The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-05-08
REPUBLICAN LEADERS USING SUCH
WORDS AS LIE AND LIAR.
NICARAGUA CANAL BILL PASSED
After One OF the Most Exciting Ses-
sions of this Congress-Mr. Hepburn
Charged With Secret Hostility to-
ward the scheme by Mr.. Cannon,
Who Is Denounced as a Liar and
Charged With Working I'm the Inter-
est of the Panama Canal mpan
SENATE.

L
senate today developed a debate on
the treatment of the volunteer soldiers
sent to the Philippines that at times !
was very bitter.
In offering an amendment providing |
that the soldiers in the Phil
ippines who had remained there and
performed willing service long after
they were entitled to discharge should
receive travel pay and of
subsistence less the actual cost of
their transportation to the United
States, Senator Turner, Of Washington. |
made an extended statement.
The amendment, he said, applied to
about 5000 officers and men scattered
all over the country. He declared that
returning volunteers had been pack
ed like swine into dark, dirty, filthy,
rotten and antiquated vessels. At the
reception at San Francisco to the re-
turning Washington regiment he had
gone into the hold of the transport
where the soldiers quarters, he said,
were not fit for m
The amendment was killed on a
point of order. Senator Pettigrew bit
terly denounced the government for
keeping the volunteers in service after
their time had expired and said that
hundreds of soldiers who had served
in the Philippines were now inmates of
st. Elizabeth's insane asylum atWash-
ington. At least 200, he declared, had
committed suicide.
Just before adjournment a sharp
cOllOquy occurred over the proposed
consideration of the resolution to un-
seat Mr. Clark, of Montana, which in
dictated that the unanimous recon-
mendation of the committee IN priv
ileges and elections will be sharply
contested.
A bill was passed to establish the
Fredericksburg and adjacent national
battlefields memorial park in Virginia.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,.
The house today at the conclusion
of the most stormy debate of the pres
ent session of congress-, passed the Mic
canal bill by the OVerwheln-
ing vote of 225 to So. TIL attempts to re-
tain in the bill the language of the
original bill for the fortification of the
canal and to still further strengthen
the language OIL that line were baked
and the victory of Mr.. Hepburn and
the committee was complete. A motion
to recommit the bill with instructions
to report Jack another bill leaving the
selection of the route to the president
was buried under an adverse majority
OF 50 to I'll.
Mr.. CannOn, chairman of the appro-
priatiOnS committee, and Mr.. Burton,
of Ohio. chairman of the river and har-
Dor committee. made a game fight TO
StaVe off action at this session, but
their appeals were in vain and the
members rode r~Ough-shod over all
their arguments and protests. Much
excitement reigned throughout the day
and several times bitter words were
used. The excitement reachd it's climax
in a highly dramatic scene between Mr..
Hepburn and Mr.. Cannon when the
former used the words lie" and liar"
10 h a. isl n6
chairman of the appropriations com
mittee for attempting to "~dishonor"
him. The house was in riotous confu-
sion during the quarrel. Members
crowded the aisles and the situation
at one time was so threatening that
Mr.. Wheeler, of Kentucky, sought to
pour oil on the waters by raising a
point of order: but he was not upheld
and the two irate members carried
their war to the very hilt. There was
a show OF peace at the close of tn
cident, but the feeling between the two
men ran so high that the mutual re-
fractions with which such incidents
generally end were but the clOakS for
the keenest n most cutting sarcasm.
At the opening of the session general
debate was closed and the bill read for
under the five minute rule.
MFR. Hepburn offered the committee
to substitute the word
protect" for defend in the first sec
ton 1t was adopted.
Mr.. Parker, of New Jersey, offered
an amendment to strike out that por-
ton of the bill limiting the presidents
selection to the Nicaragua route. This
called forth a protest from
Mr.. Hepburn, who declared that it was
intended to revive interest in the Pan
anna route which had caused one of the
''fOulest scandals in the history of the
modern world He charged that the
emissarieS of this discredited corpora
ton were seeking to unload the enter
prise on the American people. He would
trIEst no chief executive with unlim-
tied means at his disposal to make the
choice Of routes of the canal.
The Parker amendment was defeat
= ed-3I to 81.
Mr.. hcCulloch, of Arkansas. Offered
, an amendment to insert the words
"fortify. garrison" between the word:
construct" and land defend" Her,
occurred the sensational scene between
heSSrS. Cannon and Hepburn.
Mr.. Cannon rose and resented som,
remarks made last night by Mr.. Hep,
burn impunging his (C%annon's) sin,
cerity. MIR. Cannon spoke under ex
citement, saying he had just read Mr.
Hepburn'S attack upon him. He re
called al ntimation that had come (,
him.. Of which he had spoken yester.
day, that those who were promotins
this bill were doing so to delay tn,
CdndI- let ne SalQ ne Idu acquitted
Mr.. Hepburn OF I'M such intention
Today he frankly stated that Mr.. Hep
burns name had been connected witt
the rumOr.
Who was the author of the rumor?
asked Mr.. Hepburn, jumping to hi
feet.
"A newspaper man." replied NJ
Cannon. Il do not know his name"
Continuing and speaking with grea
elaboration, Mr.. Cannon said h
would have been satisfied with the &C
quittal he ave Mr.. Hepburn yester
day had not his doubts been aroused
MY observation" said he, lis tia
a man is willing to challenge til
sincerity of another it is because b
is turning the glass inward upon him
self. 1 don't rise to justify my ow
\ reputation for sincerity. Upon my reC
ord Of twenty-five years in public lif
I will stand or fall"
The excitement grew as Mr.. Canno