The Colfax gazette. [volume] (Colfax, Wash.) 1893-1932, 1901-01-18
HOT SHOT FROM CUSHMAN,
Paid HIS Respects to the River
and Harbor Committee.

FaAu MS respects to the River
and Harbor Committee.
Washington, Jan. 1O.-The general
debate on the river and harbOr bill con-
tinued in the house until O'Clock when
the death of Representative Clarke, (Rep.
n, H.) was announced and the house
adIOurnsd out of respect to his memory.
The features of the debate today we're
the speeches of Cushman, (Rep. Wash J
and Hepburn (Rep. Ia.) The latter has
been persistent opponent of river and
harbOr bills for years, and he attacked
the bill all along the line in his usually
vigorous fashion. Cushman's speech
was unique in many particulars. He
was in favor of river and harbOr an
preparations, and his complaint was due
to the fact that the members of the
committee, according to his ideas, had
located the bulk OF the appropriations
Ill their own states, and had given scant
attention to the needs of other states
especially to the Seattle ship canal in
his own state. Cushman illustrated his
remarks with a series of carefully pre-
pared charts. He criticised several of
the Individual members of the committee
in breezy style, and became engaged in
hall dozen very spirited encounters be-
fore he concluded. Members crowded
about the area in front of the speakers
desk, where he stood explaining the
figures upon the charts, and everyone
seemed to enjoy the picturesque per-
fOrmance immensely. When he wound
up with a glowing appeal for Justice to
the Seattle project he got a stirring
round of applause.
Jones rep. Wash.) made an earnest
plea for an appropriation for improving
the inner harbor at Gray's Harbor,
Wash.
Hepburn (Rep. la } then took the
floor for an hours speech, in which he
vigorously assailed various features of
the bill. He was in favor of promoting
Interstate commerce by every sort of
legitimate improvements. What he COM
planned OF were the enormous sums ap-
prOpriated for purely local and state i'm
prOvements.
81 understand" said Hepburn, that
some gentlemen here are getting their
backs up because a gentleman is pro-
posing to exploit the manner in which
the states of members OF the committee
are taken care of in this bill. What are
HOu vi IL! H6 dshtu, du-
dressing the members of the committee,
"the notoriety OF the act or the act
itself?''
Cushman followed Hepburn with an
other assault on the BILL He illustrated
his remarks with an enormous chart
which he had brought into the hall.
Members crowded about to examine the
exhibit made. On table, the figures OF
which were sufficiently large to be read
from the remotest limits of the hall, was
a list OF q states which had members
upon the river and harbor committee,
favoring the sums appropriated and
authorized in the BILL The direct ap-
preparations amount to S14, ,23S, ,260.
The authorized appropriations amount
to $24, ,457 ,SS9. He said the II states
with members upon the committee got
all the appropriations, with the excep-
ton of $S,349,O00. Cushman said he
was in favor of river and harbor i'm
provements, but bill for that purpose
should be for the benefit of the whole
country and not for the benefit of the
members OF the committee.
he spoke, he said, as one who had
been victimized by the BILL He said the
committee had Overlooked" his state,
as if it had been white chip in a faro
game" He represented a city that had
a tonnage of 100000, and it got the
"measly" sum OF $4,000.
"H you thing my vote can be bought
at that price," he said, addressing the
members of the committee, "you are off
your base"
Cushman's criticism aroused the men,
bers OF the committee, and they kept up
a continual fire of questions while he
was speaking. As a result, there were
some exceedingly spicy exchanges.
Imperial Caesar" Cushman said,
"had divided all Gaul into three parts.
Caesar was an ancient and a provincial
Had he lived to the dawn of the goth
century, he would have divided gall
into enough fragments to give one to
each member of the river and harbor
committee of the house,
Cushman had brought into the hall
another chart showing the proportion
OF appropriations to the recommends
tions of the chief of engineers The
states represented by the river and har-
Dor committee got SO per cent of the ap-
propriations recommended, while the
other states got less than 40 per cent.
81 invite the members OF the commit
tee," said he, 'tO go up against the
frozen facts OF that chart" daughter }
One by one Cushman paid bis respects
to the members of the committee, pro-
ducing individual maps showing the ap-
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