Congressional .R.Ecord- House,· 3505

1908. CONGRESSIONAL .R.ECORD- HOUSE,· 3505

creed, and, after a long life of remarkable achievements and JANITOR TO THE COUUITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS. singular usefulness to his State and to his country, he has 1\Ir. CURRIER. 1\fr. Speaker, I offer the following privileged passed away. r eport from the Committee on Accounts. ~~his · is nqt the oc.casion to pay the proper tribute to his The Clerk read as follows : ·j memory, but it behooves me to say that tpe State whose noblest aims and best traditions he has so truly represented will mourn Resolution in lieu of resolution 279. R esolv ed, That there shall be paid out of the contingent fund of the him as it would mourn no other of its illustrious sons. From House for the services of a janitor to the room assigned to the Com one end of :Marylan~ to the other he will be missed from mittee on Ways and Means, in the House wing of the Capitol, com amongst us as perhaps no other man has ever been missed be pensation at the rate of $60 per month, to commence from the time such janitor enters upon the discharge of his duties, which shall be fore. He was the idol of our people. ascertained and evidenced by the chairman of said committee. He was beloved by all classes of the community, and as I left my home this morning the city that he loved and with The question was taken, and the resolution was agreed to. whose progress his own life was interwoven seemed to be cast TELEPHONE MESSENGER. down and pervaded with a full consciousness of the great loss 1\Ir. CURRIER. I also offer the following: that it' has sustained. In his palmy days in certain depart ments of his· profession he stood without a peer. In times The Clerk read as follows : gone by of great political turbulence and conflict he had no Mr. CURRIER submitted the following- equal as an orator upon the hustings, and his popularity with " House resolution 280. every element of the people was unsurpassed in my day. uResolved, That there shall be paid out of the contingent fund of the House for the services of an additional messenger in charge of Back of it all there was that which is greater than learning telephones on the floor of the House (east side) compensation at the and success and eloquence and popularity, and that was his rate of $1,200 per annum, payable monthly, until otherwise provided stainless and unblemished character in public and in private for by law." life. It was an honor and a Yictory to die as he did. Conscious The question was taken, and the resolution was agreed tc. until within a moment of his death, it must have been a glori On motion of 1\Ir. CURRIER, a motion to reconsider the yote by ous realization, inexpressible in words, for him to feel that as which the several resolutions were agreed to was laid on the he passed into the presence of his Maker he could look back table. upon a life dedicated to the performance of public and private DAM ACROSS J A.MES RIVER, MISSOURI. duties in strict accord with the prompting of his heart and the dictates of his conscience. 1\Ir. RUSSELL of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous Mr. President, genius and ability may perish without hardly consent ·for the present consideration of the bill H . R. 17707. a record of their work or a remembrance of their deeds, but a The bill was read, as follows : · A bill (H. R. 17707) to authorize William H. Standish to construct a character like his never dies; it stands forth as a beacon light, dam across James River, in Stone County, Mo., and divert a portion shedding its rays upon the generations that are to come and of its waters through a tunnel into the said river again to create casting its halo upon the shores of eternity. electric power. B e it enacted, etc., That William H. Standish, o! Reeds Springs, Stone Mr. President, I now send to the desk and ask for the imme County, Mo., his heirs and assigns, be, and they are hereby, authorized diate consideration and adoption of the following resolutions. to construct, maintain, and operate a dam in the big bend of The VICE-PRESIDE~'T. The resolutions will be read by the the James River in township 23 north, range 24 west, in the county of Stone and State o! Missouri, across the said James River at said point. Secretary. And t hat at the narrows in said bend he and they are hereby author The Secretary read the resolutions, as follows : ized to impound and by canal and tunnel to divert and conduct across R esolv ed, That the Senate has heard with profound soTrow of the said narrows such portion of the water in said . river, through said death of the Bon. WrLLIAI'li PINKNEY WHYTE, late a Senator from the tunnel, into said -river aga in as may be necessary for electric·power s~~ ~ Mu~an~ A purposes, all subject to and in accordance with the provisions of the R esolved, That the Secretary communicate these proceedings to the act of Congress entitled "An act to regulate the construction of dams }louse of Representatives and transmit a copy thereof to the family of across navigable waters," approved June 21, 1906. the deceased Senator, and that as a further mark of respect to his mem SEc. 2. That the construction of said dam and tunnel shall be com ory the Senate do now adjourn. menced within two years of the passage of said act, and be completed within five years from the date of the passage of this act. The VICE-PRESIDENT. The' question is on agreeing to the SEc . 3. That the right to alter, amend, or repeal this act is hereby resolutions. expressly reseryed. The resolutions were unanimously agreed to; and (at 12 The amendments recom,mended by the committee were read, o'clock and 8 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned until to as follows: morrow, Thursday, March 19, 1908, at 12 o'clock meridian. In line 3, page 1, after the word "That," insert "the consent of Congress is hereby given to." ize~~ . ,lines 4 and 5, page 1, strike out " be, and they ~re hereby, authcr- In lines 9 and 10, page 1, stt·ike out "that at the narrows in said HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. bend he and they are hereby a uthorized," and in line 10, page 1 af-ter the word "impound," insert "at the narrows in said bend." ' WEDJ\TESDAY, lJI arch 18, 1908. At the end of section 1 add the following: ' •; P r ovided, 'l'hat the Secretary of War shall have at all times controf The House met at 12 o'clock m. of the use of the water, even t o the extent of causing t he persons firms, or co1:porations taking advantage of the privileges granted herein: The following prayer was offered by the Chaplain, Rev. to cease usmg the water whenever the same may be necessary f or HENRY N . CoUDEN, D. D . navigation: And provided further, That should the United States in Eternal God, our Heavenly Father, in. whose all-encircling the work of improving the aforesaid river find it necessary to flood the aforesaid tunnels or in any way affect the flow of water through them love we dwell and through whose never-failing ministrations the owners or operators of aforesaid tunnels shall have no claim against our existence is continued moment by moment, hour by hour. the United States for damage on a ccount of said flooding of the tunnels Guide us, we beseech Thee, by Thy Holy Spirit of truth to do or sa id effect on the flow of water through them." Thy will, that we may build for ourselves characters which Strike out all of section 2 and renumber section 3 to section 2. shall be an everlasting memorial to our Maker. The SPEAKER. Is there objection? Again we are called upon to chronicle the passing a way of 1\fr. FLOYD. Reserving the right to object, I want to ask one more of the Congressional family, whose long life and public some questions about the bill. career have gained for him an everlasting place in the history '.l'he SPEAKER. Does the gentleman yield 1 of his State and nation. Comfort his friends, colleagues, and 1\Ir. RUSSELL of Missouri. I yield. family with the blessed promises of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, 1\Ir. FLOYD. I will ask the gentleman to state if this bill af our Lord. Amen. fects the White River in 1\fissouri or the James RiYer? The Journal of yesterday's proceedings was read and ap Mr. RUSSELL of l\Iissouri. It applies to the James River proved. wholly within the State of Missouri. Mr. FLOYD. I will ask you if this is in keeping with your INDIAN APPROPRIATION BILL. original proposition, that the James River should be declared 1\Ir. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to unnaviga-ble? take from the Speaker's table the Indian appropriation bill, to l\Ir. RUSSELL of Missouri. It is not. That bill was re further insist on the disagreement to the Senate amendments, jected by the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce; and agree to the conference requested. and this bill was at their instance prepared and unanimously' The SPEAKER. The gentleman from New York asks unani reported favorably by that committee. mous consent that the House further insist on its disagreements ~Ir. FLOYD. I will ask you if it in any way protects the to the Senate amendments and agree to the conference re navigation of the river? questecL Is there objection 1 [After a pause.] The Chair l\Ir. RUSSELL of :Missouri. It does; it gives the Govern hears none. The Chair announces the following conferees: Mr. ment, through the War Department, a bsolute control over the SHERMAN, Mr. MARSHALL, and 1\Ir. STEPHENS of Texas. flow of the water and the river, reserving the right at any

~LII--220 3506 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. ~l.AROR 18,_ time they desire to do so to have the beneficiaries under this is anything in ·the power of suggestion, then it seems easy to bill cease to use the water, in order that it may be used for oonclude that incendiary and gloomy speeches universally pub navigation. lished and sent to the homes of our people frighten business, Mr. M..ll\TN. It is under the general dam act. paralize industry, and bTing .on a loss of that confidence so Mr. RUSSELL of l\Iis ouri. It is under the general dam law. essential to prosperity. Mr. FLOYD. I will ask you if it requires the dam to be com- We are too prone to criticise and denounce each other in this pleted within a certain time, in keeping with the gen-eral law Chamber, where business should be conduct d in an orderly, pa f'

Already we begin to realize the prophecies in the "Battle Act of July, 1866, extended to widows and children the pen hymn of the Republic." Dewey's guns in Manila Bay spoke sions of deceased soldiers, and in certain cases to mothers of the language of a righteous force and a glorious flag because of deceased soldiel,'s. Appomattox. THIRTEE~TH STATUTES AT LARGE. There is no other counh·y which dispenses to its heroes in An act making appropriation for the payment of inv.alid and the military and naT"al service with such liberal hand as the other pensioners of the United States for the year endmg June United States, and no other country depends upon a volunteer 30, 1865 (p. 3). army to fight its battles and defend its name like thc'lt of the An act to increase the pensions of revolutionary pensioners United States. No other country pursues the policy of a pen now on the rolls of the Pension Office ( p. 39). sion roll of honor like the United States. An act relating to the compensation of pension agents In 185!> Russia established an emerital fund by donation from (p. 325). the imperial treasury of 7,500,000 rubles, and a subsequent An act supplementary to an act entitled "An act to grant supplementary gift of 2,400,000 rubles, aggregating !>,900,000, pensions," approved July 14, 18G2 (p. 387). Pensions to equal to $5,098,500, as the basis for a pension fund, which was those who have lost both feet, both hands, or eyes; Yolunteers placed at interest. To this is added assessments of 5 and 6 not enlisted, disabled by wounds, to have benefits of pension per cent on the amOlmt of the officers' pay, and also the interest laws, and relating to the status of the widows and dependents and profits from interest-bearing bonds belonging to the fund. of such volunteers, and relative to the payment of accrued Those entitled to pensions under this fund are such persons pensions; granting title to enlisted soldie~s . disabled. in the as have served twenty-five years in the Army or Navy and have senice, though not mustered in, and pronding pensiOns for contributed to the fund for twenty years, except those wounded their widows and dependents; providing for proof of marriage in battle and those who during their military service have be in claims of widows of colored soldiers, and the repeal of incon come paralyzed, insane, or totally blind and not fit for further sistent laws. service, but necessitating the aid and attendance of another An act supplementary to several acts relating to pensions person. (p. 449). The system is very complicated, lacks liberality, and falls This act provides for pensions for acting assistant or contract short of justice to soldier and sa.ilor. The officers take the bulk surgeons; if disabled by wound received or disease contracted of the money thus bestowed and the rank and file are put off while actually performing the duties of acting assistant or con with a pittance. · tract surgeon with any military force in the field or in transitu Great Britain grants pensions for length of service nnd dis or in hospital; persons losing a hand or foot to have $20 per abilities contracted in service, and in 1898-99, the last attainable month ; widows or children of certain officers and other persons data, there was appropriated on account of pensions £1,811,927, to receive pensions. equal to $8,76D,726.G8. An act supplementary to the several acts relating to pensions. Germany grants pensions for length of service and for disa (14 S. L., 56.) bilities in the service. In 1 V8 the pension appropriation was This repeals section 5 of the act approved March 3, 1865, and 91,000,000 marks, equal to $21,203,000. provides pension of $25 per month for persons who while in • France grants pensions upon retirement from active service the military or naval service or line of duty have lost the sight and for wounds or disabilities contracted in the service. In of both eyes, the loss of both hands, or have been permanently 1898 the pension appropriation was 130,949,000 francs, equal to and totally disabled in same, or otherwise so permanently dis $25,430,295.80. abled as to render them utterly helpless, or so as to req"9-ire Brazil pursues a policy much like that of Russia, and in 1899 the constant aid and attendance of another person; and a pen paid in pensions the sum of $663,000. sion of $20 per month for persons, who, under like circumstances, Belgium authorizes pensions for length of service, on age, lost both feet or one hand or one foot, or have been totally per and for disabilities contracted in the line of] duty. In 1898 manently disabled in the same, or otherwise so disabled as to be there was appropriated $941,426. incapacitated for performing any manual labor; and a pension Austria-Hungary takes care of its military officers and men- of $15 per month to persons who, under like circumstances, lost 1. By the grant of life or temporary pensions. one band or one foot, or have been totally and permanently dis 2. By the grant of additional allowances for disabilities. 3. By admission to invalid homes. abled in the same or otherwise so disabled as to render their inability to perform manual labor equivalent to the loss of a In 1899 there was an appropriation for pensions of all kinds hand or a foot. of 14,297,975 gulden, equal to $5,719,190. Provides when heirs of persons entitled to invalid pension The Argentine Republic pensions its officers and men for dis may receive same, and for the payment of pensions of officers abilities in service so long as they remain in the country. dying after date of commission but before being mustered out. In 1399 there was appropriated for pensions $1,29!>,540. Period of service to extend to the time of disbanding the The military pension of Chile is considered a charitable in organization to which the person belonged or until they are stitution, but pensions are granted after ten years' service, actually discharged for other cause than the expiration of unless disabilities are contracted while in service. The pension service of the organization. appropriation for the year 1899 was 1,859,717.39 pesos, equal to Enlisted men to be treated as noncommisioned officers or pri $67 ,796.70. vates. Peru appropriated for pensions in 1898 £62,669, equal to When children are abandoned by a widow or she is not a $303,317.96. suitable person to have custody of them, pensions may be paiLl Portugal appropriated in the same year $841,471. to the minor children. Japan is most liberal of any of the foreign governments and ·when orphan brother or sister may recei\e pension. grants pensions in every conceivable case. There is appropriated No person to receive more than one pension at a time. each year for pensions in Japan liberal sums. If claim for pension not filed in three years, pension to com All governments provide for the widows of soldiers and sail mence from the date of filing the last paper in the case by the ors and their dependent families. party prosecuting the same. The United States pays out on account of pensions nearly Proof of marriage in claims filed by widows of colored sol three times as much as Great Britain, Germany, and France diers. combined. An act increasing the pensions of widows and orphans, and The system followed by the United States is unlike that of any for other purposes. (14 Stat. L., 230.) other country, since we provide for the soldier or sailor as gen This act extends the provisions of the pension law to provost erously as does any other country for disabilities contracted in marshals, their deputies, and enrolling officers, and pensions the service and for wounds and other injuries in war, and also widows of soldiers and sailors, and increases $2 a month each for the volunteer soldiers and sailors, whether they are disabled child under 16 years of age. from the service or not, or even whether they are disabled at all, If during pendency of the claim for invalid pension the appli and in amounts in excess of other nations. We also provide for cant dies, provides for the payment of the accrued pension. the widow and the orphan and the dependent father and mother. Provides that a widow who has remarried may be paid pen Gratitude is an element of our pension system and our pen sion to the date of her remarriage. sion i·oll is one of honor and distinction. Act July 23, 1868 (15 Stat. L., 170)-appropriation bill: In addition to money pensions there are numerous National Section 2: Interest on naval pension fund shall hereafter be at the rate and State soldiers' and sailors' homes, where the comforts of of 3 per cent per annum, in lawful money, and shall be applicaLle ex a hotel are provided for all those who choose to go there. clusively to the payment of Navy pensions according to existing laws. Act of July 14, 1862, embraced in sections 4692 and 4693, Re Act July 27, 1868 (15 Stat. L., 235)-an act relating to pen vised Statutes of the United States, provides for a pension to all sions: those of the Army and Navy who have suffered disabilities in Section 2: Pensions to be granted for wounds received or disease con !the service, and their widows and children~ -tracted only in line of duty, 3510 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. ~fA.RCH 18,

