2230 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. ~fAROH 18, books, the specialties of the profession, can be obtained in the Con iutere ts, not alone of one or more State , but of the ent ire Union. gre ional Library and there be loaned out . It ha been before State Legislature and State con titutional con Mr. LOGAN. Not at all. I said no such thing. ventions, and has there inaugnratecl now and untried measures of :Ur. MORRILL, of Maine. A.ncl for that very reason my honorable legislation; and now this que tion come before Congre ~,not, incleell, friend will see that the Congressional Library is not at all reliable for as an utter stra.n11er to these Halls, as I shall enrl.eavor to show, l>ut such an il1 titution as this. with an empha is of demand far greater than it has hitherto pos Mr. LOGAN. The Senator misunderstood me entirely. I said sessed in our nation's annals. nothing about havin~ the e books put up here in the Congressional ~iEW ERA~ THE lUTJO~'S LIFE. Library; but that this should be a part ofit, because the Library of Con!!Tess should have jurisdiction, and exercise it, over all the books The reason of the increa.sed importance which this question has thatbelong to the Government as part of that library, it makes no acquired in the eye of the public is obvious. For there i scarcely difference where the books are kept. need in this presence to mention the fact that our Repuulic has now Mr. MORRILL, of Maine. 1\Iy honorable friend is statin(J' a gen entered upon a new era of existence, and has renched a tage of a{]. eral proposition with which I am entirely in accord. I think as to vancement which marks essentially a new period in its history. Our t.be practice of the Government-and we are going to try to correct statesmanship iu the future is to be chiefly tlirected to achievements it to some extent this session-there is a practice of buying books for which in the past have ueen comparatively subordinate. various public libraries, which is erroneous. WHAT THE NATION HAS ACHIEVED. Mr. LOGAN. That is it exactly. I did not mention that, but I The first century since the date when the American people began meant just that. to devise measures for the general welfare through the in trumental Mr. MORRILL, of 1\Iaine. But this does not touch that. ity of a Federal Congress, will during the present year have reachell Mr. LOGAN. You can go to the Bureaus and find a book of the its close. The work of that century has been, indeed, a great one ; sa,me kind in every one of them, and find·the same in the Library, -pur and is displayed in results which it would be idle for me to enumer chased three, four, and sometimes eight-or ten times, by the Govern ate, or, perhaps, even to mention. Suffice it to say that tatesman ment. ship hitherto has found an appropriate field for the performance of Mr. MORRILL, of Maine. I agree to that; but what I would be duty in the tasks imposed in the securing of our national independ very glad to invite my honorable friend's attention to is the distinc ence; in the first creation of the Union of the States; in the prac tion uetween that and this precise thing. It is as broad as anything tical adjustment of our political institutions to those principles and can be. Wheu we look to the fact, which I got up to emphasize, that doctrines of democratic freedom upon which they are theoretically the object is the support of the museum, whiCh I know my friend de founded; in the provisionof the requi ite machinery for effecting the sires, and that the books are simply ancillary, the question becomes required purposes of the Government and the putting of that ma a very plain one in my mind. It was in this sense that the commit chinery into proper order; in establishing the relations of the new tee, with a desire to retrench, agreed to reduce this item to $5,000! but Republic with the family of the world's nations; and more recently on further examination we came a.s clearly to the conclusion that the in the removal of that greatest obstacle which has ever existed to sum ought to be 10,000. the real completion of national unity and the reconciliat ion of sec Mr. CHANDLER. I move that the Senate proceed to the considera tions, through an experience which, however stern and severe, has at tion of executive business. the last culminated in the attainment of a ground-work for perrna The motion was agreed to; and the Senate proceeded to the con nent prosperity and future growth, which may be deemed to fitly close sideration of executive business. After twenty minutes spent in the formative, unifying and organizing period in the life of the na. executive session the doors were reopened, and (a,t five o'clock and tion. fifteen minutes p.m.) the Senate adjourned. THE NATION'S NEXT DUTY. The work which lies before the American people, and cannot fail to demand marked attention from the Government in the era upon which we are now entering, is the inauguration of more enlarged and comprehensive measures for the interior development of the entire HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. country. It is the encouragement of industries in every portion of WEDNESDAY, March 18, 1874. the land, and the devising of plans for rendering its almost· immeas urable resources available for the well-being of the people who dwell The House met at twelve o'clock m., Mr. ALBERT in the chair as upon the soil of the Republic. It is the especial task of the imme Speaker pro tempore. Prayer by Rev. GEORGE P . HAYS, D. D., of diat-e future to make the territory we occupy a fitting theater for the Wa-shington and Jefferson College, Washington, Pennsylvania. activities and energies of a people who, in material thrift and busi 1\fr. DONNAN. I move that the reading of the Journal be dispensed ne s enterprise, are laying the best po sible ba is for the institutions with. of intelligent liberty, and a high and advancecl civilization. There being no objection, the motion was agreed to. . Everything, therefore, relating to the welfare of our material inter The SPEAKER pro tempore. The House meets to-day for debate ests, our agriculture, our manufactures, our commerce, everything only; uo business whatever to be transacted. The subject of discus which proVIdes for making capital remunerative, or for giving a gen sion is the bill (H. R. No.1385) to regulate commerce by railroads in erous reward for labor, comes to us weighted with incentives ancl the several States. obligations which no man can oyerlook and retain the least claim to INTERSTATE COMMERCE. true statesmanship or enlightened patriotism. Mr. WILLARD, of 1\fichi~an. 1\Ir. Speaker, the interest elicited in SURPRISING GROWTH OF COMMERCE. .. the discussion of this bill IS sufficiently warranted by the ultimate This duty requires additional force at this particular juncture, from object which it seeks to accomplish. That object is the exemption the fact that the business activity and wealth-producing facilities of our interstate commerce from unnecessary and unjust burdens. of the world are just now undergoing a remarkably rapid develop But while the bill embodies a plan for the regulation of fares and ment. The unexampled increa.se of commerce among the civilized freights imposed by railway corporations, we may still assume that nations of the globe, appears to be exactly coincident with and is no its real purpose is the permanent provision of cheap transit in the doubt in large measure the cause of, that unprecedented urgency with interchange of commercial products throughout the immense extent which this question of interstate commerce is now forced upon the of country which owes allegiance to this Government, and is entitled public consideration. to its care. The Government regulation of railway traffic is only a "Within the last two deca cation of steam to manufactures a.nd transportation, together with and achievement. It indicates the line of march taken by the races the opening of the gold-fields in California and Australia , as also the distinguished for material and socialimprovement, art, culture, liberty, ambition for industrial achievements enkindled by the new ideas of and religion. Where a bountiful natnre had already provided facili political liberty, everywhere manifest, have contrlbutecl to this mar ties for t.ransportation, there we find the theater of industry and en velous ai}.dition to the world's capital, have impressed a new feature lightenment. Europe and ·western Asia, intersected by numberless upon the age in which we live, and have inevitably impelled us to a. S'eas, inlets, and rivers, invited energy and business thrift, while Africa, new crisis of statesmanship. with an even coast and an '1lmost riverless interior, discom·aged com RESPONSIBILITY OF TillS CONGRESS. merce and turned civilization from i.ts shores. It wa-s transportation ·without undervaluing, therefore, the importance of the various that led the star of empire westward; and it is that which gives to other questions which now await legislative deliberation and dispo America, with her inviting sea-coast, her inland lakes, her mightv sal, -there can be no hazard in declaring that the responsibility of the rivers, and her artificial pathways of iron~ an advancement and a present Congress is so fully centered in the duty of clearing the way social and moral conditlon which forty centuries of attempted im and taking the initiatory steps for the proper solution of the trans provement have denied to Asia. portation problem, and in the adoption of the right method of Gov ARTIFICIAL FACILITIES DEMlLl'fDED. ernment action in regard to internal improvements, that the meeting But these commercial facilities are never so adequately supplied by of this responsibility on t.he one hand, or its evasion on the other, will nature that they need no improvement at the hand of man. -The respectively determine whether the Forty-third Congress will enjoy incentive given by their partial supply naturally inspires an endeavor the credit of having nobly and courageously improved, or of having to make this supply more complete. This bas led to great works for weakly and negligent.ly missed the opportunity of a performance improving the channels of trade and inland communication at those· commensurate with. the requirement of the hour. periods when the spirit of enterprise has shed luster 'Q.pon the age in THE BETTER POLICY INDICATED. which it was manifest. The milita.ry roads built throughout tho If, in my remarks upon the bill now under consideration, I shall be Roman Empire were only-second in importance to the Roman law in able to contribute something toward exciting a deeper sense of this preparing the way for the institutions of modern society. The little responsibility, or toward indicating the practicaJ. methods of meeting state of Holland, in her bravely undertaken antl bravely completed it, I shall have accomplished all that I design, and almost more than system of dikes and canals, laid the foundation of an industrial I can dare to expect. In this attempt I shall leave to others the dis prosperity and of a stand for libert-y which have surrounded her with cussion of the legal aspects of ~ the proposition now before the House, a rare glow upon the historic page, and will ever continue to elicit • as well as the work of arraying statistics to prove the imperiousness the admiring attention of mankind. Nor is our own country without a of the demand for legislation in behalf of the interests of our inter conspicuous instance of the same kind. The State of New York, state commerce, and shall confine myself to suggestions upon what I under the lead a.nd inspiration of that illustrious statesman, DeWitt deem the true national policy on a great national question. Clinton, with a courage then without example, and since almost The end, Mr. Speaker, sought to be reached by the plan proposed by without parallel on this hemisphere, opened the Erie Canal as the the very able Committee on Canals and Raih·oads, and supported by highway for western commerce, aml thereby secured to herself a what must be confessed to be exceedingly cogent arguments, is one commercial supremacy freely accortled in the proud title she wears which cannot f::til to challenge universal approval. Accordingly, it the Empire State. is with regret that I find myself obliged to dissent from the views of INDIVIDUAL EFFORT INADEQUATE. the committ-ee, when they come to bring forward the measures by Sir, we cannot doubt that to improve the channels of commerce is . which they propose to secure that end. The result desired is cheap to promote the best interests of society and to lift the nation to true transportation; and the committee certainly deserve the thanks of greatness. But we must remember that the accomplishment of such the House and of the country for the earnestness, vigor, and patriotic works is not within the reach of a single arm. Individuals cannot zeal with which they have endeavored to grapple with the difficul wield the for~e or provide the means requi ite for so great a task. ties and to overcome the giant evils which obstruct the attainment of Hence an aggregation of capital and an association of effort must be this result. In what I am about to say, therefore, if I shall oppose secured. No one man's unaided enterprise can protect Louisiana their method, it will not be because I do not most heartily sympa from the overflow o.f the 1\~issiesippi, or Holland from the angry and thize with their purpose, but ·because I believe that for the attainment destructive inva-sions of the North Sea. o one man's unaided ability of this purpose there is a more excellent way. I firmly cherish the con is sufficient to connect the great lakes with the Hudson, or to span viction that there is a better path through the entangling wilderness the continent with a rail way. which is hedged about this question than can be found in any direct Federal interference with existing facilities-! mean the path of Gov ' CORPORATIONS OR TilE GOVER...'OIID;T, TO WIDCH SHALL WE RESORT~ ernment aiel in creating certain great arteries of inland communica But the necessary aggregation of capital and association of effort tion for commerce and trade, both by water and land-arteries which can only be obtained through corporations or through the action of being kept open for the flow of our products, will afford every needeu the Government. Between these we must make our choice. The regulation for our interstate traffic. danger of having no alternative but the uncontrolled power of the The reasoning which, in my view, justifies a policy of this kind, is former has become clearly obvious; and the want of such an alterna based upon the highest considerations of public utility, and is over tive has brought the industrial interests of the country t 2232 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. }fARCH 18, VIEWS OF FRAN~. THE PLAN OF THE COmriTTEE ~EXPEDIE:IT . Benjamin Franklin desired to give this. ~rero.~ative explicit m~n The expediency of looking in the direction here imlicaterl for the tion, and moved to add to the clause authonzmg Congress to establish regulation of our interstate traffic is, therefore, the especia1 feature of post-roads the following worus: "and to provide for cutting canals tho question wnich remains for the nation to consider. The greatest when deemed necessary." With his prophetic eye the foremost sag~ argument to be urged in support of this expediency is the difficulty of America seemed to foresee the imperious needs of the very crisis of providing the requisite transportation fuc.ilit ies, at reasonable ancl to which we have now come. He seemeu to grasp aml comprehend controllablerates, by any other method. The people justly compl::tin of the dema,nds of our inland commerce, and the pressing call of the th13 evils of monopoly in our 'internal carrying trade, but experience mcasurelljss product.s of the Mississippi Valley for free and open path has shown that the evils of monopol.v seldom find an effic:.teious rem ways to the sea. And it is doubtful, Mr. Speaker, whether that chief edy in direct government.al interposition for the regulation of values. est of statesmen who adorned our history previous to and during the The very life of bu iness is freedom ; anu that life loses Hs energy time of the formation of the Republic, is more entitled to the gratitude when subjected to arbitrary laws, imposed by an authority other than of posterity for the matchless sagacity with which, as the agent of the its own. Human inuustry and its product, capital, are liable to innu Colonies at the court of Saint J ames, he circumventeu the designs of mer(tble conditions and to countless varieties of relation to each other Brit ish tyranny, or for the scientific skill with which he showed how and to society; and no wisdom has yet ~een great enough t o point ont to ward the lightning's bolt-s from human life and property, than for a better plan than to leave them to the self-regulating ba.lance-wheel his standing forth in the FederaJ Convention of 1787 a-s the a SECONDED BY MADISO~ A..1W OTHERS. REGULATIO~ BY A COIDIISSION DIFFICULT · AND DANGEROUS. The proposition of Franklin received the cordial support of James The principle of regulation by specific law, itself difficult anu dan • Madison, who, in the course of the debate upon it, declared that, "the gerous, gives plac"e tq greater danger and greater difficulties when political obstacles to a -union of the States being remqved, a removal the regulation is submitted to the arbitrary control of a commission. of the natural ones, as far as possible, ought to follow;" and the States This commission must be composed of men; and where are the means of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Georgia gave to the amendment an to be found for inevitably securing a class of men who shall approach affirmative vote. the delicate and intricate task imposed upon them without favor and But the instrument, without the amendment, was not considered without prejuuice Y Setting