Birmingham state herald., 1895-12-27

to meet all it's ordinary expenditures.
 Not only that, but the secretary said that
 there was a surplus in the treasury that
 would reach through two or three years.
 The great party to which he (Mr Turner) belonged believed that though there might momentarily be deficit there was no question of a sufficiency of revenue. The president asked for financial legis- lation and the pending bill was offered
 as an answer. The president had asked
 for bread and they gave him stone.
 They had presented as remedial legisla- | tion proposition to further tax the American people.
 MT. Henderson again took the floor. and in reply to the speeches on the demo- cratic side declared that the action Gs the house today would show, whether the republican party was prepared to take the responsibility or not Republican ap- plause), whether the country was pre- sided over by a republican or by demo-
 cratic executive, whether 1t was threat ened with ballots or bullets, whether there was a treasury deficiency or a treasury surplus, the republican party never shrank from its duty to the coun- | try. (Applause)
 MT. Crisp declared that the purport of the proposed rule was to prevent the of fering e. amendments by democrats | which some republicans might feel in- | ciined to vote for In the interest of their | constituents. That was it's sole ob | jeet
 The discussion on the rule being closed | the vote was taken and the rule was | agreed to, yeas 213, nays S9
 The vote was on strict party lines ex- cept that Messrs. Connolly, Illinois; | Heiner, Pennsylvania; Linney, North | Carolina, and Wilber, New York; repub- | licans voted mo" with the democrats. | The bill was then read in full, and at | 1:30 the debate upon it commenced, with | three and a half hours to run, the time | to be divided equally between the two | sides of the house.
 MT. Dingley republican, of Maine, | chairman of the committee on ways and means, opened the debate on the side of | the majority. He said that when the presidents special message was read at | the clerks desk last Saturday inform | ing congress that there existed a serious | condition of the finances of the country and of the federal treasury, and appeal | ing to the senate and house not to take | a recess until relief was afforded. every member felt that there was imposed upon | the house not only a special responsibil- | ity. but an urgent demand for immediate | action, and that it was the duty of the | house to remain in session until some measure of legislation was passed that would afford relief to the exigent state | of the treasury. The committee on ways | and means had taken the matter up and proceeded to consider what measures of relief should be proposed The first | thing that had attracted the attention of | the committee on ways and means was that for two years and a half there had been a constant deficiency of revenue, until that want had become chronic. He knew that gentlemen on the other side claimed that the revenue was sufficient, | but the fact was that from July l. 1893, up to today there had been an insuffi- ciency of revenue to cover the current | expenses of the government to the ag- gregate amount of $123.000000 The de- | fciency for the current year was over | $1S 900, and for the current month of | December the deficit approximated | $3, 900, 900. What, then, did the gentlemen mean. and what did the secretary mean in saying that there was not need of ad- ditional revenue?
 They mean that with the proceeds of the sale of bonds and the use of the greenbacks received for them the receipts exceeded the expenditures. It seemed to him and to the majority of the commit tee on ways and means that the first course to be taken was to legislate SC as to provide sufficient revenue to meet the expenditures of the government. MT. Dingley went on to discuss and to uphold the bill in detail and said that if 1t became law it would not only in- crease the revenue by over $40,000,000, but would also give to the business inter- ests of the country the moral influence of government which WIS solvent. which paid it's debts and whose credit was second to no government on the face of the earth Republican applause.) MT. Crisp said that the bill. In order to be responsive to the request of the presi- dent. ought to be in line with the sug- gestions that came from that source. He insisted from Secretary Carlisles report that the cash balance in the treasury on December l. 1895. was $170.000,000. being sos, ,000,0 900 in excess of the gold reserve and SIT GOO in excess of any sums nec- essary to build up the gold reserve. There was. therefore (quoting from MT. Carlisle). mo reason to doubt the ability of the government to discharge all its current obligations during the present fiscal year. and have a large cash balance at its close. without imposing additional taxa tion in any form on the people," His friend from Maine (Mr. Dingley) knew-no one better-that there was in the treasury today. over and above the gold reserve, more free moneythree times over-than any deficiency which might occur during the fiscal year. It was not a question of borrowing money to meet expenses. The money was already borrowed, and was in the treasury, and the question was whether 1t should be used now. or whether the house should rush, posthaste, to impose additional burdens on the people in order to pile up money in the treasury
 MT. Crisp went on to taunt the com mittee on ways and means with report ing bill for horizontal rise In duties, after all the ridicule which had been cast on Mir Morrison's bill for horizontal, cut. and he said that the effect of the pending measure was to declare that the Mckinley tariff bill was 60 per cent right and 40 per cent wrong Uaughter) He quoted MT. McKinleys criticism of the Morrison bill as patchwork and a proof of incidence, and said that on the issue of the pending measure the parties would go before the people in the next presiden- tial campaign, and he had no doubt that the people would respond, as they had always responded, in favor of them- selves--that was, in favor of lower taxes Democratic applause)
 MT McNffHln. democrat. of Tennessee, ing measure.
 MT. Payne, a member of the commit tee on ways and means. said that the re- publicans in the house being ready to
 meet the responsibility which was on them today, had presented bill to in-
 crease the revenue. Two years from now, however they would meet the re-
 sponsibiiity of that hour and would pre- sent to the house and senate and to a republican president bill for the pro- tection of American labor and American