Section 4: Widow entitled to receive $2 per month for each minor List of national cetneterics, showing tlle 1l!L1ltber of interments in each, child under 16 years of age by former marriage of soldier, etc., dying June so, 1906-Continued. since March 4, 1861, during the time such widow has the custody, care, and m:lintenn.nce of such child or children. Interments. Section 5 : Widow or guardian not to be deprived of·additional pension of 2 per month for ench child under 16 years of age if the child is an N arne of cemetery. Total. inmate of charitable institution. Known. kn~~- . ~ection 6 : As to commencement. Section 8 : Pensions not to be allowed to widows abandoning their chil ------1------dren or being unsuitable persons to have charge of them, but children Battle Ground, D. C------· 43 ~3 shall receive snch pension. Beaufort, S. C------~------4,832 4,544 9,406 cction 9: When person entitled to a pension has died since March 4, Beverly, N. J ------181 7 183 1 81.>1 . '"bile an application for pension is pending, leaving no widow or Brownsville, Tex______1,48() Camp Butler, DL ______1,37!) 2,839 child under 1G years . of age, his or her heirs or legal representatives 1,013 336 1,369 shall be entitled to receive the accrued pension to which applicant would Camp Nelson, Ky ------2,461 1 ,18~ 3,6J3 have been entitled had certificate been issued before his or her death. Cave Hill, KY------· 3,760 58~ · l,U~ Section 10: Reruaniage of widow or mother not to deprive her of Chalmette, La ______7,15() 5,74:5 12,904 right to pension for period before her remartiage. Chattanooga, 'l'enn------· 8,439 4,970 13,409 Section 11 : Pensions volunteers not enlisted, but disabled by wounds. City Point, Va------· 3,780 1,379 5,159 !';lection 12: Persons having but one eye, and losing that, given $25 Cold Harbor, Va------· 672 1,290' 1,962 per month. Corinth, Miss------~------, ---- 1,794. 3,936 5,730 Section 13 : Pensions accruing after the war of the Revolution and Crown Hill, Ind------, 053 33 9811 prior to Mar-ch 4, 18G1, to be placed on same footing as provided in Culpeper, Va------· 463 912 1,375 section 3, act of July 25, 18GG, and Revolutionary widows to be paid Custer Battlefield, Mont______.: ______983 244 1,227 $8 per month. Cypress Hills, N. Y ------· 6,129 381 6,510 ection 14 : Officers of the rank of captain in Army and lieutenant in Danville, Ky ------ 349 8 357 Navy and of less rank who have lost arm or leg in service and line Danville, Va------1,175 155 1,331 of duty, ot· in consequence of wounds received or disease contracted Fayetteville, Ark------~------, 483 782 1,264 therein, shall be entitled to receive an artificial limb on same terms Finns Point, N. J ------ 113 2,539 2,652 as privates in Army. Florence, S. C------209 2,8:)1 3,010 SIXTEEXTH STATUTES AT LARGE. Fort Donelson, 'l'enn______. 163 61.2 675 Fort Gib on, Ind. T ------ 257 2,212 2,469 .A.n act construing certain acts therein cited in relation to Fort Harrison, Va------· 243 575 818 pensions (1G Stat. L., 191) provides that amounts fixed by Fort l-eavenworth, Kans ______1,941 1,549 3,490 special acts gmnting pensions should not be increased or re Fort McPherson, Nebr------··------478 353 831 Fort Scott, Knns ______·------· 634 125 759 duceu by other laws. Fort Smith, Ark______869 1,485 2,354 An act to define the duties of pension agents and to prescribe Gettysburg,Fredericksburg, Pa ______V a------.____ _ 2,508 12,8(}-2 15,310 the manner of obtaining a pension, and for other purposes Glendale, Va______.:..__ 2,005 1,631 3,6.'~6 W. 238 969 1,20'7 ( 16 Stat. L., 193), provides that pension agents shall send by Grafton, Va______6(3 ()20 1,266 mail quarterly to a pensioner whose pension is paid at his Hampton, Va------· 8,914 600 9,514 agency a Youcher, to be executed and returned by him to the Jefferson Barracks, 1110------· 9,172 2,932 12,101 agent, and when youcher is received at agency, to draw check JeffersonKeok-uk, IowaCity, ______MO------··---· _ 401 41l 812 Knoxville, Tcnn______725 43 768 to the order of pensioner for the amount due; that, if thought 2,311 1,057 3,378 • necessary by the Commissioner of Pensions, a pensioner may Lebanon, Ky------596 277 .873 Lexington, Ky------· 8W 112 95:? be required to receive his pension personally. Pensions to be Little Rock, Ark------ 3,474 2,370 5, .jj paid only to the persons entitled thereto and prohibiting the Loudon Park, 1:\fd------2,993 381 3,374 recognition of a warrant, power of attorney, or other paper, Marietta, Ga------· 7,3&3 2,978 10,31J J Memphis, TeDD------· 5,203 9,017 14,223 for the purpose of having pension paid to any other person Mexico City, MexicO------ 765 750 1,515 than the pensioner; provides for the payment of pensions to l'JillMobile, Springs, Ala ______KY------· _ 35! 368 722 the guardians of persons laboring under legal disabilities. 8!3 22!) 1,072 Mound City, lli------2,632 2,732 5,364 .An act granting pensions to certain soldiers and 8ailors of the N r.sbville, Tcnn______ll,972 4,711 16,683 war of 1812 and the widows of deceased soldiers (16 Stat. L., Natchez, Miss ______------··------· 471 2,780 3,251 441) provides a pension at $8 per month for the survh"ing officers New Albany, Ind------2,319 676 2,993 Newbern, N. C------2,259 1,100 3,359 anti enlisted and drafted men in the militia and Yolunteers of Philadelphia, Pa------· 2,712 188 2,900 the military and naval service who sen·ed sixty days in the war Poplar Grove, Va------· 2,200 4,012 6,212 with Great Britain of 1 '12 and who were honorably discharged, Port Hurtson, La___ ------___ ------600 3,2~9 3,819 Quincy, Ill------· 230 57 287 and to the widows of such officers, and so forth, and proYiding Raleigh, . 0------ 63!) 572 1,211 for the proof required in such cases. Riehmond, Va------· 871 6,700 6,571 The act of 1 no, for all soldiers and sailors who serYed ninety Rock Island, ill------ 290 20 310 Salisbury, N. 0------· 112 12,035 12,147 days or more in the war of the rebellion and were honorably San Antonio, Tex______1,2 28l 1,573 discharge(} therefrom, although their disabilities may not haYt> San Francisco, CaL ______4,814 467 5,311 been contracted in the service, and for a pension to their Santa Fe, N. 1\:Iex------· 39! 442 835 Seven Pines, Va------· 16:3 1,22.) 1,3SS widows, pro·\ided they were without income of over $250 per Shiloh, '.reniL------1,210 2,377 3,617 year--during Harrison's Administration. S;Jicliers' Home, D. C------·-- 6,802 291 7,093 Appropriation act of April 24, 1!J06, made the age of 62 years S pringfield, Mo __ ------ 1,0"29 740 1,769 St. Augustine, Fla------· 1 693 73 1,769 and oYer a permanent disability within the meaning of the Staunton, Va_ ------··-----__ ----- 'zs1 527 764 pension laws. Stone River, Tenn______3,81!) 2,333 6,152 A.ct of February 6, 1907, has been mentioned, and the benefits Vicksburg, Miss------ 4,094 12,769 16,833 Wilmington, N . C------749 1,&77 2,32:5 of this act were extended to those pensioned under the acts of Winchester, Va------· 2,10"2 2,387 4,48:} June 27, 18!JO ; February 15, 1895, and joint resolution of July Yorktown,Woodlawn, Va.:N. ______Y------_ 3,068 7 3,07.5 1, 1902, or the acts of January 29, 1887; March 3, 1891, and 755 1,435 2,191 February 7, 1 97. TotaL------· 201,28"2 152,103 353,385 In addition to pensions, land grants, and Soldiers' Homes, the United States cares for the Eacred ashes of those who Of these interments about 9,300 are those of Confederates, being answer the last roll call by marking their last resting places mainly in the national cemeteries at Camp Butler, Cypress Ilills, Finn's with enduring tablets and in great national cemeteries, . as Point, Fort Smith, llampton, Jefferson Barracks, and Woodlawn. Three thousand interments in 1906. follows: Two thousand interments in 1907. WAR DEPARTMEl:-currency, and do no more. The second proposes N arne of cemetery. Total. Known. Un to aiJolish our present credit currency, substitute a different known. credit currency, and establish a system of bank safety. The ------1------third school, to which I belong, proposes to leaye our credit Alexandria, Ln------5:>"1. 772 1,32.'3 currency untouched, but to e~tablish a system of bank safety AJex andria, Va __ ------·------3427 124 3,551 or deposit guaranty. Two days ago I prepared this argument Andersonville, Ga------· 12:794 925 13,71:) Annapolis, .Md------ 2,304 204 2,508 and wrote this paragraph: " There is a dhision in the ranks Antietam, Md------· 2,921 1,830 4,751 of the first school; one wing opposes, the other fa>ors, repeal Arlington, Va------.,------· 15,761 4,625 20,376 of all restrictions on the right of banks to retire their note cir Balls Bluff, Va------· 1 ·24 2:5 Barr nne as, Flu------ !)2() 71~ 1,630 culation. One favors, the other opposes, including railroad Baton Rouge, La------2,659 532 3,091 bonds in the li~t of securities for the issue of emergency cur- 1908, CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. 3511 rency. This difference is so T"ital that it might justify classi punishing and practically preventing private clipping and mu fyinc; the opponents as of different schools were it not mini tilating and counterfeiting, and rendering every coin as certain mized and stress of battle so laid upon another difference be in value as in name. The merely securing, howeTer, the cer tween them as to perhaps result in ignoring the differences al tain weight and quality of all coins by the Government was not ready stated and deciding the controversy between them upon the end of the question. The unfortunate, perhaps unavoidably the other difference, which is simply this: One contends that unfortunate language of our Constitution, yery fit and proper the credit currency of banks, ordinary and emergency, shall be at the time and for the purposes for which it was framed, gave issued by the Government as Government currency and ·deliv rise to an idea, which became a fL~ed belief in many minds, ered to the banks, and banks only, upon application and de that there was some mysterious talismanic power in gov posit of security; the other, that it shall be issued by the Gov· ernment which could alter or fix the relative and real value of ernment through the banks as bank currency upon application different coins and different metals by its mere stamp and dec of the banks and security deposited by the banks, the currency laration. So confused became ideas that learned men lost in either case to be clothed with the same functions, to be con sight of the real origin and nature of money and the purely trolled in volume and circulation by the banks, and to be re paternal functions of government pertaining thereto ; and, mis deemed by the Government. To have all these notes alike, in quoting the Constitution, often declared that the Government form as in substances, would be better, but I venture to say had the power to issue money, bestow its value, and O\erthrow that this great battle, upon which constitutional learning and all the principles affecting exchange, and so there grew up a judicial research are exhausted, is one about which the banks school having men of no mean ability advocatin~ purely fiat, do not care a baw-bee. To have a pitched battle or sham battle irredeemable paper money. on this issue in one part of the field seems to me empty sound There was hidden also in the language of the Constitution and fury ' et preterea nihil. • The people wage their fight-it and in the money systems of many nations not only the seeds may ue a losing one-and call their leaders to the front in an of this irredeemable paper money contention, but also the dou other part o.f the field to win for them safety of their deposits." ble and single standard and the metallic ratio contro"Versy. The 8iuce that writing-in fact yesterday-the papers tell us the Constitution just as clearly authorized the fixing of a triple or leader of the majority in the Senate has consented and the com quadruple standard as of a double standard and the establish mittee of that body in charge of the Senate banking and cur ment of a legal ratio between silver and copper as between rency bill have unanimously eliminated from it the feature siher and gold. The right to "coin money and regulate the which repeale

