Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-24
TILLMAN REPLIES TO spooNER.
Talks on the Indianola, Miss, Post Of
fee Case.

The Senate omnibus public building bill
was passed by the Senate yesterday after
noon and the post office appropriation bill
was considered without final action.
An amendment was offered by Mr.. Fair
banks appropriating $4,000 for experi-
mental rural telephone free delivery.
After considerable discussion it went out
on point Of order by Mr.. Pettus.
: An amendment was agreed to granting
free registry to members of Congress on
public documents.
The President pro tempore appointed
Messrs. Alger and Bacon visitors 70 the
Military Academy. He also appointed
Messrs. McComas and Daniel visitors to
the Naval Academy and Mr.. Plat Comm
regent of the Smithsonian Institution to
succeed himself.
Mr.. Tillman, who had been standing in
the aisle endeavoring to get recognition to
speak regarding the Indianola, Miss, post
Office case, inquired what was up If the
post Office appropriation bill went over. In
Jecting some humor into the proceedings,
the President pro tenn. replied that he 'un-
derstood the senator from South Carolina
was coming up on his feet"
Mr.. Tillman then said he proposed to sur
prise his friends and astonish his enemies,
II he has any, by being very mild and tenn
perate in what he would say.
IL we ldu kHOWu at the beginning or the
civil war;" said he, what we know now
there would have been no war" He in
qulred why the large majority Of law
abiding people Of Indianola should be pun
ished because there was small, lawiess
and brutal element. 1t was contrary, he
said, to the fundamental principles OF
Anglo-Saxon Jurisprudence.
Replying to some remarks made by Mr..
Spooner in his speech, Mr.. Tillman said,
ut Is not in the dream of the widest ass
that roams over the southern states with q
wax skin on him that the federal govern
ment is not supreme" but he said there
were some cognate propositions which have
been ignored.
He said that in the south the people have
a constant reminder that their ancestors
thirty-f1ve years ago were conquered. 1--WE
are perpetually reminded he said accentu-
attng his words, that we are in the Union,
but not of it, except to pay taxes"
The poison in the race condition in the
south, he declared, lay in the referee sys-
tenn which had been adopted. The balance
of power, he said in national republican
conventions was held by the machine of the
south, and that machine was composed OF
negroes. When the people Of the south,
said he, lose patience and do 'eruel bitter,
fearful, fiendish and savage things there is
a howl from men who know nothing and
who have never been south of the Potomac,
but who have theorized''
Continuing, and addressing the repub-
lican side, he said that if this policy Of
negro equality is carried out and if some
of them could be given places in the cab
met he would vote for them. II will vote
to confirm Booker Washington as secretary
of anything. Let US have a negro a gen.
uine negro, not a mulatto or hybrid Then
let us make them officers in the army and
navy. Let us give them pro rata share
of all the good jobs wherever they exist
without regard to local conditions" He
added that nothing of the sort will be done
After speaking for nearly two hours and
not concluding he yielded for an executive
session. The post office appropriation bill
is still before the Senate
AT $50 pm. the Senate adjourned.