The semi-weekly messenger., 1908-04-03

the agricultural appropriation bill in
the house today was devoid OF the
charges and imputations which mark.
ed it's consideration ON Monday and
Tuesday More progress was made
| with the measure than on any pre-
yious day, and the Indications are
| that it will finally get through t.
morrow Today's discussion dWelt on
the necessity for an increased appro-
priation for the farmers bulletins,
which, however, was refused, and the
subject of inquiries into road build
| ing, etc., by the department. the
trend of opinion being that such
work should be encouraged.
! The session was opened with a
| bitter attack on Attorney General
! Bonaparte by br. Clark, Of Florida,
/ who denounced him as being no law
| yer and unfit to hold his office. The
occasion for uLterance was reporting
out Of committee of a resolution
| by MIR. Clark, calling for a statement
! of the expense connected with peon-l
age Investigations and prosecutions.
The subject of peOnage in the
| southern states arose when Mr.. Caul-
/ field, of Missouri, from the commit
tee on judiciary, called up the resoiu-
| tion of Mr.. Clark, of Florida, request
! ing the attorney general to inform
| house as to the amount of money
( paid to detectives in gathering eVi-
ldepce in peonage cases and also MAX
! ing inquiry concerning the capacity
in which Mrs. Mary Grace Quacken-
| bos has been employed and the
! amount of money paid her. The reso-
lntiNn ho declared intended G
an unnecessary attack On the depart
ment of justice for doing it's duty.
ITO think" he exclaimed, that hu-
the department of justice can be too
| vigilant on behalf Of human liberty"
one would think, he declared, that the
raging lion seeking whom it may
devour, seeking some innocent citizen
of Florida to clap into jail"
The department, he said, has been
exceedingly conservative In its ac-
tions. Indeed, it had done its full
duty ''and a righteous act," when, in
response to long list of complaints
of peonage the investigations were
made. Had the department done
otherwise than It did, he said, it
would have been derelict in duty.
Mr. Caulfied denied that peonage
prosecul.ons injured the prosperity of
a state. ut is not the prosecutions"
he said amid applause. but the acts
Of the men which make the prosecu-
tions necessary"
The department Of justice, Mr.
Caulfield said, was carrying out re-
publican policies when it digniies
and emancipates labor, and" he ad-
ed, that is one of the policies we
did not steal from a democratic plat
form"
Replying to Mr. Caulfield, Mr.. Clarke
denounced Attorney General Bona
parte. He does not know the law"
he charged, "and he is unworthy of
his high place at the head of the de-
partment of Justice"
He produced court records tending
to show that in the last five years
the name of Attorney General
Bonaparte does not appear as counsel
for anybody In any case in the su-
preme court Of the United States.
Mr.. Clark said further tha for ten
years, previously to entering the
cabinet Mr.. Bonaparte had appeared
only thirteen times out of 3,400 cases
in the Maryland court of appeals. In
three of those cases he was party to
the suit, land in one of them the
question at issue was seventy-five
cents for repairs to a spigot in one
of his houses he had rented to a poor
woman belonging to the laboring
class"
This man." he exclaimed, "is not
fit to be attorney general because of
his ignorance of the law, and he Is
OF fit TO hold his office because of
his admission that he In furthering a
conspiracy to invoke the criminal
Law to warn people against dan
gerous communities
/ say to this man Bonaparte, say
to this man Russell. his assistant at
torney general; I say to the female
assistant and all the horde that fol-
low In the wake OF Bonaparte. he
said, come down with the immigra-
&N~w~ -