The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-06-04
The South Carolinian Again
After the Sugar Sneaks.
TO DISCHARGE COMMITTEE
HE CHALLENGES THEN n No1E
IN OPEN SENATE.
STRANGE TACTICS OF VEST
GalIinger Tries to Defend Committee,
but TilIman Answers that News
paper Was Ready to Come For
ward and Prove Charges.

ward and Prove Charges.
Washington. June 3.-The Senate again
made good progress on the tarlH OH 10
day. covering about ten pages OF the
metal schedule and almost completing II.
The formal contest against the measure
was maintained. but all amendments tend
ing to change the bill as reported were
voted down and the Finance committee
sustained. The debate was mainly of
technical character, the Republican Sena-
tors continuing the policy of refrainmg
from making speeches.
Before the tariff bill was taken up Sen
ator Tillman, of South Carolina, gave the
Senate another hour of exciting contro-
yersy over the proposed sugar lnyestlga-
ton.
Mr.. Vest. of Missouri, offered a resolu-
ton reciting that the skeletons OF Amer
lean soldiers killed at Buena Vista III
1917 were now exhumed and asking the
State department to investigate the sub
iect and report the facts to Congress. a
letter was read in this connection from
Consul General Crittenden, saying the
matter should receive the attention of the
authorities at Washington. A clipping
was enclosed stating that the bones of
American soldiers were bleaching in the
sun. The resolution was then agreed to.
Mr.. Tillman, then came forward with
another phase of the proposed sugar in
yestigation, closing with a motion to dis
IL IN nV-
penses from further consideration of the
resolution recently offered by INN, to
investigate the alleged speculation IN SUI
gar stocks.
The motion contemplated an immediate
vote by the Senate ON the sugar lnyesu-
CATION resolution. Mr.. Tillman spoke in
his usual vehement style, which attracted
much attention and drew crowds to the
galleries. He began by presenting
clipping from Haverhill, n. H., news
paper, referring to the recent speech Of
Mr.. Tillman, and adding a query as 10
whether the proposed sugar inquiry
would be supplemented by an inquiry INTO
the charges of ex-senator Butler in con-
nection with Mr.. Tillman's administra-
ton of the South Carolina dispensary law.
The charges against him were stale,
Mr.. Tillman said. He had met them
before and he read an open letter writ
ten TO the people of South Carolina
charactering the charges as slanderous.
This was an attempt to divert attention
from the sugar scandal, the Senator de-
clared. but the attempt would fail. He
had come from the plough to the Coy
ernorshiD of South Carolina, over the
PROSTATE forms of those constituting the
old regime, and it had won him many
enemies All the crimes in the deca-
logue had been charged against him. He
had appealed to his people and they had
sustained him, sending him to the Sem
ate after a heated canvass in which Mr..
Butler had sought to fly blow his
(Tillman's) character. Now the same old
eggs were brought forward. If any man
desired TO look into his character then,
said Mr. Tillman, he courted the fullest
inquiry And any other Senator, against
whom there was the breath of scandal,
should have the charges probed to the
bottom and the scandal dispelled. lie
had made no charges against the Sena-
tor from New Jersey, Mr.. Smith, he de-
clared, but had merely submitted the
published charges NOW before the pubic
and. since the committee had made no
report on the resolution, Mr.. Tlllman
said he would now move to discharge the
committee from further consideration or
the resolution. $50 that" he added, with
rising infection, Senators can now put
themselves ON record as to whether they
want these charges Investigated.
Mr.. Tillman dropped into his chair but
was quickly on his feet again. lie mad,
he said, approached the chairman (Jones,
of Nevada, of the committee on contln-
gent expenses and had been told by him
that he was ready to report the resolu-
ton. but was awaiting the action of the
other two members of the committee
Jones, of Arkansas, and Gallinger, of
New Hampshire.)
Mr.. Gallinger then secured recognition
for a statement Of the attitude of the
committee. he being the senior member
in the absence of the chairman, Mr..
Jones, of Nevada. Every man in public
life feels the sting of false charges" he
said ''and must the Senate pause every
time such accusations are brought, TO
spend its time and the money of the
United States in pursuing these charges
If this is to be the case, then there
would never be a tariff bill or any other
BILL"
Mr.. Vest suggested that there was a
precedent for ignoring charges against
the personal character of a Senator. He
referred to the attitude of Senator Thur
man when an investigation was pro-
posed against one of his associates. He
had held that the courts were open for
private redress and that it was not for
the Senate to undertake to right a pri-
yate wrong. There had been no dissenting
voice from this position, Mr. Vest assert
ed, and it was not for the Senate to put
aside its public business to attend to the
private character of Senators.
Mr.. Tillman was again on his feet. The
newspapers We're trying to make IA fire
in his rear, he said, while he was Ell
gagged in a fire in front. His resolution
simply sought to determine whether the
Finance committee was the creature OF
the Sugar trust, whether Senators We're
the tools and paid agents of the Sugar
trust" or whether they were here per-
forming their duties as honorable men.