Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1886 — HOT WORDS IN THE HOUSE. [ARTICLE]

HOT WORDS IN THE HOUSE.

Morrison, Randall, and Bragg Indulge in a Lively Tilt on the Tariff Question. The Illinois Free-Trader Calls tbe Pennsylvania Protectionist a Traitor— Tbe Latter Retorts in Rind. In the National House of Representatives, on Tuesday, June 22, Mr. Morrison called up the proposed change of rule providing that every general pension bill may be amended by the addition of a provision for the imposition of a tax to meet the expenditure required by the bill. In advocating the proposition, Mr. Morrison argued that its adoption was absolutely necessary unless Congress was prepared to grant pensions and leave the Government without the means to pay them. He referred to the immense sums paid out for pensions since the war and the large amounts necessary for present and future requirements, and said that the gentleman from New York (Mr. and other gentlemen on both sides of the House had predicted that for the next fiscal year there would be a deficit of tU4,000,0-)0. Mr. Reed (Me.) expressed surprise that this rule was proposed to ho confined to pensions alone. There was not a practical man in the House who did not know that the proposed rule would be to fasten upon every pension hill some method of taxation which would prove obnoxious to men who might want to veto for the measure. He for one was not willing to enter on such an invidious course. Mr. Hiscock said that the Democratic party had not redeem* d a single pledge it had mode, but hud stood cowering before the country admitting that it was powerl* ss to lilt any burden from the people; that it had spent all the money, and that empty vaults were the fruit of Democratic victory. I Applause on the Republican side.] He wished to emphasize that a Democratic Congress had been in session for six months ; that it had accomplished nothing, and that in these last days of the session it stood confessing that it had known nothing about the receipts of the Government, and was incompetent to carry out any of its promises and pledges. (Applause on Republican side.| Messrs. Laird (Neb.), Cutcheon, s£nd Burrows (Mich.), and Henderson (Iowa), opposed the change. Mr. Bragg (Wis.) expressed delight at a reference made by Mr. Reed to the failure of thHouse to consent to consider revenue hills, saying ; I am delighted because it shows what sort of contempt the Republicans of this House feel for those who have been recreant to their faith and their pledges. While they are received with open arms and approbation for the act they have done they are thoroughly despised for their political defection. (Loud applause on the Democratic side.)

Continuing, he said that he had seen the gentleman from lowa (Mr. Henderson) take out the old hobby-horse to be ridden around again and danced about for the benefit of claim agents’ newspapers to be circulated among that class of men whose vote the Republicans thought could be bought by a pretense that the Republicans were the soldiers’ friends. [Applause on the Democratic side and sneering cries of “Oh I ohl” from the Republleans.] Mr. Bragg (imitating the Republicans)—Yes, “Ohl ohl” Why was it that when you bad a wo-thirds majority in this House, when the war was fresh, when men were suffering from wounds everywhere, that you placed a limitation on pensions, and provided that every claim not presented within five years should only commence to draw pension from the dute of application? Who did that? Will you answer me? “Oh! ohl” it was tho Republican party, “Oh! oh 1” Who was it that repealed the arrears limitation and paid the soldiers whose claims were pending from the date of disability? It was the Democratic partv ? “Oh! oh I’

Continuing, he maintained that there was nothing in the pending proposition looking to a refusal of pensions to soldiers. It did not refuse to grant pensions, but it provided for their payment. When gentlemen sprang into the field and cried out that it was an attack upon the soldier, they were attempting, under the guise of friendship for the soldier element, to protect the bondholder—to protect those men who, during the war, fattened on the blood of men in the field, and as contractors filled their purses. [Laughter and applause on Democratic side.] Mr. Randall—l did not intend to indulge in any further discussion of this subject, and I would not except for the language used by the gentleman from Wisconsin. I stand here his peer in every respect, with connection as pure as he can possibly have [applause on Republican side, participated in by the Democcats who followed Mr. Randall’s lead previously], and I have courage to maintain them. How is this question? Some years ago we had the same controversy, and I cast my vote then as I east it on Thursday—from conviction. I resisted anything that tended to free trade in tho United States and the lowering of wages to American laborers. [Applause on the Republican side.] I was condemned in some quarters for that vote. I went with the rest of you [addressing the Democratic side] to a national convention, where I was told that I would have no Republicans to help me. What was the result of that convention? Does any man here attempt to say that the measure reported to this House by the Committee on Ways and Means is in harmony with the spirit of that convention, or the enunciations of those who took the stump in its behalf? No. lam just to-day where I stood then. lam in favorof a revision of the tariff and the lowering of rates of duty, and a repeal in part of internal taxes, upon which the Ways and Meins Committee of this House has denied any one the privilege of a vote. [Applause.] I have only to say to the gentlemen from Wisconsin that he has from me as much contempt as I can well send to him [laughter and applause), and I am ready to discuss with him the propriety of my course. Mr. Hewitt declared that the measure reported by the Ways and Means Committee was in accordance with the Chicago platform. Mr. Morrison—The gentleman from Pennsylvania claims that no bill is tylr and in the spirit of the Chicago platform that does not present him an opportunity of voting on internal revenue taxes, and again and again he makes his promise as to what he would do; and we are reproached by the other side because at Chicago we pledged otirselvea against the repeal of internal taxes and in favor of a revision or the tariff. The gentleman from Pennsylvania had gone out of his way to say that the proposition presented by the Ways and Means Committee was not within the spirit of the Chicago platform. He wished to call attention to the fact that in nearly every paragraph of that platform the Democracy had pledged itself as a party to the reduction of tariff taxes, and bad especially declared in favor of the continuance of internal revenue taxes. The war taxes remain substantially as they did at the close of the war, and the party promised reduction. Yet the gentleman from Pennsylvania, notwithstanding the promise of redaction, and his desire to keep faith with the platform, would not vote to consider the bill unless it gave him an opportunity to do that which he had pledged himself not to do. The gentleman knew that the Chicago platform required additions to the free list. Mr. Randall asked if Mr. Morrison believed that President Cleveland could have been elected if the convention had declared for free raw materials. Mr. Morrison replied that Mr. Cleveland would have gotten more votes than he did. He had not carried Ohio, and had not carried Pennsylvania by 80,000 votes, and would not have carried them if the tariff on wool had been piled a mile high. After further debate Mr. Morrison moved the previous question on the adoption of the resolution. Mr. Reed moved as a substitute to lay the resolution on the table. The yeas and nays were ordered and resulted in the defeat of Mr. Reed’s substitute—yeas 128, nays 139 Before a vote could be taken on the original motion, Mr. Reed moved an adjournment, and the Republicans, by dilatory tactics, managed to consume the time up to 5 o’clock, when, under the standing order, the House adjourned amid an outburst of applause and derisive laughter from the Republicans.