The morning call., 1895-02-15
FIRST DEFEAT OF
GOLD BOND issue.
AFTER FIVE HOURS DEBATE, THE
MATTER WAS LAID ON
THE TABLE.
BLAND SECURED THE ACTION.
EVERY DETAIL OF THE QUESTION
DISCUSSED AT LENGTH BY
BOTH SIDES.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14-Although it was
known that an attempt would be made to-
day to pass the resolution authorizing the
issue of per cent gold bonds in the House,
the attendance on the floor was not large
when the Speaker called the House TO
order at II o'clock. This was probably due
to the fact that many members supposed
the House would meet at noon as usual,
Despite the small attendance. however,
there was much excitement on the floor
AS soon as the journal had been read
Catchings from the Rules Committee re-
ported the special order under which the
House was TO operate. 1t was as follows
ResoEUed, That immediately upon the adop-
ton of this rule the House shall proceed as in
committee of the whole TO consideration of
House resolution No. 255 (the bond resolution),
and at the hour of ) o'clock this day the pre-
Vious question shall be considered us ordered
on said resolution, and then without an inter
vening motion votes shall be taken thereon
until the same shall have been fully dis
posed of.
Catchings promptly demanded the pre-
vious question as soon as the resolution
had been completed. On rising vote the
previous question was ordered, 56 to IL.
Picker (R.) of South Dakota made the
point of no quorum, but withdrew, and
before time for debate could be claimed
under the rule the vote recurred on the
adoption of the order. 1t resulted in So to
H.
Simpson (Pop.) of Kansas again made
the point of no quorum. Simpson and
Catchings as tellers took their places and
for over half an hour they waited patiently
for the belated arrivals to make up the
coveted quorum. With the arrival of
members came a stream of visitors in the
galleries, and at 11:52 o'clock, when
Catchings reported a quorum, the Hall of
Representatives presented an animated
appearance. The vote had resulted in 152
to % in favor of the special order.
Simpson, who remarked sarcastically
sotto Voce that he was trying to protect the
President against the vindictive assault of
Republicans, recreant Democrats and
cuckoos, made no attempt to get the ayes
and noes, and the special order was de-
clared adopted.
Before the debate begaa the Speaker an
nounced that he would recognize two mem
bers of the Committee on Ways and Means,
Wilson and Reed, in the affirmative, and
Hopkins (R.) of Illinois, and Bryan Cd of
Nebraska, in the negative, TO control four
hours Of the time allotted for debate, the
remaining hour to be given to debate under
the fve-minute rule.
Wilson, chairman of the WAYS and Means
Committee, who opened the debate.
cautioned the House at the very outset that
unless the debate could be restricted to the
resolution from the Ways and Means Com
mittee to the exclusion of all partisanship it
would be impossible to vote intelligently
on the question at its conclusion Wilson
then proceeded to carefully state the case,
covering the ground tTaversed by his report
TO the House yesterday. He said there
was no dearth of revenues in the treasury.
To-day he discovered there was an ayaila-
BILE cash balance in the treasury of $685.
100000, larger balance than on June 80,
1892 by $50, 900, when it was $129, ,0O0, 900,
including the gold reserve. To-day the
gold reserve stood at $42, ,213 900.
Wilson reviewed the history of the gold
reserve established to insure the resump-
ton of specie payments. The reserve had
not been threatened until the panic of
1890, when in a single month (November)
S24,000,00O of gold had been withdrawn.
In the course of the panic of 1890 the S53.-
100000 of bank trust funds had been passed
to the available assets of the treasury.
Since then bonds had been sold three times
to replenish the gold in the treasury. twice
within six months. The previous opera
tions of the treasury had resulted, he said
in the United States exchanging its own
bonds for its own gold, and now
Secretary Carlisle had done what
Secretary Sherman did time and
again when he was refunding the public
debt, he had purchased gold in other mar
kets than our own.
Wilson contrasted the situation of the
treasury in 1882 with its situation now in
regard to the burden to be borne by the
gold reserve. Then no greenbacks were
being presented for redemption and the re-
serve was only necessary for practical pur-
poses to support the outstanding silver
amounting to about $500, 10000 To-day
it supported the entire currency fabric,
$500, 100000 of outstanding legal tenders
and treasury notes, $500 900, 900. of over
valued silver and all the national bank
notes outstanding.
"You admit, =" interrupted Dingley (R.)
of Maine. "that Sill, 100000 of gold has
been purchased to maintain the gold re-
serve. How did the treasury obtain the
money to meet the deficiency in the reve-
nues of 100000, 0O0?"
Wilson answered that. as he had stated
on former occasion, it was partly true by
the operations of the endless chain pro-
cess by which gold was drained from the
treasury some of the money obtained from
the sale of bonds had been transferred to
other accounts and had been used to defray
current expenses. He called Dingley's at
tention to the fact that under the national
act of 1874 the bank notes being redeema-
bic by the treasury could be used by con-
version to drain the treasury OF gold as
well as the legal tenders.
Dingley, however, persisted upon more
specific answer to his original question and
Wilson finally admitted that a large
amount of the gold received from the sale
OF bonds had been used to meet the de-
ficiency in the revenues. Then Dingley,
recurring to Wilson's former statement
about the transfer of the former bank trust
fund to the available assets of the treasury,