their property in bonds to secure the bank notes, but by putting cises the right to coin money, it "ought not to seek to cover other in batiks for their own use the deposits of the Government's fields. It has been and will be objected that for the Go>ern money without interest and taking the other assets of the banks ment to undertake to make depositors secure in their deposits to secure the Government for this voluntary advancement, is paternalism. I grant it in all fullness, but so is the act re while to the depositors you leave the leavings. In business, quiring banks to deposit Go>ernment bonds to secure t he when one lends to a failing debtor and takes special pledge to holders of its bank notes; so and every whit equally so is secure him, to the detriment of the general creditor, the pledge the requirement that banks should hold a reserve to protect is >oid, but under the present system and under the Aldrich bill their creditors. So is the double liability of stockholders. E>ery you propose for the Government to do that very thing, and in restriction, limitation, and requirement put upon banks to-day effect you will lend banks the Government credit and money to by law to protect the depositor, and every bank bill introduced promote speculative gambling, while you destroy the safety of here, is paternal. Any man or set of men have the unrestricted the deposits of the great common people. But enough of the right by nature to open up a bank, receive deposits, issue cer Aldrich bill. tificates of deposit and their promisory notes. Why, then, The Fowler bill is different, and if the United States to-day should the Government make all these restrictions and re were without a banking system or a paper currency, it would quirements and tax the private banke:us' notes 10 per cent appeal to me strongly; but thrust on us now, even if the public except on the principle of paternalism and to protect the peo did not mistrust it, I fear it would contract the currency in a ple or depositors? If the Government has the right to tax dangerous degree and bring about the falling prices and hard the private .bank's note issue, which seems not denied, it times that go with a decreasing circulation, such as we had in would have just as much right to tax deposit certificates. No all the ei'ghties. Unjust, unfair, or unnatural contraction is no man is more opposed to paternalism generally than I, or to less to be feared and prevented than unjust, unfair, or unnat- encouraging the citizen to look to his Government for aid in ural expansion. It is true our standard is gold, and· gold is the fighting the battles of life. standard of the credits, but when the Governmen.t has put forth E>ery man must learn to stand alone, to make his own con a permanent fixed paper currency, which in every respect is tracts, meet his own wants; but there are many great things the practically the equivalent of gold, does it not become equally incli>ioual can not do effecti>ely. He can not build his own uni with actnal gold the basis or base of our credit system? The versity, he can not carry his own mail, he can not build his United States Treasury notes and bank bond-secured notes are own road to market, he can not provide his own standards of such a fixed currency. And to retire them as fast as they could weights and measures, or his o·wn coins and standards of ...-alne be retired under the Fowler bill "ould be an exp~riment of dan- well, though men have in a measure done all these things. But ger, if not of certain disaster. His ans"er to that is, perhaps, another says it is socialism. It would be socialism if one bank that they would be replaced by the credit currency notes of the was made to pay the debt of another for the bellefit of the fail banks, but that I doubt. The banks could under his bill issue ing bank, but that is not the case. Each bank is made to join credit notes to the amount of $4,000,000,000 if ail our silver and in payment of the debts of a failed bank for the good of all gold were destroyed save $1,000,000,000, but would they? And if the IJanks that do not fail and for the good of the public. Each they did, would these notes command implicit trust of the peo- bank is giYen by the public a great priYilege, and must there pie? I have never believed in the quantitatiYe theory of money fore submit itself to all the restrictions ana burdens imposed except in a relative sense. It is immaterial at any given date or with the grant. It is not bound to accept the grant. ·u you can time whether the entire money of the world, gold IJeing the stand- adopt a hundred burdensome measures by which to make banks ard, amounts to one sum or another-that is, one hundred mil- keep deposits secure, can not you add yet one more and impose lion or one .million ounces of gold-if you could separate that a small tax? Is it socialism to make all the requirements now date or time from all preceding time. Each commodity would made of the banks to protect the public? Is not the safety of be priced in gold under the same terms and would stand rela- deposits a great public necessity as much so as a safe cu ~rr~·e::.!n~c~v-'?:__-- tiYely to each other just the same, whether the gold supply were As much so as coining the money? ~ught not the people be great or small. But all the world having debits and credits, and giYen Eafety for their money on deposit equal to the old sock, the mind and commerce of the world being adjusted to the pres- the trunk, or t}?.e strong box, without the effect of the strong ent mom~y volume, any sudden or even steady, but great, in- box in withdrawing it from circulation? Any measure that will crease or decrease of that volume would have far-reaching ef- ·prevent sudden and great disaster to the whole public such as feet. The gentleman from New Jersey wisely objects to a cen- cam~ upon us lately should be studied long before it is cast tral bank, and few, I think, will seriously consider it. Blimi -_ ~ide . \The public schools have some taint of socialism. I think nating the proposition to retire all bank notes and greenbacks . far '1I1D.re than the proposition to assess banks for secuTity and silver, there is left only of Mr. FoWLER's bill as to banking of depositors. For a long time good men and true opposed them the proposition to allow banks under rigid rules and inspection because they ta:x:ed you to school my child, and you ha>e no or supervision and system of organization and security to issue option but to be taxed. The reasoning looks sound, but a great ·its credit notes to bearer and its deposit certificate to the special and o>erwhelming cry arose. Humanity cried out for the poor indi>idual with equal and absolute guaranty of redemption. in appeal to our charity, but a higher authority appe..'1led to N'ow, I do not care much for the credit note to bearer, in fact, the la'IYmaker and for the protection of the public against the at this time, at least it would be dangerous, but I believe that Yice and crime of the ignorant. The rich are required to pay if some plan is adopted making the bank's book credits abso- for tl;le poor, not as charity, but for public and self-protection. lutely safe commerce will take care of the details and perfect A great necessity is upon us. Governments that adopt the cen the bank-credit system. And furthermore, if the depositors' tral and branch banking system as we once did are not in this guaranty were ever incorporated in the banking system and it trouble, because all their banks are jointly liable. A central was found that the needs ·of commerce required the credit-note bank system is a system that assesses all banks to pay any issue that would surely follow. failure, but we can not and would not adopt that, because we Th~re is no reason in equity or justice why any bank note fear, and justly fear, its power; but the necessity for safety should be more safe than any bank deposit. There is a possi- is with lifo! as it is with France, Germany, and England. Over ble reason in equity why the depositor should me more safe, one-third of the great mass of bills introduced bear testimony because by depositing it in banks he lends his money to com- to that fact, and, containing a guaranty plan, show that the merce and helps to turn the wheels while by taking it out in people ~now their needs. currency or gold he withdra"s it and locks the wheels of E>en the distinguished gentleman, l\fr. HILL of Connecticut, industry, but both should be and can be made safe. A sys- declares the guaranty ·proposition of 1\lr. ·WILLIAMS by volun tem with safe currency and unsafe deposits is lopsided and for tary acceptance could be had, tiut he says the banks will not ac a great nation inexcusable. · cept it. I say they will. Let us pass that law. If tl1.ey do not Why not, then, take a plan like Oklahoma's? The machinery accept it no harm is done. The law is a dead letter. If they and means of go>erning banks and providing a sufficient guar- do accept, the law is good. The gentleman says no man can anty fund, pro...-ided in the Williams bill or the Oklahoma· plan, give a reason why banks more than life insurance companies may be all that is needed. I think it is, IJut if the principle be should mutually insure each other's policies, but he ia mis adopted the details will follow and be worked out. I believe taken. Life-insurance companies are not bound together. The the banks whose deposits are guaranteed should be commercial failure of one does not affect them all, and if there were no life banks only and should never De allowed to pay o>er 2 per insurance companies, commerce would s_till prosper and maybe cent or some small interest on deposits. Savings banks and so equally well. rBanks are a vast interdependent system;- .w'rtf-- -- trust companies' customers should look out for themselves; ing or unwilling. But in times of panic now, as he says, each _ they ha...-e made an in>estment. The object of the bank act ·vulls apart and strives to save itself, but if they had mutual being sh·ictly on the paternal line and to provide only a guaranty they would pull together, as t hey sometimes do e...-en safe depository for money in keeping with the principle and now when they think deeply and wisely. He tells of rich men I the necessity under which the Government a ssumes and exer- now getting control of a chain of banks and riding them at their 3514 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. ~fARCH 18, will unrestrained. It could riot be done if all banks were to suggest any remedy. They father a school of silent wisdom linked together under proper laws. Governor Hughes ha:s pro that reminds one of tbe doctor who feels your pulse, looks wise, posed additional limitations on banks loaning to each other's gives a bread pill, and tells you you have " periodical mem officers. On all sides come suggestions to make more safe the bratoni tis" and slight "congestive emergiensis," and must '\"\ait banking system and the bank depositors. Once for all, it should further developments of the disease, in order to name it more be accepted that banking as well as currency is a public or specifically if you do not get well from the bread pill. quasi public function and safe banks a public necessity. We But further on, after urging a commission to tell us what to ha-.e reached a point where the -.ery public safety demands do, my colleague gets certain that we can do nothing; that we that the Government, in the interest of the whole people, see to can not legislate values and credits and public confidence, nor it that the "state," the people, "take no harm." In the vast do anything of good, but much of ill. Then why the commission 1 intricacies of commercial life depositors are hardly volunteer We have plenty of money, they say, and so do I. It is hoarded _creditors. Deposits can scarcely be a voided, or if they could they say, and so do I, through fear of bank depositors, they all business would be blocked ; and yet in panic in the great say, and so do I. We can do nothing they say, and so do not I. city of New York one bank '\"\US as safe or unsafe as another. We can pass laws that will make deposits safe and remove that But why guarantee the depositors against the banks and not fear. It took one panic to produce the law of specie resump the bank against the depositor, says the gentleman. Surely tion. It took another to bring about safe, sound currency, and the gentleman bas thrown dust in his own eyes by his logical it will take only one, I trust, to bring about a safe deposit and pyrotechnics. 'Vhy, sir, did the Government impose double lia sound banking system. But if we do nothing now, we will do bility? Why try in other ways to protect deposits? The bank nothing later till a second panic compels it. I want to sum up, loans on security, deliberately, -.oluntarily, and for a profit to if I can, the -.arious reasons against deposit guaranty. It is one who has no duty to perform to the bank or to the public. foolish, says my colleague, and doubtless he thinks so; but Mr. No Government protection or inspector is needed or desired by Bryan, Mr. Gage, Mr. FoWLER, l'Hr. WILLIAMS, Mr. CULBEBSON, the banks to aid or protect them in their loans. .All Goyern and the oldest, perhaps the best, at least the wealthiest banker ment restrictions on bank loans are made to protect the bahk's of my town, and one of the best bankers of the town just south creditor. Then with my earnest and able colleague from Texas of me, and thousands of others think not. Let us let t.h.:'lt be a [Mr. BURGESS] he strikes the wildest note of all when he says, stand off. But it would put in hodgepodge capacity and char first, that safety of deposits is very desirable, and next that acter with incompetency and rascality and lay a tax on all to guaranty of depositors or guaranty of deposits would promote protect the negligent depositor and ruscal1y banker at the ex an era of wild and unsafe banking. pense of the wise banker and careful depositor. I ba-.e partly Surely the depositor being guaranteed, the banker would feel answered this already. It is the cry of "paternalism," "so no less desirous of protecting his own interest, and other bank cialism," made by the big and strong bank. It is the Gibraltar ers being likewise interested would be no less observant of their of the opposition to safe banking, sir. You do not throw ca brother banker's conduct. The gentleman from Connecticut pacity and incapacity into hodgepodge and tax both to support wants the "Gnited States to deposit its money but take security. both. You bestow a prh'ilege at a price. I maintain that 90 Why? Because he wants Go-vernment money safe. As for me per cent of all deposits in commercial banks are involuntary, I had rather secure the savings and pennies of the poor than the or placed without being influenced by question of safety in surplus millions of the United States. How is it everyone normal times. When high interest is offered by banks the de wants to. make United States deposits secure but not the com positor does and well may consider safety, but in all my life I mon depositor? Is it simply because the Government is big never questioned the safety of any bank in my home town, yet enough and strong enough to demand it and the people can not deposited with only one. No bank depends alone or even largely help themselves? My colleague [Mr. BURGEss] has made a on its safety in normal times to build up its business; they de speech on this subject "ell '\"\orth perusaL Like so many others pend on friendship and business relations. That claim is hollow. he falls into th~ use of the shiboleth, "emergency currency," In normal times DD per cent of all banks are safe, and thos~ some currency that wlll come when the crops ripen and go a'\"\ay that are not are as apt as not to be some old and trusted in when they are sold; and they seem to want this issued by the stitution. Of the three biggest failures I recall in my State, Go\ernment direct to lJanks or by the Government through the two were old and trusted, one was new ; all stood on their char banks on a special deposit of security. l\Iost advocates of the acter and competency, without the paternal and socialistic in emergency currency have convinced themselves at least that spection, regulation, or restr\ction. every fall for the last ten years before the panic the country was I maintain that there is not a bank in existence that would on the -verge of panic and escaped by a miracle, and that without not itself be more benefited by the safe guaranty of the deposits their emergency currency we will verge some more every fall, of all banks than it would be burdened by the tax:, and these and only escape by a miracle every fall until we do provide it. gentlemen must abandon their proposition or follow it to its Now, I do not belie\e at all in this recurring miracle. I do not logical end-free and unrestricted banking. They must stand believe there was any more approach to a panic in the fall of for free bank notes, wild-cat bank notes, and deposits unpro 1900, 1901, 1002, 1903, 1904, and U)05, than there was of failure tected by reserve or double liability or other restrictions, or of the Bank of France. In 1906 there were clouds but they did come with us to safe bank notes and safe-deposit obligations, not hover over any question kin to emergency currency. All The law says to every bank to-day, For the protection of all during the spring of 1907 the clouds grew darker, and the East other banks and all the public you shall not give your note was borrowing from South and West. We had, or the banks without making it secure (a great infraction of freedom), but had, the power to issue several hundred millions of currency of you may receive all the deposits you please and promise all you the kind the8e gentlemen urge-that is, secured currency, but please to the certain individual without making him secure. it '\"\OUld not " emerge." It did not emerge when it was needed, The note, you say, of each bank is secured by that bank alone, nor '\"\ould the .Aldrich currency. I -know it is considered, or while this proposes that all banks shall make each deposit sure. said to be not decorum to speak of measures in the other branch, I grant it; but I charae that in the present method of securing but I see no sense in that decorum. The wise men have told us the note you have tied up an equal or greater amount of the that our present bank currency has a habit of emerging in the resources of the banks issuing, and the notes issued are not summer and retiring in the fall when the crop-moving banks issued on principles of banking at all, but are in effect an issue call for it, and so Mr. BURGESS wants a commission to tell what of Government notes. You have desh·oyed all real bank-note is the matter. He is right this far. If we do not know any issue, and I charge thatfiioi·eal bank-note issue was ever safely thing we ought to do, appoint a commission, and they will do made except on terms amounting to mutual and joint guaranty nothing and take a long time about it, and we can tell the people by many banks, as in the case of all central and branch banks we have done something, and the people must wait. The commis or Government banks. The truth is, and we know it, our pres sion of Mr. BURGEss is to gather up a mess of opinions and theo ent bank notes are guaranteed by the Government, are Govern ries, such as '\"\e all haYe received in our mail, and will argue ment notes. The Government devised a plan to make itself from many sides learnedly and long, as bankers have in con safe on these and prohibited all other. And all issuing banks -ventions, but discover no essential fact not now known, and jointly bear the expense of the system, whether they need in when this stress is over for the time the people will forget the spection and resh·iction or not. Some are honest and capable commission. and some are not, but all pay this expense and bear these re It is only better than the Aldrich bill because it does nothing, strictions and burdens, and this is what is proposed in the no harm. It leaves the patient to live over his present attack guaranty of deposits. " But," says my colleague, "it is the in by his natural strength, and does not weaken his system by the alienable right of every individual in this country to get all the injection of more poison to make him less able to stand another premium that character and capacity gi\e him * * * and attack. The high statesmanship of Messrs. BURGESS and 1IILL if he goes into the banking business he is a candidate for de reaches the lofty conclusion that neither they, we, nor anyone posits." Why, then, do you forbid a solvent bank to issue its else now know anything of the causes of this panic upon which promise to bearer on his character? The truth is, commercial 1908. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. 3515

holders, as is generally regarded as proper, but the Government also banks should no more be allowed to receive deposits, without undertakes to look after the safety of the depositor. When the bank condition, limitation, or security, than to issue notes, and the act was under amendment in Congress back in the sixties, the mention right to impose theee restrictions, limitations, and conditions was made to strike out the 100 per cent liability of stockholders on the ground that, as the note holders were amply secured by the Gov is as clear in one case as in the other. We recognize this truth ernment bonds back of the notes. it was no business of the Government partly, but not wholly, as we ought. to look after the depositors. nut the proposed amendment had no Free banking means free notes and unsafe notes, free deposits suport worth mentioning. It was considered that the Government should also provide for the safety of depositors, and this it undertakes and unsafe de110sits, free competition and unsafe competition for to do, not only through enforcement of double liability upon stock deposits and for loans and for lending, with all kinds of interest holders, but through frequent Government examinations of the banks paid to de}Jositors, all kinds of security or no kind of security and through various restrictions of law upon loans, and so on. 'l'hus the question raised by the Government or joint bank guaranty required of borrowers, and all kinds of risks taken by the banks; of deposits is one involving no departure in fundamental principle from and any restrictions upon any of these inalienable rights are existing policy. It is a question simply whether the Government shall subject to all the invectiYes aimed by gentleman on this line support its present purpose of protecting depositors with measures which may prove certainly effective, instead of indifferently effective, as against the guaranty of deposits. It is a great thrust to call a is the case under existing law. We venture to say simply that this measure " socialistic," "paternal," but gentlemen must learn is a question not to be dismissed by a wave of the hand, but deserving that no government is or can be free from all paternalism and of careful consideration. That bankers who have built up a reputa tion for integrity and conservatism should object to the proposed all socialism. All government is compromise. All antitrust change is of course natural, but their attitude is to be accepted as no legislation may be socialistic, all public service laws, all pro more weighty against the suggested reform than it would be against tecth·e tariff laws are paternal. Very many laws are one or any and all policies of Government regulation of banks. Consid ered as an ordinary and highly competitive business, something might the other or both. The true doctrine is to preserve to the in be said in favor of removing all public regulations from banking. Then dividual all and every particle of liberty and individualism all the more would honest and conservative bankers rise above their which it is not absolutely necessary to take away from him fellows and draw public confidence to themselves. But the country has accepted the policy of close public regulation, for the general good, and, in preserving this, I go as far as any after some experience with the let-alone policy before the civil war, man, but I would not go back now to the pri'late schools, to and it will never go back to the policy of no regulation, no matter how wild-cat banks, to the repeal of all labor laws, to unrestricted much the regulative policy tends to reduce banking and bankers to a dead level of safety and general conduct. As a matter of fact, how hours of contract labor and child labor. Society has learned ever, bankers would still find, under the deposit-guaranty plan, large that the blow of the bludgeon is not the only means by which room for the exercise of judgment and of an ambition to excel. Their the strong strike down the weak and has banded itself together first ambition now is to make their iru!titutions large and also profit able to stockholders, and deposit guaranty would not materially a!Iect under a growing and higher law which guards and shields, the situation in this respect; while by creating in every bank a sub protects and even helps the weak, the innocent and helpless, stantial interest in the sober conduct of other banks, the plan must against the cunning and the strong. The statesman's task is result in a general improvement rather than in a deterioration in to do all this and still build up the nobler man and give to banking methods. the individual a high and still higher prize for personal genius It is remarkable that all those who oppose the guaranteeing of and high emprise. But it is claimed that guaranty of na deposits have found but one other p.1eans or suggestion of safety, tional-bank deposits would create a panic, depositors in other and that is the central bank, which all fear, and which, besides, banks rushing to guaranteed banks. Surely gentlemen have is a mutual guaranty in another form. Some who do not lost their balance when they object to a system because it oppose the mutual guaranty, as far as I know, suggest the might be so much better than all other systems that all other postal savings bank for the people. Doubtless a postal savings systems would \anish because of their weakness. Some gen bank will appeal to many. Surely it will if some means is tlemen have a nightmare. Guaranteed banks would pay all not found to clothe our banks with absolute safety and give to kinds of interest and bid for unlimited deposits on the regular the people absolute trust in them. They will say about their get-rich-quick plan. So would banks have done as to their deposits what they have said about their cunency : "We will practically Government guaranteed notes if the Government trust t he Government." But even postal savings banks must had permitted, but the Government did not permit it, and even further diminish the safety of the common bank deposit if supposing that a bank, because its deposits were guaranteed, such savings are redeposited with banks by the Government ce::t sed therefore to be honest and ceased to care for its own on special security in accordance with its present custom of interest as a bank, still no one has offered to give any such privi making deposits. Postal savings banks would enter the Federal leges to the guaranteed banks, but all provide for limitations GoYernment into a business line of at least doubtful constitu of interest rates and for e\en closer limitations and restric tionality; would bring the Government in competition with its tions, inspection, and reserves than those under which banks own people in business in a new field; would increase the num now moYe. Gentlemen seem to fancy that the proposition is ber of Federal employees; increase the patronage of the party simply to assess all banks for the guaranty of all deposits in power, and all for an unnecessary purpose if sqme other and then turn all banks over to free lawlessness. Surely these means of safety can be had for the depositor. Postal sa...-ings gentlemen have neither read any of the bills introduced nor banks are absolutely safe. All the people know it, and if you taken counsel of their own great wisdom, when they think do not succeed in guaranteeing bank deposits, postal sa1ings that Congress in providing the one great safeguard would banks will be established. throw a way all the other safegum~s and the banker throw The leaders of the Democratic party have agreed upon a away all the care that the experience of a century has shown policy of deposit guaranty contained in the Williams bill, which to be necessary to safe banking. Mr. Gage says the only re may not be free from fault. It is voluntary, which, in my opin straint upon officers of banks really is the fear of loss, not to ion, was unnecessary, but while that feature answers an objec his depositors, but to his stockholders. tion, it will not, I think, in practice defeat the purpose or even But the:;e objections are answered so fully in the excerpt cripple the measure, as all banks that may will gladly accept from the Springfield Republican, I will ask the Clerk to read it. the provisions. It provides for liquidating the assets of failed PROTECTING DEPOSITORS AS WELL AS NOTE HOLDERS. banks before payment of depositors. This I think a serious · [Springfield (:l'olass.) Republican.] defect which ought to be cured. It provides what it calls James B. Forgan, of the National City Bank of Chicago, has been an "emergency currency," but w·hat is in reality scarcely, if quoted by William J . Bt·yan and others as having said in opposition anything, more than a provision by which the central government to the policy of Government or· joint guaranty of bank deposits that " it would make all banks safe, one just as good as another, and for is substituted for central reserve city banks, · and holds for that reason a man would go to any bank with his money." In an the individual banks thai: part of their reserTe heretofore per open letter to Bryan the banker says he never expL·essed himself in mitted to be placed in reserve banks, and the Government, in such terms. What he has said is that the plan would reduce all bank ers to the same level, and there would be no reason why anyone stead of reserve banks, pays this portion of its reserye back to should discriminate tetween one bank and another in making deposits, the individual bank in time of need. and he proceeds to observe : The party or man or set of men who shall cause the estab " In my judgment the Government's guaranty would gradually but inevitably reduce the high standing and credit of the strong, conserva lishment of a banking system which, without putting the Gov tive, and well-managed banks to the level of the weak, speculative, ernment into the banking business, will make every· deposit as and poorly managed. * * * The rascal is invited to become a safe as eyery bank note is to-day will desene and receiYe the banker and to cover himself with a mantle of credit which otherwise it would be quite impossible for him to acquire, and which is provided thanks of all banks and the blessings of the people. · for him by and at the expense of all the good banks of the country. For the· want of some safe place of deposit for the people's This would not be a square deal. It would put dishonesty and reckless banking at .a premium and remove from the banker all ambition to money, which would not take it all out of circulation, this panic excel in his profession and to acquire that good name which Solomon has come upon us, and after all and as usual the plain people says 'is rather to be chosen than great riches.' " have suffered most. The cotton of my country has fallen $20 This is, of course, quite a different view from that which has been accredited to him, and it presents considerations which are to be given per bale, or, say, what was in their hands, in the aggregate weight. $100,000,000. Other products of labor, I assume, in proportion. Yet the fact is to be admitted that the purpose of the existing na Hundreds of thousands of laborers of every class are idle and tional-banks act is to "make all banks safe "-to reduce them all to a dead level of equality, so far as the safety of depositors as well as the wages of the employed have gone down, but the price of note holdet·s is concerned. Special security is accorded the note living has not gone down. Tariff-protected and trust-protected 3516 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. J\fARcrr 18,