aside the fact that, if the members of the defective in its grant of power in this regaru; for we find Edmund commission should be among the most sagacious and just citizens that Randolph urging upon the people of Virginia th!3 adoption of the could be obtained for the purpose, they would still be unable to. ac1just Federal Constitution on the ground that it would open the way for the relations of inve-stment and profit in a business of such immense the inauguration and perfection of great internal improvements by magnitude, who is to guarantee that these meiJ- shall be wisely and the General Government. The views of Alexander Hamilton uuon Judiciously selected f Who shall assure us t hat they will be wholly this subject are familiar to all. He saw in the Constitution every impartial f Who shall give us warrant that they will not be cho, en agency which could be brought out-and used for extending the vital in the interest of the railroads¥ Or~ .if we avoid this Scylla, who shall currents of commerce throughout the land, and for infusing· life and gua.rd us from the opposite Charyu<.lis of having a body of men in that the means of growth into the industrial interests of the people. position who would refuse to recognize for railroad corporations oven the most common rights of property Y Do we not know that tho ap SUPPORTED BY SUBSEQUE!Io'T STATESM:Ji:N. pointing power which should name this commission would be too Certain reasons, in a later period of our history, induced a construc great a stake for the railroad party on the one hancl, or the anti-rail tion of the Constitution which would place a limit to this power. road party on the other, to forego the effort to secure it without a. At one time this doctrine was especially prevalent at the South. But, violent stru(J'gle Y Thus we should have a strife in our national poli sir, I would remind you that it wasacitizen of Georgia, Mr. Baldwin, tics, an appfe of discord in our public affairs, which, to say the lea t, au able and influential statesman, and afterward United States Sena it is exceedingly unsatisfactory to contemplate, and which, above all tor from the present Empire State of the South, who stood up, eighty things, we shoulcl hesitate to invoke. We ought, I think, to pause years ago, in the American Congress and advocated the policy of before inaugurating a state' of things in which the great body of the national internal improvements, for the very rea-son, which we find so agricultm·al and other producers, and the exclusive owners of aU the strongly forced upon our consideration at. this time, that these im channels of our vast inland commerce and the highways over which provements could not be efficiently and successfully conducted by the the p-roducts of the continent are. to be carried, shall be put into a several States. In the House of Representatives, February 11, 1794, necessa.ry and inevitable condition of commercial and finaJly of politi on the bill to provide for an extended survey of post-roads, he struck cal antagonism. The bill is objectiona,ble, if for no other reason than the key-note of the argument for all similar measures, declaring that that it offers a bid for the railroads to strive for the political supremacy it was" the business of -the Government to undertake the improve of the country, and to gain the control of the national Legislature anu ment of the roads; for the different States are incompetent to the busi the Federal courts. ness, their different designs clashing with each other." A DESIRABLE 1874. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 2233 tition and thus insure to us cheapness¥ I belie"\te there is snch a cated by a single glance at the map. At one point the valleys of the powe;-a power wh.ich can be Oll;sily e~er~.e~ forth<: ttniversal W:!=llfare, Ohio and the James Rivers approach each other in close proximity · and without trenchmg upon a smgle mdivl(lual nght; a power t.hat anu at another point those of tho Tennessee and the Altamaha each can re«uln.te commerce by the unerring and unfailing law of compe traversed by large, navigable streams, and inv-itinrr the constr~ction titiou,~ voices whose echoes still linger in this Capitol, reminding us of the ous, in encouraging a system that would enhance the price of yonr earnest convictions and high aspirations which from time to time, in products aml the value of your property. \V e have aided to give regard to this consummation, have found utterance from the lips of thrift to your enterprises, to enlarge your cities, and to build up your the most illustrious statesmen of the Republic. 1 truly imperial industries; and now, in our turn, we a k you to be NATIO:-IAL DEBT OUGHT NOT TO HINDER. equally indulgent and equally generous when we come with a de mand that consideratiOn should be given to a subject m which we But in advocating this view of national policy, I am not unaware have a special and peculiar interest. As we have been willing to see that I present a view which in many quarters is considered impmcti t.hat our welfare was bound up in one common de tiny with yours, ct~ble and even utopian. so now may you see that your welfare is bound up with ours. Those who propo e a system of national improvements on a scale sufficient to meet the wants of the country are accused of temerity, THE DUTY OF A CIVILIZED PEOPLE. especially at this time, when the nation is so heavily burdened with We all recognize the truth, Mr. Speaker, that this is a business age; debt. But the Hou e should be reminded that wealth is the result of and what man is there among us worthy to bear the name of Ameri enterprise, not of a mere hard-fisted and grinding economy. .Men in can, whose pulse does not beat fa ·ter, and the current of who e life private business do not make improvements simply because they are blood does not have a quicker fiow, as he observes the magnificent sufficiently rich and abounding in means ; but becau e, if poor, they march and the constantly increasing conquests of our enterpri e This desire to be so no longer, and if already wealthy, they wish to become enterprise is the leading feature of the time in which we live, and wealthier. The path from poverty to riches is taken. by those who conspicuously indicates the duty as well as the de tiny of the people have energy and enterprise; and the determination to pursue that of this Union. And the people everywhere are lifting themselves up path has inspired nearly every f?reat undertaking which ha-s lifted the to tbe level of tills inspiring thought, in regard to the obligations human race to a high~r level of enjoyment and prosperity. When a that lie inlmediately before them. We do not occupy this domain of nation cea-ses to develop the resources of its wealth, then look for territory, stretching from ocean to ocean, and bounded re pectively, the destruction of its credit, for the financinJ. embarrassment of its in its extreme limits north and south, by the Arctic Circle and the people, and a fixed paralysis upon all their ener(J'ies. Tropic of Cancer; we do not occupy this territory a a race of avages That cheap transit is the national road to we~th we cannot doubt. whose only aim it is to gain a temporary subsistence from the pro The products of the country, if they can only command the prices ductions of its soil, and to bequeath it to the generation that shall they deserve, would soon relieve the nation of the burden of its debt, succeed us in the same condition in which we found it, without devel would give us the bahtnl:!e of trade with foreign nations, and thus at opment and without improvement. Nor are we, as a semi-barbarous once solve the otherwise intricate riddle of the currency. It would people, simply to extract the precious ores from its mountain , to give better rewards to the labor and higher profits to the investments cut down its noble forests, and to use its rivers and lakes a· a of the western farmer, and also cheaper bread1 cheaper clothing, and means of communication, just as they may chance to have been pro cheaper homes to the eastern workingmen. In short, there is no vided by nature, 'vithout any attempt to improve and enlarge upon other key which will unlock so many of the trying and difficult ques the munificence of her bounty. No; sir; our mission, the mis ion tions of American statesmanship as this. imposed by our civilization, is a higher and a nobler one. 'Ve are to embellish this country and to adorn it with u eful and permanent OBJECTION OF JOBBERY ANSWERED. improvements. Toward this result private enterpri e is to contribute It is further objected to this policy of Federal improvements that within the sphere of its ability, and where the need requir , munici it opens the way for jobbery and peculation. But this argument pal and State aid is to be rendered, and when these prove in ufficient should not be allowed to lillve wejght before an intelligent people, the strong arm of the Republic itself must be invoked, especially who are determined to exercise a watchful scrutiny over the acts of when the requirement of aid is enforced by obligation which are their officials. If the logic here used proves anything, it proves too derived from one of the most weighty and solemn purpose for which much. If it has any force, as applied to the measure before us, it ha-s the Union was created, the promotion of the general welfare of the force also against every measure which intrusts the Government people who made and who sustain this Government. with an expenditure of money. Perhaps we had better cease all operations whereby any finanCial outlay is made, because it affords a THE CRY OF' THE WEST. chance for mismanagement and plunder. But, Mr. Speaker, when we Especially do the people of the interior demand the improvements are prepared to concede that we can have no honesty of administration, for which I now plead. The voice that is echoed throucrhout tho the time will have come £or us to abandon all hopes of having a gov :Mississippi Valley, and which rings from the Alleghanies to the Rocky ernment for this Republic. The people have faith in their form of Mountains, is the same as that which sounded from the lips of tlle government, for it is the l>eople's OWllj and they will :find a way for famous ten thousand Greeks, as they threaded their way through securing economy and judiciousness in the expenditure of the public the fastnesses of Asia Minor, or that which becn.mt3 the watch-worcl funds. Indeed, a rigid watchfulness of the way ip which their money in our own times of the army of Sherman in its march from Atlanta, is spent will be one of the most essential. features of their policy. In and that cry is, "The sea, the sea!" \Ve come with no ho tile forces; this sign they will conquer, by this rule they will measure and de we come with no warlike battalions; we ask no tribute and demand termine the amount of the confidence which they repose in their public no forage; we come iu the name of that Peace which hath her vic men; and by it they will largely juclge of the qualifications which tories more renowned than tho e of War ; we come in tlle name of a they shall demand in those to whom they shall confide the administra great people and a great industry, with an offer of bles ing and pro - tion of their affairs. perity to the entire nation-the East as well as the ·west, the North as well as the South-and we demand for ourselves and the millions REPLY TO THE OBJECTION OF UNEQUAL BEYEFIT. who are to come after us, free, open, and unrestricted pathways for Another objection frequently urged against these undertakings by our commerce to both oceans, the Atlantic and the Pacific. the Government is, that they do not confer equal benefits upon every Mr. WOLFE. Mr. Speaker, the size of this body, the rule which part of the Union. But this objection is chiefly made by those who govern it, and the practice observed by the Chair, and I might add, have hitherto reaped the most solid advantages from Federal legisla "the good of the seryice," do not permit eYery member to speak when tion in behalf of their own industrial interests. If the western he wants to, or upon any subject he may select: The division of the farmer has ever been induced to murmm at the unequal effects of the Ho~e into committees, and the as ignruent of the various subjects of tariff, he has at once suppressed that murmur when confronted with legislation to the appropriate committees, wisely transfer most of the suggestion that the impo ition, though somewhat unfair and un the valna"\lle labor of thi often noi."'y and confused body to the quiet equal, was still for the general benefit of American industry. The and orderly committee-room, wl1ere the subjects can and do receive laborer in Michigan and Iowa has realized his common fellowship patient and careful consideration. with the laborer in Pittsburgh and Lowell; andashe hastakenhisway At all events, such h.t been tlle case with the bill now tm 1874. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 2235 lie unties with some decent regard to the rights of the public; and if way; you mn,y invade the province of private right on the public we shall be compelled to say, as a naked question of constitutional rivers, but in the name of democracy, in the name of State right , in law, that Congress, and no other body, has the power to intervene on the name of private right, you must not do the same, or anything like behalf of the people and to apply the remedy, then our duty is plain. it, upon our public railroads~'' The oath that we have taken to "support the Constitution of the I tell gentlemen who make such a proclamation that they arc not Uuited States" is no more binding thn,n is thu,t part of the on,th by the oracles who hold in their hands the key of the temple in which which we are bound to "bithfully dischn,rge our uuty." It is oUT I worship. The creed of my political church is not such a bundle of . duty to support the nn,tionul Government in all its just and necessary inconsistencies as they would have us believe. No, sir; the day, thn,nk powers, as much as it is to support n,nu protect the State governments God., has gone by, and I hope never to retUTn7 when any political in the exercise of all their reserved rights and powers. party in this country can be controlled by any of these "one-ideaed" Gentlemen who make such loud pretensions in uefense of tha,t Con abstractions. 0, will my dear friends~who seem so nervous on this · stitution must remember that it is just as much a, violn,tion of t.hat subject never learn that the democratic party is a livin&' organization sacred instrument for a State to exercise a power that is delegated to simply because it is founded upon living issues; and tnat whenever tho nited States, as it is for the nited States to exercise a power it ~:~hall have nothing but the dead bones of the past to hold up to the that was reserved to the Stu,tes. The two governments, so fl1r as gaze of the people the logic of events will prove that the system of the United States has been established. That system now From thee figures it will be seen that the transportation question embraces about seventy thousand miles of road, whose iron bands in all of its aspects is of the first importance to the people of the stretch their wonderflll net-work over the entire country. The value central valley. It is too important to be pushed aside in order to of that peculiar kind of property is estimated at something near sustain any fine, hair-splitting abstractions. The peopl will not have, $4,000,000,000; and the earnings of these corporations amount annu and should not have, any patience when their vital interests are ally to $400,000,000, a sum about equal to the entire revenues of the threatened with perpetual restrictions with these fine-spun theories. United St.ates. The obstructions at the mouth of the ~f.ississippi My theory is, that the Government was made for the people, and should River-which render that otherwise great highway, as an outlet to be so arlministered as to subserve their interests; and when it ceases foreign commerce, almost useless-compel the tifteen or eighteen mil to l>e of that character, it should be remou.eled so as to accomplish that · lion people who inhabit the gTeat valley of that river and its trib beneficent purpose. utaries, including fifteen States, with their $1,000,000,000 worth of Now, sir, in view of the depressed condition of agriculture in the annual productions, to employ these interst.ate railroads in the trans West, and the can es which have produced it, which are a scarcity of portation of their vast surplus productions to the sea-board, for sale money and the ob tructions of interstate commerce by reason of in foreign countries, or to be consumed by the non-agricultural re these railroad extortions and a lack of proper water-communications gions of the East, or the non-cereal-producing regions of the South. to tp.e sea-bon,rd-1 say, in view of these facts, need we l,e astonished The present condition of the avenues of our interstate and domestic that there is a popular and indignant uprising and earnest protest commerce leaves the agricultural people of the great Northwest almost throughout the country, known as the granger movement f }'or my entirely dependent upon the railroa-ds for the means of carrying their part, my only astonishment is that the revolution did not becrin sooner. productions to market, while the East and . the South are equally That it has lieen so long delayed is evidence that the people ::.re patient dependent upon the same carriers to receive these agricultural pro and long-sufforing. ductions for the supply of their people with food. During nearly one The questions that are presented by this bill are highly interest half of the year, while the Erie Canal, in New York, and the Welland ing, not only on account of the fact that they involve a grnve issue Canal, in Canada, are closed by ice, the entire commerce between the in the old contest between capital and labor, but also because