Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1894-12-19
WASHINGTON LETTER.
IFrom Our Special Correspondence
WASHINGTON, D. c.. Dec. II, '94.

is now engaged in marching up the
hill with its currency plan. Later, it
will, following the same example,
march down again. The field COM
mander of the marching army is Gen.
Carlisle, the commander in chief of the
forces contenting himself with remain.
ing in the White House, surrounded by
a Gordon of sentinels, and giving orders.
The tomtoms are keeping up a terrific
beating, while the House Committee
on Banking and Currency is getting
the opinions of financiers on the pro-
posed plan, in order to create the i'm
preston that the Democrats of the
House are enthusiastically in favor of
that plan. AS a matter of cold, hard
fact they are nothing of the kind.
There may be enough of them vote for
the bill, which the members of the
committee say they will soon report to
the House, to pass it; but it will not
be because they consider it good, but
because not knowing anything about
it they will be willing to chance it,
hoping that it may turn out to be as
good as Secretary Carlisle claims it to
be.
Representative Dingley, of Maine,
who has been quoted as being favor.
ably impressed with the ideas of Sec
rotary Carlisle, says: 'The fatal de-
feat of Mr.. Carlisle's plan, is that it
undertakes to unite State bank with
National bank circulation, and even
discriminates against national bank
circulation by providing for tax upon
the notes issued by national banks and
exempting notes issued by state banks
from any such tax, or from any super
vision by national authority" Geo.
G. Butler, q Connecticut inancier, told
the House Committee that the banks
would never accept the unknown re-
sponsibility imposed by that portion of
Secretary Carlisle's plan requiring all
national banks to guarantee the cir
~culation of each bank. Other inan-
ciers also condemned the plan for va
rious reasons.
Senator Morrill,, on lehalf OF the
Senate Finance Committee, presented
a combination adverse report to the
Senate on all the Populist financial
bills-most of them were introduced
by Senator Peffer-which were during
the first two sessions of the present
Congress referred to that committee,
and accompanied it with a speech es-
pecially aimed at the financial quack.
cry of the demagogue of the present
era, and the prevailing spirit of exag-
geration. Senator Morrill, never learn
ed to use bad language; his shafts of
ridicule are always those of the edu-
Gated and refined gentlemen, but that
doesn't prevent their penetrating the
thickest skins. PETER is sore all over.
Representative Hit, of Illinois, the
ranking Republican member of the.
House Committee on Foreign Affairs,
who is one of the best posted men in
Congress on international affairs which
relate to the United Statas, is after
Secretary Gresham with a sharp stick,
as the saying is. Mr.. Hit wants to
know all about Secretary Gresham's
offer of $425, 900 as compensation for
Canadian sealers seized in Behring
Sea, and has offered a resolution call.
ing for the correspondence which led
to that extraordinary offer. In view
of the fact, which he points out, that
ten OF the eighteen vessels seized were
owned by Americans and flying the
British flag for purposes of registration,
and that the entire claim submitted to
the arbitration tribunal on behalf of
the Canadian sealers was only $780,.
600 of which it was admitted that $751;
represented prospective profits on catch
es expected to have been made if the
vessels had not been seized. Mr.. Hit
thinks Secretary Gresham's offer en-
tirely too large and proposes to oppose
appropriating the money to make it
good, unless the correspondence shall
furnish some justification now un-
known to him.
Notwithstanding the charges that
the railroad pooling bill is entirely in
the interest of the corporations, the
House passed it by the decisive vote of
1866 to 40. Some of the ablest men in
the House declare that the bill, if it
becomes a law, will be of direct bene-
fit to small shippers as well as to the
smaller railroads. The bill proposes
to restore to the railroads the freight
privileges they had previous to the en-
actment of the Interstate Commerce
law.
1t required a vote of the Senate to
convince certain Senators that no tar
i'll tinkering would be allowed at the
present session, and it was promptly
given when Senator Gray, of Della.
ware, moved to take up the sugar bill,
which was reported from the Senate
Finance Committee, at the last session,
as a substitute for the House popg un
sugar bill. The motion was defeated
by a vote of twenty seven to twenty
three, the Populists and Senators Blan-
chard, Martin and Roach voting with
the Republicans against the motion,
and a number of Democrats, including
Brice, German, Irby and Smith who
would have voted against the motion