The herald., 1895-02-12
"DISGRACE TO CIVILIZATION"
The Senate After the Pacific Railroads -Finan-
cial Matters

The Senate After the Pacific Railroads -Finan-
cial Matters
Washington, Feb. 1.-THE credentials
of Mr.. Hoar for another term in the SEN
ate, beginning March 4th next-the fourth
term for Mr.. Hoar-were presented to the
Senate today by his colleague, Mr. Lodge.
Mr.. Davis, Republican of Minnesota,
submitted resolutions from the Legislature
of Minnesota characterizing the Railroad
Pooling Bill as an effort to 'legalize gil
gantic trust, and'requesting the Mime
sofa Senators and Representatives to work
against the measure.
Resolutions were presented by which
the Legislatures of both Kansas and Min
nesota both expressed themselves in favor
of the election of United States Senators
by direct vote of the people.
The Senate agreed to the conference re-
port on the bill for the removal and settle
ment of Southern Ute Indians.
Mr.. Gorman's motion to reconsider the
bill affecting important railroad and min
eral lands in Montana and Idaho was dis
posed of, the amendments to which led to
the withdrawal of the motion to recon-
slider.
Mr.. Pettigrew, Republican of South Da-
kota, presented the following concurrent
resolution;
Resolved, That the President is hereby re-
auested to employ counsel for the purpose of
bringing suit against the directors and stock
holders of the Union and Central Pacific Rail-
roads, who received their stock of said roads
without paying cash for same; also to recover
from the directors, officers and stockholders Of
said roads such sums Of money as were stolen
by them or diverted and converted to any
unlawful purposes and therefore not placed in
the sinking fund.- as required by law, and the
President is hereby authorized to pay to said
attorneys the sum Of per cent of all sums re-
covered from said directors or stock
holders. The Attorney-General is also
directed to foreclose the mortgage of
the government on said roads at the earliest
possible date, and to take steps to pay off the
principal incumbrance on said roads and to
use the sinking fund for the purpose; to ascer-
tain the amount Of money belonging to the
Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads
that has not been invested in other branch
lines and the amount of bonds and stocks of
other CONF anies now the property of said
roads, and to take steps to secure the govern
ments interest therein; to ascertain the
amount OF land now the property OF said
roads and recover the same or protect the
government interest in connection Herewith.
For the purpose of carrying out the provis-
ions OF this resolution the sum of 100000 is
hereby appropriated out of any money in the
treasury not otherwise appropriated.
Mr.. Pettigrew said he would at later
date submit list of parties, with the
amounts of liabilities. The Senator said
the manipulation of these railroads was a
disgrace to civilization"
A new phase of the financial question
came up on the resolution presented by
Mr. Hill of New York, defining the policy
of the Government concerning bimet-
allism, the gold payments, etc. The reso-
luton is as follows:
Resolved Qf the House of Representatives
concurs), That it is the sense of Congress that
the true policy of the Government requires
that efforts should be steadily directed to the
establishment of a safe system of bimetallism,
wherein gold and silver may be maintained at a
parity and every dollar coined may be the equal
in value and power of every other dollar coined
or issued by the United States; but if our ef-
forts to establish or maintain such bimetallism
shall not be wholly successful, and If for any
reason our silver coin shall not hereafter be at
parity with gold coin and the equal thereof in
value and power in the market and in the pay
ment of debts, then it is hereby declared that
after issued, which by their terms are payable
in coin, shall nevertheless be paid instead In
gold dollars. it being the policy of the United
States that its creditors shall at all times be
paid in the best money in use
Mr.. Hill asked immediate consideration
Of the resolution, but Mr.. Butler, Demo-
crat of Sonth Carolina, objected and it
went over.
Mr. Stewart, Populist, of Nevada at
once supplemented the Hill resolution
with another, as follows;
Resolved That there is no authority of law
to buy gold coin in preference to silver coin
for any purpose whatever.
The resolution also went over and the
Senate took up the Postoffice Appropria-
ton bill.
Mr.. Lodge made point of order
against the first Senate amendment, CIV
ing the Postmaster General discretion in
expanding the So, $50, 900 for railway postal
service, and an animated discussion arose
of the item.
Mr.. Allison, Republican, of Iowa, said
as a member of the Committee on APP
preparations, he protested against this
change in existing laws.
Mr.. Vest, Democrat of Missouri, said
this was another instance of the manner
in which the railroads fought every
measure they conceived to be against
them. The Government should own postal
cars Just as it owned postoffices. The
railroads seemed determined to control all
the traffic over their roads. He had found
in the course of an inveitigation of the
live stock traffic that the roads would
move no cars except those operated by the
Armours, Swifts and others of Chicago.
With their capital and their power they
coerced the roads to handle their cars to
the exclusion of private shippers.
Mr.. Pullman with his great capital was
also able to coerce these roads into run
ming his cars