the West and the East is carried on over the four great trunk-line rail questions in the form presented, as political questions, are new. ,ve roa,ds, (not to mention the Grand Trunk, in Canada.) These are the have no party platforms t-0 guide us, or rather to limit and control New York Central, the Erie, the Pennsylvania Central, and the Balti our judgments and our actions. None of us are here under anypl-edges more and Ohio; aml these have formed connections or combinations of a political nature, either expressed or implied. We arn in that llll with, or obtained leases of, nearly all the most important western biased condition. in which we can treat these questions fairly, if we roads; and the result is, that both of the sections of the country, are disposed to do so. West and East, are compelled to pay tribute to these vast corpora But, sir, the most interesting question in connection. with the pro tions, or, I might say, vast monopolies. visions of this bill is this: Has Congress the power under the }'eu. That these corporations have used their hitherto-unmolested powers eral Constitution to regulate commerce "among the se.veral States" in fixing their own charges at rates which have ma:de them the most to the extent and in the manner that this bill provide ¥ I will ex.pre s wealthy corporations on the continent is a fact that even the ruilroad my views upon the whole question before I conclude; but for the advocates here will not deny. And the m:.mner in which the exorbi present I desire to say that aft.er mature and unbiased consideration tant earnings of these railroads are covered up, under the cloak of of the question. as to the power of Congre s to regulate commerce moderat-e dividends, not only shows their frauds, but is conclusive evi carried on over the interstate railroads, to the extent of :fixin,r area dence of their acts of extortion. To show how their power to fix their sonable tariff of charges for carrying passengers and freight, ~cl pro own tariff of charges is abused, just as such power always is abused viding penalties for extortions practiced by such carriers, and to pre when it is irresponsible, I need but refer to a single example. The vent unfair discriminations, I ·am clearly of the opinion that such total cost of the consolidated roads, now known as the New York Cen power exists, and that it is plenary, and exclusively in the Federal tral, to the stockholders and bondholders, was less than 30,000,000 ; Government; the States having no more power over the subject of yet, by tho device known as "watering the stock"-that is, issuing interstate commerce than they have over foreign commerce. additional stock for the earnings of the roa-d instead of dividends-the But before examining that question, I wish to savor repeat that stock of that c01·poration has been swelled to the enormous amount there is no one here or elsewhere who is a more firm and unwavenncr of $90,000,000-thrne times th~ true amount; and upon that vast sum advocate of the old democratic-or, if youplease, J effer onia.n-cloc~ the ea.rnings of the road now pay a dividend of 8 per cent. per annum, trines of "State rights" and" a strict construction of the Constitu equal to a dividend of 24 per cent. upon the actual ca.sh capitaJ. in tion" than I am ; I mean when those doctrines are properly inter v ested. To enable the owners of that corporation to thus nearly double preted and applied. I do not, and never did, believe in that misin their investmenteveryfouryears, the agriculturist of the West and terpretation and misapplication of the <"loctrine of fate rights as the consumers of the East are compelled to pay tribute. If that cor understood anu. acted upon by the extreme men of the Calhoun poration enirned only the rea-sonable compensation of 10 per cent. on school of statesmen, when they claimed sece sion to be it legitimate the actual investment, it would yield ~3,000,000 in dividends annually. sequence.. T:1Ie State rigl_its taught by Jefferson and. enforced by But 8 per cent. on the watered stock amounts to $7,200,000 ; showing J ackson m his proclamation agamst the South Carolina nullifiers a grab of 4,200,000 which that one company is annually making over were the rights of a State in the Ucion, arnl not its right to go out and above reasonable compensation; and that is the amount of the of the Union. It has been saitl. by the advocates of centralization of tTibute the people are paying annually to that single corporation. power in_the Federal Government, by usurping and absorbing the And to enable these corporations to continue forever such extortions powers of the States, that the democratic doctrine of St,ate-rights the sacred name of State rights is invoked. Verily, that is the old was overthrown and ,viped out by the results of the war. But that game of attempting to "steal the livery of Heaven to serve the devil in." is not true. It wa-s only the Calhoun construction of that doctrine My opinion is, the Iivery is slightly too thin to hide the monster's horns. thn.t found its last grave at Appomattox. The true democratic doc Yet, in the face of these enormous dividends, we are told that rail trine wa-s not in any way or in any degree involved in that contest. road companies cannot afford to carry passengers and freights at lower I say it found its last grave at Appomattox; it found its first grave in rates than they are now charging; and the only way the farmers of the great contest between Webster and Hayne, in this Capitol, over the West and Northwest can ever get cheap transportation is for them forty years ago. to compel the Government to expend one or two hundred million dol The democra,tic doctrine of State rights, so ably promulcrated by fars to open up water-communications as channels of commerce to J e.fferson in his first inaugural address, is, that our home, tate gov the sea-board.. While I am in favor of these water-lines being opened, ernments are the palladium of our liberties, and that they ought to or at least somo of the more important ones, a auxiliaries in cheap be preserverl in all their vigor. That doctrine, truly applied, would ening transportation, I do not think such water-lines the only source remove the clanger of territorial expansion, and lea.d to peace and of relief the :people have. amity between the sections. It would give us increased political The nature of the agricultural productions of the ·west and North purity, and a cheaper ancl more satisfactory adrrrinistraLion of justice. west renders them peculiarly sensitive to these extortionate charges. Centralization, by removing the power ::i.way from the people, leads Those articles that are light compared with thoir value, as cotton, to irresponsibility on the part of office-hol In Gray vs. The Clinton Bridge Company, (see American Law Regis Chief Justice Marshall in Gibbons vs. Ogden, already quoted, the ter, January, 1868,) Mr. Just-ice Miller, whose ability and character power is "one of enumeration, and not of definition." And Judge for conservatism on constitutional questions of this kind are unques Cooley says Congress may" descend. to the most minute direction<;, if tioned, in hiB decision uses the following language : it shall be dcemc(l advisable." But if possible still more poiuteu is ;N"avigation, however, is only one of the elements of con;tmerce. It is an element the statement of J uuge Redfield, in the January number of the Ameri of commerco, because it affords the means of transporting passengers and mer can Law Register, in. which he says: chandise, the interchange of which is commerce itself. Any other moue of effect ina this would be as much an element of commerce as Il<'tvigation. When this W e are not aware that any fair question can be raised in r egard to tho right of transpor tation or interchan O'e of commodities is carried on by land, it is commerce Congress to control the fares and freights upon interstn.teraihmys. No such ctnes as well as when carriecl on T;y water , anrl the power of Congress to regulate it. is as tiouhas ever been raised in England in regarcl to the power of l;arliament, and we ample in the one case as in the other. The" commerce among the States," spoken do not comprehend how one could be raised in any country,unless there we1·e some of in the Constitution, must, at the time that instrument was adopted, have been constitutional restriction upon the sovereign power. mainly of this character, for the steamhoat, which has created our grea.t internal There is no constitutional restriction upon the sovereign power of commerce on the rivers, was then unknown. Another means of transportation, equal in importance to the steamboat, has also · Congress over the subject of commerce nmo11g the several ~tates ;.lint, come into existence since the Constitution was adopted, a means hy which mer on the contrary, the same section 8 of article 1 of the Constitution chandise is transported aero s States aml kingdoms in the same vehicle in which it which providesthatCongre, sshallhavepower "to regulat0 commf'rce started. The railroad now shares with the steamboat the monopol.v of tho carry among the several States," also provide~:; in the la t clause thereof that in(!' trade. The one has, with great benefit, been subject to the control of salutary Congress shall have power- · · co~gressionallegislation, because it is an instrument of commerce. Is thero any r eason why t,he other should not~ However this question may be answered in re To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carryin~r into exee.u j;:1I'rl to that commerce which is conducted wholly ·within the limits of a State, and tion thefore.?Oill{] powers, and all other powers vesteu by this Constitution in the 1s therefore neither foreign cm:pmerce nor commerce among the States, it seems to Government of the United States, or in any Department or officer tltercof. m e that where these roads become parts of great highways of our Union, transport ing a commerce which embraces many States, and deRtined, as some of these roads One of these "foregoing powers" is this identical power "to reg are, to become the channels through 'vhich the nations of Europe and . .Asia shall in ulate commerce among the several St.ates." Instead, there fore, of t erchange their commodities, there can be no reason to douht that to regulate them there being "a constitutional restriction upon the sover.eign power," is to regulate commerce, both with foreign nations and among the Sta,tes; ltnd that there is, in fact, a constitutional extension of the genernl}JOwer "to to refuse to do this is a 'refusal to discharge one of the 'I'IUISt important duties of the Federal Government. As already intimat.ed, the shackles with which the different regulate." This certainly makes the power as })lenary as human States fettered commerce in their selfish efforts to benefit tbemselve&at tho expense language can make it. of their confederates was one of the main causes which led t,o the formation of But I have another important authority upon the same point. J ndge our present Constitution. The wonderful growth of that commerce, since it has Dillon, of the United States district court, oue of the vm·y ablest b een placed exclusively under the control of tho!ederal GoverLment, has justified the wisdom of our fathers. But are we to r emit the most valuable part of that jurists in this country, in his note to the If tho powers be equal, as must be the case, both be~g sovereign. one may undo lative control exists in the case of a corporation, unle s such right of wiHI.t the other does, and this mu8t be the result of thell' actlo~; control is reserved in the charter; t.ha,t in the ::tbsence of such a reser But the argument is that a Stat.e ~ay regulate co~crce unl.U Congress shall act vation all the franchises and chart.ered rights are in the nature of :1 on the same subject; and that the State must then YJ.eld to the paramotmt author ity. Is a commercial regulation open to State action because the Federal power has contract and arc inviolable without the consent of the corporation. not been exhaus ted ~ Snail free goods be taxed by a State because Congressllas To this I answer that that decision has no relation whatever to the not taxed them~ Shall pa sengers, admitted by act !lf Congr . s withou~ a tax,, be incorpor::ttion of a comp:1ny as a comnwn car1'ier, or for the purpose of taxed by a. State~ Th supposition of such a power m a ~ta~ 1s utterly illCOD"Slst interstate commerce. Common carriers are a class of persons who, ent with a commercial power, either paramount or ~xclus1ve, ill Congre:>s. That it is inconsistent with the exclusive power will be admitted; but the e.xermseo~ a sub at common larw, have always been under the peculiar regulatiom of ordinate commercial power by a ::>tate is contended for. When this pow~r 1s exer law, materially different from persons of other occupn.tions. Unlike cised how oan it be known that the itlentical thin .~ has not been duly cons1dered by other persons, they are not permitted to make a,ny contract, as to Cong'ress 1 And how can Con!P'ess, by an.v legislati?n, prevent this interference 1 A practical enforcement of this system, if system It may be called, would over charrres for carrying, which they may see proper to make. The law throw tho Federal commercial power. wisely recognizes the fact that the contracting parties are not equal ; Whether L consider the nature and object of the commercial pO?.ver, !he class of pwJ the carrier has the advanta.ge; and if not specially restrained from ers with which it is placed, the decisions of u~is com·t in the case of GWbons vs. Ogden using that advantage, the greatest and most intolerable extortions and 1·eiterated in Brown vs. 1'he State of Maryland, and often reasse1·ted ~y Mr. Jus tice Story who participated in those deciJions, I ant brotl{}ht to the conclUSton that the :1nd other oppression would be the result. Hence it is that the com power " t~ regulate commc1·ce with foreign nations and among the several States," by mon law has always interposed its just control by prohibiting such the Constitution, is exclusively vested in Congress. carriers from contracting or receiving more than reasonable compen In the s:1me case the same distinguished jurist s::tys : sation for their services. A contract for any excess above what is No one doubts the power of a. State to regulate its internal commerce. All com rea onable and fair com pen ation is void. Such carriers are reg::tnle To heaJ' the opponents of this bill talk about the Federal Govern plish all that is claimed for it. In the remarks which I shall now ment, one would naturally conclude that they were wholly unac submit I do not propose to deal with· the specific provisions of this quainted with the causes and necessities that produced it. Our fathers bill, but rather to a.ddres myself to what I deem to be its ulterior were as ardently attached to the State governments as any modern objects, the securement of cheaper transportation, and a better pros State-rights man can be. But, fortunately, unlike the opponents of perity consequent thereon, for the people of the country. this bill, they were controlled by more than that one idea; they felt No nation can continuously permanently prosper, which permits the necesffity for a power to administer those subjects of legislation any one or more of its large industries to languish. o closely inter which were of such a general character that the States either could not woven are its varied material interest.s, so largely do t.he welfare • at aU or could not efficiently administer them. This subject of com and advancement of all depend upon the prosperity of eaeh, that in merce among the several States was not then as important as it is the body-politic, a-s in the human organization, one member uoe not now; yet it was even then considered so important as to be provided for suffer without causing pain to be experienced throughout the entire in the Federal Constitution. It was provided that the whole subject, system. Accordingly observation and. history very well e tabli h the because it concerned more Stat-es than one, should be delegated or fact., that wherever the energies of a people have been permitte tural products which now form and must continue to form so large a a.nd transship their products, while, without it, discrimination by the pn.rt of our real and substantial wealth, and the successful exporta r ailroads might render the water-line nearly valueless to such com tion of which will maintain for the people of this country an equi munities. But I quest.ion whether any fair pro rata freight law would librium of tra-de relations with the people of the world. not prove a detriment to those shipping a long distance by depriving THE RAILROAD SYS'l'El\1. them of the large reduction now conceded to through freights. Besides, when you stop to compute the magnitude of the invest Where shall we find a remedy adequate to our necessities f Can ments which have been made for construction, for depots, for rolling we longer hope for it in the present or any possible railway system of stock, for repairs, and for operating expenses, I doubt-nay, it seems carriage¥ Iamnotof thenumberwhojoin in thepresentgeneraldenun to me a certainty- that any reasonable use for the capital invested ciat~on of all railroads, and of the generous legislation by which they will prevent the attainment of any such reduction as the necessities have been extended, in all directions, until their numerous n·eight of the country so Ul'gently demand. and passenger trains are now drawn an aggregate distance of upward of seventy thousand miles. Ten or fifteen years ago any man who FREIGHT RAILROAD. then could have the hardihood to oppose liberal aid for the extension It has also been advised as a relief measure to construct a new of these lines for travel and traffic in Iowa, would have been de double-track freight line of railway between the city of New York nounced as an enemy to his community and to the State. I cannot and some