Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1894-06-09
THE SUGAR TRUST INQUIRY
Senator Hill for Open Sessions of
the Committee.
Sarcastic Thrusts at His Fellow Legislator
Demands That Nothing he Hid
den From the Press and /
the Public. :

WASHINGTON, June 2.-The house joint
alton of land in the vicinity al the Getty>
burg battlefield, was taken up or motion
OF Mr.. Hill, dem. New York. and passed.
The resolution offered yesterday by Mr..
PETER, populist. Kansas. for The taking
possession Of and holding for public use
the coal beds of the country, was taken up
and referred to the judiciary committee.
Then the resolution offered by Mr.. Hill,
dem New York, for open sessions Of the
select committee on the sugar trust inves.
tigation, was laid before the senate, and
Mr.. Hill spoke in its support He thought
that open sessions OF the committe, were
fairly completed by the resolution for its
appointment. II was in the usual form,
and did not authorize secret sessions,
neither did ii refuse that authority
There was nothing in the origr
nal resolution that permitted any
senator to suggest that its proceedings
should be secret. He started off with the
general proposition that the proceedings
OF the senate investigation committees
should be open; that, as a general rule
they were open and that there was moth.
ing about this case hat required the
proceedings to be secret.
At 1913 the tariff bill was laid befor,
the senate.
Mr.. Hill insisted on continuing his re.
marks. He went on to say that the in
vestigatton shall be open to the publ<
and press and that would prevent any
suspicion that the senate desired to hav
those proceedings conducted in the dark
1t would satisfy al honest and jpst pub
lie sentiment aud would not 10 injus
tice to anybody The ,oommitte,
was not a drumhead court
..n a.
acquit. II was simply tor the purpose OF
investigating the truth Of certain news.
paper assertions. The senate itself was
not a club, although sometimes called so
and there was 40 reason Why the public
should be excluded from its proceedings
And so there was no reason why the pub
lie should be excluded from the sessions
OF investigating committees.
He thought that the investigation
should be held with open doors and that
the reporters OF the press should be pres
tnt. He had read what had been given to
the public. One Of the points of the in.
vestigation was whether the secretary oi
the treasury had made suggestions
about the sugar schedule for
mittee. Was there anything, he
asked, so peculiar. so improper, so unprece.
dented about that the testimony In re
gard to IL should not be taken in the broad
daylight and in the presence of the press
and OF the peoplef Another point was as
to whether senators had speculated in
sugar stock. There was no reason WHY
testimony in regard to that hould not be
taken in open session. He was sure that
there should not have been so many pur.
chases OF sugar stock there around this
circle that there was any fear hat q dis
closure of the facts would influence the
New York stock market and therefore il
was not wise to disclose how many pur.
chases had been made around this cir.
Gle"
The sessions OF the investigating con.
mlttee. Mr. Hill added, were supposed to
be secret, but they were neither one thing
nor the other. Partial reports were
given to the public by the distinguished
chairman of the committee Mr.. Hill spoke
Of Mr. Mcpherson, dem, New Jersey,
having been called before the committee
a few days ago. The newspaper men, he
said, were watching the doors OF the com
mittee room to know who went in and
who anne out. And when witnesses re-
fused 20 tell them what they had testified
the newspaper men made surmises. So
one newspaper, in publishing the statement
carefully prepared by the chairman of the
committee said that the senator from
New Jersey had admitted speculation In
sugar stock and another newspaper said
that he had admitted nothing improper.
The two statements were entirely differ
ent. This playing fast and loose was
unjust to the witnesses, unjust to the
great public and unjust to the senate.
The old fashioned way OF public sessions
would have been the better way,
Mr.. GRAY, dem, Delaware, chairman of
the investigating committe, replied to Mr..
Hill. He did not intend, he said, either
on behalf OF himself or of the committee,
10 do more than say that, hav
ing no personal interest whatever
In the matter, and having no
personal wish 10 crafty, the committee
was perfectly willing for the senate to
decide the question raised by the resolu-
ton of the senator from New York. The
personal inclination of the committee and
their personal comfort would have
suggested the throwing open OF
the doors OF the committees
room while conducting the investiga-
tion but, after deliberation and discus
sion and a careful consideration of the
nature of the duty imposed upon them,
they had come to the conclusion that for
the present at any rate the end in view
could be better promoted by proceeding
as they had done.
bill resolution vent over.