The record-union., 1897-01-15
Committee Appointed TO Formulate a
New Measure.
The Plan as Outlined at a rleeting of
the House Railroads Committee is
for the Appointment of a Com
Which Body Shall Have Power to
Send for Persons and Papers.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14.-The House
Committee on Pacific Railroads, at
their meeting to-day, demonstrated be-
yond doubt that in their opinion the
better plan for settling the long-stand-
ing indebtedness of the Pacific Rail-
roads to the Government would be
through commission having power to
send for persons and papers. This con-
clusion was reached as the result of a
motion made by Harrison of Alabama,
that a sub b-committee of five should be
appointed TO formulate plan of settle
ment by a commission on the general
lines of the substitute offered by him in
the House several days ago when the
Powers bill was under consideration.
The Harrison substitute provided for
a commission consisting of three MEM
bers of the Cabinet, who should have
power to settle the Indebtedness of all
the bond-aided railroads to the Govern
ment, subject to the approval of the
President Harrison's motion caused a
general discussion, which showed that
the members with practical unanimity
approved the commission idea, the only
difference of opinion being as to the
number of Cabinet members who should
constitute it. Some of the members
thought the commission should consist
of more than three Cabinet members,
while others objected to including the
Secretary of the Treasury, on the
ground that the duties OF his depart
ment are 50 onerous that he could not
give such consideration to the work as
1T deserved. That, however, was mat
ter of detail that was left to a sub
committee to settle.
1t was agreed therefore that a sub
committee consisting of five members
should be appointed to draft a COM
mission bill, and it was decided to in
clude in their work a plan for the ad-
justment of the Indebtedness of the
Sioux City and Pacific Railroad to the
Government, inasmuch as the bill now
before the committee for this purpose
leaves the settlement of this matter
with the Secretary of the Treasury.
The subcommittee consists of Powers
of Vermont, Harrison of Alabama,
Hepburn Of Iowa, Patterson of Ten
nessee and Hubbard of Missouri. They
will hold several meetings during the
next few days and the belief was ex-
pressed to-day that before the meeting
of the full committee on Wednesday
next they would have prepared a bill
which, in their judgment, will not only
meet the approval of the committee, but
of majority of the House as we'll
The bonds of the Sioux road mature
on January /, 1898 The amount of the
original Indebtedness is Sf,600,000,
which, with the accrued interest, aggre-
gates S4000,000 The road now forms
a part Of the Chicago and Northwestern
Railroad system and Mr.. Brown, of the
firm of BrittOn & Gray of this city, who
are the counsel for that company. ap-
peared before the committee this morn
ing and briefly stated the facts con-
cerning the original construction of the
road and the issue of first mortgage
bonds at $4,000 mile, which formed a
prior lien to the Governments issue of
a similar amount. Mr. Brown explained
that the desire Of the company is to
avoid foreclosure next year, by au-
thorizing the Secretary of the Treasury
to make a settlement of the Govern
ments Indebtedness, and upon payment
thereof to give full acquittance. He
added for the information of the COM
mittee that the bill does not waive or
effect any of the Governments legal
rights or remedies should the settlement
proposed fail of accomplishment.
Fred Chamberlain, who is associaed
with John G. Coombs of Boston, the
general counsel of the Credits Commu-
tation Company composed of $40 banks,
which has $4,000, 900 invested in rail-
road property in Sioux City, opposed the
bill. Mr.. Chamberlain thought from a
stragetic standpoint that Congress
ough not to pass this bill until it had
made some settlement of the main
questions. The association of banks he
represented found that their railroad
property in Sioux City depended for its
value upon the facilities which were
granted TO Sioux City by the Union Pa
cific road. which were very meager. For
three sessions of Congress. he continued
these banks had been sending represen-
tatives to Washington to secure an
amendment to the. Pacific funding bills
which should give the Sioux City road
fair treatment and a fair amount of
the traffic, provided they built a road
from Sioux City 80 miles southwest to.
junction with the Union Pacific main
line at North Platte. He frankly ad-
mitted that the failure of the Pacific
Railroad Committee to make such
provision in their bills had resulted in
a strong opposition from the associa-
tfon of banks, which had in fact con-
stituted the only we'll organized oppo-
sition to the measure
SENATOR MORGAN'S RESOLUTION.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14.-Mr. Nor
gan of Alabama to-day in the Senate in
troduced the following resolution:
Whereas, 1t is alleged that certain
bonds issued by the United States in aid
of the Central Pacific Railroad, and
also the Union Pacific Railroad. have
fallen due and remain unpaid. and that
by reason of default the property held
and owned by the said companies at
that time became the property of the
United States, and that said property
of every description so held and owned
by said companies at the time of such
default now rightfully belongs to the
United States;
Resolved. That the Committee on Ju-
dietary is directed to examine into and
report whether such allegation is true