my views on the matter, though I have not taken the time to study up commodities glut no markets. Lumber mills and steel plants shut the details. I believe the matter is a very important one and that down; their production ceases; their employees may tramp or the people throughout the country wm before long demand the abso beg or starve. The price of their product must be upheld. The lute security of bank deposits. worst of the calamity for this time, we hope, is passed, but can With best wishes, I remain, very truly, rours, Jas. Gar.tTTY. we provide against its return? We can. Then, will we do it? In saylng that I heartily approve the guaranty or insurance of This panic is an indictment against the party in power in that, bank depo its, so that every bank in the country will be perfectly safe, with the richest anu greatest country on earth, it provided a so far as deposits are concerned, rrnd that every depositor will feel and bank system which was a stupendous failure. And that failure know to a certainty that he can get his money on demand from a sound or an unsound bank, those who know me and the concern that I repre with an overflowing National Treasury, the greatest -volume of sent will, I am sure, give me credit for not having any interested mo money in all our history, and boundle. s riches in haryest, mlne, tive in advocating such guaranty. I do not know that it would be for the and factory, produced a crash which Senator ALDRICH describes. best interest of our bank, looking at the matter from the stockholders' standpolnt alone, but I do believe that it would be greatly to the in Let me read his words : terest of the whole people, and the very best that could be done now :Mr. President, the financial crisis from which the country has just or at any time for the prevention of panics. emerged, which culminated in a serious panic in October, was the most The causes of our late panic have been fully discussed and venti cute and destructive in its immediate consequences of any which has lnted in the papers and magazines, and, as usual. have created much occurred in the history of the country. The country was saved, by the difference of opinion among the various writers. But I assert, without narrowest pos ible margin, from an ovet·wbelming catastrophe, whose fear of valid refutation, that the only thing that has or ever will blighting effect would l.Jave been felt in every household. cause a panic is the fear of the depositor that he will not be able to Although the total collap e wa avoided, yet the injury to business get his money when he demands 1t. If you satisfy him absolutely amounted to thousands of mlllions of dollars. that he can get it on demand be will never withdraw any except for actual needs, and all bankers know that such demand can always bo He also declares that the most powerful aid to prevent the met with very little cash. A number of objections have been raL3cd by catastrophe was the clearing-house certificates, a violation of men of high tinancial stand to the guaranteeing of bank deposits, but law and an aid which he thinks could not be used again. He you will generally find that the objections come from those who deem tbemselve::; so strong that they will be able to control the bulk of the also says, and truly, that the happy situation of an overflow business that ordinarlly would and should go to weaker rivals. ing-and he might have added complaisant-treasury may not 'l'heir way of attack is to put up a straw man or plan that no one coincide with another panic. To do nothing now, or worse than advoca,tes .and then proceed to demolish him. They say, for instance, that rascals would be invited to becon:re bankers and '"ill be enabled nothing, is criminal. Making all bank notes safe was a great to -cover themselves with a mantle of credit that they could not other benefit to the people, a greater benefit to the bank&. Maldng wise acquire, and they make this statement as if those who favor the guaranty of bank deposits advocate the same without providing for all deposits safe will be a great benefit to the banks, but a the proper regulation of the business. I am as much opposed as any greater benefit to the people. We swallow the camel when nec one to the guaranty of bank deposits until such safeguards are thrown essary to aid great banks and financiers, but distinguished gen around the business as wlll reduce to a minimum the opportunity of the dishonest to take advantage of such guaranty. We have always tlemen neYer prone to balk at paternalism raise hands in holy bad rascals in all llnes of business and always will, but the law can horror and cry "paternalism" when it is proposed to make the people's money safe. If this Government is great and wise, we ~~sifls~et~~nfrg~.~~o~~r!hfiis£~:dn~fbe~a~~~er f~e a~~1ito~tefg ~a: 1~~! and regulations covering national anarother banks at presenti and such will never again hear of u long line of weak and helpless men as may herenfter be found necessary, I would add the follow ng : and women pleading in -vain for their pennies at the window of First. Strict and frequent examination by expert examiners. a broken national bank. [Prolonged applause on the Demo Second. Insured banks to pay no interest on deposits. 'I'hird. Deposits to never exceed from six to ten times the capital era tic side.] paid in. 1\Ir. Chairman, in e:xtenCling my remarks I wish to include in Fourth. Total amount of loans or Investments o:t any kind not to the RECORD two letters from the bankers I have referred to exceed from six to ten times the capital paid ln. Fifth. Total reset·ve to be kept at home. one from W. L. Murphey, of 1\Ie:xia, Tex., u successful banker This would, I believe, make our banking system the strongest and of more than twenty years' standing; the other from James best ln the world, and since there would be but few, if any, failures, Garrity, of Corsicana, Tex., the oldest and perhaps most emi the cost of maintaining it would be Insignificant. I am only outlining a general plan and do not presume to say that I have studied out all nent and successful banker of my home town; also parts of an the details, for I have not had time to do so, and I do not believe article written by Gen. A. n. Nettleton, former Assistant Secre that the party in power or the large moneyed institutions that control tary of the Treasury : It are prepared to permit the enactment of such a law in the near future. If, however, several of the States should pass the ~maranty THE FIRST NATIOXAL BANK, Mea:ia, Tex., Dece'Tnber 3, 19f!1. law, the Central Government will, I believe, be forced to do the same, else national banks will be placed at a disadvantage compared wit~ Hon. R FGS HABDY, Tlashington, D . 0 . State banks whose deposits are insured. If deposits are fully secureu DE.rn Sm: I am in receipt of your letter of the 2Vth ultimo in there will, I feel sure, be no more money panics and no piling up of reply to mlne of a previous date. You ask me what I think of the money in the large centers of business, which is often done for th~ Bryan proposition as to bank deposits being guaranteed by the Gov purpose of furnishing money to gamblers on the stock exchange. ernment. IIis ideas and mine agree on general lines, but I am not in It occurs to me that the insurance or guaranty of bank deposits lfi favor of the "assessment" idea, but much prefet• a straight tax an the only remedy that has been proposed for the prevPntion of panics, nually based on the capital of each national bank, and if such tax or taxes such as we have just passed through. The Aldrich bill, for emergency should not at any time be sufficient to pay creditors of failed or sus currency, or the American Bankers' Association plnn for asset cur pentled banks, then the " assessment" to make up the deficiency would rency, a large central bank, etc., are, in my oplnion, mere makeshifts, be all right. For the first year or two it might be necessary to have and unnecessary now or at any time. W"ith deposits absolutely secure an assessment. but my idea is that within a few years, say, from two we have all the currency that we need now or are likely to need for to five years. the fund created by a straight tax would be much larger some time to come. A run upon a bank is the only thing that ever has than would be necessary to pay creditors or depositors in failed banks. or ever will start a panic, and if deposits were fully insured there As I wrote you before, national banks now pay a tax on one-fourth would be no run upon a bank, and, of course, no panics. Money panics of 1 pel" cent per annum on their circulation. This tax Is really an affect all business and all people, and though they may be but short unnecessary tax, so fnr as the Government really needs it. Abolish lived so far as the actual demand for cash is concerned, the bad ell'cct::; this tax and in lieu thereof tax national banks, say, one-fourth of 1 of it on all buslneRs is general, and often lasts for years. To my mlnd per cent on their capital stock at the start and as the fund grows it is extreme selfishness on the part of large and sti·ong banks to object larger then Congress at some future time could reduce the tax to, to the absolute security of all bankR, for the reason, they say, that it say, one-ei~hth of 1 per cent per annum. I never was much on "as would reduce all banks to a level-the weak and incompetent the same sessments," but prefer to know what is coming, to the exact amount, as the strong and well managed. As a matter of f act, it does not In the way of a tax, and " cut my cloth accordingly." I believe the do so, though the security be absolute so far as small banks are con· tax plan as outlined would be far more satisfactory to the banks than cerned, the large one will always have the advantage of l;.trge capital the assessment plan would be. and deposits, and loaning large amounts of money. Banks make their Of course great opposition will develop to :my plan presented by money out of depositors, and tbey should certainly be willlng and glad those that do not want such a bill passed, and the cry of "class legis to pay the small amount that it would take to absolutely secure them. lation" will be urged. etc., but even if it is class legislation in favor Forty-odd years of experience with national banks goes to show that of national banks, still the other "classes "-the common people--will it would require about one-twentieth of 1 per cent of the average de be far more benefited. for the reason that they will never lose one cent posits to pay the losses of all insolvent banks, and with such improve hereafter by reason of failed banks. · ments as we would have ln the law, and regulation of our banks And another thlng to consider in passlng such a bill is that more under the guaranty plan, it would cost practically nothing. No bank mon~y will be in the United States than ever before. It will come from or individual should be allowed to do a bankin~ busine ·s unless they every quarter of the globe to be deposited in banks whose system is the best and the safest in the world, when such a bill is passed, if A~~e Iw~vt~~e arh~ta~~~ t~ls1~~~!s~f ai>~~~te steoct~l~tbe f~ ih~e~e~~!~tg~~.. ever it is passed. The United States will literally "run over at the fined to the locality in which the bank bas its headquarters, or at least top·· with money. I sincerely hope Congre s will act on the propo this should be the case o far as small banks are concerned, and if sition at this term and create a banking bill that will be perfect, when they are only allowed to hold and use the amount of deposits propor· depositors are protected. That is the only flaw now in the national tioned to their capital, it will necessarily be so. bank act. With that rectified, Uncle Sam can sit back and say that his Some who object to the lnsurance of bank deposits declare that it system can not be beaten. Is rank communism, when, as a matter of fact, the Government of the Excuse me for this long letter. As you write that the days do not United States, onder the present national-bank law, does to some ex seem over "two hours long," it will take you the best part of the day tent guarantee depositors-such as the 100 per cent liability of share· t o read this letter. holders, restricting loans to 10 per cent of capital and surplus, amount Assuring you of my continued friendship nnd high regard, I remain, of reserve to be held at all times, examination by expert accountants, Yours, truly, and frequent statements published under oath. All of these things w. L. 1\IURPliY. help to guarantee the depositors, and tbey are all paid for by the banks just as the full guaranty would be paid for. If the national banks did THE FIRST NATIO~AL BANK, not have the safeguards above named they would be no bettet· than a Garsicana, Tex., March 9, 1908. g~~ea~ ith~~~tiAnya~a~e~l1 ~0 t~1m~~~r~iv;f ~~~ie0 ~%~i1iaeb~h~b 1~hg H on. llUFUS HA.BDY, M. c., Washington, D . a. frame a law t hat would make all banks absolutely safe, and surely DE.ill J DGE : I have your favor of the 3d, and, in accordance with none will deny that this is desirable. The trouble, and the only trouble, your request, I inclose herewith synopsis of my a rgument before the about t he general agreement as to the lnsurance of bank deposits is district banket·s' convention a t t h is place some time ago, which covers because the kings and prlnces of finance do no-': believe that it is to 1908. OONGRESSION AL RECORD-HOUSE: 3517

