The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1894-12-19
LEGISLATIVE DODOES.
The Aged Vermont Senator
Reports on Peffer's Bills.
eUACKPKNAcEAs AND GRIEVANCES

tDACApANACEAS AND GRlEfANCES
U1sneees.a-y 70 say ma. an OF the Fopuli.t
1Teasur-s Were Reported Adversely,
but the fetching Dronery and Sarcasm
Of s1r.aiorrln Is Wen Worth Reading.
The speech in Detail.
WAsHiNaToS, Dec. 1.-THE senate
Tuesday afternoon was furnished with
treat Of hnmor that is seldom enjoyed
By that dignified and honorable body
Senator Morrill,, according TO promise,
reported from the finance committee on
the various bills introduced by the Pop
ulist senator from Kansas, Mr. PETER.
Mr. Morrill, said:
..Having Indicated the purpose of
briefly addressing the senate npon some
zlarTelous senafoz1al bills aud s4Iaelr
pannceas for real and imaginary griev-
ances, j hold in my hand nine senate
bills which have been directed by the
committee on finance to report adverse
IL. and TO ask for their indefinite post
ponement. In order that the senate
may have some conception of these bills
shall ask the clerk to read the list.
An the bills were introduced by Sem
ntor PETER of Kansas and provide for
the issue OF great sums of greenbacks
for various purposes
The senator continued:
st is hardly necessary to say that
these hungry bills. big. bigger and big
gest. nine OF them, asking for nine or
10 times more money than there is now
in use by the whole world, were unan-
imously reported adversely by the COM
ulittee on finance. Nothing more, as
the committee conserved, could have
been expected save brief postmortem
obituaries The bills, many of them,
may have been reluctantly introduced
by request, and therefore not very ten
inent godfather. Responsibility for
such eccentricities ought not to be
asked Of senators, and should any MEM
Der be charged with their real author
ship. hope he would be able to plead
in defense an alibi-
with no reasons offered for the in
Production OF these multitudinous billion
dollar bills, n sufficient reason for the
adverse report would appear to have
been that they were all death-stricken
from an overdose of the legal tender
nostrum at their birth, administered by
the accoucheur- One OF these bills pro-
posed an issue of legal tender money 40
times greater per capita than any we
have ever had Another to purchase
all the silver bullion that may be offered
at $1-29-1O0ths cent per ounce, though
it fetches now In any market only 90
cents per ounce. Figuratiyely speaking,
the bills were all of one brood and of
the same father; birds OF imitation, none
game5 none worth a charge OF powder,
but legislative dodoes, unlikely ever to
be seen on the earth again
al do not suppose there are more va
carries or political tOmfooleries put af1oat
here than in other countries. Occasion
ally they come forth here without
fatherhoOd, frisk about through the dog
days and then disappear, leaving no
bubble in sight to show where they
sank. We have also some pushing ia
NAUTICAL theories wearing tho mask of
political reform, and assure to give the
. world the millennium, and not more so
than was the philosophers stone to turn
everything it touched into gold.
s'Some minor political parties come
and 90 like those diseased, which affiict
nobody but once. Such parties, usually
destitute OF constitutional stamina are
ephemeral, and are soon compelled to
hoist any flag and set sail for 'CoWes
and q market A recent example of
such ephemera, advertised. was much
technical veracity as any patent medi-
cine, as the sPopuliSt', and leading
astray many good men. appears to have
politically pOck-marked and discredited
two or three OF our sister states, but the
grotesQueness on its face Is likely TO
domination
'sSome crude and unhealthy theories
are separated from the bills now adj
Versely reported by such thin partitions
that it must seem inVidious to give
them no general or particular attention,
especially as their supporters might pre-
fer-like Lord Brougham-tO 20 with
out commentator rather than without
any notice at all
Short lived partisans, fertile In the
invention and swift IN the repetition of
derogatOry SANDER, aim by its use to de-
fame and defeat those who happen to
be In possession of the public confidence.
by this class of GROWERS the
splenetic charge Is made that great
especially to senatOrs-and has created
Astounding plutocrats, or kings of wealth,
although no entailed wealth under our
constitution Is allowed and we have no
ladders here to the upper regions of
riches not free to all Here the children
of the wealthy, trained not to economy
nor to labor, often exchange places in
succeeding generations with the child
rem of the poor schooled to industry and
frugality. Thus the tidal ebb and flow
of accumulation and dissipation goes
on forever. Those who may be at the
bottom of the wheel of fortune today
often
Rise to the Top Tomorrow.
such wealthy celebrities as were
Captain Clapp of Portland. Billy Gray
OF Boston, Stephen Girard CT Philadel-
phia, Garrett of Baltimore and Cor
coran of Washington, all reckoned
among the worthless of their day, re-
eeiYed few or no political decorations.
and the Astors, Vanderbilts and Goulds
OF Om great commercial metropolis, ap-
pear to be equally neglected or possibly
equally destitute of political ambition.
The financial fortunes of nearly all
OF our presidents were limited and the
fortunes OF those foremost in popular
favor, like jefferson, Monroe, jackson,
Lincoln and Grant were especially
limited.
Persons of moderate wealth, living
generously, often have their estates
largely overestimated, From the loud
braying OF long cared political donkeys
many have supposed that the senate of
the United States was a selected board
OF milhonaires, when, perhaps, not more
than two or three of its so odd members
have any title to that much envied on.
probrium- Though few were born with
silver Spoon In the Mouth,
the most part of the members achieved
in early vacations some substantial sue
cess. and yet it Is probable that a large
majority Of the body would be unable
70 maintain their families in UosJ,i,,r-