Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1894-08-22
ERRORS OF SOLONS
Responsible For Faulty
Tariff Bill.
CLERKS COULDN'T ALTER.
Musical Instruments Placed Unoer the
Head Of Explosive Substances"

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22.-The enrolling
clerks Of the house and the chairman Of
the house committee on enrolled bills
deny most emphatically that they are re-
sponsible for any of the errors in punctua-
tion or otherwise that threaten TO defeat
the intention of congress with reference
to various tariff schedules. They say that
four comparisons Of the enrolled bills and
the measure passed by the senate were
made and that congress- is responsible for
any errors. ii is asserted that a careful
comparison will show that the enrolled
bill is an absolutely perfect copy Of the
bill as IL passed the senate.
George B. Parsons, the chief enrolling
clerk, said: 1--WE cannot go by scholastic
standards, but are Obliged to follow copy
to the strict letter. As a newspaper man,
you can understand what Is meant by fol-
lowing copy. We suppose that the house
and the senate know what they are about.
Now don't 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, we're adopted by the house
Without "A stroke OF Difference.
"The main error seems to be that dia-
monds have been placed upon the free list.
This occurred evidently because the senate
used semicolon instead Of colon after
the word diamonds In the free list. AL
though 10 occurred to me, after we had
copied the item, that a colon was meant,
we had no authority here TO make a
change, for that would be for us TO assume
tho right to legislate."
"We have no such right whatever, nor
have we right to oonstrue the intention
OF the Legislators, for that would give us
the authority Of a court. 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. / will in
stance one of them. Musical instruments
Are TO be noted In the bill under the head
of explosive substances The senate
amendment read to insert the musical
paragraph after line 25 ON certain page,
which brought IL between the item of fric-
ton matches and that of percussion caps.
OF course this surprised US somewhat, but
we concluded that the author of the
amendment lived next door TO some chap
who has a grown daughter who is learning
to play on n secondhand piano"
Representative Pearson Of Ohio, chair
man Of the enrolled bills committee, af-
flrmed all that Mr.. Parsons had said as to
the accuracy of the enrolled copy.
A member Of the house, in speaking OF
the number of mistakes discovered, says:
"The house adopted the senate bill entire
To have amended even the semicolon after
the word diamonds would have necessi-
tated the return of the bill to the senate,
which was precisely what the house man
ayers did not desire. Had an effort been
made to amend the senate bill and other
errors Of punctuation, 1t is more than prob
able that the bill would have by this time
received totally different fate than that
which 1t met"