San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-02-21
WASHINGTON LETTER.
by our Regular Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Feb. 90, '95.

open abuse from Senators on &C.
count of that extraordinary bond
contract, than he did from men,
bers Of the House, and it is also
more outspoken. Senator Wolcott
characterized it as the most disas-
trous assault upon the country's
financial system ever made, adding
land the worst feature of the whole
wretched business is that the at
tack is made by the man who, be-
cause Of his position, should have
stood the foremost in our defense.
Our nest has been befouled by the
man who should have stood for our
credit. II there were ever any men
who were not entitled to considera-
ton it is the Rothchilds and the
President, because they have
sought to blacken our credit" Sem
ator Lodge said the act was the
blacklist ever perpetrated by an
administration in dealing with
American securities, and Senator
Teller went even further than
these in his criticism Of Mr.. Cleve-
land. Up to this time, no Senator
has even attempted to defend that
bond contract, although Senator
Hill said it was Congress and not
Mr.. Cleveland that was to blame.
1t is thought that the crushing
defeat of the administration gold
bond bill in the House last week
ends all financial talk in that
branch of Congress for the present
session, but the Senate has taken
up the subject and will do some
speechmaking even if it does no
voting. The bill for the unlimited
coinage of silver, which was re-
ported from the finance committee,
and the gold bond substitute there
for, as well as Senator llilPs reSO-
luton declaring the intention of
the government to pay its bonds
with the best money when there is
a difference in the money in CirCu-
latiOn, are all open for debate. No
vote can be reached upon any of
them without what would really
be unanimous consent, owing to
the nearnesS of the end of the ses-
sion, and OF the necessity for dis
posing of the regular appropriation
bills.
Senator Platt, of Conn, never
goes off at half cock. When he
makes speech his colleagues
know that he has carefully con-
sidered the subject upon which he
speaks, and that he never tries
to straddle any question, great
or small hence the sigificance OF
his remarks upon the bill for the
repeal Of the ditferential duty on
sugar and the amendments con-
corning meat inspection, which
have been added to it by the
Senate Finance Committee, which
closed with these words: 81 do
propose to engage in the repeal of
any legislation, or in the amend
ment of any act now existing,
at the dictation Of a foreign
government. II Germany wants
to retaliate it is a game that
two can play at. And the
way to convince her that her
proposed retaliation is properly I'M
derstOOd in this country is to make
use of the power which we now
have for retaliating on Germany"
The bill is regarded as dead. SEN
atOr Aldrich has a motion pending
to rccOmmit the bill and instruct
ing the committee to report a bill
placing all sugar on the free list,
restoring the Mckinley sugar
bounty for domestic producers, re-
storing all reciprocity agreements,
restoring the duty on raw wool,
and increasing the duty on lux
uries, that must be voted upon be-
fore the bill can be voted upon. 1t
is improbable that either will be.
Few people realize the enormous
amount Of money that has been
everlastingly lost by strikes in the
United States. They have been al
most as expensive as Democratic
administration. The Senate COM
mittee on Education and Labor;
which has favorably reported
Senator Perkins bill for the crea.
ton of a commission Of twenty-one
persons to arbitrate all disputes
between employees and large en-
ployers Of labor, made an investi-
CATION covering a period Of six
years ending with the recent
Brooklyn strike, the result OF
which is embodied in its report to
the Senate on this bill. According
to the figures of the committee,
and it's members say they are very
conservatively made up, the known
losses through strikes during the
period mentioned have been $685.,
566,S59.