Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-08-21
Not the Fault of the Enrolling Clerk
or Committee.
TRACED TO TEE SENATE AMENDMENTS
The House Adopted the Bill With
out Examination.
CHAIRMAN PEARSON'S VIEWS

thSre is prospect of a great deal of htiga-
tion ever commas. semicolons and paren-
ueses- The blame for these errors has
been placed upon the enrolling clerks of the
hotse, from whose hands the bill went to
the President. but that this charge is un-
Just was shown today by Mr. George B.
Parsors, the chief enrolling clerk of the
house' as well as by Judge Pearson of
Shio, chairman of the House committee on
ei rohed bills. In order to ascertain the
exact system by which the bill was read
and prepared. Star reporter called upon
MI Parsons this morning to get his state
Hent in regard to the charge that there
were errors in the enrolment of the bill
Mr.. Parsons said in reply:
am not rich man by any means. but
VIII agree to give to any charity that
Inc star Will name $40 for every error that
may be discovered in the enrolment of the
Iar.n Dill NOW. you may rest assured that
would not make this offer If i were not
certain that the bill is absolutely correct
as far as the official records go. 1 have
mere In this drawer" unlocking, as he
spoke, the tall black cabinet and removing
bulky package of papers, the official
copy, or rather copies, of the tariff bill,
from which We made the copy that went TO
the President, and will, l suppose, con-
sttute the -aw of the land. This, as you
see, Is double document, consisting first
OF tne ofhcial print of the bill as 1t passed
the House last winter. attested by the clerk
OF the House, and second of the official COPY
OF the Senate amendments, attested by the
secretary of the Senate. There is no
o,ncial copy of the bill that consolidates
tnese TWO, until We make the final enrolled
copy that goes to the President This is
done by consolidating the two that I have
mere In order to show you how careful we
bill, let me tell you that and nv assistant
MT Kelly. read this entire bill through
twice before We allowed it to leave our
hands.
Received Four Readings.
"On the first trip it took us eight hours
one holding copy and the other reading.
The second time We exchanged places. and
this time being more familiar with the text
We hnished In about six hours At the end
OF the second reading / can swear that the
bill was perfectly accurate on the basis of
these two official engrossed copies that we
were Obliged to take guides Then
having satisfied ourselves that there was
absolutely no difference between the two
official copies, 1 handed the bill to Judge
Pearson, chairman of the committee on
enrolled bills. and he, aided by his assist
ants. had the bill read twice again. So this
bill received four comparative readings. and
you can understand now why / am so con-
hdent that there is no clerical or enrolling
error in the copy at the White House.
Now, as to the mistakes that. are said to
be found in the bill. We cannot go by
scholastic Standards but are obliged to fol-
low copy to the strict letter. As a news
paper man you can understand what is
d
porter. would resent any interference with
your matter by the printer. You are sup
posed to know what you are doing, and SO
we suppose that the House and the Senate
know what they are about. Now. do not
deny that there are mistakes in the bill;
that is very apparent. But these mistakes
were made in the drafting of the Senate
amendments. which. as you know, were
adopted entire by the House without
stroke of difference. The main item of error
seems to be that diamonds have been placed
ha list This occurred evidently
because the Senate used semicolon instead
of a colon after the word diamonds when
IL was inserted In the paragraph which
placed on the free list all GLACIERS and en-
grayers' diamonds AS 1t stands now the
paragraph places on the free list diamonds;
engravers' and glaziers
There Are, However, Errors.
"Had the word diamonds been followed
by a colon it would have made OF II head
TO be qualified by the succeeding descrip-
tive words. instead CT which 1t Is now. by
virtue of the semicolon, an absolute subject
for the free list. AS you will see from these
COPIES Of the bill, the Senate amendment
contained the sem. colon, ana, aItnough IL
occurred 10 me after We had copied the Item
that colon was meant,we haa no authority
here to make a change, for that would be
for US to assume the right 70 leSislate. We
hate no such right whatever, nor nave we
q right to construe the intention OF the
legislators for that would give US the au-
thority of a court
There has been some criticism also that
the enrolled copy of the bill placed all seeds
upon the free list, which was not intend
ed / do not find that this is an accurate
criticism. for there is no question but that
the intent of the Senate was, as you will
here see. to strike out of the free list this
phrase: Seeds of all kinds not specially
provided for in this act. Tnen the Senate
inserted paragraph 2U6 IL in the dutl-
able list this item: Garden seeds, asri-
cultural seeds. and other seeds not specially
provided for In this act, 10 per cent ad va
lorem.' The exception in this paragraph
was meant to cover certain oil seeds which
were rated differently. Thus 1t would seem
to me that all seeds were placed on the
dutiable instead of the free list.
Now, if We want to go ahead and have
some fun out OF this bill We can do 1t just
as easily here as the folks in the Treasury
Department, for we have found some very
funny things IN the official copy OF the bill.
i will instance one of them. Musical in
struments are to be noted in the bill under
the aud of explosive substances The
Senate amendment read to insert the musi-
cal Instrument paragraph after line - on
a certain page. which brought IL between
the item of friction matches and that OF
percussion caps. OF course this surprised
Us somewhat, but We concluded that the
sutbor of the amendment lived next door
10 some chap who has a grown daughter
who is learning to play OH secondhand
piano
Chairman PearsOn's Views.
"I have been criticised, as have my prede-
ceSSOrS in this ONCE, lcr Hedriy every liilis
that has happened in the enrolment of
bills and will venture to say that not one
tenth of this criticism belongs here. / want
to say further that Judge Pearson has made
the most careful chairman of enrolled bills
that has ever been known here for years.
have served the House for four Congresses
and have been in this position during the
last two. ,
Judge Pearson happened to come into the
office few moments after this conVersa-
tiCn and reiterated what Mr. Parsons mad
said regarding the care with which the
tariff bill was enrolled and compared. he
said that for his comparison, which was the
last he had made a most accurate copy of
the engrossed copies in the hands OF MI
E5rS1ns and had worked three men at q
tiue-one reading and two iolding this
official copy and It's duplicate. He took his
own turn at the reading. NheL told of Mr.
Parsons offer to pay for every error In the
bill Judge Pearson said: Il will duplicate
that offer and make II $50 for every error
don't believe I will lose a cent. 1 am SC
confident about this matter that 1 feel like