Birmingham age-herald., 1895-02-19
NATIONAL LAWMAKERS. Uninteresting and Valueless Day
 in the House. THE PRESIDENT DEFENDED By Gray and Sherman-Says Make the Best of ll"-A
 Test Silver Vote.
HE PRESIDENT DEPENDED

oi CtotuOoo uuhCi tho DUE sPShoioh OA thO rules, during which time three measures
 were passed and two defeated. Those
 passed were bills for fixing the minimum pension of pensioners Of the Mexican war and the Indian wars from 1882 to 1S42 at SIP per month, amending the statutes con-
 corning the regulations of steam vessels and granting Mount Vernon Barracks, Ala, to that state for public purposes. The measures defeated were to create re- tired list for the revenue cutter service and granting to the Altemonte Water company a right to construct dams across the St. Louis and Colquet rivers in Minnesota. An hour was devoted to the naval appro- priation bill. A point of order was made by MT. Savers of Texas against the para graph authorizing an increase in the en- listed force of the navy.
 MT. O'Neil of Msssach usetts, chairman of the committee, reserved his decision un- til tomorrow.
 The resignation of Mir. Wilson of Wash. ington, senator elect, was received and &C., cepted. An effort was made to fix the hour of meeting tomorrow at II o'clock, but no quorum could be induced to vote upon the proposition, so 1t was withdrawn and at 5:15 D. m. the house adjourned until noon tomorrow.
 IN THE SENATE.
 Today's session of the senate was inter- esting from start to finish. Early in the day the resolution offered Saturday by MT. Stewart, declaring that there WAS no au- thority in law for the purchase oi gold coin in preference to other coin, was laid before the senate, and Mir. Gray took advantage of it to reply to the attacks made last Sat urday upon the president Of the United States in connection with the contract for the purchase of gold by the issue of per cent thirty year bonds. MT. Gray entered into a defense of the action of the president aud showed that the president had twice appealed to congress for aid in sustaining the credit of the United States; that con- gress had sat dumb and irresponsive to these appeals, and that the executive's &C., ton was dictated by his duty under the laws. It was entirely the fault of congress not of the presidential the government had to pay interest at the rate of 3A per cent instead of per cent, and had been obliged to make hard bargain with the money lenders.
 Mir. Sherman made strong argument to prove that all bonds payable in coin. must be paid in the-coin of the highest value, and no secretary of the treasury would dare in the face of public opinion to undertake to pay bonds, for which the government had required gold coin. in anything less valuable than that coin. The right of the bondholders and the equity of the bond holders to demand the same kind of money as that which they paid was as clear and
 
 fault with the president for this late con- tract MT. Sherman said that the president had nothing whatever to do with the finan- ces of the government; that subject had not been entrusted to his keeping, but to that of the secretary of the treasury. The presi- dent had no more right in the matter than he had to occupy the seat of a senator in the senate chamber.
 But when yon talk about thirty year 4 per cent bond you are dealing with an arti- oI ouof flab Ia in ma Kat n a That bond running thirty years at per cent would be sold in England within sixty days from this time at 120. l say that think that the contract was improvident. But it is not going to break the United States. It is not going to impair our credit or affect our liabilities. l believe that it was hard bargain driven by men whose services were not necessary in the negotia- ton of the loan. All of our experience convinces me that DO bonds should be placed on the market without being first offered to the people of the United States. They would find way to obtain the gold. If a reasonable propo- sition had been made for either oi these classes of bonds the sharp men of New ork, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago would find gold for them. These per cent thirty year bonds would have brought 120 ln gold. That is my judgment. I have not one word of criticism for the president or the secretary of the treasury. l have no desire to make .factious opposition. do think 1t was faulty bargain, but we cannot ar range 1t and have to comply with 1t, be- cause, undoubtedly, the secretary of the treasury had the right to make the bargain. And fine has made bad bargain we must do as other people do who have themselves or by their agents made bad bargain-sub-
 init and bear it as well as we can.
 The resolution went over without action, and the consideration of the agricultural appropriation bill was resumed.
 The first amend ment that came up for discussion was one reported from the com mittee on appropriations, to strike out of the bill the item offering sl6, ,oo0 for irrlga- tion Investigations. The discussion occu- pied the better part of two hours and re- suited in the item being retained in the bill.
 The next two amendments of the com mittee-to strike out the two items of S16,- GOO each for investigation and experiments with grasses and forage plants and inves- Ngations in relation to agricultural soils were also rejected and the items were re- taiued in the bill.
 On motion of MT. Lodge an appropriation of $40 ,000 was voted to aid in the exterm- nation of the gypsy moth in Massachu- setts.
 MT. Allen moved to insert an item of drought sufferers throughout the country, particularly in the northwest.
 After long discussion, tn which sug- gestions were made to make the appropria- ton apply also to sufferers from Ire in the forest regions and from frost in Florida, the amount was excluded on point of or. der raised by Mir. Vilas-yeas 21, nays 28.
 The bill was then reported to the senate, whefe vote was taken on the gypsy moth amendment and it was agreed to-yeas 29, nays 21.
 The bill was then passed. It appropri. ates ga, ,292 1850.
 MT. Jones of Arkansas at 6:60 D. m. moved to take up the bill reported by him on the 18th of February from the finance committee providing for the issue of bonds and coinage of silver and for Qthsfupl2sa
 shat Ii