their interest that all banks· should be absolutely safe so far as deposits of which, as stated, they have agreed to return to depositors on de are concerned. On the contrary, they want the public to believe that man_d and without previous notice. This situation is noteworthy. they only are safe and thereby attract from a distance the money that ObviOusly such a business policy, with its vast inverted pyramid of should be kept ncar home. But we know from late experience that big bank indebtedness, could only be justified as to its safety and practi names and big capital alone will not insure honest management and cability by the existence of some saving law of nature or of economics absolute security; but insurance will. During the height of the late whose operation is certain and universal. Does such a law exist? panic reputation and large capital counted for little. Yon had to put up or shut up. Everyone was from Missouri. Whenever the largest RECIPROCAL CONFIDENCE NECESSARY. and best of our institutions put the lid on they were looked upon with Here is the crux of the matter : If by courtesy the present banking more or less suspicion, and, if the truth must be told, banks were as system can be said to have a foundation, it consists of first, an un much afraid of each other as depositors were afraid of them. They t?inking confidence on the part of average depositors, numbering mil tell us that it is communistic to tax good banks for the faults and llons of all classes, vocations, and degrees of intelligence, that their ignorance of the uad ones; but if this is so, why do we tax ourselves to money can be and always will be repaid on demand according to the provide police force to protect us against crime, also taxes for schools, bank's contract to that end; and, second, the confidence of bankers, road , canals. and so forth. Surely these things are just as com supposed to be based on ascertained economic laws, that in practice monistic as the tax on banks to secw·e the people who provide them and qnder the rule of averages only a modern rate and safe percentage with the funds out of which they make their living. of their depositors will ever in fact demand payment at the same time. These twin assumptions, of depositors on the one hand and of bank GU.A.RAXTY OF DEPOSITS MOVEUE:NT EXPLAINED-DEMAND OF PEOPLE AND ers on the other, are manifestly reciprocal and interdependent. The PRESS DISCUSSED IN DETAIL-PLAN FOR LEGISLATION BY CONGRESS soundness of the one would assure the soundness of the other ; the TO PROVIDE INSURANCE OF MOXEY DEPOSITED IS OUTLI!'ffiD. collapse of one would explode the other, and the combination would be [Gen. A. B. Nettleton, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, in in ruins. What is the fact shown by a well-illumined line of ex Review of Reviews.] perience? Only one answer can be given or attempted-the financial catamaran sails admirably in fair business weather ; in times of tempest The proposition to provide some general form of protection for bank it goes to pieces absolutely. depositors against loss from bank failures is not new, not suddenly born of recent fright and disaster. Certain experiments in this field COLLAPSE OF CONFIDENCE IN Til\IES OF PANIC. were made in the remote past, but under conditions so crude as to fur If, prior to the month of October, in the year of grace 1907, there nish no useful basis of judgment. During the last dozen years a was any doubt that our existing banking system has no other ultimate number of well-informed writers on financial subjects in the United basis than the quicksand of twin fallacies herein referred to, and that t5tates, including several practical bankers, have presented and advo it requires radical and immediate reform, that doubt has been rudely cated fairly well-digested plans to this end. In 1899 such a measure and effectively removed by the conclusive logic of events. Without lacked but two or three votes of enactment by the legislature of warning, without precedent, without authority of law, most of our Kansas. A group of about 100 State banks doing business in Georgia 24,000 banks, including practically all of those in the large cities, and Florida have a mutual depositors' guaranty fund of moderate simultaneously went out of business without closing their doors or amount, which is held in trust-bearing interest. The chartered banks going into liquidation ; they abdicated their banking functions without of Mexico have long maintained a voluntary league among themselves, surrendering their charters ; they failed to meet their current sacred under the practical working of which all come to the aid of each in obligations to their depositors, including other banks as well as indi time of peril, whether from internal or external cause, with the result viduals, by refusing for weeks to pay their valid checks when presented. that no such bank has failed, and hence no depositor has suffered THE BREAKDOWN LAST OCTOBER. loss since the system was adopted under the advice of President Diaz. The unprecedented business experience throu.gh which the American It goes without the saying that no such spectacle was ever before people have passed since September last has, like a flash of financial witnessed anywhere. If 10 or 10,000 leading and solvent merchants lightning in the night, revealed an amazing situation which commands and manufacturers 'Should treat their matured obligations as our banks universal attention. In the resulting earnest and widespread discus thus treated their depositors' valid checks, which represented demand sion of remedies for a condition which all concede to be intolerable, liabilities of the banks, they would straightway land in the bankruptcy the hitherto neglected suggestion of bank-deposit insurance has, with courts. Apprehending trouble before it arrived, the banks simply took apparent suddenness, acquired much prominence. The result is a very the start of their demand creditors, including sister banks and Indi considerable and apparently increasing demand that some systematic vidual depositors, and audaciously assumed the risk involved in heading and effective protection shall be thrown around bank deposits, not for off a strike of depositors by first themselves calling a strike against the benefit and, safety of depositors only but of the banks themselves depositors. They feared that depositors, having lost confidence, were about to make heavier withdrawals than many banks could stand, and and indirectly of the entire community as well. so adopted the only alternative that occurred to them. OKLAHOMA'S PIONEER SYSTEM. Undoubtedly the immediate result of this financial coup was greatly The pioneer action of Oklahoma has created wide interest. The beneficial, but the occurrence creates a situation and entails a re deposit-insurance law of that State, enacted in December last and now sponsibility ~ich will probably give the nation little financial repose in operation, provides for the simplest form of compulsory bank-de until It is met, and met in a right manner. The situation created is , posit insurance by the banks themselves, the State assuming no pe this: The phenomenal action of the banks, however effective in stem cuniary responsibility or risk. Periodical assessments are to be levied ming one rising panic, was, of course, revolutionary in the sense that by the State on all banks in proportion to their average deposits for it was subversive of fundamental commercial ethics and time-honored the previous year. The proceeds constitute the so-called "bank deposit banking practice, and constitutes a precedent which, if followed, must guaranty fund " which is held in the custody of the State treasurer. quickly produce universal financial chaos and disaster. As often as a' bank fails all depositors are immediately paid in full Is that precedent to be followed, and what is there to prevent such a from the guaranty ·fund. The State bank commissioner then liquidates course? If hereafter, when public confidence falters and bad financial the affairs of the failed bank, and from the proceeds of assets and weather threatens, our banks, encouraged to do so by their recent from further assessments, if necessary, on the banks the guaranty fund lucky experience, may run to cover in a similar manner, it may prove Is kept intact. The law provides a number of novel safeguards for the that the nation's recent escape from a severe panic was purchased at bankin"' business of the State. For example, whenever the State bank too great cost. The only ground on which the recent action by bankers commissioner obtains satisfactory proof that any bank officer or em can be justified or excused is that they were attempting to do business ployee is dishonest, reckless, or incompetent, he may require and com under an antiquated banking system which they found to be unwork pel hls resignation or his removal by the directors. able under test ; that they now admit its complete breakdown and are This law wa-s passed by a nearly unanimous and wholly nonpartisan ready to join the rest of the community in measures to produce a vote 1n the legislature, and with the apparent approval of the people satisfactory and• enduring remedy. generally. Only by meeting this situation and responsibility squarely and THE BANKS A 'D THEIR DEPOSITORS. promptly, and thus removing all seeming necessity for and temptation toward a reception of last autumn's tactics, can the banks of the The case in favor of the deposit-guarllnty plan naturally starts by country avoid what they can little alford-a grievous loss of public ointing out what is held to be the central and fatal defect of our confidence and esteem. The banks, by their concurrent action, have herwise excellent banking system, a defect which demands an lmme advertised the final collapse of the old banking system. They recog ate and effective remedy if we are to continue to do business. A Our complex and colossal business fabric rests upon the banks of nize that its one fatal weakness is its dependence in time of strain upon a mutual confidence between banks and their depositors, which the country; in turn, the banks depend for their solvency and con tinued usefulness upon a theoretical mutual confidence between them never exists when trouble is present. selves and their depositors, which in fact only exists during prosper DEPOSITORS MUST HAVE ASSURANCES OF SECURITY. ous times, but suddenly disappears when needed in times of stress, The advocates of deposit insurance believe they propose a plan which and Is replaced with keen mutual distrust and a destructive competi will perfectly cure this weakness and make our banking system the best tive scramble for currency, constituting the moving cause of all our in the world- best both for the people and for the banks themselves. severe financial panics. ').'hey further believe that any bank-reform legislation which stops at Speaking broadly, 24,000 banks In the United States-national, State, providing a so-called " emergency" currency, whether secured or unse and private--borrow in the form of deposits practically all the money cured, would have no appreciable good effect when panic conditions the people possess and from time to time control, except that which again arise, since the new currency would almost certainly be hoarded they carry on the person or privately hoard. This huge volume of by banks and people as fast as issued, under the impulse of general money, which is the commercial lifeblood of the country, is, with fright, and the measure would thus resemble an attempt to resist a unimportant exceptions, thus borrowed by the banks with the agree tornado with a feather. Nothing will prevent or greatly mitigate fu ment that it shall be repaid in cash on demand. Aside from certain ture panics of financial fear but absolute knowledge on the part of Government and interbank deposits, the banks give no security in bank depositors that their money is safe. return, no evidence of the loan thus made to them save a memorandum The present system is a scourge to the banks themselves. Every entry by a bank clerk in a passbook held by the depositor. panic reduces their net earnings by a large percentage and for a period By thus borrowing practically all of the people's cash and large addi of years. No one has more reason to dread a money panic than has tional aggregates of credit values, quite unnecessary to discuss here, the bank manager. To him, at least, it is purgatory. they become plain debtors to their depositors in 1907 in the total sum The present impracticable banking system. especially since the panic of more than 13,000,000,000-an amount which is incomprehensible by of 1907, stimulates and tends to compel and render universal and per any except stati tical experts, and fivefold greater than all the real manent the evil habit of private hoarding, with its danger to property money, gold, , ilvcr, and paper in the country. ~'1lese deposits, these and life through robbery, its withdrawal of vast sums from the banks sums borrowed by the banks from the men, women, and corporations and the channels of business. Deposit insurance would remedy all of the United States, become legally the absolute property of the re this. It would bring out many millions of dollars from places of hiding spective banks receiving them. In the absence of statutory limitation, and thus swell bank deposits and benefit the whole community. This which does not now exist, any bank may thus lawfully borrow, reo gain alone would more than compensate the banks for their trifling turnable on demand, twice, thrice, ten times the amount of its own contribution to the annual cost of deposit insurance. paid-in capital, and then proceed to lend practically 75 per cent of Four simple questions without answers are sug~.:;stive: IIas any gen. the whole on the time notes, secured and unsecured, of business men eral Wt-nk panic ever occurred in this country wnich did not come di and concerns, and partly on other evidences of debt. Thus they pnt rectly from a loss of confidence by bank depositors in the security of beyond their reach, for periods ranging from thirty days to six months, their fonds? Has any general commercial panic or business revulsion a very large part of the entire volume of borrowed money, nearly all ever occurred which did not owe Its origin and severity to a bank 3518 CONGRESSIONAL EEOORD-HOUSE.

panic? If all bank depositors were rendered permanently sure of the safety of their deposits, what causes could ever create anything ap proclaimed and uniformly maintained that Republican admin- - proaching in importance and injury one of our general bank panics, istration is the sole agent of prosperity, to the exclusion of all with its resulting commercial collapse? other agencies or contributing causes. Already government, both national and State, has undertaken the duty of responsibility of regulating the banking business as a quasi Further emphasizing its position that responsibility for the public service and rendering it as honest and safe as practicable under country's prosperity or adversity rests alone upon the party the present faulty banking system. Deposit insurance is a logical in power, and taking advantage of the unfortunate coincidence broadening of that duty and responsibility in order, for the first time, to accomplish satisfactory results. The people must depend on govern of a panic during Cleveland's Administration, which was inher ment to compel a. proper discharge of banking function in which lies ited from its predeces or, the Republican party, in its platform their financial safety. The individual depositor is as helpless against. of 1896, affirmed that Democratic control of the Government money loss by bank failures as the individual passenger is against unnecessary railway wrecks. had precipitated a panic, and therefore the Government should It is a merit, rather than a fault, of the proposed change that it be rescued from that party's hands. In its national platforms would render all banks equally sound and safe in the matter of de of 1900 and 1904, this charge as to panic was reiterated with posits. That it would tend somewhat to lessen the overshadowing im portance of the greatest banks and legitimately to increase the dignity brutal emphasis by the Republican party. That party has com and importance of the moderate- ized ones, would be rather a recom mitted itself irrevocably to the doctrine that so long as the mendation than a cause for critici m. country continues prosperous the dominant party should retain A judicious limitation placed by law upon the maximum amount of deposits which any bank should be permitted to accept (in other words, control of the Government, but that when a panic comes it the maximum debt which it should be permitted to incur) in proportion should be summarily expelled from power. Republicans lla\e to its unimpaired capital, and also upon the rate of interest which it prescribed this standard by which parties shall be judged. should be allowed to pay on deposits and upon other like inducements to patronage, would effectively protect large and conservative banks from Sternly have they required its obedience by Democrats. Having the unfair competition of dishonest or adventurous small ones. Besides, thus prescribed, our Republican friends should cheerfully take it is usually the high character and dependable personality of the men the do e of their own medicine, however bitter, that inevitably behind the bank which obtain and hold_desirable patronage. Under a deposit-guaranty system flamboyant advertising and unbusinesslike in awaits them at the polls in November next. [Applause on ducements would not once in a thousand times attract or retain the cus Democratic side.] tom of a depositor whose account was worth having. Mr. Chairman, I desire to suggest a plank for insertion in Well-considered legislation providing for deposit insurance would nat . u71y include other safeguards. the next national Democratic platform. It is a compilation of the stereotyped, copyrighted phrases contained in the \arious ~ 1\Ir. HULL of Tennessee. 1\Ir. Chairman, during the past few national Republican platforms extending back to the year 1 96, months, in the recent but abandoned language of Republican and supposed to depict conditions under Democratic rule. They leaders, " the country has been entering upon a new commer must have been drawn with prophetic eye, for they describe the cial era." present receding panic with remarkable precision and accuracy. The American people are convinced that something is radi Without contortion, save to substitute the party names, I cally wrong with the business conditions of the country. This here present from those platforms a comprehensive and graphic opinion has final1y found lodgment in ihe minds of Repub picture of the Republican panic of 1907-8: licans-an opinion, however, to which many of them seem re The American people have witnessed the calamitous consequences luctant to give full and candid expression. of full and unrestricted Republican control of the Government. In the The press reports the belligerent Senator from Ohio, in a broad efl'ect of its policy it bas precipitated panic, blighted industry and trade with prolon~ed depression, closed factories, reduced work and recent speech relative to the state of affairs that has been . wages, halted enterpnse. Business is dead, industry paralyzed. pending, as ~ying : The country's capital is bidden away and its labor distressed and All market values were affected. A decline began. In less than unemployed. The country is in evil plight, oppressed with misfortunes twelve mouths it amounted to an average of more than 33i per cent and doubtful of the future. The revenues are declining, the debt is of all railroad, industrial, and other stocks ; a grand aggregate of more growing, the standard of values is threatened and uncertain, hope is than $3,000,000,000. • faint, and confidence is gone. Every consideration of public safety and individual interest de Add to this huge sum se\eral billions of dollars for shrinkage mands that the Government shall be rescued from the bands of those of other personalty and of realty, and we see some of the re who have shown themselves incapable of conducting it without disaster. sults of this panic. [Applause on Democratic side.] In the total absence of any natural or other logical caus€', 'l'his sweeping indictment, which will be brought against the the people naturally attribute the country's recent plight largely Republican party in the coming campaign, meets every require to fault in the administration of the Government's affairs-either ment of Republican precedent, and before winter comes again, an to Congress's failure to enact who~esome ~e~islati_on or ~o the impartial jury of American voters will report "that it is amply pursuance of an unsound and unw1se adm~mst:ativ~ policy by sustained by the facts. [Applause.] the executive department, or to both. Bemg m this state of .Mr. Chairman, notwithstanding Democrats' freedom from mind the American people are not content, are not prepared to censure for the country's deplorable experience, every membet· see Congress meet and adjourn without devising some means of of the minority is at all times ready to freely lend his unre adequate relief and enacting it into law. sened cooperation in aid of suitable relief. No Democratic mi If this Congress should prove to be a " do-nothing " instead of nority, when the nation faced a crisis, has ever obstructed the a "do-something" Congress, and so withholds from the country majority in any reasonable and legitimate effort to- respond to such remedial legislation as its present exigencies require, it is the country's need. One of the first articles of the Democratic probable that upon our adjournment the nation will witness a faith exacts unyielding de~tion under all circumstances to the depression of greater severity and more widespread proportions, country's best interests. The practice of this faultless precept if possible, than we have been experiencing. has made Democracy and patriotism synonymous terms. REPUBLICAN DOCTRINE OF RESPOC'

Ex-Secretary of the Treasury Gage, following him, said: most of the first seventy years of the nation's history wi11 be I agree that the system could not be worse. No more humiliating pointed to by all the coming ages as a model government by 3: spectacle was ever seen than .within the last six months\ when 8,000 model people? [Applause on the Democratic side.] banks stopped bu iness in a ~:prnute, as though at the rmgmg of a bell. REIG~ OF CRI:UIN.A.L PLUTOCRACY, .ALI.A.S THB REPUBLICAN PARTY. While the urgent necessity of remedying the immediate The history of the Republican party is a history of hypoc causes of the country's ·suffering should not for a moment be risy, duplicity, and false pretense. While it has pretended to overlooked by Congress, yet it is of essential, vital importance be a separate, self-subsisting entity, it is in fact as inseparably that the chief cause of the immediate causes of our ills, the joined to the cohorts of privilege and monopoly as was Ephraim generating fotce that is constantly producing these interme~ute to his idols; one is the complement of the other. Forty-odd causes should be kept before the American people. In my JUdg years ago the Republican party beg~ a happy affinity with ment, 'the original underlying cause of the chief imJ?edi?-te the privileged class. Since then each has considered itself the causes of the panic is that species of vicious class legislation true affinity of the other. that has been on the statute books since the war, barring a In its last national platform the Republican party boasts brief interval, and which Republican Governor Cummings, of that the Democratic party has had complete control of the Iowa, has correctly characterized in this language: Go\ernment for only two years of the previous forty-four years All the robberies and thefts committed by all the insurance officers of the nation's history, and that the Republican party has held since life insurance was first originated do not amount to as much ex control of some one or more branches of the Government during tortion as the Dingley bill for one year. the remaining forty-two years, which boast, when interpreted [Applause.] in the light of history, implies that for almost fifty years the hlr. Chairman, the trusts are intrenched behind the walls of criminal plutocracy, alias the Republican party, has had this the protective-tariff system. The flag of monopoly has always unhappy country by the throat. During all this time its forces floated above the ramparts of protection. gaye free rein to their unbridled appetites for gain and their During the first seventy years of the nation's history we had wicked lust for power. The unexampled patience and forbear· a system of ta.~ution ridiculously low when compared with the ance of the American people under this trying ordeal of pillage subsequent Republican tariffs. The exigencies of war gave birth and plunder reads like a story from the feudal ages in Eng to a high protective tariff. Then it was that a long-standing, land. I emphasize the statement that Government rule during silent partnership was entered into between the beneficiaries of the last fifty years has been by the iron hand of the privileged, protection and the Government, the Republican party acting in moneyed class, cloaked behind the velvet name of the Repub the dual capacity of agent for both. lican party ; and this epoch will go down in history as the reign Prior to this time we heard no discussion about the masses of the trust and the combine. [Applause on Democratic side.] and the classes, about the fa-\ored few and the oppressed mil Not one instance can be found wherein a conflict of interest lions about the rapid and enormous concentration of wealth in has arisen between the American people and the hosts of ra · the hands of a small number of persons, but all viewed the pacity and greed in which the Republican party did not for Government as did Jefferson when he said: sake the standlll·d of the people and rush to the defense of The equal rights of man and the happiness of every individual are privilege. [Applause on Democratic side.] now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government. Modern times have the signal advantage, too, of having_ discovered the On the subject of taxation this party has always stood for only device by which these rights can be secured, to wit, government the doctrine that taxation is a blessing to the poor, but a curse by the people, acting not in person, but by representatives chosen by to the rich. Save in occasional instances, when laboring under themselves. the greatest pressure from outraged public sentiment, every Sad to say, the era of protection has put an end to the time act of this monopoly-ridden organization has been to swell and honored doctrine of equality before the law and nullified the bloat the gains of the rich and pile up the burdens of the poor. Constitution. It has created in this country an exclusive privi This party has been long in conspiracy with the beneficiaries leged class and poured into its lap unearned wealth "beyond of class legislation to fasten the dreadful fangs of the " criminal the dreams of a\arice." It levies harsh and oppressive tribute rich" deeper in the struggling bodies of those who toil. upon the musses of the people from the cradle to the grave. It Mr. Chairman, the Republican doctrine of protection di\erts clothed a limited number with the hereditary caste of Ameri business from natural and legitimate to artificial channels. It can nobility and translated them to the luxurious ease o'f baro causes a rapid centralization of wealth in the hands of a few, nial castles, gilded yachts, and sumptuous prini.te cars, while who manipulate it in such a manner as to render business con it artfully and ruthlessly condemned the toiling millions to a ditions constantly unnatural, uncertain, and unstable and to life of servitude and vassalage. Yes; for more than forty years make panics possible at any time. Many fruitful causes of the sleepless monster of protection, clothed in the sacred livery panic would be far removed by a return of the country to the old of the law, has i.rivuded every humble American home and ex fashioned Democratic doctrine of a revenue tariff. [Applause acted its " pound of flesh," until now ten of its pampered pets on Democratic side.] This would insure business stability, based can, to use the apt language of Senator Depew, "paralyze the upon sound and natural laws and consequent normal conditions.