point on the Missouri River. This could only be done at forget that to them, perhaps more largely than to any other one the enormous cost of over $175,000,000; and with that sum invested agency, is due the magnificent development which my own and many in its construction its rate of carriage must inevitably be above that surrounding States have made in the recent past. I cannot forget the minimum which is the great object in search of which the people of absolutely helpless condition we would be in to-day, as to present and the West are now engaged. future progress, did no such system exist. The railroad system has Besides, if chartered and constructed by private capital, how long been, is, and will cont.inue to be, an agency, a powerful agency, of would it be before existing companies would secme a majority of the civilization and commerce. It is nevertheless exactly true, that as a stock, and so control it in conjunction with the present combina freight line, it ha,g largely failed to accomplish what was justly ex tions¥ If you say it will be held subject to regulation as to charges pected of it. for freight by Congress, that can only amount to the very same The railroad will always prove an inestimable benefit in furnishing power which you now propose to exert over those lines already built. a sure and rapid means of travel, and unequaled facilities for the trans If it be proposed to construct, equip, and operate such a line wholly portation of express a.nd postal matter and the lighter and more perish at Government expense, and by Federal officials and employes, then able articles of commerce. Hut for the heavier, bulkier, products of I submit that experience teaches the inability of Government to con the farm, in ca-se they must be n·eighted a long distance, the railroad struct any such gigantic work as economically, or to operate it when has failed to furnish a reasonably cheap means of transportation; constructed so cheaply, through its agents, as it may otherwise be and now that such products have so enormously grown in quantity, done; and we shall have a fruitful source of contention, if not of the facilities offered by this means have become wholly inadequate. conuption, for all time to come. This incapacity arises through no fault of the railroad corporations ; vVhile, therefore, I cannot doubt that it would necessarily add for they have shown most commendable enterprise in doubling their gteatly to the burden of taxation, I do most seriously question tracks and in building new parallel lines, so as if possible to meet the whether, if built, it would be of value commensurate with its cost, ever-increasing business arising from the astounding development and whether it would or could accommodate the wants and relieve and fertility of the "\Vest. the necessities of the inland commerce of the country. But the people complain and believe that there has been no effort WATER TRANSPORTATION. whatever to furnish a reasonably cheap transportation by these cor The requisite means for the interchange of commercial commodities porations. Like all others organized for pecuniary profit, there is a which our present exigencies require, and which the future will still continual tendency to take advantage of existing circumstances. It more Tequire, must afford a large increase of capacity, accompanied by is estimated that we have now nearly fifty million tons of surplus a large decrease of oost. To my mind, it is quite evident we shall not products annually to be canied to the sea-board from the Mississippi obtain both these results by rail or by any other known method of Valley. The seemingly trilling excess of one cent per hundred_pounrls freightage by ]and. on freight charge amounts, on such an aggregate yearly sh1pment, Rnt, sir, we can find both combined in water transportation. The to $12,000,000. natural water-channels of the country, when properly improved, will The Merchants' Exchange of Saint Louis, in their report to the Sen furnish highways for commerce, with a capacity almost unlimited. ate Committee on Transportation, say : Belonging to the nation, there can be rio exclusive privileges, for all There were shipped to the ea-stern sea-boards during last year wheat and flour to desirous of so doing may engage in the carrying trade. Necessary the amount of one hundred and forty million bushcis, at an excess of freight of as some limitation tariff law in regard to railroads may be, requiring twenty cents per bushel, causing a. loss to the producer, West, and to the consumer, East, equal to 28,000,000- commissions to examine and report upon, and penalties and forfeit ures to enforce it, the water highway will protect from adverse com A sum in one year largely more than sufficient to complete a con binations, and will execute its own restrictions as to freightage by tinuous water-route of large capac.ity from the Mississippi River, by the broadest possible competition. way of the great lakes, to the Atlantic Ocean; a sum five times in IMPROVID1El'i"'T OF FOX AND WISCONSIN RIVERS. excess of the interest which would annually accrue upon the neces sary appropriations for the construction of t he most extensive system Before proceeding further upon the general question let me here of water-communication which I have heard proposed by the most call the attention of the House particularly to the continuous water enthusiastic a{:lvocate of such an independent means of transporta communication between the Mississippi River ancl the Atlantic Ocean tion. by way of the great lakes. I desire to do this especially for two rea If competition has "Leen relied upon, as indeed it has been, to reduce sons : first, because my own section of the country is directly inter freights to the lowest possible sum, it is only to discover that com ested in its early comple?-on; and, secondly, ~ecause, although the bination of interests ha-s taken its place, and to such an extent as to great advantage to be garned has been recognized by the General Gov constitute absolutely a monopoly of the carrying trade; to discover ernment., and the improvement of that portion of the route between that less than half a dozen railroad presidents are a.ble at -.;rill to the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan ha,s been energetically com levy a tax upon the industries of a vast empire in the Mississippi V3J menced, yet, so great has been the pressure for a decrease of expendi tures, that it is now proposed to appropriate only $350,000 of the ley greatly excee~ng in amotmt aught those people have ever been $750,000 which the officer in charge reports as the amount required for called upon to pay to the General Government, even in its extremest the proper prosecution of that work for the fiscal year ending June need; an exacting, burdensome tax, from which, through wise and 30, 1875. prudent assistance of the General Government, there ought to be an early escape, a complete relief. Six years ago General Warren took occa£ion to say in his report that if this water-communication were made as good as it was susceptible CONGRESSIONAL RESTRICTION. of being made, that at least one-half the surplus product of wheat There has been, and there still is, an urgent appeal that Congress raised in the group of States tributary to this line would be shipped shall exerci!se its fullest constitutional authority over these corpora over it in preference to any other; and he adds: tions, and put a stop to unjust discriminations and exorbitant tariffs, We believe it safe to say that a good line of water-transportation from the Mis so as, if possible, to secure a more uniform rate and a cheaper trans sissippi to Green Bay can be built so as to profitably transport wheat at one-half port ation. cent per ton per mile. The line woulcl be two hundred ancl eighty miles long, and The bill now under consideration looks to the adoption and enforce this would make the cost 81.40 per ton. This, in the present wheat crop, would save, over what ~he _railroads charge, $3.60 per ton, making a saving of 3,780,000. ment, under suitable penalties, of rules and regulations concerning It must be kept m VIew that we have supposed one-half the crop to go by railroad commerce among the several States, as carried on by railroads for the and down the Mississippi below the J:,apids, and we have not t.aken into account the t.aking of no more than fair and reasonable freights or compensation. benefits of the trade from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, which will be quite This I believe to be within the rightful authority of Congress- a step as great an addition. in the right direction. Thus was a loss approximating $4,000,000 sustained by our people Without stopping to discuss specifically the provisions of the bill, in 1868, and each year since then, for want of the completion of these whwh have been ably and fully discussed by a number of others, I improvements, and that on account of shipments of the surplus wheat shall here and now say that I shall support the general featlll'es of products alone eastward. Now, consider the ever-augmenting crops this bill. In case a system of water-transportation shall be inaugu of wheat and other farm products whioh, since then, would have been rated, an anti-discriminating freight law will be of material value in thus transported with a comparative saving on freights returning enabling localities a short d.istanee from the water-routes to reach westwa.rd from the lakes into the Mississippi Valley. The aggregate 141 2242 CONGRESSIONAL· RECORD. MARCH 18, annually amounts to a larger sum than the entire estimated cost of As a part of some remarks which I took occasion to mn.ke when improvement of these rivers. Remember that Iowa is paying to-day this report was presented to the House, I gave comparative tables of 16.~ cents per bushel for carrying her cereals from her eastern border distances and cost per mile, showing by the one that the cost per to the lakes, and you will not be surprised that although she has bushel by the present route from the Mississippi to Liverpool, at the three times previously memorialized Congress on this subject, the lowest rates heretofore charged, amounted to 51.6 cents, and by the liegislature of Iowa, now in session, sends the following memorial and other, the completed water-route, the same bushel could be transported resolutions : to the same market for 30.4 cents; thus demonstratino- the enormous Yo the Senate and H ouse of Representatives of the United States : s::~.ving which it was believed could be thus secured. I then said: The memorial of the General Assembly of the State of Iowa represents that the .'From .these tables it appears that with the facilities asked for the shipper at ~mnual report of D. C. Houston, of the United States Engineers, on the Fox and .Dobuque, Iowa, on the western bank of the Mississippi River can' make a ~viucr Wisconsin Rivers improvement, shows that the project of rtmdering navi$able the upon a ton of freight shipped to the foreign market of Liverpool amountin"' to the channels of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers is entirely feasible at a mouerate ex sum of 6.93, or a sa_vi~g of twenty and one-fifth cents upon each bushel ol'wheat. pense; and 1Joes any one ay this 1s theory, and that the results of pra<~tice seldom approximat,e Whereas the General Government has already entered upon said work, and as closely to the standard of theory 1 Then I ask him to discount it if he will· to re said improvement is of great national importance: Therefore, duce it 10q p611 cent. if he deems it just i but t.o make. the calcnia.tion for himself. Be it resolved 1Jy the General Assembly of the State of Iowa, That our members of and he Wlll find that even when so reauced the savmg upon the entire wheat Congress ue requested to urge the appropriation of a sufficient sum of money to crop of the States west of Erie and north of the Ohio River for last year alone carry this great enterprise to a successful completion: Provided, That the regula would amount to the enormous sum of $20,000,000, more than sufficient to complete tion and control of the entire route from the Mississippi River to the L.'l>kes may be the great improvement provided for in this bill. Then I ask him to make a fair retained in the General Government, and shall not pa s under the control of any calculation of the entire savin~ upou all tl..te commotlities transported between the private corporation or company, to the end that the transpor~tion of the pr~duc:f;s West and the eastern and forrugu market:; for a sin.,.le year; and then toa!!reewith of the country may be subjected only to such tolls as may be nece saryto mamtain me th;tt this work ought not be longer delayed. " " said improvement in perfect condition and repair for public use. Our Sf:ate~ at the West invite largely to a!ITiculture. Their leading source of Resolved, That the secretary of state is directed to forward a copy of this pre wealth lies ill the abundant products of t.he soil. But the employment of the farmer amble and joint resolution to the President of the United States Senate and to the has become fur less remunerative than that of almost any other. We hear much in Speaker of the House of Representatives, with a reque t that they may be laid these Halls and elsewhere of taxation bearing· heavily upon the people; anu it is before each House of Congress, and that a copy be sent to ea. New York, Boston, and Portland, one of which is now insisting that highways for her products, and a few generations hence will finn a it will soon be able to deliver our wheat from this lake in Boston for commerce floating from that valley greater than the entire commerce less than four cents per bnshel. Let us reach Ontario and ~e reach of the country to-clay. an open water-route to the ocean, via the Saint Lawrence, upon Cognizant. of the benefits which would accrue to her citizens, the which, under the ·washington treaty, we may float our commerce to Legislature of my own State has again memorialized Congress within and from the ocean without let or hinderance from the Canadian or the la-st few weeks for the improvement of this great commercial British government. channel. Statistics show conclusively that the Eastern States, year by year, CHEAPNESS OF Th'TERCHAJ.~G E MOI3T DESIRABLE. are growing less of breadstuffs and are becoming thus more depend In a memorial of the American Cheap Transportation Association I ent upon tho grain-producing Western States for food supplies; while notice a statement by the·late Commodore Maury, said to be based we of the West not only are annually greatly enlarging such prod upon various tests and actual comparison of cost among eristin!r ucts, but are large consumers of eastern manufactured products. A lines of traffic, to the effect that transporta,tion by railroad is 500 per greatly reduced freight between the sect i on<:~ will inure to the mu cent. cheaper than by common wagon, and by free canal is 600 per cent. tual advantage of both, advancing their prosperity and adding enor and by river it is 750 per cent. cheaper than by railroacl. Probably mou ly to their accumulations of wealth. It is believed that during these estimates quite closely approximate the actual cost as between the year 1873 not less than three hundred and fifty million bushels of the different modes of conveyance. If it be true that. for the !!Teat graill from the Western States have been carried to the Atlantic sea bulk of our commercial commodities, celerity of transit is of little board at an average co t of fifty cents per bushel. The present cost, value, while cheapness of carriage is the great desideratum sought, therefore, of moving a single surplus crop of grain from the .Mississippi it seems undeniable that these methods of which I have spoken can Valley is 175,000:000. With a thoroughly improved continuous water and will furnish an adequate remedy for the evil under wbich we line, not subject to State tolls, at least one-half of this enormous sum now suffer. Believing it demonstrable to a mathematical certainty can be yearly divided between producer West and consumer Ea-st. that a thorough system of water-transportation will save nearly, if NO O::ffi LINE SUFFICIENT. not quite, t he round sum of $100,000,000 annually upon the aggregate Let me not be understood, however, as presuming that any one of our inland commerce now, and a much lar An act (S. No. 259) to authorize the proper accounting officers of other business than that of transportation by transportation compa· the Treasury to settle with Henry C. Carey; nies, are tho most prominent. I could not, even if I understood them An act (S. No. 419) for the relief of Sabastian Reichert; and all, as I do not pretend to do, undertake to enumerate the schemes An act (S. No. 433) for the relief of Mrs. Susannah A. Shelby. and devices resorted to by railroad kings and fast•freight-line princes It further announced that the President had informed the Senate to defraud the ln.ymen of railroad corporations, and whereby they he had approved and signed bills and joint resolutions of the follow contrive to pocket the lion's share of the profits of all the industries ing titles, namely: of t he land. The secret workings of railroad rings- such histories An act (H. R. No. 353) for the relief of David Bra.den · as that of the South Improvement Company- the practices of rail An act (H. R. No. 365) for the relief of Matthew Woodrn:ft'. late road corporations among the coal mines of Ohio and Pennsylvania, first sergeant of Company G, Twenty-first Missouri Volunteers ; and and with the farmers of the "'\Vest, of which we have heard much in the A joint resolution (S. R. No.6) in relation to the bronze sta.tue of comse of this debate, are, however, sufficiently understood to make Jefferson, presented to Congress by Uriah P. Levy, late an officer in plain some of the abuses which demand a remedy. What that rem the United States Navy. edy shall be is the substance of the