Evening star., 1944-04-02
Fifty Years Ago

the nmelight in Congress. Under
pressure Of free silver en-
Silver Bill thusiasts a law had been
Vetoed passed, known as the seig-
norage bill, which was a
step toward the goal desired, absolutely
unlimited coinage at the ratio of 16
to l. President Cleveland, always a
sound money advocate, had vetoed the
act. The Star of April 2, 1894, COM
mented: 'The House has been still
stumbling along today without quorum.
Until they can get quorum :. = action
on the seignorage bill is delayed. There
Is no expectation on the part of the
silver men that they will be able to
pass the bill over the Presidents veto.
The attempt will be made only as a
formality and for the purpose of en-
phasizing disapproval of the Presidents
action It is quite apparent that
the radical silver men, who have not
made any effort to stand in line with
the administration, are far less con-
cerned than are those who have here
+to1ore tried to fit silver sentiment to
administration loyalty" sAn.ses se" .
=
Another law of international char
acter was prepared for passage by Con-
gress, the Bering Sea
Seol Poochers bill Said The Star
Bill Of April 4, 1894. ut
will be slipped through
the House without the usual delays Incl
dent to legislation. The Senate had lust
passed the bill = The House COM
mittee, therefore, voted unanimously to
report the Senate bill" 1t covered the
protection of seals in the Bering Sea.
and by agreement with Great Britain
gave Americans the right to seize Brit
lsh vessels in the area if their crews
were engaged in seal poaching.
Congress was alarmed over a menace
from Russia; but there was no dist,rh-
ance In diplomatic
lnvosion of q quarters, either Rus
Weed sian or American. The
Russians, in fact, were
as much annoyed by the menace as
any one else, and probably more So for
1t was weed known as the Russian
thistle. Accidentally imported to the
United States, it had seized whole areas
of the Middle West for its own and
was in danger of becoming a national
calamity. According to Senator George
OF Mississippi, as quoted in The Star
of April 5, 1894: This weed is a pest
that should be exterminated, but the
nature Of the thistle is such that no
man would do it on his land if his
nelghbor refused to do it on his" He
therefore wanted s1,000,000 appropriated
for Uncle Sam to do the job, and laws
passed that would allow temporary Fed
eral incursion on private property if
owners objected, to carry out the eradi-
cation.
Important changes in the money-order
system were announced in The Star of
March 81, 1894 The old
New Money certificate, known as
Order postal note, had many
defects. 1t could be issued
only up to five dollars, so that often
the sender had to buy bundles of them
If he desired to remit respectable
amount, which wasted time, printing
and paper, and caused excessive fees.
1t was too readily negotiable. In the
words of the article, The practice of
requiring the payee to sign his name
upon payment is a farce and a fraud,
since there is no means of preventing
mistake in payment and no way of
checking or counterchecking for the
security either of the postmaster who
issued the note or the one who paid it,"
General CoXey, en- route to Wash
ington with his army OF unemployed.
made his longest march
Coxey on the to date~--fDm Beaver
March Fails, Pa. to Sewickley,
a suburb Of Pittsburgh.
As described in The Star OF April ., 1894:
THE rolice made. NO arrests and re-
port the behavior of the army to have
been excellent, although All attempted
burglary was reported = SONGS
laughs and coarse tests re-echoed In
the hOllcwS as the perennial morning
srumble at grub could be heard" The
mob was only 243 strong on that date,
but evidently justified It's claim to the
title OF army by usurpins A preroeative
claimed by practically every army In
history, namely, that OF complaining
about the food served.