The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-09
Rebuke to President.

 it constitutes a breach of the privi- leges of the House; therefore, be it
 Rebuke to President.
 Resolved That the House, in the exercise of it's constitutional preroga- tives, declines to consider any com munication from any source which is not, In its own judgment, respectful; and, be 1t further
 Resolved, That the special commit tee and the committee of the whole House on the state of the Union be discharged from any consideration of so much of the Presidents annual message as relates to the secret ser vice and is above set forth, and that the said portion of the message be laid on the table; and be it further
 Resolved, That the message of the President sent to the House on Jan uary 4, 1909, being unresponsive to the inquiry of the House and consti- tuting an invasion of the privileges of this House by questioning the motives and intelligence of members in the ex- ercise of their constitutional rights and functions, be laid on the table"
 Libeled the House.
 MT. Sherley took the floor and de- claring that he could not see how any other conclusion could be reached than that the President delib erately libeled the House, devoted his remarks principally to the Presidents refer ences to him in his special message. He characterized the action as grave breach of the privileges of the House and thereby grave injury to the country, and claimed that mo response to the previous resolution of the House could be accepted that did not con- tain a withdrawal of the offensive language objected to, and an apology therefor.
 In dealing with the Presidents direct reference to him, MT. Sherley read from the Congressional Record the remarks he made in the debate on the much-discussed limitation. He analysed his remarks and declared that the President mot only, by eliminating and subordinating several of my remarks, but also by ignoring the re- marks of Mir. Bennett that called them forth, undertakes to convey the impress sion that the fear of the secret service in- vestigation of members of Congress was the dominant idea in my mind. q did not have in my mind at any time the fear of being investigated by secret service men," continued MT. Sherley. Fitzgerald's Views. Mr. Fitzgerald, the last of the members of the committee on the appropriations
  tion with the secret service, said: T am opposed to the repeal of the pro- vision. shall oppose it's repeal if it be attempted"
 MT Fitzgerald refuted the Presidents views that the provision was in the inter est of criminals, and he quoted every ap- propriation to every department and bu- reau of the government for the year 1908 to show that large sums had been grant, cd Sti n a necessary in detecting frauds and effect ing punishment of the guilty. The secret service of the treasury department, he as- serted. was an insignificant part of the governments detective force. He believed the President had been misinformed by some one regarding the effect the legisla- ton would have in curtailing or shutting off Investigations of crimes or suspected crimes. It was apparent, however, he said,
 that 1t never had been the policy to es- tablsh 6 central police or spy system in the federal government.
 Follow wing a short speech by MT. Driscoll of New York, defending the President, Mir. Gardner of Massachusetts sprung a
 surprise by offering an amendment strik- ing out the whole text of the report and substituting a resolution as follows: Gardner's Resolution. Whereas, Certain misunderstanding | has arisen in regard to a clause in the l last annual message of the President; and 'Whereas, We believe that rnisappre- I hension exists as to the action of certain members of the House mentioned in the
 message of January 4, 1909;
 Resolved, That the House has the ut
 most confidence in every member or tho 1 committee on appropriations ! MT. Perkins made point of order ! against 1t which the speaker overruled. 1 The House was thrown into disorder when MT. Gardner moved to postpone the
 whole matter until Monday at o'clock. 1 Instantly there were cries of "No. no, | mo-"
 | On a viva voce vote the previous ques- | ton was ordered. The vote then recur- l ring on the amendment 1t was lost, 2S | to 225.
 The yeas and nays being refused on the request of MT. Gardner, he moved to ad- | journ.
 MT. Williams insisted that the motion | was dilatory. whereupon the speaker left