question, as I understand it, now lNTERBTATE COM:\IERCE. before the House. Mr. WOODWORTH. Mr. Speaker, the question before the House THE PLAN PROPOSED-RIVER Dll'ROVEME~"'T-cOMPETITION BY GOVERNME~. gives great latitude to debate. It involves the several propositions The plans suggested by the several propositions that have been before Congress looking to the.solution of the vexed problem growing offered here for the remedy of the more apparent of these abuses may out of the uses and abuses of the carrying trade as now practiced be grouped into three classes : first, the improvement of the Missis throughout the country. It is my purpose in taking the floor, if I sippi and the other natrrral water-ways of the country, which was so can ha.ve the ear of the Honse, to speak briefly of these several prop earnestly advocated the other day by the gentleman from :Missouri, ositions, but mainly of the constitutional power of CongTess over the I 1r. STANARD,] and which has so many friends upon tills floor, agencies employed in interstate commerce, and of the compa.rative especially among gentlemen from the West and the Southwest; merits of the bill recommended by your Committee on Railways and secondly, Government competition ; and thirdly, Government control. Canals and the one introduced by myself earlyin the session, it being Both the bill recommended by the committee and the one introduced House bill No. 1079. by myself are based upon the idea of Government control. Of the Sir, in the remarks I may ~:>ubmit I shall not attempt to imitate the other plans permit me to speak briefly before proceeding to the con~ example of others who have participated in this debate by speaking sideration of the questions presented by these bills. of the magnitude and importance of the transportation question. I So far as the improvement of our river navigation is concerned, I shall discuss nothing that is not a question here. The marked atten have no doubt that reasonable expenditures by Government ih this tion with which the House has listened thus far to this debate-an direction would be amply justified by the benefits to be reaped by the unusual thing, I have observed, for this very undeliberative body people inhabiting large regions of the country. But, sir, those bene~ clearly shows its sense of the importance of the sn bject, and manifests fits would accrue to only a part of the people, and for only a portion its disposition to give to it a most thoughtful consideration. This, to of the time. Ta.ke down the map of the oountry. Look at the course me, sir, is a hopeful indication that a result will be reached which of your rivers. Draw aline across it east and west upon themeridian will relieve the country of the btuden that, like the "Old Man of the tha.t marks the northern boundary of winter navigation, and the rea Sea," in the fable, is clinging to the shoulders of all our industries sons are before yon. Although nature has bountifully supplied our con with a weight so crushing that it is a thing no longer to be borne. tinent with numerous rivers that run seaward from many regions, yet I judge, by the indications I see about me, that gentlemen fully bot h the clim&te and geography of the country forbid a reliance upon recognize the fact that, next to the currency question, of which my t hem to meet the commercial needs of all our people. The rapidity frieml here upon my right [1\fr. KELLEY] makes a specialty, and of railway transit, its independence of the seasoUB, the fact that it may which ought to have been disposed of weeks and months ago, the reach its arms ont from commercial centers into regions where no transportation problem is the important subject of the session. navigable rivers run, make it, it seems to me, the method upon which TI:i:E F'ORCE TO BE CONTROLLED-THE ABUSES TO BE RIDffiDffiD, we must chiefly rely to meet the commercial needs of the people of In order to solve this problem we must understand the forces to be all sections a.nd for all sea.sons. . controlled, and we should know something of the nature and the ex To the scheme of Government competition which the gentleman tent of the abuses demanding a remedy. Primarily, the highways from Michigan [ fr. WILLARD] so stoutly advocated a few moments of a .country, by whatsoever contrivances they may be operated, be ago I have two objections: first, it would add too largely to the long in common to the people. Om Stat-e Legislatures have hitherto burdens of the country; and, secondly, it would be a departure from pmsued the policy of creating artificial persons and endowing them the true prerogative of government, and would centralize power in with the sovereign powers of eminent domain, have committed to the hands of an existing administration to a degree, I fear, inimical to them the building and management of railways and canals, until the success of our republicanism. Let us for a single moment look now the whole carrying trade is under their control. What wa.s the at the e objections a little more in detail. It is true that of the bills prerogative of governments has become the privilege of corporations. pending before the House two or three are framed upon the hypothe Yon will doubtless, sir, recollect that the fathers, in order to pre sis that private ca.pita.l will come forward and build railroads to com ven.t the dangerous accumulation of wealth in individual hands, or pete with those already in existence. I do not believe it, sir. With rather I should say under the control of the few, forbade laws of all due respect to the judgment of the gentlemen who are the authors primogeniture. These corporations have entirely defeated the intent of these bills, I repeat that I do not believe it. Sir, these bills are of this wise interdiction. The magic of legislative power has made drafted upon the delusive idea that capital will seek the poorer in them immortal. They drank of the elixir of life in the very charters stea.d of the better investment. A railroad built solely to afford which created them. Clothed with the power of a sovereign, and cheap transportation can only return a limited profit upon the invest endowed by the acts of your State Legislatmes with perpetual life, ment, and the capitalists of the cotmtry have yet to earn the reputa they ha-ve achieved complete control over the carrying trade, whereby tion of unselfishness. I have no objections to these bills if Govern- - they may levy such tribute and such exactions as they please upon the ment aid lurk nowhere in them, for they are innocent of harm. industry and the emprise of the country. With enormous capital, They are likewise impotent for good, unless it be true that you ex with immense revenues, with vast annies of men in their employ, pect to compel such investment s by fa,iling to afford any other relief with the pra.ctic!1l immunity from law which they, in most States of from the abuses t he people now suffer. In that case I object to the the Union at all events, contrived to enjoy, with the robes of so-ver principle. Why should the people be compelled to purchase an im eignty wrapped about them, they are a power wit hin the Government munity from evils from whicll it is the clear right and duty of Gov superior to the people and fast climbing to superiority over the Gov ernment to protect them¥ ernment itself. How they are managing to do this is best known to Other bills- at any rate t he one introduced by the gentleman from him who is most familiar with "the extra legal service accounts" Illinois [ fr. HURLBUT]- propose Government aid. Whether his and Hthe India-rubber account·s" Of some of these corporations. bill proposes Government aid direct, or the guarantee of a certain This, sll:, is the force to be controlled. This is the autocracy that interest upon the •bonds of the com_r>any, it means that in the end must be dethroned if we are to have a solution of the transportation Government must pay for the road. Sir, we have had enough of this. problem, as proposed in the bill now under consideration. These cor The people of this country have seenlandsfrom which-empires might be porations are the railway, the fast freight, the express, and the dis carved pass from t heir ownership into the hands of corporations, and patch companies that control all the railways and nearly all tbe they have witnessed gigantic swindles practiced upon them in the water-ways of the country. The abuses they practice, if I :q1a.y pre name of internal development, until they will shrink in dismay from sume to classify, seem to be of two sorts : first, such :is immedia.tely any such proposition as is contained in the bill of tlle gentleman from aii'ect tlm general public; and, secondly, such as result from the mis Illinois. The people of this country will never suffer snell a propo management or malmanagement of tho business in which they are sition to be accomplishetl as long, at any rate, as other remedies a,re engagPd. Of the first class I may principally enumerate extortion wi hin our reach. ate charges, unjust discriminations as between shippers and as be _l\Ir. Speaker, wi bout enlarging upon the reasons, pen:nit me to sa.y tween localities ; facilures to observe the common-law obligations of tha.t I do not believe that the competitive scheme can be made uc common carriers, and failures to provide for the sa.fety and conven cessful wi hont Government aid, and to this I object, first, because ience of the traveling public. Of the second class the watering of it would impose a burden npon the people of the whole country to stocks, the payment of enormous salaries to railroa,U officials, tlle benefit only a portion of them, for yon cannot build these competing d.elegating <_>f the,bnsiness of a 1:aJJ.road company to another corpora li ncs to run everywhere; secondly, because it would add too largely to tion wll.Il:reb)t raih'oad stockholders are defrauded, and tlle engaging in t he volurue of our national burdens; ::md, tlrirdly, because it would be a 2246 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 1\{.ARCH 18, wide and dangerous departure from the true office of governments. eral Government has control of all commerce across State lines, and, The immense aggregation of power given by railroad ownership is ex nl'cessitate, has control of the machinery through which it is con well illustruted in Belgium and in Russia. It may do in a monarchy, ducted. This view is supported by the dicta of the best writers upon in which a change of administration by the people is never in order, the Constitution, and by a formidable line of Supreme Court decisions but in 11 republic the machinery of governmont should never become from a very early time down to the present. There was a time very so rmnified or interwoven with the inuustries or speculations of the early when this doctrine did not obtain, so tender were our courts and people as to becomeimpeditive to the free constitutional exercise of the statesmen then of State rights. It was once said that, in order to popnlar will. Let us not forget that the only prerogative of govern determine the jurisdiction of Congress over a river, its waters must ments is to govern; not to enga.ge in the industries or specnlations be tasted. If salt, Congr ss might legislate; if fresh, Congress had of the people, but to control them with the power of sovereignty no jurisdiction. It was from this period that the gentleman from with the j1wa sumnti imperii that resides with government-whenever Kentucky [~lr. ARTHUR] was able to exhume utterances in support those indust.Ties or speculations interfere with natural rights or become of his constitutional objection to the bill of the committee. This obstructive to the prosperity of the people. idea, however, pas ed away with the now-nearly extinct race of State My friend from Michigan [1\lr. WILLARD] said in substance that rights sticklers, who had but very little confidence in the power or the statesmanship of the future must aim at development and prog uses of the Federal Union. ress in material things, through the energies of government. Some As early as 1 24 that profound jurist, Cruef Justice Marshall, in the thing of the policy of France under the empire must enter into it. case of Gibbons vs. Ogden, (found in 9 Wheaton's Reports, and so Rath.er. should he have said that the wisest statesmanship of the often referred to in this debate,) annonnced the doctrine of national future will seek to develop our resources and prosper our people, jurisdiction over interstate traffic, and from that time hitherto courts through a polity which will foster our industries, secure to labor its and authorities have indorsed it, until now it is a matter well settled due rewards, and encotrra...,e enterprise in its widest fields, by throw by adjudication. I will not consume time to. quote from these decis ing over each the shield of protection against whatsoever cripples or ions, as others have liberally quoted from them, except in the f?iugle feeds upon them. With such a policy the hope of to-day may be instance of the mo t Tecent one in point. In the Clinton Bridge ca e, made the fact of to-morrow. Our commerce, which, as the gentleman (1 ·woolworth's Circuit Court Reports,) decided in 1867, ~lr. Justice said with classic metaphor, is new pent up in inland va.lloys, anu like 1.1iller said : the ten thousand Greeks in Asia Minor, is echoing the cry "The sea! When these roads (railroads] became parts of the great highways of the Union, the sea!" would under such policy find ample pathway to either acting an important p:1rt in a commerce which embraces ma.ny States, and de tined, as some of these roads are to become the channels t.hrough which the nations of ocean. As Xenophon found the way for these ten thousand to the Europe and Asia sha.ll interchange their commoditle , there can be no rea on to Euxine by his energies and force, so will our commerce by the like doubt.that to r egulate them is to re!mlate commerce both with foreign nations and qualities of our people :find way to the marts of the Atlantic sea among the States, and to r efu e to dO this is a refusal to discharge one of the most board, anu to those that stand by the Golden Gate beckoning to Asia inq~ortant dnties of federal government. As already intimated, t.he shackles with which the d.iifurent States fettered commerce, in their selfish efforts to benefit them for its traffic across the we tern sea. Protect the people against selves at the expense of their confederates, wa one of the main causes which led wrongs and their emprise will do the rest. This should be the ambi to the formation of our pre ant Constitution. The wonderful growth of that com tion of the statesman, and by this, the grandeur of which we have merce since it has been placed exclusively under the control of the Federal Gov heard to-day as possible may be realized. ernment has ju tified tho wisdom of our fathers.. But are we to remit tho most val uable pa.rt of it to the control of the States through whose territory it must be con DANGERS TO BE AVOIDED. ducted and to all tho vexations which they mav impose 1 And must all this be permitted, because the carrying is done by a method not thQught of when the Con In listening to this debate, both to-day and heretofore, I have been stitution was framed 'I much impressed by a sense of the danger we are in of committing ·.A.n act of Congre s approvedJuly 15, 1866, entitled "An act to fa consume time to make further quotations. If gentlemen wish to ex What an irl.ea for the exercise of sovereignty is this. What a con amine the question further I refer them to Kents Commentaries, sec trol, when it i no control, unless a com't or jury, sitting away off tion 19, and to Rawl on the Constitution, chapter 91 pages 81 t.o 84, somewhere in some obscure corner of the country, should happen to and also to the case of Gibbons t·s. Ogden, to which I referred a few agree with your Government officers upon what would or would not moments ago, and in which the whole subject is discussed with much be reasonable ·in the schedule. The gentleman from Illinois [Mr. learning and pers1)icuity. HuRLBUT] said, with much more of truth than forcefulness, as a fact I deduce from what I have said upon the constitutional question making•in favor of the committee's bill, which he a-dvocated, that in that Cof4?,Tess ha the full and exclusive power to correct all the abuses "New York railroad companies control Legislatures and own courts." practiced by transportation companies engaged in interstate commerce. I have too much confidence in the- purity of our judiciary to believe I do not forget that a few days ago, upon motion of my colleague, that this is very generally true throughout the country; but I submit [Mr. SMITH,] the House resolved that Congress had this power, by a to the gentlemen of this House that it would be unwi e to make every vote, I think, of 171 to 64. This indicates the views of a majority court or panel of jurors that may happen to sit under the provision here, so that I have no fear of the defeat of national supervision of this bill a sovereign independent commission to establish or dises upon the qtlestiou of the jurisdiction of Congress, notwithstanding ta blioh the ratces to be cha.rged by railroad companies. Under this the elaboruted effort of the gentleman from Kentucky, [I\Ir. AR bill no schedule of rates could be establi heel upon which the pub THUR,] and of other gentlemen, to convince the House to the contrary. lic could rely with confidence and certainty. There would be "noth This re olution of my colleague a western metropolitan newspaper ing constant but change." Schedules would constantly fluctuate be derisively styled "God in Congress." Such expressions only show tween the sittings of courts and the sessions of your commissioners. how new this question is to th~ general public, and give some faint ·weak old Lear never held his scepter with a feebler hand or to a .color for the idea prevailing abroad, unpleasant expressions of which more uncertain purpose than would