 102 democratic members Of the
House were present. The attendance
from the south and west was very large,
with but only few eastern men appear
ing. among them being Messrs. Straus,
Cummings, Dunphy and Warner, Of New
York, Pigott of Connecticut, O'Neill. of
Massachusetts, and Sibley, of Pennsyl-
vania.
THE DIsCUssioN ON REPEAL.
The discussion of the repeal of the state
bank tax proceeded in a desultory way
for a time, and took wide range. Mr..
Culbertson, of Texas. chairman of the ju-
dietary committee, made a strong speech
in favor of it. He reviewed at some
length the political situation, in which
the southern members found them
selves The Sherman law had
been repealed, all hope of
silver legislation must necessarily be
abandoned for the present, since MIR.
Cleveland had set the seal of his disap-
proval upon the Bland seigniorage bill.
In the Senate the tariff question was
proceeding slowly. In fact, said Mr.. Gull
bertson the democratic members from the
south and west had no record of pledges
redeemed to carry back TO their
people. The only thing left to meet the
urgent demand from their sections for a
greater volume of currency was the re-
peal OF the tax on state bank circula-
ton.
After some further talk, the above reso-
buttons were offered, the first by Mr.. Cox,
of Tennessee, and the second by Mr.. Cul-
bertson.
BUT LITTLE DIVERSITY OF OPINION.
There was but little diversity of opin-
ion in the caucus on the question of the
advisability of taking up for consider
alton the question of repeal, but there
was some opposition to unconditional re-
peal.
The only outspoken opposition of any
measure looking to the repeal of the state
bank tax came from Messrs. Bryan, of
Nebraska, and Lane and Williams, of
illinois.
Messrs Gresham, of Texas, Swanson,
of Virginia, Catchings, of Mississippi,
Cooper, of Indiana and others ardentlv
favored the proposition
Mr.. Cummings, of New York, made a
ringing speech at the end in favor of the
repeal. He declared that the people of
New York had cast their vote for the
democratic candidates with full knowl-
edge of what the Chicago platform con-
tanned, and he for one was ready and
anxious TO redeem every plank in that
platform. AT the conclusion of his
speech the resolutions were adopted and
the caucus adjourned.
WHAT IT ALL MEANS
The result of the caucus only means
that the bill TO repeal the state bank tax
shall be considered as a rider to the
Brawley bill, which is now on the calen.
dar, and that vote shall be had upon il.
1t was generally admitted IN the caucus
tonight that this repeal could be accom-
pllshed Internationally.
Mr. Swanson gave as the result of his
canvass l29 votes for unconditional
repeal, and Mr. Williams declared as a
result of his investigation. that a ma
iority of the House favored repeal, al
though not Internationally The ques-
tlon of conditions was only briefly touched
upon tonight