The Opelousas courier., 1894-04-21
Washington Letter.
From onr Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON. ADlil 9,

ou lH6 tdIiH Ulll Ill lIit 'otildtt IL ilot
encouraging to those who wish for
Hill, Murphy, Brce and Irhy, who. in
tentionally or unintentionally, aided the
republicans in their efforts to delay the
debate, have been sharply criticised by
democrats. Senator Hills speech to-
day has also brought additional demo
cratic criticism upon his head. 1t was,
of course, expected that the republi
cans would resort to fillibustering when
the democrats began to take steps to
bring the debate to close, but to the
surprise Of everybody they began fill
clustering for delay almost at the very
beginning of the debate, and it is clear
that they intend to keep it up to the
end. Senator Harris, who has charge
of the bill. proposes to force show of
hands this week, by asking that the
sittings of the Senate be prolonged two
hours day and that the tariff bill be
taken up earlier each day. He intends
to put the Senators on record IN order
that the country may see who are in
favor of pushing the debate to a con-
clusion and who are the obstructors,
and he doesn't believe that when the
issue is squarely raised any democrats
will be found in the latter class.
Ex-Speaker Reed capped the climax
for absurd and needless fillibustering
on Saturday when he prevented the
carrying out of special order setting
apart that day for euloges on the late
Senator Gibson, of Louisiana. by forcing
an adjournment by raising the point of
no quorum.
Representative Meyer, OF Louisiana,
has introduced bill for the coinage Of
the seigniorage. which meets the OBJ
lection raised in the Presidents veto
and also adopts his suggestion of go
viding for an Issue OF bonds. But some
how the bill isn't popular.
Washington. April l6. 1894
Speaker Crisp was not and is not an
advocate of counting a quorum, al
though it was advocated by good dt ~
ocrats long before Car Reed was ever
heard of outside of the town in which
he lives, but il became his duty as
chairman of the committee on Rules to
obey the caucus resolution directing
that committee To prepare and report
to the House such IA rule. and. like the
good democrat he is he obey ed, and
the new rule Will be reported to The
House and probably adopted this week
and when once adopted he will sre that
it is properly carried out and that mem
bers are not counted whether present
or not, as Reed used to do.
In this cOnnecIinn il Is proper to state
that the democrats of the House were
not driven into taking this action.
which so many democrats al prnmi-
nence personally opposed, Icy the ,e
publicans as they are claiming. 1t was
the refusal of tIr republicans to vote
that kept the House tied, except during
the short intel, tlS when there was Il
n Il.
month, thus making conspicuous the
allowing the business of the House to
be dictated by the republicans; but at
ter all it was not the republicans who
forced the democratic caucus to do
what should not have been necessary,
but which was absolutely necessary.
1t was the inability of the democratic
leaders to keep democratic quOrum on
the floor of the House that did the busi-
ness. They concluded that they had
tried and failed so often to keep dem
ocratic quorum that it would be good
idea to make the republicans help by
counting them when they refused to
vote, and at the same time, thank Heav-
Ell, they are going to make the absentee
come to time or forfeit his pay while
absent without leave, except when sick
anu uuhUto W dttouu ~ HIS uutieS,
The general debate on the tariff bill
will, by agreement, close next Monday.
Then the Senate will begin the con
sideration of the bill by items, Il p,o-
cess which promises to be long and
tedious. Senator Smith, of New Jersey,
delivered tariff speech to-day snme-
what in line with that delivered by Sem
ator Hill week ago, but not so radical.
The fear of the defeat of the bill is only
10 the opposition papers; it does not
exist among the democratic Senators
who are managing the bill, They tx
pect that those democratic Senators
| who stated at the caucus held previous
to the reporting of the bill that they re-
served the right to propose some
amendments on the floor OF the Senute
will secceed in getting some amend
ments adopted, with the aid of repubi-
can votes, but they have no doubts
about the final passage Of the bill; nor
do they believe that II single democratic
vote will be cast against it when the
final vote is taken.
Senator Morgan's report on the new
vincing, concluding thus: "Tbe plan
and certain effect of this bill if it be-
comes a law will be put into active bns-
mess employment $10O, 100000 borrowed
| from our own people without risk to
the government. 1t wonld furnish
good and wholesome employment to
| $4,000 Americans, who are marching nn
the highways, begging for work aud
| often for food.