The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-07-27
SENATORS AND SUGAR TRUST
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON THE
TILLMAN RESOLUTION.

Opposed by Positive Denials of Senator.
Committee Severe on Sensational Jour.
nalism
Washington, July Ex-senator Jones,
OF Nevada, chairman of the committee
on contingent expenses, today submit
ted to the senate the report Of that
committee on the resolution introduced
by Senator Tillman for investigation
of the charges Of specializing in sugar
stocks. etc. The report takes a strong
position against ordering the investiga-
ton, and is a very review
of the procedure of the senate in the
past in such matters.
The report takes the position that
aside from the names of the newspaper
men themselves, only the name of Sen
ator Smith, of New Jersey, Is mention
ed in the newspapers making the
charges on which the resolution was
based. The position is taken that the
newspaper men 10 not count, mas
much as those gentlemen do not pro-
fess to write from knowledge and usu-
ally, if not always, decline to disclose
the sources Of their information"
With reference to Senator Smith the
report says: Here is a newspaper
charge made against a senator Of the
United States without an averment of
personal knowledge On the part Of the
writer and without the slightest par
ticle Of evidence to sustain it-not even
as much as would warrant a justice Of
the peace in SummOning witnesses to
determine the truth of a complaint by
one citizen against another with ref
erence to the most trifiing incident of
every day life. 1t is the bold and na-
ked assertion of a man who does not
profess or pretend to have any knOWl-
edge whatever of he alleged fact of
which he writes. On the other hand,
we have a definite, explicit and abso-
lutte denial of the charge from the SEN
ator affected-a denial publicly made
from his place in the senate, upon the
responsibility Of his position as a SEN
atOr of the United States"
AS to the clause of the resolution
which charges that brokers in New
York knew in advance as to what the
finance committee would report as to
the sugar schedule" the committee
say they can find in the newspaper
clippings presented in support of the
proposed inquiry nothing but indefinite
illusions, insinuations, guesses and in
ferences drawn by correspondents from
hearsay statements and the hearsay
some times several degrees removed.
Many of their expressions indicate the
fiimSineSS of the foundation on which
they have erected this structure of
scandal" The attack of one of the cor
respondents is characterized as "a de-
liberate, unfair n envenomed deter
- --- NO. $1,000 H.
subcommittee of the nance commit
tee the contempt of the country
whenever" the report continues,
1--WE approach a statement that, judg-
ing from the sensational heading of
the article, seems about to give us de-
finite and responsible information
which could be reached by an investi-
CATION, we are disappointed to find
that instead of affording evidence of
the alleged fact, the statements con-
sist of insinuations, mysterious hints
and indefinite illusions made on the
authority of some person whose name
the correspondent does not disclose.
All these guesses, differences and innu-
endoes are met in the most direct and
emphatic manner by the statement of
the senator from Rhode Island, Sena-
tor Aldrich, the chairman of the sub
committee of the nance committee,
ia MS III NlIo So tIC VI
the details of the tariff bill" Senator
Aldrich's reply to Senator Tillman, in
which he refers to Senator Jones, of
Nevada, as the only senator outside of
the subcommittee who had knowledge
of it's proceedings, is quoted at length.
Replying to this statement, Senator
Jones makes an individual pa~renthet-
zeal statement, in which he says he
is a member of the finance committee
of The senate and that C11ch information
as he obtained from the subcommittee
on the occasion referred to by the SEN
ator from Rhode Island was infOrma-
ton received in legitimate, official con-
ultatio with the members of the sub
committee and that such information
was conveyed by Senator Jones to no
human being in any form or manner
before the presentation of the particu-
lars to the senate and it's publication
in due and orderly course.
The report takes the position that
the distinct assertions of senator's are
not to be Outweighed by newspaper at
tacks ~instigated by men willing to
make statements to newspaper cOrre-
spondents with a view to publication,
and then, like asSassins who use the
s~tiletto in the dark, skulk behind those
correspondents and refuse to permit
their names to be made known, ven
for of evidence" 1t would,
the report continues, be monstrOuS to
set in motion the Investigating machin-
cry of the senate every time such an
attack is made upon a senator, and the
committee concludes that "if every
unfathered rumOr and unsupported
charge were to be held sufficient
ground on which to base an investiga-
ton into the official conduct of the peo-
pies representatives, there is no legis-
lative body in the world that could for
a single day carry on the work for
which it was designed. It's entire time
would be given V to the work of in
v~estigating rumOrs whispers and
charges. Before the investigation of
one such cOuld be completed, another
would have made its appearance and
When the second had been invested, a
third would have been provided and
would be ready, which, in turn. would
be succeeded by a fourth. and the
fourth by a fifth. There would be no
end
The committee goes at length into