Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1892 — DEMOCRATS AND THE G. A. R. [ARTICLE]

DEMOCRATS AND THE G. A. R.

vi * . *i-gt _t,-.: i;>.i.... •/ ®her Won Id Wo* Giro a Penny fop Their Entertainment. So much has been said about the refusal of the Democrats to give any recognition to the G. A. R. at Washington that it may be interesting to know just what the cold facts are. An investigation shows that, the house appropriation committee made no appropriation for or recognition of the event in framing the District of Columbia appropriation bill. Nor did the house itself do so. After the Ml had been passed in the house President Harrison, seeing ‘ that sent a message to congress calling attention to the subject and suggesting the desirability and propriety of reasonable aid f<?r a proper entertainment of the- men wliosaved the nation. - : iS™

The senate appropriations committee, acting upon the president’s suggestion, reported an, amendment giving SIOO,OOO for this purpose. Senator Cockrell immediately moved that the amount be paid exclusively from the revenues ol the District of Colombia. This was voted down, the motion, however, receiving 17 votes, of which 16 were cast by Democrats and Farmers’ Alliance members—nearly all of them from the south. When the bill went into conference, however, the house conferees insisted upon placing the Cockrell amenddown the appropriation to $75,000. This was combated by the senate conferees, and the bill was hung np in conference for weeks, < •-*

The house conferees, with the weight Of the three-quarters Democratic house behind them, were able to carry throng! their proposition, and the senate conferees were obliged to yield and permit the entire burden to be placed on the district. The Republicans in both houses spoke and voted almost solidly against the proposition to place the entire.burden on the district, saying frankly that the people of the nation would not only willingly bear a share of the expenses, but esteem it a favor to be permitted to do so. The only result of their effort*, however, was to get the total appropriation finally fixed at $90,000 instead of $76,000, as urged by the house conferees.

I believe it will be possible to constitute a commission nonpartisan in its membership, and composed of patriotic, wise and impartial men, to whom a consideration of the questions of the evils connected with oar election systems and methods might be committed.—Harrison’s Letter of Acceptance.