Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-04-30
MoRGAN.s PROTEST.

MoRGAN's PROTEST.
1lnority Repert On the Paeinc Railroad
1efunding BIIl-Dark and Suspicious
Tranasefions In which ..Evt DEEDS thai
Cover this whole Business are Broadly
Hinsed At-Huntington's Testimony Be-
fore tho Committee Denounced.
WASHINGTON, April 22.-The minor
ity report of Senator Morgan on the
Pacific railroad refunding bill was laid
before the senate yesterday morning
by Mr.. Pugh, for Mr.. Morgan, who is
absent on account of illness.
Mr.. Morgan refers, with surprise, to
| the joint action of the house and SEN
ate through which agency the bill was
| constructed. Mr.. Morgan evidently
he says:
$50 far as the undersigned is in
formed, congress has not hitherto en-
gagged in the business of bargain and
sale with private persons in disposing
OF the property or other rights of the
government of the United States.
Such dispositions, when they are nee
essary, can only be made safely and
properly and fairly by public officers or
by commissioners who are environed
with direct official and personal re-
sponsibility for their conduct. In this
case, we are to be deprived of all such
guards against misfeasance or fraud.
If this bargain and sale is enacted into
law its miscarriage, however disas-
trous to the country Or injurious to
hi H.
of those who vote for it, and they are
expressly and carefully guarded by
the constitution against all accounta-
bility for anything they may say or do
in either house
1.-THE undersigned is unwilling thus
to deal with these great public inter-
ests, leaving the government and peo-
pie without any safeguard against
fraud and failure in the plan of bar.
gain and sale of the Union and Cen.
trail Pacific railroads and in the execu.
ton Of that plan.
ut is needless, at this moment, ia
penetrate the dark cloud of suspicion
that has SO long been gathering and
now hangs over this entire subject.
The more it has been examined the
darker it has grown. 1t is idle to at
tempt to dispense it or drive it away
by any contrivance of compromise. In
justice to congress the evil deeds that
cover this whole business like an ulcer
should not be salved over with con-
cealment and left to eat it's way"
Continuing, Mr.. Morgan says the
bill presented shows on its face that
its leading features have been dictated
by committee of railroad magnates
who have combined in a general plan
that is intended to secure to them
selves great advantage at the expense
Of the people.
The hearings in the house, Senator
Morgan asserts, shows that these men
have been in active negotiation and
extremely alert in presenting their
views of the case, while the govern
ment and the people have not been
represented by authorized and in
structed agents. In this proposed
resolution, if it is to become law,
the government should have been rep
resented officially and with careful
diligence.
Speaking of Mr.. c. P. Huntington.
Senator Morgan continues:
Without attempting, in this paper,
to array the evidence of fraud and pee.
ulations which Huntington's testi-
mony vainly attempts to conceal, at
tention is drawn to the fact that his
evasions of the truth as it is thorough
ly established, are his main reliance
for misleading congress in his effort
to capture the Central Pacific railroad,
after it has made him and his three or
four associates enormously rich, on
the plea that his pride impels him to
save the road from bankruptcy, to
which his fraudulent dealing seems to
have driven it.
Mr.. Morgan dissents from the plan
embraced in the reported bill and with
view to getting the action of the
senate on a different plan, moves to
commit the bill with instructions in
accordance with those heretofore pub
lished.
Under the bill reported, vested
rights, Mr.. Morgan says. are threat
ened with violent disturbance In the
plan he proposes, nc rights of the Uni
ted States or of any bondholder, stock
holder, creditor or employee of these
corporations under existing law was
changed in the least degree.