Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-02-13
HAVE AGREED ON A PLAN
Ways and Means Committee
 Framing a Bond Bill.
THE GOLD PURCHASE CONTRACT.
Secretary Carlisle Says the Government Made the Best of n Bad Bargain and Admits That the Bankers Made Good Trade-Hot Debate In the House.

moue tne bsSt ok n Hau barSaln anu
 Admits That the Bankers Made Good
 TrAde-Hot Debate In the House.
 WASHINGTON, Fob l3-The house com mittee on ways and means consumed ono moro of tho ten days within which the treasury has an option to make the new bonds payable in gold. and made decided progress toward an agreement upon plan to bs reported to tho house
 After being cluseted for two hours with Secretary Carlisle the committee talked over the situation, delegated the framing of an agreement to a subcommittee of thrcc Democrats and two Republicans, and late in the afternoon learned that its subcommittee had dropped partisan differ ences and formed common ground.
 Tho resolution reported by the quintet at the last meeting was one to authorize the secretary ot the tro3sury to issue $62,. 900. utO in per cent bonds payable in gold. with the proviso that none of the proceeds shall be used for current expenses. and the further provision re 4uested by Secretary Carlisle repeating the law which requires the government to redeem na- | tional bank noto~ and requiring hanks to redeem their notes in the first instance Inquiry was made If there was mi nority report, and Mir. Reed said that there was not. although he believed a wiser plan would Eo to provide for iucrCas. ing the revenues Mir. Bynum of Indiana | proposed hS resolution as a substitute | Mir. Wheeler of AlaEama offered a Fesolu- | tion reciting that Secretary Carlisle had admitted that the issue of gold bonds would compel all future issues to ho made | payable in gold; that bmctallism had been declared to re the policy of the gov 1 ernmcnt; that this woulI b. an abandon l mGnt of b.metail!sm. and therefore ieclar- ing that tho ,oIamittec considered it incx- | pedient to adopt the presidents recom- i mentsHtions
 Mir. Bryan of Nebraska offered another resolution recommending that tho scCre- tary of the treasury should pay all obliga- | tiOns of the government in either gold or silver. whichever it was most convenient | to usc.
 ! After brief discussion the committee | adjourned.
 secretary Carlisle submits the Contract.
 Secretary Carlisle camo before tho com, ] mittee and presented n tyPewritten copy of the contract which had been called for. It was drawn in legal form. covered two | typewritten pages and bore the signatures of John G. Carl slc. secretary Of the treas ury; I Picrpont Morgan. for !. :, Nor gan of London. August Belmont. for V. | W. Rothscaild. and was witnessed bY Francis Lynde StetsOn o. New York. for merly one 0. President Cleve'and's law partners
 The principal features Q: tho contract were made known in the president mes sage. Upon ore point tho secretary par ticularly cnioinod tbe committoc to main tain secrecy. and that was regarding tho dates for making the payments for the bonds
 He asked for secrecy. ho said. at tho re- quest of tho tinanCierS who have agreed to take the b, nds and q, ause they feared that bankers would corner tho gold of the world against them at the timo 1t would be needed if it was known and the meth ods by which 1t was to Nc obt>Iined
 Accordingly tho committee adopted 8 resolution pIedgipg its members not to re. veal tho terms of the document so far as 1t concerned the payments.
 Many questions wero asked the SCCre- tary, which he answered in order giving the amounts of all kinds of money in the treasury ami such other information no: known.
 When Mir Reed asked why the plan which he recently proposed in the house as a substitute for the administration bill was not a satisfactory measure the secro- tary procce cd tu quote feature of the act of lS1+ which had not been before nO- ticod in tho Financial debates and which seemed to Eratly inValidate MT Reed s scheme This clause binds the treasury to the redemption of national bank notes by treasury notes whom tho holders of tho for mer request it Cnrse luently tho with drawal of tho grCcnhaCks into the treas ury. the secretary argued. would not stop the drain Of gold upon it. but would great ly add another stop to tho process of ob- taininG gold as tuauclers could procure I fba national hank md ury notes fo- them.
 Charge of Fnvoritism Denied.
 In effect. tho~ctore the government is bound to redeem bank notes in gold, To ohviate this difficulty the secretary sug- Gested that tho committed adopt a plan to compel the national hanks to maintain an agency for the redemption of their notes and relieve the treasury of all bur den in the promises
 There was disposition on the part oi certain members to intimate in their Ques- tions that the administration had shown favoritism in it's negotiation of a private contract, and tho question was directly asked whether tho bonds werc not to be sold at rate unnecessarily low consider = ing the prevalent prices in the market.
 secretary Carlisle admitted that the ban 'ers practically had the government at l. ,,ir mercy, and he was obliged to ac cept the best terms that could Ee made with them. That better terms could have been secured he denied emphatically, re lating somewhat in detail the different financiers with whom Assistant Secretary Curtis had talked on his visit to New York and those who had visited Washing = ton
 In answer to other questions ho assured the committee of his hclief that A plan could he devised to stop the outflow o 6 gold and of h;s strong helief that tho forth . coming bond issue would mAintHjn thi @ gold reserve at its high water mark for Sov 6 | p-al months.
 r After the secretary had departed Mr l Cochran of New York announced that h. could not support Chairman Wilson $ res = olution because it was simply makeshif' to meet pr sent emergency and offered no help to tho ireasury in tho event O similar xigenoics betoro tho nCXt Sessioy of congress.
 Thcreupon Mir, Tarsney of Missouri of fered resolution to empower the sccre tary to issue per cent gold bonds when ever the needs of the treasury might rc quire them, with the proyiso that the pro ceeds were not to be used to pay curren expenses
 Then a subcommittee was appointed t' draft plan, with Messrs. Wilson of Wes
 Virginia Turner of Georgia and McMillil
 nf fba lRaDu h