The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-20
FIGHTING FOR FREE SILVER
An ENJOYMENT OF SENATOR JONES
 TAKEN UP BY 4 CLOSE TOTE.

Voted Against the MOtiOn-Senator NlIas
 Delivers a Strong Argument and Criti-
 cised Congress for Its Failure to Author
 ize Three Per Cent. Gold Bond-Senator
 Platt in His Speech Regards the Bill as an
 Indefensible Measure and That it Was
 Not Practical One.
 Washington, Feb. 19,-There was an unusually large attendance of senators to-day, probably in view of the expect ed contest over the free silver coinage bill.
 A communication was presented and read from the secretary of the treasury in response to @ resolution of the sen ate, in which the secretary states the balance in the treasury to be, exclusive of $55,0OOOOO gold reserve, $99,s75,2S4 The secretary states it as his opinion that the secretary of the treasury ought to be permanently invested with author ity to issue and sell short-time bonds or other obligations for the purpose of meeting ordinary deficiencies although he does not think there is any necessity at this, time for the exercise of such au- thorlty if 1t existed. He is of the opin- ion that for the next fiscal year the receipts will exceed the expenditures
 A conference report on the diplomatic and consular appropriation bill was pre- sented and agreed to. All the differ ences between the two houses on that bill have been arranged except as to the appropriation of $500, 900 to begin the construction of the cable to Hawaii, on which the conferees were unable to agree A further conference was order ed on that item.
 MT. Wilson, the new senator from Washington, was sworn in, thus com pleting the full senate membership of eighty-eight.
 A motion by MT German, dem, of Maryland, for daily sessions to begin at Il o'clock from tomorrow was agreed to.
 MT. Jones, dem., of Arkansas, moved that the senate proceed with the regular order-the silver bill.
 MT. Hill, dem. of New York, objected to the displacing of the morning busi- ness. The vote was taken on MT. Jones' motion and it was agreed to--yeas 36, nays 27-as follows:
 Yeas-Messrs. Allen, Bate, Barryi Blackburn, Blanchard, Butler, Call, Cameron, Clark, Dubois, Faulkner George, Hansbrough, Harris, Hunton Jones of Arkansas, Kyle, McLaurin, Martin, Mitchell of Oregon, Morgan, Pasco, Peffer, Perkins. Pettigrew, Pow CT, Pugh, Roach, Stewart, Teller, Vest, Voorhees, Walsh, White, Wilson of Molooft-9R
 Nays-Messrs. Aldrich, Burrows. Calf fiery. Camden, Carey, Chandler, Dixon, Frye, Gray, Hale, Hawley, Higgins, Hill Hoar, Lindsay, Lodge, McNIillan, Manderson, Mitchell of Wis Ransom, Villas and Washburn-27.
 The bill having been read in full, MT. Jones suggested that an hour be fixed to-day for taking the final vote on it's passage.
 MT. Hale, rep, of Maine, objected and suggested that it was not good public policy to bring up at this period of the session a bill which would necessarily lead to a long debate and might perhaps endanger the passage of the appropria- tion bills and would thus result in an extra session.
 MT. Jones said that there was not a senator who did not know how every other senator would vote. Discussion would change nobody's conviction. The friends of the measure were willing to have vote now. If the opponents saw fit to discuss it it's friends could not help that.
 MT. Jones added he did not propose to jeopardize any appropriation bill.
 MT. Harris, dem, of Tennessee, asked 1 MT. Hale whether he could name any | number of hours that the opponents of the bill would wish to debate it.
 q have heard the senator ask that l question a great many times" said MT. l Hale, "in reference to other bills (mean- ing the tariff and the bill 10 repeal the l Sherman act9 but it is not, must say, a | real pertinent square question"
 twill the senator from Maine" MT. | Harris asked, sarcastically, Suggest to me how I can square the question bet ter than have squared it.
 MT. Hale spoke of other matters, but did not reply.
 MT. Gray said the country expected and would demand that a measure so as the bill should not be passed without an exposition of the ob- jections to 1t.
 MT. Jones said there was no power to cut off debate and no wish to cut it off. He requested only that the debate would proceed as rapidly as possible and that the vote might be had at the earliest possible hour.
 General debate on the bill then be- gan MT. Villas, dem, of Wisconsin, be- ing the first speaker.
 Mir Villas reviewed the situation up to the time when the bond contract was made. He stated that the president in his communications to congress had clearly set forth the circumstances in which the treasury and the national honor were placed, and yet had taken no action.
 Tn order to show the imminence of the peril when the president began to nego- tiate the sale of bonds Mir. Villas gave the figures as to the amount of gold in the control of the treasury on February 3. He read a dispatch from the Ameri- can minister at Buenos Ayres to Secre- tary Gresham dated February stating that the London and River Plate bank of that city-the largest bank in South , America-had received orders from , o,,5oY, that dau tOI 1,efIYsn o1o.-1c, I