Government by this bill assert occasionally come to us, that nothing is less understood by Ameri its sovereignty over the mightie t and most unscrupulous power in the cans than the dual system of government under which they live. land. -You will not control by such weak and uncertain measures a Mr. Speaker, I have now given what seems to me to be good reason power which for two decades has laughed at State laws and snapped for the opinion that the easy and ready solution of tho transportation its fingers at all efforts of control. You attempt to bind a giant with pr~blem lies in legal super•ision, and also for the opinion that this hairs. This legislation will do the country no good, except as it ma,y supervision may be constitn ~ iona.lJy exercised by Congress. I beg be initiative of a better law hereafter. If I vote for the committee's now to be permitted to speak briefly of the comparative merits of bill, as I expect to do if the House should refuse to substitute a bet your committee's bill and the one introduced by myself, to which I ter one for it, it will be mainly in the hope that it will be followed by made allusion in the early part of my remarks. better legislation in the future. I understand, sir, that if the pending motion to recommit be with Another objection to the committee's bill seems to. me to lie in the drawn, or if the demand for the previous question be not sustained loose and imperfect organization of the board it creates. It will not when it shall have been made, this bill of the committee will be sus be a department. I t will not be a bureau. It will sometimes sit, and ceptible of amendment. I give notice now that I shall move to sub sometimes it will not be in se sion. It will have no definite duties to s' itute my bill for the committee's bill, if I shall be permitted to do so. perform beyond tho e stated with great generality in the bill, of It lies, I suppose, within the will of the chairman of the committee, instituting an investigation into the rates charged by railroad com and at the proper time I shall ask him for the opportunity to make panies and t.o fix schedules. Is this, Mr. Speaker and gentlemen of the motion. the Committee on Ra.ilways and Canals, the sort of instrument you I have already said that both my bill and the bill of the committee would select with which to control corporation f aro based upon the idea of Government·control. I hope that gentle Still another objection to the bill recommended by the committee men will9arefully consider them both wit.ha view to a friendly criticism seems to me to lie in the fa.ct that its provisions affect only railroad of the means which each employs for the exercise of that control. companies or corporations. Sir, without the figures before me, I as sert that three-fourths of the freights of this country are not trans THE lli'CRARY BlLL-{)BJECTIOXS TO IT- MERITS OF THE TWO PLANS FOR NATIONAL COXTROL. ported by railroad companies direct. The fast freight-line, the ex press and the dispatch companies, do a large sha.re of the business Th~ committee's bill, in brief, is this : it directs whatever of power it now; and if this bill should become a law, it would be a very ea y gives against the evils of extortionate charges and unjust discrimina matter indecci for them to do it all for the purpose of evading its pro tion, without defining what shall be considered to be an extortionate visions. charge or an improper discrimination. Its va.gueness in this respect .Myfinalobjectiontothe bill recommended by the Committee onR:til is peculiar, and I call the attention of the House to it. ways and Canals lies in the fact that the boa.rd it creates may e:x•r• It creates a board of nine commissioners, one for each judicial dis cise an a.rbitrary power in the establishment of rate . No rule is to trict in the United States, which board may sit at such times and in guide them; nothing whatever but the judgment or the caprice of such places as its members ma.y elect. This bo~d may e tablish the commissioners, as the case may be.. 'l'hls, sir, in my judgment, is scheuules of rates to be ob erved by railroad companies, unless such unwise; it is dangerous; it is unsafe legislation. If you happen to companies shall choose to lit~gate the question of rea 01mbleness of get upon Jour board a majority of men who, by reason of corruption rates. It )nay summon witnesses; it may pr_o ecute for penalties; it or with hone t intent, favor these monopolies, then all the abuses of may gather statistics, and it may makerecorrunenda,tions to Congre s. which the people complain will be continued. If, on the other hand, This, I believe, is a fair and full synopsis of the provisions of the bill you happen to get upon your board a majority of anti-railroad ex of the committee. t-remist , the railroads will b'e cripplecl- po ibly crippled out of exist My :first objection to it, sir, is that it strikes feebly and vaguely at ence- if the courts should happen to be ho tile to them. This would only two of the abuses from-which our people now suffer. There are be sadly to the d.isad vantage of our internal commerce, and obstructive other wrongs practiced by railroad corporations than tho e of extor to the material progress of the age in which we live. tionate charges and unjust discriminations. Those are the main ones, These, sir, very briefly and imperfectly stated, are my principal I grant you, but still there are other abuses that aggrieve the people. objections to the bill recommended by yoru· Committee on Railways I enumerated some of them in t.he early part of my remarks. Gen anu Canals. I have already trespas ed upon the patience and atten tlemen will have no troublo to recall them to recollect.ion. Not one tion of the House longer, I know, than is the usual right of a new of these abuses does this bill pretend even to reach and remedy. It member on this floor; and I have not the time to exhaust the entire is a half-wa.y mea~ure, emasculated, weak, vigorless. field of objections. But I do hope that gentlemen will carefully con The principal shaft from the quiver of your committee which has sider the proyjswns of this bill before the vote is taken upon the qu s been incubating for month npon this subject, and, let roo sa.y, grap tion of substitution, if the chairman of the committee permits me to pling with commendable zeal with the most difficult problem of the make that question when the proper time arrives. times, is directed against the abuse of extortionate charges. How is it proposeu to prevent extortion Let us look for a moment into the • BILL NO. 1079. pra~tical workings of the bill and soe. Under it your commissiouero The bill proposed to be substituted, although perhaps not perfe~t go forward and establish a schedule of rates. If the e rates are less in all its details, is certainly free from the objections of which I have than what a railroad company tle ires to exa-ct, it refuse to be gov been speaking. It creates a permanent bureau, carefully organized, erned by the schedule. Thereupon yoru· commissioners inst itute a anti guarded against corruption- a. bureau that will have fixed a.nd pro ecution for the penalty. Now, if the railroad company can se definite duties to perform- and thv.twill haveamplepowertoenforce cure the decision of a court or the verdict of a jury, to t,he effect that its own mandates aud the laws of Congress. the schedule is unreasonable, then it will not be liahle either for the I am sorry, let me ay in pa sing, that we have not in the economy pena.lty or in dama,ges to the aggrieved shippers. We were told the of our Government :1 department of industry, to which this bureu,u other day by the chairman of the committee recommending thlli hill, might ue attached. The wealth, the jurisprudence, the internal . [Mr. McCRARY,] in his very able and exhaustive speech in support of a.fl'airs, the Army and Navy, anu the commonwealth, are each repre it, that by common law that obtains everywhere railroau companies sented by secretaries iu the executive councils of the nation; but the are liable in damages for practicing extortion. Therefore, all the industries of the counti·y, that which is at the base of all other benefit which the shipper will reap from this legislation will be in the iutere ts, ha , directly, no voice there. sha-dowy advantage it gives him by casting the burden of proof in In the absence of such a department as that, this bureau is to be an action at law upon the railroad company upon the q uestiou of rea annexed to the Department of the Interior, but except in minor mat sonableness of rates. All the benefit that it wi.U give to the pnl.>lic ters is to be entirely indepeuuent of it. Thi bureau must regnlato will be ~he remote po ibilit.y of the collection of the penalty, of wLich rates; it must gnan l human life by- superinteuding the condition and I apprehend railroad corporations will stand in little fear. the repairs of rail1·oaus; it must require that the public convenience 2248 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. MARCH 18, be snbserved in the running arrangements of railroads; it must been made townrd anythin~ like intermeddling with the prices of gather statistics upon definite and fixed inquiries, so that Congress freight or of any other article or commodity connected with com~ and the country ma.y rely upon the information or the statistics that merce, or with charges for the transpo1·tation of passengers. Con~ they will from time to time receive; and it must, in the name of the sequently it is now proposed to apply to our dome tic commerce United StJ,tes, enforce the provisions ~f the bill f01: the remedy of a rule, a regulation, which is entirely new in our legislation and the various abuses of which I have been speaking. wholly without a precedent in any parallel case. We are therefore Let me call the attention of the House to the fact that this bureau invited by this bill to enter upon a new field of legislation and within will exercise no arbitrary power in the est.ablishment of rates. It the boundaries of a newly di covered and undefined power. In view will be governed by a definite, a fixed, and, as I think, a just rule. of the immense interests involved, both public and private, it l>~ Rates mu t be so regulated aa to y-ield a net earning of 10 per cent. hooves us to see that nothing is ha tily and inconsiderately clone sim upon the capitalnece~arilyemployed in the business of transportation, ply because the country expects us to do somet.hing to revive our for unindebted companies ; and 15 per cent. for companies indebted droopin~ commerce, and bee -use we may not just at the moment upon their con truction account. If this be too much or too little, know wnat else to do. chan~e it. The principle is certainly the correct one. If Congress may regulate the prices of freight and pa.s 'engers car This, sir, will give to the people of this cmmtry cheap transporta ried by a railroad because they happen to be taken across a State line, tion. .At the same time capitalinvested in railways will yield a prof then it may do the same thing as to a vessel of any kind, whether itable though not speculative return. large -or small, which may navigate any of our lakes which lie between How much this will cheapen tmnsportation a few figm·es will show. States. It may also regulate and pre cribe the charges and tolls on The Railway Monitor states that we have in the United States 71,564 ferries and bridges across rivers which constitute the boundaries be miles of railway, which cost $3,728,416,000. The net earning of tween States, as well as upon omnibus lines, which, in many in tances, 54,454 miles of this railway was, in a year not named, 174,350,913. form a connecting link between railroa-ds. The principle involved in The cost of these railroads is not stated; but railroads average to cost the power is just as applicable to any other method of conveyance as in the United States 50,000 per mile, and the equipments not far to railroads. It will apply all the same to lines of stage-coaches, of from ,000 per mile; so that the cost of these 54,454 miles of railroad wagons, or of pack-mnJe , which carry freight or passengers across would be not far from $2,940,516,000. Now, sir, a very simple exercise State boundaries. of arithmetic will show what an enormous reduction would be made If the power of Congress really extends to the ca es enumerated, by the provisions of. this bill in the cost of transportation, if these then why may it not extend to the hotels and eating-house which figures are reliable, of which there can be no doubt. The cost, earn are connected with, or under the control of, these lines of interstate ings, and expenditures of particular roads are very accessible; so tha.t communication 'I The prices charged at the e hotels and eating~ the reduction to be made in any particular instance can be readily hou es are as often extortionate and unjust to passengers as any ascertained. other charges they are required to pay. Then why not regulate those There is another feature of this bill, and I came near forgetting it, prices al o 'I Ought not a provision looking to the regulation of snch which ought, it seems to me, to commend it to the support of the hotels and eating-houses to have been embraced in the bill we are House and the favor of the country. While the bill recommended considering, if we ~e expected to cover all the grounds of complaint T by your committee will, as has been said here to-day, require a con Sir, if we are to enter upon this busines of regulating price and siderable yearly expenditure by the Government, the bureau pro charges, where is the limit to be fixed beyond which we may not go! posed by my bill will cost the Treasury nothing, inasmuch as its expenses In that re pect where shall the power of Congres cease and that of are to be paid by a tax upon the income of those corporations whose the State begin 'I It does seem to me that the committee have con pra. By t.he construction of a canal near the mouth of the Mississippi If this bill shall become a law, new and most responsible duties are River of only a few miles in length, or by deepening the channel at its at once imposed on the Federal Government. It is not to be pre~ confluence with the Gulf, as may be found most expedient, so as to sumed that nine commissioners will long be regarded as sufficient. allow the largest cla-ss of vessels to pass and repass without hinderance, We may reasonably expect soon to have a,t least one for each State. we can at once reduce the price of freight more than one-half between A new tribunal is thus at once brought into existence, with most iro~ the whole l\lississippi Valley and the great markets of Europe. If portant and extraordinary powers, without any direct responsibility this shall be found insufficient, then let us connect the waters of the to the people. A new swarm of officers will be created, who e salaries Mississippi with the lakes of the North, and when found practicable, must be provided by increased taxation, under the specious pretense bring together the navifrrable waters by similar means in other sec that transportation may be cheapened over the great through lines of tions of the country. should prefer to spend many and increa ing the country, when the greatest grievances arise out of the shipment millions in this way, from time to time as we may be able, even with and delivery of our local freights, over which these officers will havo all the risks that some of the money shall be wasted, than to enter on no jurisdiction. . th8 policy which this bill proposes. The development of these water &.r, dming the eru.-lier period of our national existence our greatest lines only involves a given amount of money, while the passage of this strength consisted in the simplicity of our Government. There were bill introduces into the Government a new element of political power but few opportunities for the enrichment of men in office, and hence which may prove unrelenting and even destructive. the inducements to peculate or misgovern were not great. The events Mr. CRITTENDEN. Will the gentleman from Indiana permit me of the last few years have worked a revolution in this respect, and to a-sk him a question 'f drifted us away from our ancient simplicity. By assumptions on the Mr. NIBLACK. Certainly. one side, and concessions on the other, new and greatly increased pow Mr. CRITTENDEN. Will the charges on through freights from ers have already been added to the na,tional Government1 and corre Southern Indiana and Missouri be reduced by the passage of the Mc spondingly new duties imposed upon it. It is now almost imperial Crary bill¥ in its power, in its revenues, and in its patronage. Shall we still Mr. NIBLACK. I fear not, Mr. Speaker. We have certainly no further increa-se this patronage by pa sing this bill¥ Ought we not, guarantee that such will be the result. On the contrary the chances rather, to retrace our steps in many respects, and reinaugurate greater are, sir, that these charges will be increased on many of the through simplicity and greater economy Y lines, so as to bring them up to the general average. But, sir, that Sir, it is folly to think of conferring imperial powers and imperial brings me to another branch of thls question, to which I was about duties on a Government like ours, and long continue it a real republic. to allude. The spirit will first be driven out and after awhile the form will One of the most irritating causes of complaint which I have ever necessarily disappear. For the purposes of this argument I have heard against the management of our railroads arises from discrim based my opposition to this bill mainly on grounds of expediency inations against local freights. These discriminations are often real alone. I might add still other reasons for my opposition, but it is grievances and call loudly for a remedy. These grievances, however: unnece~:;sary now. With my present views of public policy I cannot are, as a rule, of local concern only, and are remediable, so far as any vote for this bill, nor can I vote for any similru.