whole country, for they can control the circulation of the cur .REPUBLICA~ PARTY .A. MERE TIMESERVER. rency, and create a panic whenever they will." I shall append to my remarks an extract from the Philadel Since 1896 the Republican party has assumed so many in· phia North American, a paper that has never been Democratic, consistent, antagonistic, and repugnant positions upon most detailing the connection of certain institutions and persons public questions as to forfeit the people's confidence and re with the present panic. .Also an extract from the Washington spect. It has become famous as a trimmer, a temporizer, and Post, a pro-Republican paper, _on "Standard Oil." Also an ex a timeserver. In 18!>6 it declared in favor of gold monometal· tract from that great Republican daily, the Chicago Journal, ism, while in 1888, it had declared in favor of both gold and on "The West and the tariff bandits." silver as standard money, and actually denounced the Demo The implll·tial student of industrial and economic conditions cratic party for its efforts to demonetize silver. must agree that the "colossal trusts," the "criminal rich," the In 1 96 its platform condemned Cleveland's Administration in " malefactors of wealth," and the possessors of " swollen for unmeasured terms, for " piling up the public d~bt in time of tunes " owe their existence chiefly to the operation of the Re peace." publican doctrine of protection. This charge was reiterated in its platform of 1904. In 1907, with unblushing effrontery, in a time of profound So long as no fountain can b~ purified while a contaminated stream flows into it, so long can no kind of effort to curb 'and peacE>., swallowing its own utterances condemnatory of this suppress trust violators succeed unless such effort strikes at the policy, the Republican Administration proceeded to heap upon main source of their constant creation-the protectiye tariff. the backs of the American people, already bending with over·· The country is in sad need of financial legislation, it is daily burdens, an increased public debt of many millions of dollars. suffering the consequences of lax enforcement of the law, the [Applause on Democratic side.] railway rate law is in some respects grossly inefficient, but while The Democratic party condemned this policy in its platform Congress is responding to the wishes and needs of the people by of 1896 and consistently condemns it now. dealing with these questions, the king of evils, our present tariff, GOVERXME~T BY I~.TUXCTIO~. should be given a place near the center of the stage. In 1896 the Democratic platfqrm criticised "government by Then what is the remedy? This Government can only be injunction" as "a new and highly dangerous form of oppression successfully conducted by means of political parties. To which by which Federal judges, in contempt of the laws of the States of the two leading parties, then, can the American people look and rights of citizens, become at once legislators, judges, and with most hope of relief? To the party whose policy constantly executioners," and demanded legislation "providing for trials begets these giant octopuses, these Herculean Sampsons, or by jury in certain cases of contempt." This was reiterated in to the party whose glorious reign under the Constitution during 1900. · 3520 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. MARcH 1.8,

In 1904 the national Democratic platform declared: 1906. The facts are that specific demand for this legislation We approve the measure, which a Republican Congress has ev~r since was contained in each national Democratic platform since 1896. refused to enact, relating to contempts in Federal courts and providing The platforms of the Republican party for this period were for trial by jury in cases of indirect contempt. silent upon this great question and, although President Roose For these utterances the Democratic party has been severely velt as far back as 19<:>1 in his annual message pointed out that criticised by Republicans generally, as advocating a doctrine the interstate-commerce law of 1 7 was defecti>e and inef reyolutionary and socialistic. ficient, and urged Congress to amend it, and repeated this The last two Republican campaign text-books were especially recommendation with added emphasis in each subsequent mes caustic in their comments-the text-book of 1904 denouncing sage, yet a Republican Congress stubbornly denied the country this declaration as " most reprehensible and obnoxious." This this relief until finally some of the majority in Congress, in reflects the consensus of Republican opinion. Yet a Republican fear of " the big stick " and smarting under the lash of aroused President not long since administered to a Chicago Federal public sentiment, were enabled by the aid of a solid Democratic judge a rebuke more severe than any Democrat ever uttered. minority to give the people some of that substantial relief In his recent special message to Congress the President which the Republican party had obstinately withheld from them sharply directs attention to the very abuses Democrats have for ten years. · complained of for twelve years, and intimates that a revolt Both political parties are entitled to credit for this whole against the whole injtmctive process may occur unless these some enactment- the united Democrats who supported it from abuses are remedied. Furthermore, he adds: sincere conviction, and the divided Republicans who rel.pctantly If he (a judge) clearly falls to do his duty by the public In dealing supported it in order to avoid the avenging wrath of thl\Ameri with law-breaking corporations, law-breaking men of wealth, he must expect to feel the weight of public opinion, and this is but right, for can people. [Applause.] except in extreme cases, this is the only way in which he can be INCOUE TAX. reached at all. In 1896, the Democratic party declared in favor of an income Gathering inspiration from his subject, the President, speak tax. Nine-tenths of that party favors such tax to-day. ing further of the writ of injunction, says that- In 1894, this later-day Republican party cast off the teachings It has sometimes been abused heedlessly and unjustly, and that some of its great founders and arrayed itself solidly against this of the injunctions issued inflict gt·ave and, occasionally, irreparable policy so eminently just and fair to all. Their campaign book wrong upon tho e enjoined. It is all wrong to use the injunction to prevent the entirely proper and legitimate actions of labor organiza of that year denounced it in the following language : tions in their struggle for industrial betterment, or, under the guise of In this country an income tax of any sort is odious and will bring protecting hproperty rights, unwarrantably to invade the· fundamental odium upon any party blind ebough to impose it. rights of t e individual. It is futile to concede, as we all do, the right and necessity of organized effort on the part of wage-earners, and yet, Again, I find this solemn warning : by injunctive process, to forbid peaceable action to accomplish the law Prepare for the funeral of the political party which imposes such a ful objects for which they are orgil.D.ized and upon which their success burden. depends. Just under this doleful exclamation, I insert the utterance of To whom does the President refer in this grave. and serious a conscience-stricken Republican President, contained in the charge? Does he refer to Judges Wood and Grosscup, who, in last annual message to Congress : 1894, enjoined certain officers of the American Railway Union A graduated income tax of the proper type would be a desirable fea from using persuasion to induce railway employees to quit work? ture of Federal taxation, and jt is to be hoped that one may be devised Or does he refer to Judge Jackson, of the United States district which the Supreme Court 'Yill declare constitutional. court of West Virginia, who, in 1897, granted a broad injunction Listen also to this statement of Secretary Taft, in a speech at against everybody, forbidding anyone from persuading the 'min Columbus, Ohio, August 20, 1907. .After stating that the Supreme ers of that State to quit the employment of the contractors? Court had declared the income tax unconstitutional, he said: Or is it possible that he indicts Judge William H. Taft for is In times of great national need, an income tax would be of great suing an injunction in 1894 to prohibit men employed by the assistance in furnishing means to carry on the Government, and it is not free from doubt how the Supreme Com·t, with changed member Northern Pacific Railroad from striking? The same judge, too, ship, would view a new income-tax law under such conditions. who in that year assailed the Pullman boycott with the writ of The gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. DALZELL] twitted injunction and stated at the time that "the gigantic character this side of the House with some supposed utterance of Mr. of the conspiracy of the American Railway Union staggers the Bryan which, if true, is, from one view point, unorthodox. I imagination." The President's unqualified imputation rests upon every Fed imagine if he [Mr. DALZELL] should publicly express his pri eral judge. Then, will the laboring man shout for Mr. Taft in vate opinion of his President's position upon thi , as well as the coming campaign? .A. man who as a Federal judge, in the some other questions, considerable toning down would be neces language of the message, "abused the writ of injunction heed sary to make it fi t to print. lessly and unjustly" and "used the injunction to prevent the PATER~A.LISM. entirely proper and legitimate actions of labor organizations in Mr. Chairman, the most insidious foe to .American go-vern their struggle for indush·ial betterment;" and who thus rammed ment under the Constitution is this "new federalism." the rod of judicial oppression, as a red-hot iron, down the throat The President is its chief exponent. It is one of " my poli of American labor. [Applause on the Democratic side.] cies." Since his effort to indoctrinate the country along this I congratulate the country, as well as the President, upon line the inquiry, "Are you for or against the Constitution?" his con-version to the Democratic view. For, in 1896, 1\Ir. Roose has become quite common among the people. The President is velt, speaking of the "government· by injunction" plank in the paternally and eternally ad>ocating doctrines so extremely Democratic platform, said : federalistic and paternalistic as to cause the present genera This represents a species of atavism-that is, of recurrence to the tion to view his strange course with awe and amazement, and ways of thought of remote barbarian ancestors. Savages do not want such as would have put to shame Alexander Hamilton himself. an independent and upright judiciary. They want the judge to decide The following language of the President, contained in a speech their way, and if he does not, they want to behead him. delivered at Philadelphia, bears a striking resemblance to st>me Mr. Chairman, is it possible that the Darwinian theory is of the recent fatherly suggestions of the Czar of Russia to his true, and has the President developed into a Republican or a Douma : · Democratic "sa-vage?" By indirection, the President is in the We need, through Executive action, through legislative, and through attitude of characterizing a part of the Ohio Republican plat judicial interpretation and construction of law, to increase the power form adopted a few days since as "a species of atavism," and of the Federal Government. If we fail thus to increase it, we show its authors as "barbarians" and "savages." For that platform our impotence. favors " limitation in the exercise of the power of injunction, In awful contrast with this remarkable deliverance I wish to iu order to pre-vent its abuse." The platform implies the exist remind you of the love and reverence in which the Constitu ence of abuses. (Applause on the Democratic side.] tion and Government under its principles were held by the A.RB ITRATION. American Congress and the American people before the war. The Democratic party has demanded in its last three plat I read from the memorable address of t.he Vice-President, forms legislation embodying the principle of arbitration of deli-vered in vacating the old Senate Chamber to occupy the differences between employers engaged in interstate commerce new one : and employees. Only since the last national campaign has _this Is there an American who regrets the past? Is there one who will deride his country's laws or pervert her Constitution 1 * * • If doctrine found fa-vorable expression in a President's message. there be such a man, let his memory descend to posterity laden with The Republican party denied the people this legislation for a the execration of all mankind. generation. It would not have found lodgment in any other Concluding, he said : Republican President's message. And now Senators, we leave this memorable Chamber, bearing with RAIL:WAY RATE LAW. us unimpaired the Constitution we received from our forefathers. Let us cherish It with grateful acknowledgments of the Divine Power who Republicans are given to frequent vociferous expressions of · controls the destinies of empires and whose goodness we adore. The self-laud!ltion because of the enactment of the railroad law of structures r eared by men yield t o the corroding tooth of time. These 1908 . . CONGRESSIONAL .RECORD-HOUSE. 3521 marble walls must molder into ruins; but the principles of · constitu the lackey, the flunky of the trusts, to fight with them any tional Uberty, guarded by wisdom and virtue, unlike material elements, do not decay. Let us devoutly trust that another Senate, in another other than a sham battle. "' age, .shall bear to a new and larger Chamber this Constitution vigorous While in order to palter with public sentiment, they muy at and lDVi~late, and that the last g~neration of posterity shall witness the times assume a public attitude of feigned hostility, but when deliberatwns of the representatives of American States still united prosperous, and free. ' in seclusion · they doubtless engage in the blissful pastime of bestowing upon each other that invention of modern society, Mr. Chairman, this was the spirit of the American people dur- the " soul kiss." ing the reign of liberty and law. · · Try as he may the President can no more wrench them apart But, alas, the decadence of our national ideals have left many than he could clear the top of the Washington Monument on a of the .American people imbued with a spirit of admiration for Western broncho. a kingly government. The Republican party is honor bound, in so far as honor can Emotional as the French, infatuated with regal splendor, exist among certain classes, to love, cherish, obey, and protect lost to a sense of true .Americanism, they delight to cringe be the tariff and the trusts, "both in sickness and in health, until fore sordid wealth and to fawn at the feet of power. [Ap- death doth them part." plause on the Democratic side.] . · So long as a shred of the Constitution remains, Democrats THE PRESIDE~T. will be found insisting, as one man, on the ~:eserved rights of In a broad. spirit of patriotism, Democrats have generously the States and demanding sh·ict observance of the constitu applauded every Democratic act and utterance of the President, tional limitations upon Federal power. but they have as vigorously condemned his many more Repub PRETENDED TRUST SUPPRESSION. lican acts and Republican utterances. 1\Ir. Chairman, the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. DAL Mr. Chairman, I am not one ·of those Democrats who think ZELL] taunted Democrats with the alleged failure of Cleve Mr. Bryan should place Mr. Roosevelt in nomination for Presi land's Administration to properly enforce the antitrust law of dent. While he has embraced, or seemed to embrace, certain 18DO ; but being unable to extract any comfort from its com Democratic doctrines, yet he has not thus far committed the parison with McKinley's Administration, he carefully omits Republican party to them. Instead he usually refers to them the latter and cites the Roosevelt Administration. It is ·well as " my policies." Again, who knows that this controversy be he did, for President 1\IcKinley in his last annual message tween the President and " swollen wealth " is not a mere love could only name two prosecutions of .any importance that had quarrel, posslble of early reconciliation and once more present been instituted under this law during his entire Administra ing the scene of- tion. Harrison's Administration was even worse. The Demo Two souls with but a single thought, cratic record on the question of trust evils and trust suppres Two hearts that beat as one. sio~ ante~ates that of our Republican friends, commencing They were in close embrace in 1904. as 1t does m January, 1888, when a Democratic House of Repre The President but seldom talks or acts like a Democrat. He sentatiT"es adopted a resolution that resulted in an exhaustive does not wear a Democratic uniform. He must first renounce · investigation and an elaborate report embodying all available all Republican heresy, be baptized in the Democratic faith, and facts as to trust operations and violations. From that date receive the baptismal name before I shall proclaim myself his there has been no division among Democrats upon this absorb follower. ing question. Mr. Chairman, the public mind has derived a True, a few blasts by him upon the Democratic bugle horn confused and exaggerated idea as to the real nature and ex evokes applause from Democrats; but not to the bugler-only to tent of trust suppression by the present Administration. the pleasing strains of Democratic music-is such enthusiasm Far more time and effort has been consumed in exploiting due. p'roposed and threatened prosecutions than has been devoted to While the President has done many admirable things, for aqtual prosecutions. Under the fostering and protecting wino which he is accorded a due meed of praise, at the same time he of the Dingley law a dozen trust violators spring into existenc~ has contributed more than all other influences of the past and even while the President is effervescing and threatening to present generation to the creation of a line of vicious and evil prosecute one. Yes, the President loudly inveighs against the precedents that would be a lasting curse to the worst despotism trust evils-the evils of the protective ta'rifj which he cham in the world. · pions. The American people are merely experiencing an optical His contempt and utter disregard for the plain mandates of illusion due to the pyrotechnic display of the President. the Co_ns:titution have become proverbial. He assumed an attitude in his last annual message which The only problem with him is, not how to follow the Consti he directly antagonizes in his recent special message. In the tution as it was written; expounded, and construed by the latter we find the following language: fathers, but how to make the .Constitution follow him on his The apologists of successful dishonestv always declaim against any journey to the north pole of paternalism. The poor old Consti ell'ort to punish or 11revent it, on the ground that any such ell'ort will tution has been unable to follow the flag under Republican rule; "unsettle business." still less is it able to follow the trackless trail of a rashly ad In his annual message he himself adopts this same argument venturous and constantly exploring President. He has ignored in support of the pa1·ent of "successful dishonesty," as follows: the other coordinate departments of the Government and treated This country is definitely committed to the protective system and them as mere subordinate appendages. He has disturbed and any ell'ort to uproot it could not but cause widespread industrwi dis destroyed the equipoise in which the three coordinate depart aster. ments have been held from the beginning-a balance so vital In his annual message, 1901, he says: to the harmony and successful operation of our scheme of Nothing could be more unwise than to disturb the business interests government under the Constitution. Democracy registers a of the country by any general tariff change at this time. loud protest against such flagrant Executive usurpation. No The President breathes ont dire threats of punishment against man entertaining these views can secure even standing room in the Democratic household. the principals in the crime, but almost in the same breath he Mr. Chairman, drunk with power, the Republican party has loudly demands that the accessory befoTe the tact shall go free. By his own act, he neutralizes his efforts and renders his Ad become inert and inefficient, corrupt and servile. ministration powerless to suppress these open violators of the It has achieved its manifest destiny. It has neither reformed nor economized. It failed to look at the signboards and ran the law. car of prosperity onto a commercial turntable. After many years of glorious opportunity, few have been pros The real meaning of Republican mottoes and campaign slo ecuted, none are behind prison bars. l\Ir. Chairman, I em gans has finally dawned upon the American people. Their rally phasize the view that the doors of the jails and penitentiaries ing cry of " protection and prosperity" is but another name for should open as wide to receive the criminal rich as the criminal "power and plunder." Their motto," Protection is panic proof," poor. But why are the Americ.:'ln people so credulous as to has all the time meant " Protection is proof of panic," a-nd that expect this character of relief from the Republican party? campaign y~ll, "A full dinner pail," but presaged " empty How do they expect either of the component elements of that stomachs." sweet, delectable trinity, the tariff, the trusts, and the Repub lican party, to rise up and slay the others? As quickly would ISSUES. the mother destroy her young. True, this elegant triumvirate, There is no loss for vital issues, sharp and well defined, in the this e pluribus unum, comprises three nominally separate corpo coming campaign. rations, but all are operated under one and the same manage Suppression of lawless combinations and proper curbjng of ment. corporate wealth is an issue. So is the outrageous tariff, Ex It is a travesty upon common sense to expect the Republican ecutive usurpation, home rule and the guaranteed rights of the party, which is the pliant tool, the shield-bearer, the toady, States, government by injunction, income tax, efficient railway

