Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-01-18
FRIENDS OF SILVER.
Teller Resolution Adopted by the
Finance Committee.
ONLY REPUBLICANS OPPOSED II
Bill Against Ticket ScaIpers to Be
Reported.
WORK OF THE COMMITTEES

The Senate committee on finance voted
| today to report the Teller resolution de-
| claring for the payment of the national
bonds in silver well gold. The vote
| stood to ).
The resolution is practically the same as
| the Stanley Matthews resolution adopted
twenty years ago.
Those voting for the resolution We're
| Messrs Vest. Jones (Ark), White, Walthall,
| Turpie, Daniel, democrats; Jones Nev.),
| silver republican, and Wolcott, republican.
Those against-Morrill Allison, Aldrich,
| Platt Comm and Burrows.
! Senator Jones (Nev.) was not present, but
| his vote was by his request recorded in
| favor of the resolution.
The vote was preceded by a discussion
| which was generally participated in by the
| members of the committee. The general
tenor of the discussion was along the
| lines of that a week ago. the republicans
| contending that the resolution was use
less and would be devoid of results and the
| democrats and their allies taking the OPP
| poSite position. The republicans especially
| deprecated the agitation of the financial
| question at the present time, saying there
| was effort and likely to be none to pass
| a general financial measure through the
| Senate committing the country more def
| nftely to the gold standard.
| To this the democrats replied by citing
| the efforts of Secretary Gage and ex-Sena-
tor Edmunds to have Congress take up the
question in way which looked to placing
the country definitely upon a gold basis.
They contended that it was the evident
| purpose of the administration. to secure
| legislation in the interest of the single
| standard. whenever opportunity offered,
| and avowed the;r purpose of securing
| declaration in favor of a double standard
such as was proposed in this resolution, if
10 tn al n ca n
| there had been no change in sentiment.
If, they said, the business interests We're
to be injured by the agitation of the finan-
cial question at this time. the blame should
! be placed upon the republican admnistra-
| ton and not upon themselves. When some
Of the republican senators We're reminded
that they had voted for the resolution
| when presented by Stanley Matthews
twenty years ago, they admitted such to be
the fact, but said in explanation of their
present attitude that conditions had
| changed.
Senator Wolcott did not vote with his
republican friends, but heartily supported
the resolution, saying he would vote for 1t
every time it came up.
| Work in the Committees.
The House committee on commerce to-
day voted to report the anti-ticket scalp
ing bill in the form of a substitute pre-
pared by Mr.. Sherman of New York. The
subs itute follows the general lines of the
original bill, with some additional fea-
lures. 1t places penalty on railroad Off
GERS who deal with scalpers. Heretofore
the plan has been to hold the corporation
liable. but the new provision extends the
liability to officials, making them subject
to a misdemeanor, with fine or imprison-
ment on conviction A new paragraph Is
inserted in section =, making it unlawful
for general passenger agents to supply
tickets to other than authorized ticket
agents.
Another clause provides that unused
! tickets shall be redeemed at any time
within one year. Any company falling to
redeem a ticket is made liable in a civil
action to penalty of 800 in excess of the
redemption money on the ticket. Mr.
Sherman will write the report and present
| it tomorrow.
| Secretary Gage on the Currency.
Secretary Gage proceeded today with the
currency hearing before the House COM
mittee on banking and currency. The Sec
rotary had concluded his statement, and
today's hearing took a general range with
a view to developing Mr.. Cages views on
general financial questions and his judg-
ment on the various measures, including
his own, for currency revision. EX-Secre-
| tary Fairchld and Solicitor of the Treas
ury O'Connell also were present
| The early hours of the hearing were Civ
en- to a discussion of the sufiiciency of the
bank guaranty on unsecured circulation, as
| provided by the various bills. Chairman
Walker. in series of questions. sought to
show that the guaranty required by the
Gage bill and the monetary Dill was too
| great, thus imposing an onerous burden on
the banks, far beyond the losses which ex-
! perience had shown would occur Mr.
Gage said that the safety fund in his bill
was placed at a point which he regarded
safe, ard If found too high, it could be re-
| duced
| Mr. Fairchild said it was felt that in a
| step of this character, it had been deemed
! best to make the guaranty too great rather
than too little.
Mr. Gage stated in this connection that
he saw objections to the plan of imposing
a mutual responsibility on all banks, as
| proposed in the monetary commission bill
1t would be an unfortunate requirement,
he felt, as it would operate to keep desir-
able banks from entering the system and
imposing on themselves responsibility for
outside banks. The banker. rule, did
not want to be responsible for losses other
than his own. Whether the guaranty was
to be by a per cent tax on banks. as he
provided, or by mutual guaranty from all
banks as the commission provided, or some
other adequate plan, Mr.. Gage said he was
willing to concede this detail so long as
some safe security for the redemption of
the bank notes was provided.
Proposed Cable to Hawaii.
James a. Scrymser. president of the Pa
cific Gable Company appeared before the
House committee on interstate and foreign
commerce today to advocate a contract
with the United States, which, he said, he
would not call a subsidy. whereby the COM
pany would transmit all official messages
for $175, 600 per year for twenty years from
San Francisco to Hawaii, China and Japan,
with proposition to extend it to Australia
| for $4,000 additional per year.
He said that during the Venezuelan trou-
BILE it had cost the government 5000 for
one diplomatic message, and no one knew
what the governments aggregate expense
was in this connection. 1t would take
5000 miles of cable from San Francisco
TO Honolulu.
He was sharply questioned by the COM
| mOQODOiiStic NJ
his proposition. He said his company was
| responsible and had experience to do what