- bill without doing remedy can be applied, by the proper State Legislatures. Even if violence to theories of government I have long entertained. these Legislatures have in many instances, if not in most ca es, granted CHEAP TRA..l.~SPORTATION A..!.~D CURRENCY. away the power to control the rates of charges, they certainly have the power to intervene and to prevent unjust and unrea-sonable dis Mr. BLAND. Mr. Speaker, I desire to address myself to this House critninations as between different classes of shipvers. Congress is at this time upon subjects not altogether political, but such as I deem therefore not called upon to interfere in these loc~tl troubles, as it of intense interest to my constituents. clearly has no jmisdiction over them. TRANSPORTATION. But, sir, grant that there are some evils in railroad management I am aware that, with certain elements in this House, one who may which cannot be fully reached by State legislation, or by legitimate attempt to urge here the necessities of the West and South, in the competition as proposed. Shall we then rush into this untried ex way of cheap transportation and more money, is at once accused of periment of congre sional intermeddling, which if not successful will sprinkling his hair with hay-seed andrushingto the ~angers' camp. rivet our chains only the more tightly' The nine commissioners pro Be it so. I have no hesitation in accepting the situation in that pru.- posed to be appointed 1mder this bill will practically have control of ticular as well as all others. the charges for freights and passengers all over the country. These I find that as a democrat I can well indorse every measure advo commissioners are to be appointed by the President, and removable cated by the grangers, as I understand them. Indeed, their principles at his plou, ure. Congress will have power to amend or change the are such as have l'een maintained by the pru.-ty to which I have always law at any time under which these commissioners are appointed, and acknowledged alleti'iance. from which they derive all their power. These commissioners will Old issues of a sectiona:t character, growing out of and anterior to necessru.-ily be sub ervient to the President for the time being, who the war, are well-nigh obsolete. We probably more readily recognize ever he may be. Being, too, also greatly dependent on Congre s, they the fact that those issues are out of question because new ones have will of course de ire to be also in harmony with that body, and per arisen of such moment with the people as to overshadow the worn sonally useful to its members as far as practicable. and jagged remnants of war bickerings. A country suudenly Rtricken . The railroads of the country when combined can wield a very with poverty, financial panics, and wide-spread ban.k'Ttlptcy, finds too powerful, if not a controlling influence in national politics. Very much of present pressing trials, exciting common sympathies and naturally the President would, in the end, if not in the beginning, mutual grievances, and demanding united action for relief, to permit seek the friendship and influence of this great power, and possibly stale prejudices to longer divide them or impede their efforts for often endeavor to combine it in his favor by the appointment of reform and justice. • commissioners acceptable to the railroads. As an almost inexorable We may rejoice that old issues of a sectionu,l character are dead. consequence these commissioners would be expected so to dischargs But let us not suppose that grave ones have not taken their place. their duties a to secure the friendship and support of the milroade We should not overlook the fact that the questions now agitating to the administration in power at the time. This friendship and sup the farmers of the Northwest, West, and South are in many respects port, when secured, would, of course, be used to elect from time to time sectional; nor should we disregard the further fact that, though sec a Congress in harmony with the administration. Then, sir, would it tional in one sense, yet in a broader sense of general prosperity, they be Congress regulating the railroads, or would it not rather be the are truly national, and should be so regarded and dealt with. 1·ailroa It may be alleged by those who have controlled the legislation of cratic principle of hard money and opposition to national bank , or the country that reconstruction, "civil rights," so called, and kindred the supervision of Congress over the finances of the people, was the measures have overshadowed all other subjects1 aRd demanded the part of wisdom or not. It is enough for us to know that it has been very first attention of Congress to the exclusion of all others. This done, and that financial ruin and disaster have been the result. may answer for tho e who had more interest in railroad jobs and the I am opposed to any system of congressional supervision of the diversion of tra~e and commerce North and East on the lines of the e amount of money the people shall ha,ve as a circulating modi urn. roads, but for a Western or Southern Congressman, be he republican This evil we can avoid, and should immediately do o. The volume or democrat, that answer is simply an insult to the people. of currency the country needs and should have ought to be left wit.h But no such pretext longer exists. The people are sick of tho e the people, subject to the law of demand and supply. Free banking stale issues. None now are agitating these civil-rights humbugs, may accomplish this; at least it would probably obviate the objec except a few noisy politicians, who desire to divert the attention of tion to our present system. It is not so much owing to the limitell the people from the searching investigation they are now giving to amount of money now in circubtiou that the country is suffering this party misrule that is crushing the laboring interest of the coun financially, as to the fact that the people, as a class, in the South and try. It is our duty, irrespective of party or party issues, to devote the West went largely in debt during the periods of an inflated currency, time of this Congress to the relief of the people. and now find these extravagant debts hard to pay, becau e of the The republican party has an unlimited control in both Houses of policy of contraction. Congress, and will be held responsible for t,he legislation th:it takes During the war greenbacks flooded the country; and owing to the place as well as for any neglect of needed legislation; yet every demo novel character of this money and its abundance, as also to the uncer crat here is in duty bound to assist the republicans in all mea ures tainty of its redemption, the people distrusted it. The consequence for the advancement of the material interests of the people. Th;s of this was to cause extravagance to be the rule. They desired rather duty they will perform. The people are passing through an ordeal to enjoy the luxurie to be procured bythis money than to save it for that will not permit them to patiently submit to the behest of any future use or risk. Of course it sought investment in all manner of party or party measure. There is no party in their poverty and trials; property and schemes of peculation. Property went up in propor all are on an equality there, and unless the existing parties show a tion as money was more plentiful and of depreciated value. tates, disposition to relieve them, they will disregard party and party dis counties, a.n(l municipal corporations issued their bond to a ist in cipline, and lead off in a bold determination to right their wrongs the building of railroads a,nd other enterprises. Thes bonds wete outside of party. sold :1t large discount , and the b~lding of these improvements ca,rried I think I speak advisedly when I say that the people have resolved, on while labor and material were at the highest figure , thus costing and that irrevocably, to compel the opening up of water-communica largely in exce s of what they could now be built for. tions. The people of the Mississippi Valley have determined that, · After the pe0ple had thus contracted debts, both in public and indi cost what it may, this Government shall open and keep open the mouth vidual capacity, believing that meney would continue plentiful and of that river. If this Congress fails to do its duty in that behalf, they all property valuable, the Government began a system of contraction will try a different suit; if the party in power fails to perform that in order to get back upon a specie basis. .AB contraction went on, of duty, another party will be accorded the opportunity. course money became, on account of its scarcity, more valuable; in Mr. Speaker, I shall not attempt to arrange statistics showing the proportion as money neared a specie standard, property, produce, and wealth of the Mis issippi Valley, its productions, and means of reach labor fell in price. This system of contraction wa . the an:1conda that ing markets, in order to show the necessity or justice-of this demand. has crushed the debtor cla s. Our desks are now loaded with them sent here by the people in The gradual contraction of the currency more seriously affeutecl the terested. Besides, it is enough for us to know that this people de South and West, because it was here that internal improvements mand it. This is the very heart and vitals of this Republic. This were needed. The South had beenilevastated by war; it was neces ary valley is its substratum of wealth and greatne s. More than half our that she should borrow in order to carry on her busine and commercial population are urging this measure. This we all know, :md we fur relations. The West were in need of raihoads and the improvement ther know that this fact of itself is sufficient reason why it should be of farms, and were in debt for these and similar purpo e . Be ides, done. being an agricultural people, they were not provided with the ready If I were to speak as a democrat and in a strictly partisan point of money that 2lways seeks commercial center and mercantile com view, with no other desire than paJ:ty a cendency, I might express munities. Another cause that materially affected the e sections was the hope that this Congress would disregard this demand of the peo the unequal distribution of the currency under the national-bank ple, for I assume but few will come back here from this section who ystem. It requires no argument to show that these debts and in now flag in this duty. But I above all other considerations desire t-erest thereon could be met with less difficulty if money was now as some relief to the people who sent me here. I feel that I ought to be plentiful as when they were contracted. of some service to them other than as a partisan. I believe I cannot Is it just toward the debtor class that the means of paying their better serve them than to work for the opening of the mouth of the debts, relied on when contraced, should be taken away. Mississippi River, and the ultimate improvement of allitstributaries. The money-lender profits by every measure of contraction, because I do not believe that the vexed question of cheap transportation can he can buy with his mone , owing to its scarcity and the con equent be otherwise permanently and satisfactorily settled. depression in property value, double what he could at the time it The project proposed by some for the Government to build lines of wa loaned. A, who loaneu B $5,000duringinfiation, and took a mort-_ railways is a dangerous one. We have ha~ too much already of job ga.ge on B's farm worth 10,000, now takes tJle farm to p:1y hi ,0 bery of this sort. It results usually in,. nothing but peculation and a mortgage, when to have purchased it at the time of the loan would dishonest waste of the people' money. While I am rea~y to admit have cost him 10,000. that Congress may have the lawful power to re~ulate materially the The West and South, as before remarked, and especially the agri railroads of the country pa.ssiug through different States, yet its exer cultural portions, are the debtor class. They feel the squeeze of cise is of very doubtful propriety, and can be tolerated only upon the this anaconda more tightly than any other part of the community. principle of an experiment where the necessities of the case demand If I am pet~mitted to express my opinion of the real cause of the the trial of doubtful remedies as a last resort. It ·will make place · poverty of the farming community, I should say that this monetary for an army of agents and Government commissioners, who: if we are question explained it. The want of transportation doubtless hns to judge from past experience, will more likely combine with the much to do with it, but it is not the only reason. Give agriculturists managers of ra,il ways to further oppress us than institute any measures the means to pay off their debts and the problem will be solved, unless of reform and regulation that will result in benefit to any one. they commit the same error of going in debt wlrile times are easy and There is a,nother danger, that they may adopt unwise and harsh money plentiful. measures, and thus cripple the roads we have and render them less I t cannot be expected, nor do I think it would be policy, to go en able to accommodate the people, and, beside, deter further invest- tirely baok to the days of inflation, and issue money without atmt or ment of capital in that kind of enterprise. 1 limit; but there ought to be some system devised whereby more money It is our duty to so legislate as not to cripple allY interest of the could be put in mrculation and partial relief given to the people. country, but to foster and protect all. .· We need all the competition This would enable them to emerge from debt, and at the same time we can properly secure from the investment of capital in milroads in prevent a repetition of extravagance. order to induce competition. For the same reason we should improve :Mr. Speaker, a a rule, I am opposed to any currency except such a-s our rivers and resort to competition in this way, for in competition, is based on specie pa,yments. But we must not undertake to reach a aud in tha,t alone, ca.n we reasonably expect a solution of this ques specie ba-sis all at once; the resumption must be slow. Give the peo tion of transportation as well as all other questions of trade and com ple time, that by rigid economy they can gra~ually reach a specie merce. basis without utterly bankrupting the fanning community. FINANCES. This question of currency is one of extreme difficulty to deal with, Mr. Speaker, I cannot closo without adverting to another subject !IDd great caution should attend every effort to legislate upon it. that, in my opinion, is of no less importance to the people I have Of one thing, Mr. Speaker, I am, however, convmcetl ; and that i , 1•he honor in part to represent than that of cheap transportation. It the policy for t.he great ma.ss of the laboring community is to give them is probably unnecessary for mo to say that I allude to the financial more money, that they may be the better enabled to extricate them condition of the country. selves from the load of debt that now oppresses them. In ord r to In order to properly understand this matter, we must consider it partially accomplish this result, we ought to issue the reserve of forty from the beginning of the present system of paper-money issue by four millions, an and July 5, 1862. I have compared the text with the original acts, That is the langua.ge of the original act. and find no amendment to suggest. The amendment was agreed to. Chaptel' 3, "The National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers," Mr. MOORE. My next. amendment is to section 3721. is a codification of the acts pa-ssed on the 21st :March, 1866, and the The section was as follows : 23d January, 1873. I have also compared this revision with the orig SEc. 3721. The heads of Departments, in commtmicntin('l' estimates of e::qJendi inal acts, and find no amendment to suggest. tures and appropriations to Congress, or to any of the committees thereof, shall Chapter 4, "The Government Hospital for the In ane," is a. codifi specify, as nearlv as may be convenient, the sources from which such estitnates are derived and the.. calcnlations upon which they are founded, and shall discriminat-e cation of the acts of :March 3, 1855, February 7, 1857, l<'ebruary 28, between such estinlates aa are con,jectural in fheir character and such as are fr;ametl 1H61 and July 16, 1866. I have an amendment to offer to section 4907. upon actual information a.nd applications from disbursing officers. He shall al o The section was as follows : gtve references to any law or treaty by which the propos d expemlitures are1 respecti>ely, authorized, specifyin~?: tne date of each, and the vol~c nncl page of SEc. 4907. The chief executive officer of the Hospital for the Insane shall be a the Statutes at Large, or of the ll.evised Statutes, as theca e may be, and the sec superintendent, who shall be appointed by the Se~retary of the In~rior , and shall tion of the aet in which the authority is to be found. be entitled to a. salary of $'2,500 ayeart anli sballg1ve bond for the fruthful perform. ance of his duties in such snm and wrth such securities as may be required by the Mr. MOORE. I offer the following amendment: Secretarv of the Interior. The superintendent shall be ::t well-educated physician, possessilig competent experience in ~he care a}ld treatment of the insaD;e; J;te s_ball In line 8 strike out the word "he," at the commencement of the sentence; anil reside on the premises, a.nd devote his whole time to the welfare of the mstitution ; insert the word "they" in its pln.ce. he shall, subject to the approval of the visitors, eng-age and discharge all needful and usual employ~s in the ~re of the insane, and all Ia:bore~ on ~e farm, anfl de This change is necessary because the reference