XLII--221 3522 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. ~lARCH 18, rate regulation, steamshil,) and other subsidies, extravagant ap The following is from the Philadelphia North American of propriations, legislation securing to labor its just rights. a sound November 25. 1907: financial system, maladministration of government. These are THillTY-SIX PER CENT PATRIOTISM. only some of the issues. On each of these questions Democracy If Secretary of the Treasury Cortelyou understood fully what he was will be found where it has always stood-by the rights of the doing last week, he proved himself unfaithful to his trust. If he did It not understand the full meaning of his acts-and it is difficult for us people. opposes the Government incorporation and control of ~~~!~ieve that he did-he proved himself incompetent to fill his present all corporations doing an interstate business, for if the Gen eral Government once inYades the rights of the States for one The first thing necessary is that the people of the country should be made to understand exactly what has been done. Our purpose now is purpose it may then invade them at all times for all purposes. that explanation, in simple, definite terms. We shall not deal with This party for the same reason favors the enactment of laws by suppositions, possibilities, or deductions, but with plain facts and the States, and not by the General Goyernment, to prohibit em simple mathematics. The propo ition made public by Secretary Cortelyou Friday night ployment of child labor. It is opposed to the GoYernment owner is for the banks of the country to make a payment into the National ship of railroads. Treasury of $25,000,000 in cash, and a depo it of securities amounting 'l'he Democratic party is conservative whenever consenatism to 75,000,000. These securities are to be given only as a pledge. The title to them Will remain vested in the banks. The income from them will suffice; it is radical whenever radicalism is necessary to will go to the banks. uproot deep-seated evils that a.ffiict the country. It makes 'ho It is apparent that the Idea of a payment is eliminated from the war on wealth. While it declares eternal war on wealthy vio $75,000,000 deposit. The nominal transfer is reduced to a mere matter of bookkeeping. · lators of the law, it guarantees to all law-abiding aggregations For the $25 000,000 payment Secretary Cortelyou agrees to turn over of wealth freedom from molestation. No party can be conserva to the banks $1oo,ooo,ooo of debt certificates, upon which the Govern tive on all policies all the time. ment is pledged to pay to the banks 3 per cent interest, or $3,000,000. Secretary Cortelyou next will receive these debt cert ificates back from Mr. Chairman, the Republican party has not led a sinless the banks and hold them as security for the issue of $100,000,000 of life. It has debauched the public conscience and established a national-hank note currency, which the bankers will loan to customers goYernment of arbitrary power for one of clearly defined lim at present rates of from 6 to 10 per cent. Figured at the legal rate, the banks thus will receive a profit of 6 per cent on this currency, or ited power, under which the rights and liberties of the people $6,000,000. might find protection. It has no fixed doctrines save the pro Therefore the banks, upon a payment of $25,000,000, will receive tectiYe tariff, blind subserviency to corporate wealth, and pa under the Cortelyou plan 3 per cent interest on the debt certificates and at least 6 per cent on the currency, a total of $9,000,000. This ternalism, and only fJ. spirit of brigandage and c9mmercialism profit of $9,000,000 on an investment of $25,000,000 yields a profit of bind it to these. Policies it espouses in one campaign it repu 36 per cent. diates and denounces in the next. With it, what was orthodox This computation, however, is based upon the assumption that the $25,000,000 to be paid by the banks is the banks' own money. As a to-day is blasphemy to-morrow. This pa.rty is constantly busy matter of fact, the money is the Government's, as the banks now hold turning somersaults in a vain effort to serve its master, the nearly $250,000,000 of Government deposits, upon which they pay not "criminal rich," and at the same time avoid popular condem one cent of interest. - Of course, Secretary Cortelyou would not father this outrage unless nation. Whether it nominates a radical or a conservative for he thought it would accomplish some object. All agree that the busi the Presidency this year, it will adopt a platform of platitudes ness of the country i crippled, largely because of the lack of actual loud in their pretended condemnation of "predatory wealth " money in circulation. The sole avowed PUI'pose of the Cortelyou plan is to force into circulation $100,000,000 of new bank notes. and in their mock professions of loyalty to the people's But If Mr. Cortelyou were possessed of any knowledge of the subject. interests. and were in addition a courageous and single-minded official, he could In stentorian tones will they indorse " my policies." To do have accomplished the same thing in a shorter time without paying one cent of tribute to the banks or doing any one of them the slightest otherwise would be to invoke annihilation. But if the con injustice. sen-ative element supports the ticket nominated, the American It is plain that the mere act of taking $25,000JOOO out of the na people can be assured that after the election this party will tional banks and placing it in the National Treasury does not increase the volume of money one dollar. If it did, Mr. Cortelyou need not have throw off its thin disguise and again disclose its old set of bribed the banks into the transfer, for these same banks already hold policies, designed to shield the criminal plutocracy. nearly 250,000,000 of the people's money, and the Secretary of the .A. RooSevelt, or radical, Republican would then become no Treasury could have ordered $25,000,000 at any time from these banks. The only relief Mr. Cortelyou hopes for is to come from the $100,- more than a little, malignant pustule on the Republican ele 000,000 new currency which the national banks will be induced to phant. take out. If, upon the other hand, it were possible for that party to Now, it Is a matter of common knowledge that throughout this crisis-a money stringency which had been foreseen for many months be sincere in its professions and promises, the conservative the national banks have proved their utter lack of patriotism by refus- element would not support the ticket nominated ppon a radical ing to issue more than $2{)0,000,000 of currency, which they were en platform, and defeat would inevitab)y result. titled to take out by the size of their capitalization. While manu!acturers, merchants, and all business men were taxed, In craven fear of the coming day of the people's judgment, annoyed, and hurt, all the e classes submitted uncomplainingly to em already comatose and moribund, this party is making one last barrassment and loss for the sake of the general welfare. But the na desperate effort to prolong its miserable existence, either by tional banks, in cold bloM, preyed upon the public misfortune by refus ing to take out circulation, because they could mnM:e larger profits on buying the people with promises or bullying them with threats. the money of the people deposited with them in other ways than by It says, "Although we have controlled the Government for buying the bonds needed for bank-note issues. many years, and although there is a crying, insistent demand The sole feature of the Cortelyou plan for which commendation con ceivably can be asked ls that these banks will be induced to take out for tariff revision, we decline to give relief during this or the one-half as much extra cun-ency as they are entitled to issue. Yet, as next session of Congress; wait until after the election; the The North American pointed out days ago, the Secretary of the Treasury people can not be trusted; let them deliver first." In the mean could have forced such issue at any time by serving notice upon the banks that they must take out the needed currency or he would with time it will say to the protected favorites, "Give us a few draw the Government's deposits from those which persisted in refusal millions for campaign purposes and after the 4th of next and deposit the amounts in the South and West, to move the crops. March we will revise the tariff utnoan:l/' while it will say to Such a demand would have been both just and reasonable. It would have been met with violent protest, but with J?rompt submission. It the tax-ridden people asking it to correct its own evils, " Con would not have been necessary to withdraw a srngle Treasury deposit. tinue us in power, and after the 4th of March next we will 'rhe currency would have been taken out in every instance. It would revise the tariff downward." Unparalleled duplicity and arro not have hurt the banks. It would quickly have brought whatever relief this plan will bring. It would have beeu even less open to gance! criticism on the score of being a measure of inflation than this plan. The American people will spurn the insolent demand of this It would have increased or diminished credit exactly as this plan corrupt and decayed party for an uninterruJJted lease on Fed will do. The chief difl'erence in the two plans is that one would not have eral power. They can only turn to the Democratic party for taxed the people for a huge sum of money with which to bribe the relief along all needed lines-a party that serves no one class banks to do what is nothing more nor less than their clear and simple but the whole people alike. This they will do. .A.nd when he, duty in the circumstances. The North Ame1·ican realized some time ago that conditions had who has fought many battles for the people and not one against reached the danger point ; that wicked and powerful influences were at them, leaves his humble home on the plains of the West and work and tending to destroy the prosperity of the country. comes here on the 4th of next 1\Iarch to preside over the des In common with every person possessed of good sense and patriot ism, we were willing to submit even to the doubtful experiment of ap tinies of this great Repuhlic, he will receive more than a Roman plying a war measure in time of peace. We could not approve, but welcome. Then will this GoYernment return to the old-fashioned we refrained from censure. honesty and simplicity of its earlier days when, under the For the. general, good, the press of the wbole country with one at" benign influence of Democratic rule, it blossomed into a great cord adopted an optimistic tone and withheld criticism where or dinarily criticism would have been compelled. But to all things there nation. is a limit. Mr. Chairman, we read with admiration of the golden age of The Torth American saw Wall street force the banks ot New York, English literature. Far down the centuries, futut·e ages will ::~ ~~ou~:wthi~kth~l~~~: TI~!~Y is;~es$sfJO.%o~o~o P~Fc~~ffficai!! look back to that happy and glorious period of American Gov which are Illegal. We saw the banks everywhere refusing arbitrarily ei·nment before the war, and pronounce the solemn verdict that to pay back to depositors theil"· own money. We saw the issuance of $50,000,000 ot bonds, ostensibly to build the ranama Canal, when it constitutes the golden age of human fi·eedom and human gov such was not ·the need or purpose of their sale. We saw the imposi ernment in the world's history. [Loud applause on the Demo~ tion of this tax upon the people, coupled with a $100,000,000 issue of eratic side.] debt certificates, at a time when the nation is not in debt2 but, on the 1908. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3523

contrary, has in banks $250,000,000. We saw these debt certificates or monopoly tending to destroy these by controlling production, declared the basis for a currency issue, and knew that ruling to be a strain upon the most elastic construction of the law. restricting competition, or fixing prices should be prohibited Yet, seeing all these things, we kept silent. Our belief was that the and punished by law. When permitted to exist and allowed ends sought might justify even these means; that the peace and hap to carry out the purpose of their organization, in whole or in piness of the nation hung in the balance, and that the extraordinary measures used might defeat the schemes of public enemies working to part, they stifle legitimate enterprise, take adYantage of labor, wreck the national welfare. and proye a burden to the toiling millions. I concede, Mr. Acts that in ordinary circumstances would have seemed well-nigh Chairman, the right of an individual, or an association of per criminal to us we condoned. And we stand as ready to defend our course as we are to make this admission. sons, or of a corporation to sell his or its labor, the product of · But now that Mr. Cortelyou offers to pay the banks 36 per cent to his or their intellectual energy, or his or its property for the induce them to put forth currency which every instinct of justice, highest and best price that may be obtained in an open, free right, and good citizenshi() held them morally bound to issue without a bribe; when the Secretary of the Treasury does this thing at a time market, using fair and unquestionable methods. No one will when his signature and ten brave words would have brought about the question the right of persons, corporations, or associations to same result, without taxing the people one cent and without injustice use their skill, intelligence, progressiYeness, and energy in an to a single banke1·, our patience ceases. When it comes to approving such an act, count The North American honest way to adyance their business enterprise and secure out. An o!rense that smells to heaven, as does this catering to Wall pecuniary profit. street, is too rank for om· tolerance. • .;. • No matter whether the profit is large or whether it is small, The following is from the Washington Post of February 23, if it is honestly and fairly obtained it is not a matter of leg 1908: islative concern. But when the methods employed to secure MONOPOLY A~D THE TARIFF. pecuniary profit are such as to deprive others from entering The Standard Oil Company earns a quarterly dividend of 15 per cent on its capital, or GO per cent per annum. One would think this con or engaging in a like business, they are unfair and hurtful to cern can stand alone without the tariff crutch the Dingley law supplies the public and deserve the condemnation of the people. There it of 15 cents per gallon duty hid away in the " free " petroleum of are those who contend that we already have an antitrust law the tariff schedules. So protective is this tariff that not one barrel of petroleum is imported from Russia to compete with Standard oil, and that no further legislation is needed. The Sherman Act though that monopoly sells to foreigners goods at 8 cents a gallon for of 1890 is the law referred to, and during the existence of this which it charges our own people 11 cents. law more trusts have been formed than were ever known before The G. 0. P. is now engaged in its grand quadrennial round-up of votes. It has a majority in both Houses of Congress, and the President in the history of our country, and riot a single one has been is a Republican. If the Republican leaders should jam through both crushed. It is true there have been some prosecutions and a Houses House bill 16862, " to place petroleum, crude or refined, and few fines assessed, but what does the trust care for a fine? In the products of petroleum, crude or refined, on the fr·ee list," it would make more votes for the Republican ticket next November than all the the end the people have to pay it in the way of increased prices other legislation the Sixtieth Congress is likely to enact at its first on the product controlled. I assert, Mr. Chairman, that the session. It can be done between the rising and setting of a single sun Sherman antitrust law, as it now stands, is acceptable to the any day of the session. It can be done_ by unanimous consent any moment of any sitting of either House. trusts. It is just what they want. They know that under its It was hoped, and so advised by the President, that wood pulp and provisions not a single trust can be destroyed, not a single vio print paper would be put on the free list. It will not be denied that the present duties on those articles, practically prohibitory, are op lator of the law can be put in the penitentiary, and that the pressive, odious, and monopolistic ; but Congress would as soon legislate worst that could come to them under the provisions of that law a~ainst the tides of ocean this session as against the paper trust and would be the assessment of a fine, which, if ever paid at all by the wood-pulp trust. Perhaps the Republican leaders are persuaded that they have votes enough already secured to carry the election in No them, would be collected from the people through increased vember. prices on trust-made goods. And whenever a more stringent It is now demonstrated to this generation, as the same thing was law is proposed some representative of the trusts is always made plain to the country in 1873, that a highly protective tariff is no. ready to insist that we have an antitrust law and that no fur effective guard against a financial panic and an industrial prostra tion. • • • ther legislation is needed on the subject. That practically all The following is from the Chicago Journal (Republican) : the necessities of life are controlled by trusts no one will deny. That the prices fixed by them and which the people are com THE W~ST AND THE T.A.niFF BANDITS. When the Dingley tariff was being framed Eastern trust magnates pelled to pay are exorbitant and burdensome is admitted. and money kings seized upon Congress and fixed the tariff schedules to Then why not pass a law that will dissolve ev-ery trust doing suit ·themselves, so the masses of the people would have to pay them business in this country? It can be done. There is no ques tribute. • • * The principle of protection must be maintained, but the tariff must be so altered that it will no longer bleed the West and tion about it. Let us make this once more a Government of South for the benefit of a few Wall street business bandits. the people and by the people instead of a Government of the trusts and by the trusts, through the enactment of a law that [Mr. WOLF addressed the committee. See Appendix.] would not only impose a heavy fine, but also imprisonment for .Mr. BOWERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from anyone found guilty of entering into any agreement in re Indiana [Mr. ADAIR]. straint of trade. [Applause.] Mr. ADAIR. Mr. Chairman, I believe there is no subject be ' The Sherman Act has been the law for eighteen years, and fore this House that deserves greater consideration than legisla you can not point to a single instance where that law has been tHm looking to the destruction of-the many unlawful and vicious _sufficient to destroy a single trust; but, on the contrary, they trusts now preying upon the people. Yet this House has been in have multiplied until we now have more than 400 trusts with session for more than three months, and, so far as I ha ye been a combined capital of over $10,000,000,000, and these powerful able to observe, no attempt has been made to interfere with the corporations are not only robbing and plundering the people, but privileges they now enjoy. I therefore rise this afternoon to they are attempting to dictate, and have largely dictated, legis discuss the trust question, with the hope that I may be able to lation affecting their interests. It is a noticeable fact that awaken and arouse such an interest as will result in the enact Members who are active against this special privileged class are ment into law of a bill I have introduced in the House to sup seldom returned to Congress on acc01mt of the power they wield press trusts, pools, and combinations in restraint of trade. and the contributions they are able to make to procure their I am here representing a large agricultural -and manufactur defeat. I have already been advised by friends that my position ing district, and the people I have the honor to represent have on public questions, and my effort in behalf of the common peo felt the cruel hand of the trust in the closing of factories and ple since Congress convened on the 2d day of last December is fixing of prices of both products and labor. It is universally displeasing to the corporations, and that if I care to be reelected recognized, :Mr. Chairman, that gigantic trusts and combinations I had better not advocate anything detrimental to their interests. designed to enable capital to secure more than its just share of This suggestion, however, does not deter me in the least, as I the joint products of capital and labor, and which have sprung would rather serve one term as a Member of this House and up at an alarming rate under existing law, are a menace to have the satisfaction of knowing I had discharged my whole beneficial competition and an obstacle to permanent business duty to the people than to remain in Congress the balance of prosperity. It is also admitted that priYate monopolies are my life as the willing tool of greedy corporations. [Applause.] indefensible and intolerable. They destroy competition, control Mr. Chairman, it is conceded that illegal combinations, trusts, the p1·ice of all material and of the finished product, thus rob and monopolies were neYer so numerous and powerful as at bing both producer and consumer. They lessen the employment the present time. They control not only ·the manufacture and of labor and arbitrarily fix the terms and conditions thereof, production of articles of necessity, general use, and consump and deprive individual energy and a small capital of their tion, the employment of labor, and the wages paid to it, but also opportunity for betterment. They are the most efficient means control and fix the price these laborers must pay for the arti yet devised for appropriating the f-ruits of industry to the bene cles they necessarily use and consume in support of themselyes fit of a few at the expense of the many, and unless their in and their families. Labor is hampered and impoverished. satiate greed is checked, all wealth will be aggregated in a few Such combinations naturally result in the formntion of oppos hands and the Republic destroyed. Individual equality of op ing organizations, and a resort to means or methods that often portunity and free competition are essential to a healthy and result in violations of the public pe..'lce. Oppression may be permanent commercial prosperity, and any trust, combination. long endured, but sooner or later turbulence, violence, and pos- 3524 OONGRESSION AL RECORD-HOUSE. J\fAROH 18,

