Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1896-12-22
FIFTY-FOURTH CONGRESS.
WASHINGTON, Dec. %.
SENATE.

leries to-day when the Senate met was
much larger than at the same time yes
terday, the attraction being Senator
Vests expected speech on the constltu-
tional question raised in Mr.. Olney's
press statement.
In his opening prayer Chaplain Mil
burn spoke of ''the happy prospect that,
between the governments of Great Brl-
tain and our own country, there should
henceforward be peace, no appeal to
the horrors and hell of war, but to the
rule of reason and right feeling" and
added "grant that the example set by
those nations may be initiated and fol-
lowed by all the nations of the world,
so that the time shall speedily come
when the sword should be beaten into
the plowshare and the spear into the
purning. hook"
The urgent deficiency bill was amend
ed and passed and the bill returned to
the House for concurrence in the
amendments.
The Joint resolution introduced yes
terday by Mr.. Pettigrew directing the
Secretary of the Treasury to pay the
amount due on the six per cent. trust
notes of the Union Pacific Railway
Company and to take possession of the
bonds and stocks now held as collateral
for them, and appropriatiDg ten million
dollars for the purpose, was taken up
and Mr.. Pettigrew spoke in explanation
and advocacy of it, as business meas
ure to protect the interests of the gov
eminent. In the course of his remarks
he asserted that the receivers of the
Union Pacific Company did not desire
to pay interest on those trust notes, 80
as to complicate matters. 1t was
the duty of the government, he
said, to pay of those notes,
take possession of the road and its
branch lines, and operate them in the
interest of the people all along the line.
He believed that it was the fear that
that would be done which had led the
managers of the Union Pacific to
| handle the property 80 as to be able to
sever the branch lines from the main
road on which the government had q
| lien.
| Mr.. Platt said that Mr.. Pettigrew's
remarks should convince the Senate of
the necessity of immediate action to
settle the debt of the Union Pacific and
Central Pacific to the government.
There was no question before the Sen
ate and before the country more i'm
peratively demanding attention. He
could not understand why Congress
had been so utterly Indifferent to the
question whether a debt of over one
hundred million dollars to the govern
ment should be secured or should be
lost. And he hoped that when Con-
gress met after the holidays the matter
would be taken up and acted on.
Mr.. Morgan said that, as member
of the Pacific Railroad Committee, the
matter was entirely new to him. He
understood the plan of the managers to
be to get control of the branch lines,
! unite them with the Northern system,
and get up parallel to the Union Pa
cific line. He alluded to the past his
tory of the Union and Central Pacific
roads as "a saturnalia of fraud" and as
"a labyrinth of frauds and rascalities."
The statement made to-day by the Sem
ator from South Dakota made it proper
that it should be investigated by the
Pacific Railroad committee, and he
proposed to ask that the committee sit
during vacation and investigate the sub
ject. He was in favor of having the sub
ject disposed Of; but he wanted it dis
tinctlv understood that when it came to
be considered there would be claim of
latitude of debate commensurate with
the magnitude of the question. He was
in favor of the consideration of the bill
reported last session, from the commit
tee on the Pacific Railroads. He was
not in favor of its passage. but was OPP
posed to it. No such petitions and re-
monstrances, Mr.. Morgan said, had
ever been presented to Congress as had
come from the Pacific coast against the
management of the Pacific railroads.
He hoped that the people of California
would not be denied voice in those
proceedings, and would not be sacri-
feed to "gorgon of monopoly" The
Union Pacific Company had in its treas
ury enough money to pay the interest |
on its first mortgage bonds, and the |
Central Pacific had paid such interest |
up to date and besides paid one per |
cent. dividend to it's British stockhold |
ers, and yet both these companies came
to Congress as mendicants, stating that
they were bankrupts. All this was
false pretense." Mr.. Morgan was dis
cussing the question of the govern
ment interpleading in one of the fore
closure suits pending; and was express
ing the hope and the confidence that
the attorney general would refuse to in
terplead. II would like to ask the
Senator" Mr.. Vest interposed, "what
he understands by that part of the
Presidents message to the effect that,
unless something be done by Congress
in the very near future, the executive
department will take steps by the first
OF January next to protect the interest
of the government"
Mr.. Morgan.-The Senator from Mis-
souri, asks me to interpret the Presidents
message, while, in all Egypt there was
found but single man land he divinely
inspired) who could interpret the dream
of Pharaoh. I suppose that the Sena-
tor from Missouri can interpret that
message if anybody can; but 1 will not
stop to do it.
Another remark by MIR. Vest as 10
the meaning of the message was re-
piled to by Mr.. Morgan with the sen
tence, II wish the Senator from Mis-
souri, would not bother me with that
,,o.sooa for oartain1u am not Davinp