The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-05-27
THE RIVER AND HARBOR GRAB

At a time when the government is
plunging the treasury into bond issues
and deficiencies to pay even necessary
current expenses, the Republican major
ity in the lower house foists upon the
country the most extravagant appropria-
ton bill in the history of the United
States.
Into this bill wood-chucks have been
stuffed by the great majority of the men,
bers, until the total reaches the enormous
sum of $75,000,0O0, which far exceeds the
appropriations of the most flush periods
of the country. Huntington got into this
bill his appropriation for Santa Monica, a
Southern Pacific railway port, in spite
of the opposition and protestation of all
California and it's congressional delega-
ton. William Waldorf Astor got into
the bill his appropriation of 100000
for coast defenses to boom his Manhat-
tan island railway and realty interests
And Your Uncle Loren Fletcher got into
the bill his appropriation to move Mt
Ararat from ST. Paul to Minneapolis, and
revive-in imagination, to help his con-
vention boom-the old river steamboat
ing days of Commodore Davidson.
To the credit of the Populist members
of the house, they opposed the general
grab, and there were just two of the old
party representatives who stood by them.
They were Hepburn of Iowa, and Dock
cry, of Missouri. Let us take the Asso-
ciated Press report of the proceedings
during the final hour of discussion. The
report begins with Dockery:
The latter said he opposed the meas
ure because it contained riOtous apprO-
priations not warranted by the condition
of the treasury He said that he realized
that his remarks would not be punctuated
by applause 1--WE are all in on il" he
said sarcastically.
Mr.. Dockery's remarks about the elm
poverished treasury" and his appeals
to the people were received with derisive
jeers by the Republicans.
Such is the tenor and spirit Of the over
whelming Republican majority in time
when the government is borrowing mon
ey at per cent in order to pay running
expenses. Iowas representative then
further exposed his grab-bag colleagues:
This bill, said Mr.. Hepburn, had been
passed by brutal majority without de-
bate, and he made the assertion that not
a .section of the bill had been read in the
house. Not in the history of the coun-
try had been known such villainous leg
islation. Seventy-fve millions were car
ried in the bill, not paragraph of which
was ever read or considered. After such
procedure the gentleman now had the as
surance to ask it's opponents to point out
its multiplied iniquities.
Shame! shame!' he cried. "Shame on
such false pretenses! Why did you force
the bill through in 40 minutes If you
were not too cowardly to face investiga-
tion?''
And this is the congress which was
elected in 1894 to save the country from
the evils of Democracy. The first thing
this congress did was to vote to increase
their salary to cover vacations; and the
the next step was to vote bond issue CT
$5O0,O00,000. Say what you may of the
Democratic SD congressman it was bad
enOugh-it was a model of honesty and
economy and principle, as compared with
it's Republican successor now in session.
F. N. S.