Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1900-01-24
The Albany, War Purchase, TO
be Brought Over From Eng
land-TWo Colorado Min
Ing Towns Burned.
OTHER AFFAIRS IN CONGRESS
Grand Canon Line Nearing Com
pletIon-SwindIer Carter
Must Remain In jail.

Washington, Jan. 24-In the resum.
ed debate in the Roberts case at II
o'clock today, Powers. of Vermont, ar.
gued in behalf of the exclusion OF
Roberts. The contention of the min
ority for expulsion, he said, ran up
against the very precedents which
were cited in it's support. 1t was a
universal rule that member could
not be expelled for an offense COM
mitted prior to his election While
it might be argued in the Roberts case
that polygamy was continuing
status, the crime itself, the initial act
took place long before Roberts was
elected.
Snodgrass, of Tennessee, followed
Powers, supporting the views of the
minority in favor of seating, then ex.
pelling Roberts. If we were not to
become exponents of the French sys-
tenn of justice, which presumed guilt
until innocence was proved, he said,
Roberts must be accorded his prima
facie right to his seat before being
ousted. Lands, of Indiana, member
of the Roberts committee who signed
the majority report, argued that. Utah
had violated her compact with the
United States. There had been uni
versal rejoicing in the land in 1896,
he said, when Utah had been admit
ted into the union. The people of
the United States thought the birth
of the state would work death to the
system of polygamy Yet they were
startled to learn that in 1898 Utah
elected, as her sole representative in
the house, a polygamist, and he was
moving upon Washington with a
plurality of wives and multiplicity of
children. (laughter).
Lands went over the record of the
apostles of the Mormon church, most
of them guilty of having continued
polygamous practices. Some of his
statements were sensational. He
scored the church for its alleged faith
arousing great enthusiasm by his
scathing denunciation. AT times he
| convulsed the house with his sarcasm
of the fifteen apostles of the church
when the proclamation was issued, he
said, eleven were open violators of the
law, and three had undoubtedly taken
plural wives since it was promulgated
Lands said he believed, and Roberts
had not denied, that Margaret c.
Shipp had become his plural wife
since Utah was admitted in 1896. He
paid high tribute to the Christian
missionaries who worked among the
people of Utah. Roberts, he said
boasted that he had received the votes
of the gentiles of his district. That
Lands said, was because he ran as a
democrat as well as a Mormon, and
! because his opponent "had been a
DANTE who had killed his man" In
concluding, he adjured 1000 polyga
mists in Utah to take care of theil
plural wives but in Gods name tc
refrain from multiplying their infamy
by bringing more children into the
world.
| The ways and means committee oil
the house directed a favorable report
on the bill of Representative Cooper
of Texas, repeating the law of 1895
in reference to the free zone of Mexi
co. The purpose of that law was tC
suspend the bonding of goods arriv
ing in this country destined for Mex
leo in the hope that Mexico would
take like action and smuggling across
the zone would be stopped. But it has
been found that the effect of the Law
was to divert traffic from American
ports and send it to Tampico, Vera
Cruz and other Mexico ports, and give
the carrying to Mexican railroads. Al
the same time Mexico has not taker
the action contemplated in 1895, ant
smuggling continues The bill nov
reported is designed to restore this
/ trade to the American ports and rail
roads. Grosvenor, who will make
report, was instructed to offer thu
bill as an amendment, the Payne bill
permitting the bonding of goods ii
all ports instead of at designated
places. The house committee on pen
sions today ordered favorable repor
on the bill making service in tn,
Spanish-American war sufficient to re
move disabilities against those VIII,
aided or abetted the southern troop
during the war of the rebellion, in tn,
matter of drawing pensions.
| SENATE.
| Washington, Jan. 24-Pettigrew, o
South Dakota, offered a resolution de
claring that the United States gov
ernment could not recognize the righ
Of any nation to declare as contraband
and seize food products as such. an
any such seizure would be an act IN
friendly to the United States Til
resolution went over under the rules