The Daily Texarkanian., 1894-04-06
SILVER BILL DIES.
The House Fails to Pass the SeigniOr.
age Bill over the Presi-
dents Veto.

dents Veto.
Wednesdays session of Congress,
in the lower House opened with an
other and, as it proved, the last
round, in the English-Hilborn con-
tested election case from California,
After devoting the entire morning
session to a discussion of the rela-
tive merits of the contestants, En-
glish, the Democrat, was finally seat
ed.
Then Mr.. Bland called up the
seigniorage bill, which the President
vetoed, for action at once. The
greatest tumult ensued. Every
body was on his feet at once and
nearly every other man was talking.
Just what was said no one in the
galleries could hardly tell, but it
was evident that the great majority
of Democrats wanted the matter
disposed of without further debate,
while the Republicans and some of
the Eastern Democrats wanted
some discussion.
Finally Mr.. Tracey, leading for
the Democrats, said he had no OBJ
jections to a vote right away and
he was vigorously applauded by the
Democratic side for the announce
ment This was made by him after
a hurried conference with some of
the Democratic opponents of the
bill.
This brought both Messrs, Reed
and Boutelle to their feet shouting
Mr. Boutelle with his usual terroriz-
ing voice made some kind of a mo-
ton and Mr.. Crisp Immediately
overruled it, thereby causing Bout
ellie to ask the speakers reasons,
That officer said he had heretofore
ruled it was not incumbent on the
speaker to give his reasons for rul-
ings and the Maine man said he had
not heard of it and wanted to know
why it had been made The speak
er said it was done to resent imDer-
tinence.
Mr. Boutelle flew in the air and
fairly screamed: "Then l won't
vote, and the Democrats taunting-
ly laughed,
Mr. Reed then attempted to in
terfere, but was summarily squelch-
ed and sat down and patted his
desk before him as one who had alb
andoned all confidence in Congress
and life,
The roll call then proceeded on
sustaining the veto. AS the names
we're called there was the greatest
excitement. 1t looked as if the bill
would be passed over the veto The
Republicans we're refusing to vote
and it seemed tile bill could be pass
by two-thirds of those voting The
Democratic members who opposed
the bill were refusing to a great eX-
tent to vote.
The leaders on the Republican
side got together while the first roll
call was in progress and had con-
sultation. They had started out to
force the Democratic opponents of
the bill to refuse to vote, break a
quorum and thus again present to
the majority the alternative of coun-
ting quorum or failing to act on
this important bill
The Democrats against the bill
began to get frightened through
fear that there might be a quorum
and if so the bill would pass over
the veto, They trembled through
fear that they had made a mistake
in not yielding to the demands Of
the Republicans in their position of
fighting on the no quorum and fill
clustering plan, but the Republicans
found themselves in the most awk-
ward predicament, for if there
should be a quorum and the bill
should be passed their party on the
outside would hold them responsible
for the law because by voting they
could kill it.
It was a trying time all around
and the clerk still went ahead with
the first roll call 1t is rule in the
House to call the roll twice. When
the second call came the Republi-
cans began to vote. They could
not take any chances and the tally
sheet at the end of the call showed
115 votes sustaining the veto and
IA against it, The two-thirds nee
essary to carry the bill over the
veto not being secured the bill was
dead.