Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-06-28
PENSION DISCUSSION. !
A Clergyman SoIemnIy Asks a Very
Absurd Favor.
How Much Private Legislation is Passed-Hot
in washington.

WASHINGTON, June ~ lSPeNA'NAI
One part of the business OF TINS mouse Oh
representatives can be reported in advance
with remarkable accuracy-namely, the
Friday night session on pension business,
and there is u good deal OF fun III IL LOT SO
serious subject. The hot weather cut IL
off for awhile, but there Is so strong
pressure on members from clamorlng con-
stituents that business must be rushed
little toward the close of the session. rms
outline report will do for each evening:
Mr. Brookshire takes the chair, and Mr..
Stallings assumes an objecting attitude,
while Mr.. Talbert takes the most comfort
able and convenient seat he can find and
waits to be properly stirred up.
Hons A, b. and C. bring forward their
bills in turn, and Mr.. Stallings cross ex-
amines and cirticises till Mr.. Talbert
reaches the proper heat to make his regu-
lar attack, after which from two to five
Republican members make the regulation
reply, and then the dull routine business
comes in, and all but those taking part
retire to the smoking rooms OF go to sleep.
Several bills for private pensions have
passed the house, of course, and now the
question is, What is to become of them in
the senate? 1t is limited by senators inter
ested that they will not take time to ex-
anime them, but pass the whole batch on
to the president and see If his veto ma
chine is in AS good order as it was eight
years ago. 1t is to be noted, however, that
those who take this way don't like Cleve-
land pretty well.
An Amusing Case.
The greatest fun is in the propositions
which never get before the house. Mr..
Of ni,,io hog alair
all along that he had a case which took
the cake but New York member has
one which takes the whole bakery. The
applicant is evidently a frank and conscien-
tiolls man, aud his petition is exguisitely
funny in its solemn absurdity. He states
that he was but lad when the war began,
but he reached the age to be enrolled in
the hottest part of 1864, and the very next
draft caught him, whereupon he promptly
cut stick for Canada. He stood not upon
the order of his going, but girded up his
loins and got. The next year he returned,
and all was forgiven. He completed his
studies, was graduated at theological
seminary and has obtained fair rank in
the ministry. He is in fair way to be
called to a very important charge, but has
learned, he says, that he was enrolled as a
soldier and marked as a deserter. He ven
lures now to TASK favor" and would
like to have it attended to as privately as
possible He wants that record erased,
that's all He is kind enough to add that
he expects nothing from the government,
but does not like to have that record stand
ing against him and his children.
Subjects That Worry.
The habit of voting for bills they do not
fruS in tn hn of
the senate, as the members express it, is
responsible for the passage of much private
pension legislation, and the opposition say
this habit accounts for the vote - favor of
tho antioption bill. Very IL if any
members have the slightest idea that it
will pass the senate and become law, and
several who voted for it admit that they
had hoped it would not come up, but as it
did and their constituents wanted it they
helped put it through. There was no
such chance to dodge on the bill to repeal
the tax on state banks and there will be
none on the sugar question, which is now
the great subject of worry to these COM
placent members.
They have got to stand straight up and
take their medicine with or without
sugar, ;" says John De Witt Warner, and if
he can have his way the tax will be put
down to little or nothing. He adds that
it is pretty hot weather here, but it will
be Il blessed sight hotter mt home for four
fifths of the Democrats if they consent to
the senate bill. He is therefore, for sit
ting the summer through and the winter
likewise and fighting it out on the anti
sugar tax and antitrust line till the 4th of
March
The southern members generally are dis
posed to be more moderate, and, as Mr.
Dinsmore of Arkansas expresses it, if they
can get tho extra duty on refined sugar
abolished they may consent to the rest,
though they will hate like the mischief to
do it. Several counts have been made
and the highest claim made by anybody
shows but a score of members willing to
submit to the senate terms on any consid-
Grafton. There is a growing impatience
with the ways and means committee and
a feeling that it should have been ready to
act at once. 1t is amusing to hear the
vehement assertions of the young and i'm
patient ones and contrast them with the
soothing statements of the veterans. who
allege that there isn't the slightest reason
for hurry, as this tariff bill has already
been hurried more than bills of such i'm
portancc usually are.
Age of Former Tariff Bills.
But it may console the impatient to re-
publish two or three items by way of con-
trast. The Morrill, tariff, so long the basis
of Republican tariff laws, was reported to
the house March IL, 1860, and becarne a
law March 2. 1861. The next general act
was brought into the house March 20, 1882,