is to heads of Depart- termine their wages and duties; he shall be the responsible disbursmg agent of the ments. institution. The amendment was agreed to. Mr. SAYLER, of Ohio. I offer the following amendment. Add at 1fr. MOORE. My next amendment is to section 3753, the end of the section the following words : The section was as follows : SEC. 3753. All moneys received from the leasing or sale o£ marine hospital , or .And shall be ex ojftcio secretary of theBo:lol'd of Visitors. the sale of revenue-cutters, or from the sa.le of commissary stores to the ofticers aml This is found in the original act, and we see no reason for its omis enlisted men of the Army, or from sales of condemned clothing of the Navy; or sion. from sales of materials, stores, or supplies by any exploring or surveying expctli· tion authorized by law, shall respectJvely revert to that appropriation out of whit!h The amendment was agreed to. they were originally expended, and shall be applied to the pu.tj:loses for which they Mr. SAYLER, of Ohio. The only other changes that are made in are appropriated by law. this ehapter are to adapt the language to the present form of the government of the · District of Columbia, and are found in seotion 1fr. MOORE. I offer the following amendment : 4918. In the fifth line of that section the words, "the governor of In line 5 strike out the word" by" after the word "supplies1'' and insert the word "to" in its place; so it will read, "supplies to any exploring or sul'veying the District," are substituted for the words in the original, "the cor expedition." · porate authorities of the city of Washington and of Georgetown.'' And so elsewhere there are changes of this kind made, pertaining to the The amendment was agreed to. Mr. MOORE. My next amendment is to section 3768. courts ; they are made so a,s to correspond to the present form of the government of the District, and hence the language is supposed by The section wa as follows : the committee to be just as it ought to be in this revision. SEc. 3768. When any officer or ag-ent duly authorized to receive, tedecm, or cancel any Trea ury notes issued under acts pas eel prior to Angu t 10, 1846, shall receive, Chapter 5, "The Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb," or pay, any Treasury note which ha been previously received or redeemetl b:v any is a codification of six acts passed from 1857 to 1870. There are no officer or agent havin The section is as follows: Mr. POLAl-.TD. The next amendment is to section 2673. An amend SEc. 649. Wben a suit is removed for trial from a State court to a circuit court, as ment was made to that section on a former evening by addinO"to the provided in para.!!mph 1 of section 642, and in such of the foregoing sections as section, and we desire now to withdraw that amendment. The pro relate w the rem'Oval of causes for the purpose of protecting all J?ersons in the vision that was inserted there is a provision of the statutes but we United St-'ltes in their civil rights, and to furnish the means of therr vinilication, any atta.ehment of the goods or estate of the defendant by the original process shall find it in another place. At the beginning of our work w~ had no hoid the same to answer the final jucl!nnent, in the same manner as by the laws of index, and hence we did not notice it. It is already in its ::tppropriate such State they would h!Lve been. hel'a to answer final judgment had it bee~ r en place.. I move to strike out the amendment formerly adopted. dered by the court in wh1ch the srut was commenced. In the other cases mentioned The ltmendment formerly made and now proposed to be stricken in the foreo-oing sections, besides the previous provisions of this section; and any out is as follows: injunction 'granted before ~he r~moval of th~ cans~ against ~he defendantappl~g for its removal shall continue m force _until modified or dissolved by the UIDted Add at end of section 2673: Sta,tes court into which the cause is removed; and any bond of indemnity or other Collectors and surveyors of the collection districts on the northern northeastern obligation, given by the plaintiff I!P~m the issuing o~ granting ?f any atta~~e.nt , and northwestern frontiers are authori·11ed to keep on sale, at their ~everal offices' writ of injunction or other restramillg process, agamst the defendant p otitio nm~ blank maillfests and clearances required for the business of their districts and t~ for the rein oval of 'the cause, shall also continue in full force, and may be prosecuteu charge the sum of ten cents, and no more, for each blank which shall be p~epared by the defendant and rna~~ available for his in~emnity. in case the. attachment, and executed by them. injunction, or other restraillmg process, be set as1de or diSsolved, o~ JUdp;ment be rendered in hid favor, in the !'arne manner and with the same effect-a If such attach The amendment was agreed to. ment, injunction, or other restraining process had been granted, and such bond had l\fr. POLAND. The next amendment is to section 2740. been originally filed or given, in sucn Stat~ court. The section is a-s follows: Mr. POLAND. I move to strike out that section, and insert in lieu SEC. 2740. Whenever the emoluments of any surveyor, other than those named in the preceding section, shall exceed 2,000 in any one year, after deducting therefrom thereof the following : the necessary expenses incident to his office in the same year the excess shall be SEc. - . When a suit is removed for trial from a State court to a circuit court, aa paid into the Trea-sury for the use of the United States. And'no surveyor shall on provided in the foregoing sections, any att.whment of goods or estate ?f the de any pretense :whate-yer, in the a~gr!3gate, receive, or retain for himself, more than fondant by the ori!rlnal process shall bold the same w answer the final.Judgment, $4,500 a year, mcluding all COllliDISSions or fees or emoluments, or any other commis in the same manner as by_ the laws of such State they '!'onld _have bee~ hold to an sions or salaries which are now allowed and limited bvlaw; but each surveyor shall swer final judgment bad It been renderecl by the court m which the smt w:as com be entitlecl w a maximum compensation of 4,500 a year, out of any and all fees and menced; and any injru:ction granted befor~ tho _removal of _the ~se aga:nst the emoluments by him received. defendant applying fonts removal shall continue ill force until moclified or clissolved by the United States court into which the cause is removed ; and any boncl of in 1\Ir. ~OLAND. I move to amend that section by adding to it the demnity or other obligation, given by the pL'lintiff upon t.he issuing or_granting of followmg: any attachment, writ of injunction, or other restraruin~ proces~. aga_mst the de Ancl when any surveyor shall perform the duties of collector, he shall beentitled fendant petitioning for the removal of the cause, shall ruso continue m full force, to the same compensation as is allowed to a collector for like services and shall be and may be prosecutetblo for his ind_emnity ~ subject to the same limitations. ' case the attachment, mjunctio~, or. other r~strammg process be set !181de or dis solved, or jud=ent be ren~er:eu m _his favor, ill the Sl!>~e manner and With the same The amendment was agreed to. effecta.\lifsuchattachment, IDJUnction, orotherrestrainmgprocesshad been granted, Mr. POLAND. The next amendment is to section 2859. and such bond had been originally filed or given, in such Srote court. The section is as follows: The section that we propose to insert 'is the section as it was drawn SEC. 2859. The collector at the port of entry shall permit no entry to be made of by the commissioners. It has been changed to some extent by 1\Ir. merchandise, where the duty on the same shall e:x:ceecl the amount of the bond de posited with the surveyor, nor shaU the surveyor receive the bon.d of any person Durant, and the committee think that the section a.s drawn by Mr. not entitled W a credit at the custom-house, nor for a sum less than fifty dollars. Dmant is liable to some misapprehensions. They prefer the original When the bond has been completed, and the actual amount of duty ascertained and section as it was revised by the commissioners, and the section that certified on the margin, the surveyor of the port where the bond IS taken shall de we propose to insert is an exact draught of that prepared by the com posit the same for collection in such bank as may be directed by the Secretary of missioners. the Treasury. The amendment was agreed to. Mr.-POLAND. I move to strike out all after the wortl "shall," in 1\Ir. POLAND. The next section which I desire to amend is section line 8, as follows : " deposit the same for collection in such bank as 3039. may be directed by the Secretn,ry of the Treasury ; " and insert in The section is as follows : lieu thereof the words "collect said duties and pay the same into the .SEc. 3039. All duties upon imports shall be collected in ready money, without Treasury of the United States;" and to strike out, after the word giving credit therefor. "person," in line 4, the words "not entitled to a credit at the cus Mr. POLAND. I move to strike out the words "without giving tom-house, nor." credit therefor," and to insert at the end of the section the words The amendments were n,greed to. " and shall be paid in coin,or in United States notes payable on de Mr. POLAND. The next amendment is to section 3137. mand, authorized to be issued prior to the 25th day of February, 1862, The section is as follows : and by law receivable in payment of public dues." SEc. 3137. If a,ny collector, naval officer, surveyor, or other person especially ap pointed by either of them, or inspector, shall have cause tQ suspect a concealment of The amendment was agreed to. any merchandise in any particulacl' dwelling:-house, they, <>r either of them, upon Mr. POLA}.TD. I move to strike out section 3040, as follows: proper applic..1>tion on oath w any justice of the peace, shall be entitled to a warrant S:Ec. 3040. The several collectors are authorized, under such regulations as may to enter such house, in the day-time only, and thereto searchforsuchmerohandise· be prescribed by the SecretaJ.-y of the Treasury, whenever they shall deem it neces and if any shall be found, w seize and secure the same for trial; and all such mer: sary to protect and secure t'he r evenue of the United States against frauds or b~f~~f~~ which the duties shall not have been paid, or secured to be paid, shall undervaluation, and whenever the s=e is practicable, to take payment of the amount of duties chargeable upon any article bearing an ad valm·em rate of duty, in Mr. POLAND. I move to insert after the word "dwelling-house,'' the article it-self, accordinl! to the proportion or rate per cent. of the duty on such article. The collector shall cause merchandise, so taken, to be sold at public auc in line 4, the words "store, building, or other place," and also to in tion within twenty days from the time of ta.king the same, in t.he manner prescribed sert after the word ''house," in line 6, the words "store or other place." in this·title, and place the proceeds arising from such sale in tho Treasury of the United States. But the collector or appraiser shall not. be allowed any fees or com The amendment was agreed to. missions for taking and disposing of such merchandi e, and paying the proceeds J\llr. POLAND. The next amendment is to section 2989. thereof into the Tre~sury, other than are·now allowed by law. The section is a-s follows : The amendment was agreed to. SEc. 2989. ~o leases sh:Jll be entered into by the United St.1>tes for any warehouses 1\Ir. POLAND. I move that section 3122, and all the remaining for the swrage of warehoused or unclaimed merchandise at any port where there sections of that chapter, up to and including section 3128, be trans may exist any private bonded warehouses. ferred to page 749, to come in after section 30:l8. Mr. POLAND. I move to amend that section by adding to it the Those sections are all correct., but they all relate to transportation following: of merchandise in bond, and they have been placed in the chapter re Provided, That such buildings may be leased as may be required for the use of lating to draw backs of duties, and improperly so placed, as the commit appraisers for the examination and appraisal of imported merchandise at the ports tee think. They propose, therefore, to tra.nsfer them to the end of the where such officers are provided by law; and the collecwrs may lease for short periods at a~y of the smaller ports such stores as may be required for custom-house chapter in relation to bonded warehouses and transportation in bond. purposes, With the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury. The amendment was agreed to. Mr. POLAND. The next amendment I desire to offer is to section The amendment was agreed to. 2595. Mr. POLAND. I now move that sections 2964,2965, and 2966 be • The section is as follows: tmnsferred to page 779, to come in after section 3164. SEc. 2595. There shall be in the collection clistricts of Wisconsin the following I will state that these sections contain the provisions of the act officers: passed three or four years ago, authorizing the seizmes of books and First. In the district of Superior, a collector, who shall reside at Marquette, a papers by customs officers, under the order of a judge, which just now deputy collector who shaU reside at Sault Sainte Marie, and a deputy collector is making so much disturbance in the world. The sections were in who shallresicle at Mackinaw. See.ond. In the district of Milw:tukee, a collector and an appraiser, who shall re serted correctly by the revisers, but they were put into the chapter side at Mil waukee, a,nd a deputy cull ector at each of the ports of Southport, Racine, in relation to appraisers, anti we think they properly belong to the Sheboygan, Green Bay, and Depere. chapter containing provisions for the enforcement of the collection Mr. POLAND. I move in line 8 to strike out " Southport" and in laws and the collection of duties. \Vo therefore propose to m:tke the sert " Kenosha." transfer. The laws are properly transcribed, but they were placed in The same word occms twice on the same page. We have already the wrong place. _ changed it in one place, but in the other place we omitted to m::tke The amendment wa-s agreed to. the ch::tnge. The name of the place has been chauged from South Mr. POLAND. I move to strike out section 3171. port to Kenosha. The section is as follows : The amentlrnent was agreed to. SEc. 3171. Any deputy collector stationed in any district of the customs.contign 2254 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. MARCH 18, ous to a. foreign territory, to whom a manifest of merch::Lndise, subject to duty, either House of Congress, either before or after such member has been qualified or shall be delivered, is hereby authorized to require of the importer of such mer has taken his seat, with intent to influence his vote or decision on any question, ch.mdise the pa,ymeut of the. duties th~reon, or good and ample security, either b_y matter, cau~ e, or proceeding which may be at any time pending in either House of bond with one or more su ffiment sureties, for the payment thereof, or by the deposit Congress, or before any committee thereof, shall be fined not more than three times of a portion of such merchandise, equal, at lea t, to double the amount of the du the amount of money or value of the thing so offered, promised, given, made, or tie on the whole importation; which bond shall be canceled, or the merchandise so tendered, or caused or procured to be so offered, promised, given, made, or tanuered, deposited shall be delivere in the general terms I now propose. Some of the amendments we passetl a bill-and probably it is on our desks now-granting these have alreauy adopted are quite lengtlly, covering several pages of arrears. If they are to be granted it should be done by a general manu cript. It woulu bemuchmoreconvenientto h:we them printed, bill, and not in exceptional ca es. Therefore the committee iustruct aml we ask to have such an oruer made. me to recorumend that this present bill be indefinitely post poned. No objection was made, and it was so ordered. The bill was po tponed indefinitely. Mr. POLAND. I believe that is as far as we are prepared to go to Mr. SPENCER, from the Committee on Commerce, to whom was night. We have not occupied a great deal of your time to-night, referred the bill (H. R. No. 2186) granting au American registry to the although it has taken a great deal of time to prepare the work we American-built Peruvian steamship Rayo, now rebuilt iu the United have presented. States and converted into a sailing-vessel, reported it with an amend I move that the House now adjourn. ment. The motion was agreed to; and accordingly (at eight o'clock and Mr. SPENCER. I am directed by the Committee on Commerce, to thirty minutes p.m.) the House adjourned. whom was referred the bill (H. R. No. 2451) to improve the mouth of the Missis ippi River, to report the same favorably ancl ask its im mediate consideration. The bill was read. Mr. SARGENT. Where does that come from 'f lN SENATE. 'rhe PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Committee on Commerce. :Ur. SAULSBURY. It requires some explanation of the necessity THURSDAY, March 19, 1874. of it. . Mr. SPENCER. This amount is recommended by the Secretary of Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. BYRo~ SUNDERLAND, D. D. War. The bill has already passed the House. The appropriation of The JournaJ. of yesterday's proceedings was read and approved. last year has been exhausted, and this $30,000 is to come out of the PETITIONS AND 1\IE:U:ORIALS. appropriations for next year. The Secretn,ry of War reports t hat tho Mr. BUCKINGHAM presented the memorial of Captain Albert G. amount of money appropriated heretofore ha-s been expended, an
Congressional Record
