St. Paul daily globe., 1896-04-20
THE "GRIEvANCE, OF WARNER
MILLER.

MILLER.
Warner Miller Is president of the
Nicaragua Canal company. He has
some other claims to prominence. He
was a senator once from the state of
New York. and bestirred himself to see
that the product Of his pulp mills was
generously cared for in the tariff act
He is the man who "fell outside the
breastworks" in 1888, and received a
message of coincidence from the man
who fell on the inside of them. He
made his state convention declare for
the maintenance of its blue Sunday
law, in the interests of the purity of
the home and the sanctity
Of the day. A reporter of the New
York Times ascertained that Millers
anxiety went no farther than the laws
| enactment, as the former experienced
no difficulty in getting a drink on Sun
day in any Of the towns in Millers
own county. Mr.. Miller may have
other claims to eminence, but if so the
grounds escape our memory
But it is with Miller as the head of
the company that is trying to wheedle
hundred or two millions out of Uncle
Sam that we are now concerned. The
past exploits Of Mr. Miller have no
bearing except as they display his
characteristics, or as they cast a light
on the disinterestedness Of his pres
ent scheme. He has been in Washing
ton recently. AS he said he was not
there to advocate the canal bill, is it
not clear why he should have gone
before the committee that has that
bill in charge? But he did, and he told
the committee that his company "had
never asked congress to do ANYTHING
for the canal, and it never would as
long as" he was inside it's
ofeastWorks, or words Of SIM
liar import Quite inconseouen-
TALLY, If that is and was the indepen-
dent, self-confident attitude of his
company he went on to narrate to the
company how congress, without solic-
ltat1on, Of course, insisted on having
a finger in the canal pie; and how a
former committee had decided that
the government ought to be interest
ed IN the enterprise and control it."
Without at all asking aid, Mr.. Miller
casually suggested to that committee
that the government guarantee the
bonds Of the company to the extent of
$7O,O0O,00O or $50, OOO" AS the COM
mittee adopted Mr.. Miller's casual sug-
gestion, and the. senate passed the bill
embodylng it, here seems to be a con-
fict in Mr.. Millers statements. 1t
looks as If he and his company had
asked congress to do something for
their ditch.
But Mr.. Miller proceeded to tell the
present committee, very sympathetic
body evidently, that "the COMPANY
now felt that it had a grievance
against the government because, ow
ing to the governments action, it had
become impossible to get money to
construct the canal" We suspect that
Mr.. Miller did have some business with
congress in Washington after all. He
was there to notify congress that his
company had grievance" What
that means any one familiar with
claims against the government knows.
Just how much his eompany's erfev
ance is when indicated by a string of
figures following S, Mr.. Miller did
not state; but it will be something
handsome when developed. But why
the proposed guaranty Of $40, 900 or
more Of the company's bonds
should have made 1t impossible to raise
money is difficult to see In the ab-
sence Of an explanation from Mr.. Mil
Ter accompanied with a diagram. The
next generation will probably learn all
about it while their congressman are
trying to evade payment of the "griev-
ance" Of the forgotten Nicaragua Can
al company, Warner Miller, once pres
ident.