The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-12-09
PENSIONS AND TARIFF.
These Subjects Engrossed the Attention of the National RenresentatiYes YesterdnY.

These Subjects Engrossed the Attention of
 the National Representatives Yesterday.
 Washington, Dec. S.-In the house this afternoon the provisions of the general pension bill were briefly ex- plained by MT. w. A. Stone, rep, of Pennsylvania. It carried total ap- propriation of $141, ,2SS, ,S80-less by $65,- 900 than the appropriation for the cur rent year and the estimates of the com- missioner. No new legislation was pro- posed in the bill.
 MT. Grow, rep, of Pennsylvania, the venerable representative and ex-speak- CT of the house, took occasion of the liberty accorded under the rules to make a tariff speech. He took for his text these statements in the presidents message relating to the Wilson tariff bill: "The only entire fiscal year dur ing which this law has been in force ended on the 30th day of June, 1896. In that year our imports increased over those of the previous year more than $6,5OO,0OO, while the value of the domestic products we exported and which found markets abroad was near ly 10000, ,O00 more than during the pre- ceding year.
 Whatever may be it's shortcomings as a complete tariff measure of tariff reform, it must be conceded that it has opened the way to a freer and greater exchange of commodities between us and other countries, and thus furnished a wider market for for our products and manufactures"
 In the two years and five months end- ed December 1, the president said, the deficiency in the revenues of the government amounted to over one hun
 dred and ten million dollars; and yet the president made no recommendation to congress regarding the increase of revenue He did say, however, that no deficit that had occurred or that was likely to occur need excite or disturb
 us. Most placid, comfortable frame of mind" said MT. Grow. '"The presi- dently evidently thinks the creditors of the nation will not be anxious so long as the engravers and printing presses
 of the country do not break down." MT Grow said he would not consider the tariff in any partisan sense, but as simple business matter affecting the revenues of the treasury. If the pres ent law was not good for any year, | the first duty of congress was to pro- vide revenues for the government He compared the workings of the McKin- ley and Wilson laws and sarcastically
 referred to the presidents assertion that the latter had opened the way | to a freer and greater exchange of com modities.'' Protection, he contended, meant employment for American labor and revenue for the treasury.
 1 The pension bill being read for
 amendment, those offered by Messrs. | Connolly, rep, of Illinois, and Curtis,
 rep, of Kansas, providing respectively that the rating fixed by the local board | of examining surgeons shall be con- | cusive as to the amount of the pen sion, and apportioning the amount for clerk hire in proportion to the number
 of pensioners paid at each agency, were ruled out on points of order. .... l MT. Bingham rep, of Pennsylvania, recalling President Clevelands state
 ment in his message to congress four years ago, that thousands of neigh | borhooEis have their we'll known pen sion frauds and that recent develop ments by the investigation of the bu-
 reau establish appalling conspiracies to
 commit fraud" reviewed the work of
 the bureau in exposing frauds since
 that message was published. "To inves-
 tigate these alleged frauds" said MT. Bingham, "more money had been ap-
 propriated than the bureau had asked.
 The result was that in the three full
 fiscal years included within the present
 administration there had been less than
 five hundred convictions of fraud in
 connection with a pension roll of nearly one million"
 | The committee then rose and the bill was passed without amendment | Speaker Reed laid before the house a
 communication from Clerk Mcdowell l transmitting the documents in the con- 1 test of Thomas E. Watson against J. c. c. Black for a. seat in the Fifty
 fourth congress from the Tenth district of Georgia. It was referred to the committee on elections No. 1.
 The house at APO adjourned until to-
 morrow.