Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-03-16
INDIGNANT
Attacks Hay Resolution and
Bristow Report.
APPLAUDED BY HOUSE
CRITICISES ACTION OF THE
POSTAL COMMITTEE.
Representative Spight Discusses thu
Southern Race Problem - Senate
Considers the Wood Nomination.

devote Itself to memorials on the lie ana
character of the late Representative Foer-
derer of Pennsylvania.
Consideration of the post Office appro-
priation bill was resumed.
Mr.. Spght (Miss) discussed the negro
question in the south, and said he desired
to vindicate that section from the charge
of barbarism. In the south, he said, the
negro had been denied the right to vote
and to hold office but not the right to work
for an honest living as had been done in
the northern states.
1--WE sometimes kill them for outrageous
crimes" he said, but never because they
want to work Lynchings he admitted.
sometimes have unnecessarily occurred In
the south. He referred 10 the Wilmington,
Del. lynching last year. and to the subse-
quent attacks on the negro settlement This
never occurred in the south, he said.
when the guilty wretch has paid the
penalty of his awful crime, that is an end
of it,, he continued, the mob is satisfied
and does not wreak indiscriminate VEN
geance upon the innocent because they be-
long to the same race as the criminal" He
said that. unlike the people OF the north,
the people of the south don't go out with
torch in one hand and a gun in the
other and. pointing the gun at defenseless
women and children, shoot them as they
flee for their lives" He said this had oc-
referred to a number of lynchings which
had occurred in the north. including those
at Danville, H.. and Springfield, Ohio. and
said such race prejudice finds no place in
southern hearts,
Booker Washington Incident.
Mr.. Spight spoke of the attempt of GER
tain white persons to put the negro on a
social equality with themselves. and. re-
ferring to the occasion when Booker Wash
ington dined at the White House with
President Roosevelt, said that this one
incident had done more to inflame the pas
sions of the negro and give him a perverted
idea of his Importance and his near ap-
proach to social equality than anything
that had been done for the last ten years."
He said Booker Washington had sat down
to dinner with the President "as graciously
as If he had been the governor of New
York. He was, he continued, sorry that
Mr. Washington did not have more sense
and self-respect than to accept the invita-
ton. 1t would have been infinitely to his
credit had he declined. The more the
negroes are put on social equality" he
vigorously asserted. "the more DANGEROUS
becomes their position and the surer death
by violence will overtake them sooner or
later
Mr. Spight referred to the arrest in In
dlanoia, Miss. of white agents of a Gin
to the negroes indecent pictures In his
opinion the agents should have been
lynched.
Subsidies to Railroads Opposed.
The granting of subsidies to railroads
for carrying the mails was vigorously op-
posed by Mr.. Robinson Qnd.) who charac-
terfzed them as stain and blot upon the
bill.
Mr.. Robinson said the Post Office Depart
ment was against the subsidy and congress
sionai influence was perpetuating II. The
no IN, Fax- -
honesty and clean administration In the
Post Office Department, but he said when
members put themselves on record against
the Postmaster General In this matter chow
do they stand in View of his report against
themselves" The House had been agitated
he said, and the country disturbed by the
report sent In rejecting on members, but"
he said. speaking with much yigor "here
is real scandal, a scandal that you are
forcing upon the Postmaster General and
his department. He closed amid demo-
cratic applause by asking If the House was
going to stand for it, ~
Mr.. Sibley Pa.) contended that to DENY
the subsidy would be doing a manifest In
Justice to the interests OF the south
A heated discussion followed, which was
participated IN by Messrs. Lamb (Va).
Holiday Qnd) and Gaines (Tenn) Mr..
Robinson had charged the republicans with
being responsible for the subsidy which
brought from Mr.. Lamb an emphatic pro-
TEST saving there were as good democrats
support the proposition.
Although the Louisville and Nashville
railway, one of the roads benefited by the
subsidy. passed through his town. Mr.
Gaines excitedly declared the subsidy to he
"a legalized steal
Biostow Report Attacked.
The alleged Bristow report rejecting on
members was bitterly attacked by Mr.
Pearre tMd) That report he designated as
,.,,I
In all the discussion which had taken place
he had, he said. heard no law quoted and
no regulation mentioned which prohibited
members from making the recommends
tions they did He wanted to know Ii the
fact that Beavers had been indicted carried
with II charge against members of Com
gress. A member of Congress, he insisted.
has the right to expect the performance of
public duty in ale execution of the law
by post office official The very renort
itself, he said. in which Bristow sought To
condemn members justified their action.
Mr.. Crumpacker Replies
Mr.. Crumpacker Qnd) entertained the
View that General Bristow did not pretend
to say that any member of the House made
improper requests of Beavers but he said
Beavers had granted requests without any
regard to the merits OF the cases He con-
tended that members had put an undue in
depreciation upon the report, because there
was nothing in it to impute illegaiity or dis
honesty in the conduc1 of a single member
of the House.
He then took up the subject of appropria-
tions for special mail facilities granted GER
tain railroads, and SAIL they were nothing
short of a mere sratuity.
The rural free delivery service he strongly
favored.
Hay Resolution Denounced.
Mr.. Pearre bitterly denounced the Hay
resolution which brought into the House
the report from the Post Office Department
pIrportins to be a series of charges against
members of Congress. Mr.. Pearre declared
that the resolution was absolutely unnec-
essary and causeless He said it had re-
suited in bringing into the House impuia-
tons upon members which they did not de-
serve. but which many of them would not
live to see entirely disappear. In the be-
ginning. lie declared he had denounced the
resolution as a grievous biunder. That was
as nothing. however, compared to the ac-
ton of the committee which came back to
the House with a lot of flush and trash
swept from the floors and gathered up from
the waste baskets in the Post Office De-
partment.
This thing" said he came in here at