Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1894-07-27

pass it must receive the support of the
Administration. If am to go into this
fight the President must be behind it."
In response to this Mr.. Jones had as
sured him that he had seen the Presi-
dent, who had pledged his support
Then Mr.. Jones gave his history of the
famous compromise amendments
After they had been prepared he went
over all of them with Secretary Carlisle
and had received from him, speaking
for the President, assurances of his ap
proval.
An unfortunate attempt WAS made at
this point by Mr.. Villas, the solitary
cuckoo now remaining in the Senate, to
cross-examine the witness. He asked
Mr.. Jones whether in these converse
tions with the President and Secretary
Carlisle, coal and iron ore had ever been
mentioned. The reply of Mr.. Jones
that they had been mentioned in every
one of the conversations caused pro-
found sensation. The only result of Mr..
Villas question was to emphasize the
knowledge and consent of the President
to these concessions. The third wit
ness, Mr.. Harris, gave full account OF
the history of the compromise. In two
conversations held with the President,
he was deeply and earnestly interested
in passing a compromise bill. The Pres
ident said that he favored the bill as it
passed the Senate if no better terms
could be made, and at that time Mr..
Harris assured the President that it
would be impossible to put coal and iron
on the free list. This testimony was es-
pecially important because this CONVEX
sation was held with the President after
the bill had passed the Senate and after
the alleged date of the Presidents letter
to Mr.. Wilson.
At this point, Mr.. German interrupted
Mr.. Harris to ask whether the President
had said anything about party pertidy
or party dishonor. mo such suggestion
was ever made to me by the President
or Secretary Carlisle or any human be-
ing" replied Mr.. Harris. This testi-
mOny caused another profound sensa-
ton, for it appeared that while denounc-
ing the Senate to Mr.. Wilson the Presi-
dent was at the same time urging Mr..
Harris to pass the Senate bill through
the Conference Committee.
The incident brought out some inter-
esting statements concerning this now
famous letter. 1t is possible that MIR.
Cleveland may have begun to write the
letter on July End, but it is certain that
it did not reach Mr.. Wilson until very
few days before he presented it to the
House. Some time before this the let
ter was shown to Speaker Crisp and at
that time it contained nothing whatever
about duty on sugar.
Ex-Governor John E, Russell of Mass
achusetts, who is now in Washington in
the interest of Mr.. Whitney's Nova
Scotia coal syndicate, also claims to have
been one of those to whom the letter
was shown in confidence, before it reach
ed Mr.. Wilson. These statements cor
roborate the close connection between
Mr.. Cleveland's letter and this foreign
coal syndicate. The nature of this syn
dicate was exposed at latter period of
Mr.. Gorman's speech. He showed that
the only interest in the world to be ben
efltteo by free coal is, this Nova Scotia
syndicate, composed of the British di-
rectors of the Canadian Pacific Railway
and few American capitalists, who for
their personal profit wish to destroy the
American industry. This passage of
Mr.. Gormans speech contained not a
single word of violence, but was calm,
dispassionate statement of facts. With.
out mentioning single name he estab'