The San Francisco call., 1896-05-06
The New York Senator Sharply
Criticizes the Proposed
Investigation.
FRAUD Is CHARGED IN REPLY.
An Intimation That the Secretary of
the Treasury Has Profited by
the Deal.

IN JnlS way. Inc nrSL nOur was given up
to routine morning business and to a
resolution offered by Call OF Florida and
which went over till tomorrow, request
ing the President to require from the
Spanish Government fair treatment for
American citizens captured on the schoon-
er Competitor; the next hour to consid-
Grafton of the river and harbor appropria-
tion bill; the next three hours to speeches
by Hill of New York against the Peffer
bond resolution and by Pettigrew of South
Dakota in favor of it, and the last hour to
pension and other bills.
After the routine morning business had
been disposed of in the Senate to-day Call
(D.) of Florida offered and asked imme-
diate consideration for resolution re-
questing the President to protest against
the execution of United States citizens
captured on board the schooner Competi-
tor by Spanish cruiser, and to require
and demand of the Government of Spain
that they shall not be subjected to cruel
treatme mt, but be held only as prisoners
of war
The resolution was on the point of being
declared by the Vice-PresiGent agreed to by
unanimous consent, when Wolcott (R.) of
Colorado interposed with the remark that
if the facts were as stated by Call-that
the vessel was merely carrying war mate
rial-it was the manifest duty of the Presi-
dent to interfere, and it was rather unu-
sual to request the President to do his
duty.
He should like to see how it looked in
print. He therefore objected and the
resolution went over until tomorrow.
The PETER bond resolution was taken
up and Hill 3D. of New York con-
tinued his argument, begun yesterday,
in opposition to it. Peffer gave notice be-
fore Hill commenced his remarks that he
would ask the Senate to remain in session
to-day until the resolution should be dis
posed of.
Hill said he had been asked yesterday
why he opposed the resolution. His an
swer was that he opposed it because it was
wholly unnecessary and uncalled for and
would establish a most pernicious and un-
wise precedent.
He wanted 10 protect the Senate from
making itself ridiculous-it did that often
enough without the adoption of the reso-
luton. He would not, therefore, vote for
the resolution, because such vote would
stigmatize him as an ignoramus, and in
his judgment every vote for it would be
an admission on the part of the Senator
giving it that he was an ignoramus. 1t
was a foolish, contemplate, an absurd
resolution. OF course, there was no law
against it. There was no law against the
Senate making fool of itself if it had
mind to. He analyzed the various points
of the proposed inquiry, including the
authority for the issue of bonds. On that
point Hill exclaimed: "Read the statutes
and you will know. If yon cannot under
stand them resign your seat"
There was nothing in the Graves bust
ness. there was nothing in the whole bond
issue, that was not as clear as the sunlight
of heaven. In connection with it he read
an article from Philadelphia newspaper,
which he said was in favor of ''recent
Pennsylvania candidate for the Republi-
can nomination for the Presidency"
Laughter.
AS tending to bring into contempt the
practice of proposing Investigations of all
subjects, Hill read a letter which he had
received, asking him to propose an in
vestigation as to the removal from office
of Governor Hughes of Arizona and
series of resolutions got up by "The
AHt1~ IIuSI hcPlOI VI AulcllCd VI rlILn
avenue, Brooklyn, which presented, he
said, ga delightful mixture of investiga-
tion of the Brooklyn bridge. Brooklyn
streets and Brooklyn highway robberies
including q censure of myself"
It was that sort of feeling, he said which
Senators were trucking TO. 1t was the
Populist sentiment. 1t was the clamor
against capital. 1t was the effort to an
tagonize men of wealth. Senators were
simply playing with fire. He also read
several financial contracts of 1876 1877 and
1878, to show that financial syndicates
were not a modern invention, and that
although a Government loan might be
called "a popular loan," it was the capital
lists who got the bonds. He said that in
the coming campaign he wanted these Re-
publican syndicate contracts to stand side
by side with the Carlisle syndicate con.
tract.
Pettigrew (R.) of South Dakota asked
Hill if he would yield the floor to him to
make some remarks on the bond resolu-
ton, and as Hill politely did so Pettigrew
read what he called "a history of the bond
sales of the present administration, their
object being, he said, to destroy the use of
silver as money and to allow certain per.
sons to realize enormous profits.
Pettigrew laid much stress upon the de.
faulted Graves bid for four and half
million dollars, and on the fact that thos4
bonds had been turned over to the syndi.
cate at its bid of ITO 7-10 although the
Investment Corporation of New York"
had made an offer OF 1141z for all the bonds
of defaulted bids. This action on the part
of the Seer. tary of the Treasury, Petit
grew said, had given profit of $7I 900 TO
Morgan & Co., and he intimated that that
profit had been divided between the Sec
retary of the Treasury and that syndicate
of bankers.
That seemed, he said. to be the sum.
substance and gist of the whole trans
action, which was ''rotten and dishonest
and corrupt to the core.u II was there