People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1894 — FROM WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

FROM WASHINGTON.

HA.n Interertlnff Batch of News I From the Capitol. Kf.'oui our Regular Correspondent. I Washington. June 8. ’94. ■ .Senator Allen, of Nebraska, ■ides not differ from other honest ■people in thinking that no law yught to be needed to prevent ■Senators speculating in stocks ■bid other things that may be ■bJected by Congressional legislation, but the knowledge he has ■sained as a member of the comBmittee that is investigating— at ■a snail's pace—the trust scandal ■aas convinced him that such a is needed, it having been ■lAwn that there are Senators ■whose moral probity has not ■strong enough to keep them ■from indulging in such specula■tion. Therefore he has intro■duced a bill bearing the sugges■ive title: “A bill to preserve ■the purity of National legislation,’ - and providing that it shall ■>e unlawful for any Senator or ■Representative to own or be concerned directly or indirectly in ■owning, buying or selling or in ■ny manner dealing in speculative stocks, the value of which ■may in any manner depend upon ■ vote of Congress; also, to be a ■member or interested pecuniarly ■n any board of trade, stock ex ■change, national bank, or other ■organization in which such ■stocks are bought and sold. The ■penalty for violation of this ac to be expulsion from Congress, ■ to being subject to ■riminal indictment and convic■ldn. The bill also provides that ■he oath of office taken by SenaKors and Representatives shall ■oe made to cover the things prohibited by the bill. It is not Mattering to oui’ national pride ■hat such a bill should be introduced, nor is the testimony so ■ar taken in the sugar scandal. I• • • ■ The Senate investigating com■nittee has been rather sharply Criticized for having adjourned ■ver two days this week to await ■he arrival of out of town witnesses when there are a scOTe of men ■n the Capitol building who ■night have been called on to ■estify. The only two members ■M the House—Warner, of N. ■Y., and Cadmus, of N. J.—who save been witnesses took advantage of their official positions ■nd refused to mention names. ■Representative McKeighan, of ■Nebraska, convulsed the House ■"."Ah laughter and gave the feountry a new nutshell history ■of the evolutionary politics when ■he said: A mugwump is merely la republican with a conscience—la republican with courage to do tight— a republican with brains ■o think and who insists on ■thinking, and thinks himself out ms the republican party and becomes a full fledged mugwump. ■Then he is taken into the demoleratic fold on probation. If he ■ceases to think he is allowed to ■remain, but if he still insists on ■his right to think he is driven ■into the third party, and that ■makes a populist.” • • • I Representative Conn, of the ■Elkhart, Indiana district has ■bought the Washington Times, ■the penny daily that was started la few weeks ago as the organ of ■the wage-workers of the Nationjaf Capital, and will continue the ■publication. Although Mr. ■Conn is a democrat he says that ■politics shall not enter into the ■policy of the paper, which will ■not be changed. The paper has la good circulation for a new one, ■but up to this time its advertising patronage has been very ■poor. I• • • I Many Senators who are loud ■in their abuse of the sugar trust ■have no real desire to injure that ■concern. It does not seem problable that among the numerous ■ amendments offered to the sugar ■schedule and voted down one ■that would have done the busiIness for the trust, simply proIposing that refined sugar be adIjjjitted free, should have been

unintentionally omitted. Everybody knows that the tariff on refined sugar is wholly and solely for the benefit of the sugar trust. Yet no Senator proposed that it be struck out. The nearest approach to that proposition being the amendment offered by Senator Peffer to admit all sugar free, which was defeated by a vote of 37 to 26. This in connection with the testimony taken by the investigating committee has convinced most unprejudiced people that the charge of the sugar trust having and exercising a “pull” on the Senate was substantially true, as well as the other charge that individual Senators have made money by speculating in the stock of the sugar trust since the tariff bill was passed by the House. One of the remarkable things about the debate which preceded the .vote on the schedule was Senator Vest’s charge that the Senate had also surrendered to the sugar trust when the McKinley bill was passed, just as though that were a justifiable excuse for the present surrender—two wrongs never yet made one right. • • • Representative Mercer, of Nebraska, was married here Wednesday afternoon to Miss Birdie Abbott, a sister-in law of Judge Lochran, Commissioner of Pensions. Mr. Mercer is a republican, but his marriage is likely to increase his influence at the Pension Office. • • • The friends of the repeal of the tax on State bank currency were long on confidence during the debate, but they were short on votes and the bill was defeated in the House by a vote of 170 to 102.