The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-06-08
HAS TWO SIDES.
There Was No Chance for tie
Tax Repeal Bill.
But Southern Members Still
Cling to Their Idol.
CONSIDERED A JOKE.
Bribery Investigation So Re-
garded in Washington.
CONSIDERED A JOKE.

The debate in the house on the state bank
tax was conducted with great ability on
both sides. and on the whole with fairness
and dignity. Partisan appeals were COM
paratively rare. Mr. Walker INDUCED in
some pretty sharp denunciations of Demo
cratic Bourbonism and fnanciering, and
there were the usual cutting references to
the condition at the close of Bdchanan's adj
ministration, but the other side came back
with equally pointed citations of trouble
under the syreenb back and national bank dis
pensation. 1t was a surprise to many lis
teners that much could be said in favor
of state bank money. for it was show from
the start that it was one sided question.
Southern members have not shrunk from
the logic of their position. They want a
local currency and say so.
The speeches of Mr.. Brosius of Pennsyl-
vania, MIR. Henderson of Illinois, Mr.. Tuck
. er of Virginia and Mr.. Grow were pecul-
iarly able, and many weighty facts from
the experience of various states were
brought out and put upon record. If the
statements made by the advocates of repeal
are true, about half the states had local
banks which outlived the severe strain of
1857, and the system by experience was i'm
proving so rapidly that it might long be
fore this have become as reliable as the
present one. AS a measure of instruction
in history-to the extent, at any rate, of
putting people upon inquiry-the debate
has not been exceeded for years.
To Increase Local Currency.
The form in which the measure came up
gave the repealers immense advantage.
The bill as reported from the committee on
banking and currency merely provided that
the clearing house certificates issued during
the panic of last year should not be subject
to the tax. and an amendment proposed a
repeal of it outright, but the bill was total
ly ignored and the debate turned entirely
on the amendment Thus the bankers and
representatives of the commercial cities
generally were compelled to admit that the
certificates were issued because there was
lack of local currency and to tax them 10
per cent would be a gross injustice. The
other side only had to ask an extension of
this principle to other sections where local
currency is scarce, and this made it embar-
RAISING to the opposition.
No debate of this session, probably none
for years, has produced 50 little humCr.
There were not in the whole course of it
half dozen attempts at wit, and when Mr..
Henderson told an old but good story about
Daniel Webster's carelessness in personal
fnanciering there was but a barely per-
ceptible smile. The reporters gallery has
never been duller than during this debate,
and the only fellows who had any fun out
of it are the POpulists, who look both
parties to it as daft Mr.. Hatch after listen
ing to the opening declared that he could
see no end to it and went off to West Point.
intending to be absent 10 days, and leaving
his beloved antioption bill to the uncertain
chances of a very remote future. He fears
it is now too late in the session to accom-
plish anything and thinks it scarcely worth
while to put the bill through the house and
have it die in the senate.
The Bribery Investigation.
The so called bribery investigation has
proceeded about everybody expected.
only little more sO-that is, all the sen
ators mentioned with Secretary Carlisle
! and various others, have intimated
oath that what said about them was
false, and the only effect of the proceed
ings against Messrs. Edwards and Shri-
yer, correspondents, has been to give tAe
boys one erseivening subject to relieve the
tedium of the house debate. 1t is re-
marked as q singular fact that the first of
the cases in which correspondents were
called on to reveal the sources of their in
fOrmation-namely, the investigation into
J the alleged bribery connected with the
passage of the tariff bill of 1S57-resulted
in bringing out great deal of important
| testimony, and that each successive at
tempt has turned out worse until such
proceeding is now looked simply as a
rather commonplace joke.
Meanwhile the pressure from the outside
upon the senate steadily becomes stronger.
and even the most resolute opponents of
the tariff bill begin to concede that it will
soon be a law. In the house there is al
ready q vigorous attempt 60 create Sent1-
] ment in favor of passing it at once as soon
\ as it comes frOgR the senate, and Mr.. Spring
er is very earnest in favor of such pro
ceeding. OF course he does not pretend
| that the bill suits him, and neither does
/ any one else, for that matter, but he says,
and many agree with him, that the necessi-
ties of business and the treasury must now
overbear all other considerations. From
| the treasury department also come appeals
for action, the gold reserve is bound to
0lorAN
close of this month, and the excess of ex-
peuditures over receipts for the fiscal year is
expected to reach $50, COG. 600.
Gold Coinage.
All the discharged employees-and the
number is greater than at any time for years
are entitled to their pay at once down to
| the time their regular leave of absence
I would have expired, and contractors for the
! new naval vessels are clamOring for money.
| The contracts provide for partial payments
! as the vessels reach various stages of com
pletion, and considerably over million
dollars are now due, and another million. it
| is expected, soon will be. Mr.. Springer cites
| these and many other reasons and thinks
in addition, that in the present temper of
the senate conference committee would
| result in getting nothing, but tend rather
to aggravate the situation. 1t is charged
| as usual, that the president is responsible
| for all this pressure. but the members ad-
| vocating speedy action declare that If so
| he has not lntimated it to them. 1t is worth
| noting in this connection that the gold
coinage for May amounted to s, AS, $50 and
| adding the subsidiary silver coinage and
| daducripD the decrease in national hank