Birmingham state herald., 1897-07-14
AGAINST ARMOR COMBINES. A Minimum Price of $500 for
 Armor Plate  VERDICT OF THE SENATE
TIIman, as Usual, Gets in a Witty Remark at
 Cleyeand's Expense.
BUTLER CRIES OUT RoTTENNEss
In Referring to the Armor in Use on War ships s-Defciency Appropriation Bill Passed-Three Minute Ses-
 sion of the House.

Washington, July 12.-The price to be paid for armor plate for the three new battle ships now in course of constl uc- V ton was the theme of extended, and at times, lively debate in the senate today. Late in the day an amendment to the deficiency appropriation bill was agreed ( to restricting the price of armor plate to $500 per ton. or $125 less than ths amendment reported by the commi tee s and recommended by the navy depart ifment as the minimum rate acceptable U the armor contractors. Another amend ment inserted in the bill directs the sec , retary of the ravy to investigate as to the establishment of a government armor plate factory and to report to the next session of congress. During the debate u MT Hale urged that the failure to equip the battle ships With armor would hu- - initiate the United States in the eyes Of the world and would lessen our naval z power at a time of possible forsign com s picationa After inserting the armcr amendments. the deficiency bill, the last of the great supply, was passed.
 Consideration of the bill was resumed immediately after the senate met. The question of armor plate for nsw battle ships was considered. The bill provids d total appropriation of $3,410,725 for ar Trpor for the three battleships autho.iz d in 1896 and limited the cost per ton to $425.
 MT. Butler of North Carolina. offered an amendment reducing the total to $2,- 407, ,500 limiting the cost to $300 per ton, ard providing fer the establishment of government armorIfactory if private con cerns do not bid within $500 per ton.
 MT. Pettigrew, of South Dakota, spoke of the evidence taken before the commit tee on naval affairs, showing conc usivs- 1y, he claimed, that armor plate could be made for $250 per ton. Notwithstanding this the armor plate factories, being in collision, refused to make aim0r fer $500 and demanded $425. Ina.eld of opposing the trust, Mir. Pettigaew said the naval committee now proposed to acceie to it's demands. It was a procedure too dis graceful to be tolerated, the senator as serted t Mir. Butler spoke in severe criticism of the course of the armor factories and of the disposition in official circles to yield to them. The senator reviewed the in- Vestigations made by Secretary Herbert as to the cost of armor plate and read from the house committee on naval af- fairs relati to irregularities in the man. ufacture of such plate. He said that the report showed that by fraud and de- ception arTnlor plate had been p9lmed off on the governmsrt so defective that 1t could be pierced like a pine board. The senator asserted that men ha d been shot and put in dungeons for offences of far less magnitude.
 MT. Hale answerei1 these statements, saying that none of the defective pats were a prs sent in actual service on war shins.
 Mr. Tillnan. of South Ca~olina, in asfed that many of the alleged defective plates were in actual use and that their locl- tion on warships was specified in the report of the house naval cornmittea
 When MT. Butler reiterated the state- nnent as to the extent of the defective ar mor in use MT Hale interposed with sweeping g denial. He said that such a condition would be anpalling if it exist ediin reality, but th-~-s was no want for the assertions by '.1e North Carolina senator. He utterly and absolutely ds- nied that any proportion of the armor plate on the warships was unservicea bie
 Mir. Butler said he knew of no more dangerous kind of high treason then the equipment of war vessels with defective plates. One of those vessels the Ore gon with sDongy. imperfect fraudulent plates. had been orh1red to the flaw ian Islands at time when Japan was tn eat ening to take possession of those islands. Ii would be fortunste If the first hostile shot fred al her dd not hit one of those defective plates-if indeed there were any good ones in h'1t-. If we ara ta take Ho- vail if we are ho get into the land-grab- ping business. then, said MT. Butler, we must have 9 f'eet as good, if not better, than tarv other country in the world. If we are launching on the policy of ag- Prarl1isement. then we must be compe- tent to compete with England or any other nation.
 When MT. Butler clcsad M~ Cbard'er fscetiously crlled O, Mir. Tilman to take the fiocr. The South Carolina senator responded that unle ss there was sor- e. thirg to fight there was nn need of talk.
 Mir Chandler inquired of MT Tfllman what had become of the house resolution adoDted as a result of the Carnegie in vestigation. It had come to demc,cra 'ic senate ard had been referred to demo- cratic naval committee. He asked MT Tillman if he was democrat what the democrats had done with this resolu- tion,3
 MT Tillman responded that he thought his course had shown him to be impar- tial in pointing out the short rt-omings 70 nd the rascalhy-if that word was allowable of democrats als well as others The naval committee which the New Hamp- shire senator referred to, having ma- iority of so-called democrats, had s'mp'y pigeon-holed that resolution MT. I'll man pointed out alleged irregularities in fur nishmg armor plate and referred to the fact that Secretary Herbert had imposed fine on the Carnegie company which fine was remitted by the president
 "And was 1t a democratic president who remttted that fine?" asked Mir Chan- dler.
 Please do not leave out 'so-called' in referring to that president" answered MT. Tillman amid laughter. "as it Il-ts my feelings to hear him referred to as democratic president"
 He went on to say that he had never so,'gta to 6atbom the mystery of how the president hsri tried to override law and deoercy by remitting the fns..
 1Th= senator reviewed the question of making armor, and said that unless tfe senate adolssed some remedy, such as the one now proposed, there would be shameful robbery in arnlor plate fac tories.
 Mr Bacon of Georgia. moved to place th= rate at $350 per ton. He believed :he government would have to build it's own foundry, but for the present he urged t to be expedient to offer sS5O and stand by