The times., 1898-01-30

| Mr. Allen, of Mississippi. yesterday
| dupng the debate over the appropria-
| ton bill for the District of Columbia
| took occasion to refer to prosperity un-
! der the Dingley bill, as he and his
Democratic friends had found it. He
| spoke in reply to a speech delivered by
! Mr.. Hepburn, of Iowa, who had said
he had found nothing but prosperity
throughout the country.
The suggestion just made by one OF
the Republican members that AN hon
est man is the noblest work of God has
called me to the floor" said Mr.. Allen.
Pointing to himself, he added, Here is
the noblest work" Qaughter).
Mr.. Chairman, in making UP this
bill l have occupied the position of the
great and good friend of the Republic
an party. and have had some solicitude
for the gentlemen on the subcommit-
tee" Mr.. Allen continued THE bill
carries $685., 954.36 less than the last bill.
Now this we did to help to restore the
parity between the Dingley bill and the
expenses of the Government So far
as | am concerned l am tired of com
pelling Mr.. Dingley to explain the rea-
son why his bill is not meeting the ex-
pectations of the country. He makes
an explanation every day" Uaughter.)
He always has some sort of an eX-
planation, and some of the most alb
surd, too, that | ever listened to.
Il think the country knows what the
conditions are, and / don't think tEese
explanations are necessary, and / pro-
test against them. We are cutting
down our expenses; we are trying to
cut the garment to fit the cloth.
But, Mr.. Chairman. we are having
great variety of explanations. Cen
tlemen are daily in the House bearing
t=@I'mony To the effect that at some
particular place there is prosperity, bet
il cones too much in patches.
IF the gentleman had not mentioned
Aurora and told of its prosperous con-
dition / would not say this, but have
been down to Pueblo and can say to you
that | have consulted the great indus
trial interests of Pueblo, and il or0s-
perity is headed that way they surely
have not found it out down there / am
not of pessimistic disposition. 1 Go
not want to, and ] would not, conceal
il if it were true, because there is no
man here who would be better suited
than / if this country was prosperous.
/ have heard you gentlemen, here, talk
about your newspaper reports of pros
perity. but / must confess that 1 have
to hear the first business man to talk
in Pueblo or in Washington or any
where else who tells me he believes the
conditions are improving very much"
Mr. Allen related a story which. he
said, was very applicable TO the case:
AN old darly caught 'possum, dress
ed him we'll and surrounded him with
sweet potatoes and put him in the oven
to bake and then lay down TO sleep
h.1l lSaH Ahni1t fllG
time the animal was done little aaTky
slipped in and stole the toothsome meat
and ate it. He then took the bones and
laid them beside the old ,?ariSy; took
some of the grease and creased his
fingers and lips and then slipped out
When the negro awoke he looked
around him. There were the bones, and
the grease ON his fingers ana lips:
finally he said, can it be possible ct
that 'possum while l war asleep? Nay
be did, but before God, that 'possum
had less effect on my constitution t,an
any 'possum l ever ct.
MIR. Allen closed by saying: You tell
us about the prosperity you produce
YOUR figures, and it looks like ii, but,
before God, this prosperity has had
less effect on our constitution than any
prosperity L ever saw. (Great ap-
plause by the Democrats.)
l.
reduction of wages in the cotton mills
in New England, amounting to an av-
erage of 10 per cent, as being stubborn
ly contested. He said il affected 125,-
900 persons, in 80 mills, and that the
same condition obtains in other indus
tries He read from a Republican pa
per that the employees of the Wheel
ing tW. Va) Steel and Iron Works
have been notified that a second reduc-
fSn1 wifbin a would be made in
their wages Another reduction had
been reported in a New Bedford shoe
factory.
Mr.. Richardson, of Tennessee, said
that a few days ago he had attempted
to show a reduction of l per cent in the
wages throughout the country, and
that Gen. Grosyenor had taken issue
with him and had quoted from X. G..
Dun's commercial report. Mr.. Richard
son declared that he accepted r. G.
Dun as an authority. and that he would
read from the report of last week He
read as follows:
THE iron manufacturers are getting
larger orders for finished products,
which are crowding their works. but
others are keeping the prices down.
The failures in business the failures
in enterprises are greater for the past
week than for the corresponding week
last year" The number is given at
542 this year, against S3l last year"
Now, where is the improvement in
business under the Dingley bill?" de-
manded Mr.. Richardson. Prices con-
tinue lower, failures larger during the
last week than in the corresponding
week of last year, and yet we are told
that there is prosperity f1ourishing all
over the United States.
Il want to ask where is this prosper-
ity? What section of the country is
being benefited by the passage of the
Dingley bill? More than a year ago
Congress was called for the avowed
purpose of passing bill to raise reve.
nues They could not wait until De-
cember, but the President of the United
States considered it necessary to call
Congress Immediately, and he did call
1T, and after the term began on March
10 they did pass a bill to raise revenue.
but 1t has failed to produce that reye-
nue.
Mr.. Fitzgerald, of Massachusetts.
who ought to be an authority on the
condition of his own State, said that the
people in the mills there are working
for starvation wages
There are now" he continued. ''soup
houses in Boston and in many other
places in Massachusetts. l firmly be-
lieve that if an election were to be leld
in Massachusetts tomorrow that Nc
Kinleyism and Hannaism would be re-
pudiated in every form in every town"
Mr.. Fitzgerald added that the system
of fines prevailing in the cotton mills
was SO effective that in many cases it
took nearly all the wages of the opera
tives to pay these fines. That they
We're fined for breathing, almost, so
that the matter of wages promised vas
a small matter compared with what
they really got