sibly crime will result. There should be mutual confidence be $1,000,000. At that time they controlled not more than 10 per cent or the refining business or the country. Within ten years from that tween capital and labor. They should work hand in hand for date the process of combination under these interests had been so their mutual benefit and the growth and development of the rapid that they admittedly controlled !rom 90 per cent to 95 per cent nation. They should be willing to equitably divide the profits of this branch of the oil industry, and their control of the pipe-line business had increased with equal rapidity. In 1882 they concen and share the losses of e-.ery business enterprise in which trated their holdings under the Standard Oil trust, which included mutually engaged. Employer and employee should both be the entire stock of fourteen companies and a majority interest in interested in the success of the business in which engaged, and twenty-six additional concerns. The capitalization of the trust was $70,000,000 and the appraised valuation of its property over $55,- neither have the moral or legal right to peril or destroy the 000,000. Nine individuals, acting as trustees o! the trust, owned to pro11erty or property rights involved. gether on that date more than $46,000,000 out of the $70,000,000 of I am· not an enemy of wealth. I want every man, rich and the trust certificates issued. These nine men, with their holdings, were poor, high and low, old and young, to have the same privileges as follows : and opportunities and the same protection under the law. John D. Rockefeller------191,700 60,000 [Applause.] 54,000 Aggregated capital in the hands of honest men with honest 0.~~~~fesA£Pr~f~1~~ H. Payne------======------=====- ----=====------======-===- - 50,000 notions and purposes is a blessing to labor and a help to man William Rockefeller ____ ------32,000 J.W. A.G. Bostw1ck---Warden ___ -__--______------______- - - - -_____------_____------______- -_ 34,000 kind. In fact, modern civilization demands the employment 29,400 of a -.ast amount of capital in carrying out our stupendous in John D. Archbold------7,000 dustrial enterprises. It is not the existence, but the abuse of Benjamin Brewster ------8,180 corporate powers and combined capital that meets condemna Total------466,280 tion and denunciation and calls for remedial legislation. When In 1892 the trust was attacked legally and the trustees announced combined capital in any hands abuses its legitimate powers, that the trust would be dissolved and a process of so-called " dissolu becomes oppressive, or assumes the form of gigantic monopolies, tion " took place. Mr. Smith is very careful to tell us, however, that this dissolution in no way affected the original control of the aforesaid it becomes deh·imental and dangerous to the nation. It then individuals over the entire concern, because the stocks of each of the affects injuriously every citizen, unless it be the very few who various subsidiary corporations were not returned to their original fatten at the expense of the many. It then becomes greedy, holders, but were allotted to the holders of trust certificates on a pro rata basis, with the result that the trustees who had previously held extortionate, monarchial in its tendencies and practices, and the majority of the u·ust certificates now held the majority interest in invades the political field and legislative halls and seeks to each one of the constituent companies. corrupt both. In 1898 contempt proceedings were started against the Standard Oil Company of Ohio on the ground that it had not withdrawn from I contend, Mr. Chairman, that the future of this country the trust. Thereupon, pending the decision, these interests selected depends upon the enactment of legislation that will give equal the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey as a holding corporation for rights to all men and special privileges to none. [Applause.] the constituent Standard companies and increased its common stock to $100,000,000 for that purpose. This company then gave its own stoCK Under our present system of tariff taxation and in the absence in exchange for the stocks of such companies. This change, like tho of effective antitrust legislation, stupendous trusts and com previous one of 1892, as was its obvious purpose, left the monopoly binations have sprung up, which have transferred a majority power of the Standard capitalists undisturbed. The same group of men who had been holders of a majority of the trust certificates, then of the wealth of the country into the hands of a few trust of a majority of the stocks in the subsidiary companies, now became magnates. It is an alarming fact that 4,000 men now own holders of a majority of the stock of the contralling New Jer ey over 85 per cent of all the wealth of this country, and each company. · The outstanding stock of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey one of the balance of the 8!),000,000 people own an a.verage of is about $98,000,000. It controls at least ten refining companies, four less than $500 in property. Government statistics, sir, show lubricating oil companies, three crude-oil producing companies, thir· that fifty-one men, who have been the beneficiaries of the special teen pipe-line and other transportation companies, six marketing com~ panies, sixteen natural gas companies, and fifteen foreign concerns, privileges granted in the Dingley bill, now own $3,295,000,000 l>esides having close affiliation with a considerable number of other of this country's wealth. One thirty-fifth of the entire wealth concerns. of the United States is therefore concentrated in the hands In 1904 it and its affiliated concerns refined O\er 84 per cent of the crude oil run through refineries; produced more than G per cent of of fifty-one men, and these men are to-day attempting to dic the country·s total output of illuminating oil ; maintained a similar tate legislation and discredit the present Administration, be proportion of the export trade in illuminating oil ; transported throu,gh I cause the President has said some things that did not meet pipe Lines nearly nine-tenths of the crude oil of the older fields and 98 is per cent of the crude of the mid-continent, or Kansas territory, fields; with their approval. Ah, Mr. Chairman, not this a dangerous secured over 88 per cent or the sales of illuminating oil to retail condition, and does it not demand immediate action? If this dealers throughout the country, and obtained in certain large sections Go\ernment is to be preserved for the people, something must as high as 99 per cent of such sales. It also controlled practically similar proportions of the production and marketing of gasoline and be done, and done quickly. Some time ago the President said lubricating oil. something about the suppression of trusts, and immediately Mr. Smith says: there went up a cry that he was disturbing business. The "In brief, the history and present operation of these Standard inter ests· show throughout the past thirty-five years a substantial monopo corporations were ready to take advantage of the fact that we lization of the petroleum industry of the country, a deliberate destruc are just now in the midst of a fearful panic; business is largely tion of competition, and a consequent control of that industry by less suspended everywhere; factories are closed; millions of men than a dozen men, who have reaped enormous profits therefrom." out of employment; a feeling of uncertainty and despair is THE IRON .A...~D STEEL TRUST. sweeping the country, all of which is due to a lack of confi . The United States Steel Company was organlzed under the laws of dence in our business fabric, brought about by disclosures of the State of New Jersey in February and March, 1901, the trust buy ing outright all the companies forming the new combination. Moody's dishonesty, corruption, and unlawfulness by our trust corpora Manual for 1907 gives the capital stock of th.is trust. preferred and tions. Is it not time, Mr. Chairman, we were repealing the common, at $950,000,000, of which the constituent companies hold as Dingley tariff law, under which and by reason of which all follows: trusts have been organized, and placing on our Federal statutes 1. Federal Steel, common and preferred ______$00, 000, 000 2. National Tube, common and preferred______80, 000, 000 an antitrust law that is not a makeshift, but a law that means 3. American Steel and Wire, common and preferred___ 00, 000, 000 something; a law that will give the Government the right to put 4. National Steel, common and preferred------59, 000, 000 its violators in the penitentiary? (Applause.] G. American Tin Plate, common and preferred______46, 000, 000 6. American Steel and Hoop, common and preferred____ 33, 000, 000 You will never suppress trusts under a law that gives only 7. American Sheet Steel, common and preferred______40, 000, 000 the right to assess a fine against the corporations, but when you 8. American Bridge, common and preferred______Gl, 000, 000 add imprisonment you will make it effective. 9. Lake Superior, common and preferred __ _ _:______20, 000, 000 10. Shelby Steel Tube, common and preferred______13, 000, 000 Now, Mr. Chairman, I hold in my hand a copy of some sta 11. Carnegie Company, common and preferred ______160, 000, 000 tistics prepared by Prof. J. H. Shinn of this city, showing the In 1906 this trust declared a 7 per cent dividend on its preferred organization and growth of a few of the many trusts and their stock, amounting to $25,210,000, and a 2 per cent dividend on its com method of doing busi!less. I shall not take the time to read mon stock, amounting to $10,166,000. Moody's Manual gave the net profits available for dividends at the close of each quarter in the year these statistics, but will ask to have them printed in the 1906 as follows : RECORD as a part of my remarks on this subject. The paper referred to is as follows : March 31_------$22,371,000

THE PRI~CIPAL TRUSTS. 1. The Standard Oil Company or New Jersey, otherwise known as ~~!~~~;;~~==-======In that year they declared four dividends of 8,846,432 ~f:~l~:888 each, and " The Standard 011 Company," or the Standard. held a surplus undivided amounting to $97,720,714. From the report of the Commissioner of Corporations of the petro In the testimony taken before the Industrial Commission enough leum industry, issued by the Department of Commerce and Labor on was proved to warrant tlle Commission in a. unanimous finding that May 20, 1907, the following facts concerning this corporation are put the capitalization of these combinations is usually a sum considerably ln evidence over the signature of Herbert Knox Smith, the Commis above the value of the plants together with the patents they control. sioner of Corporations, and directed to the President of the United The Commission further says that in cases that are considered fairly States. conservative, the amount of stock issued, including both preferred and Tbls corporation started in 1867 as a partnership under the firm common stock, is from two to three times more than this value, while name of Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler; in 1870 they took the cor in not a few instances the capital stock seems ~ bear little relatioll porate form of the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, with a capital of to actual value of plants and patents. 1908. CONGRESS! ON .AL RECORD-ROUSE. 3525

THE S{TGAJl TlWST. 000,000, and added the significant words "possibly much m()re." He cha~·ged that such profits could not have been secured honestly, and The Sugar Refineries Company, or the sugar trust, was organized demed that the trust had reduced prices, but that on the contrary it had August 6 and ready for work in November, 1887. It controlled prac forced them up. In the· testimony taken by tbe Government to dis tically all the sugar refining interests except two. Its authorized cap solve the Standard Oil Trust, begun in New York last Septembet·, it ital was $:>0 000.000. This trust W<:t::l formed on the trustee basis, and it was shown that the Standard Oil Company of Indiana, a feeble little upon suit being brought against was reol'ganized as a single corpora corporation with but a capital of $1,000,000, cleared as profits in the tion in 1891, under the laws of New ~ersey, with the same capital stock, under the name of the American Sugar Refining Company. In year 1906 lji10,516,082, or more than 1,000 per cent. It paid dividends 1893 it bought out four Philadelphia concerns, which together pro of $4,.495,500, or mm·e than 450 per cent. duced abom one-third of the total product of the United States, and a In seven yenrs the parent company, the Standard Oil of New Jer controlling interest in the Baltimore Sugar Refinery Company, and in sey, with a capital of less than 100,000,000, cleared $490,315,934, or creased its capital $25,000,000. In 1896 Arbuckle Brothers, dealers in 70,000,000 a year, and paid in dividends $308,359,403, or more than coffee, resolved to put up a augar refinery in competition with the sugar $48,.000,000 per annum. In the twenty-six years since the formation trust. To throttle this the sugar trust bought a controlling interest of the trust the profits were. proven to have been over $900,000,000r in the Woolson Spice Company, of Toledo, Ohio, and entered upon the or nearly $40,000,000 per annum. cotree business. The sugar trust was not able, however, to throttle the From the richest fifty-one men of the United States, it appears that Arbuckle interest. Besides the Arbuckles, the competitors of the sugar ~~x f~}~;:: this group, the oil group, own together $960,000,000, divided trust are Claus Doscher, the Mollenhauer Sugar Refining Company, and t h National Sugar Refining Company. The dividends run from 7 per John D. Rockefeller ______$600, 000,000 cent to 12 per cent per annum. 1\Ir. Havemeyer in his testimony said: William Rockefeller------100,000,000 " I repeat that all this agitation ngainst trusts is against merely the 1 business machinery employed to take from the public what the Gov &8: 888: ggz. ernment in its tariff laws says it is proper and suitable they should Archbold------ilia:fer R_o_g_~======50,000,000 ha\e. It is the Government, through its tariff laws, which plunders Payne------50,000,000 the people, and the trusts, etc., are merely the machinery for doing it." This oil group of multimillionaires owna approximately $1,000,000,000 He said ngain ~ " The true communism of pelf is the customs tnriff bilL It says to of the country'S' wealth. Six men of this trust coterie own approxi the people, • Here is the law we have enacted for your robbery. Do {J;{{~ sl:t~~dredth of all the wealth, real and personal, of the not complain of it. but do your utmo&t to attack and injure the ma chinery engaged in extracting from you what we legislate shall be Now, Mr. Chairman, the report of tile Commissioner of Cor taken from you.' " He said again : poration~ shows that the history and operation of the Standard " Beyond a tnriff for revenue and a tariff for equalizing against Oil Company during th~ past thirty-five years has been one of foreign bounties there is no excuse. for giving to one industry a pro tection of 100 per cent, as against 4 per cent to another. The result substantial monopolization of the petroleum industry of the is that the Government fleeces the community in the interest of some country, a deliberate destruction of competition, and a conse favored industry." quent control of that industry by less than twelT"e men, who The sugar trust produces about 90 per cent of the total output of the country, and if run at full power could produce enough for the have reaped enormous profits and to-day own more than a one entire country and an excess of 20 per cent more. hundredth part of all the wealth of the country. And what is OTHER I.:UPORT..L'N'T TRUSTS. true of the Standard Oil trust is also true of the steel trust, the The following trusts are given in brief : sugar trust, the lumber trust, and hundreds of other trusts. The American Locomotive Company incorporated in New York, witlr Commissioner Smith, in his report to the President, charged a capital of $50,000,000, a combination of ten companies. The American Lumber Company, incorporated in New Jersey, with a that such profits as had been made by the trusts could not ha-re capital of $8,000,000, and the control of the principal cities in the been honestly made; and that the trusts had not reduced prices, Union. but, on the contrary, had forced them up. The American Pipe Manufacturing Company, incorporated in New Jersey, with $5,000,000 capital, and owning twenty-eight subsidiary I represent a large agricultural and manufacturing district, companies. and I know the people of my district have groaned under the The American Smelting and Refining Company, incorporated in New burden imposed by the. trusts. Take, for instance, the item of Jersey, with a capital of $50,000,000, controls 85 per cent o:f the lead and silver output of the counh·y. lumber. Every farmer of my district knows -what effect the The American Tobacco Company, incorporated in New Jersey, with tariff on lumber and the formation of the lumber trust has had a capital of $180,000,000, controls practically the e.ntire manufactured upon prices they are compelled to pay. tobacco business in the country. 'Ibe Republic Iron and Steel Company, incorporated in New ~ersey, An investigation by Commissioner Smith shows that during with a capital of 25,000,000, controls a large number of companies. the past ten years the prices of all kinds of lumber ha-re steadily in Pennsylvania, Alabama, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Minnesota. increased and that the diminishing supply is not entirely respon The United States Rubber Company, incorporated in New Jersey,. with a capital of $40,000,000, has practical control of the. whole sible for the increase. During 1906 the price of hemlock ad country. vanced $2; white pine, $3; yellow pine, $4; poplar, $5. In the last The American Cement Company, incorporated In New ~ersey . with a ten years the average price of maple has increased 17 per cent; capital of $2,100,000, controls the six largest companies of the Union. The American Chicle Company, incorporated in New Jersey, with a oak, 36 per cent ; quartered oak, 49 per cent ; yellow pine, 65 capital of $6,000,000, controls the six great chewing-gum factories of per cent; poplar, 70 per cent; spruce, 74 per cent, and hem the country. lock, 86 per- cent. The American Cotton Oil Company, incorporated in New Jersey, with a capital of $20,237,000, controls sixteen of the largest cotto.n,.seed oil The lumber trus.t is the most complete of all the great combi concerns of the United States. nations. It is operated without a holding company or any other The American Hide and Leather Company, incorporated in New Jer outward indication of being a monopoly. It fixes the prices for sey, with a capital of $35,000,000, controls thirty-five of the great companies in the United States. - all lumber. The American Ice Securities Company, incorporated in New ~ersey, The operations. of the trust are conducted through the hem with n capital of $20,000,000, controls the output of three large ice lock, pine, hardwood, and other associations. Every branch combines, the American Ice Company, the Knickerbocker Ice Company, ot and the Consolidated Ice Company. the business is covered by an association. Representatives of The American Linseed Company, incorporated in New Jersey, with the various concerns meet every month and fix prices. Lists are a capital of $16,750,000, controlling 85 per cent of the linseed-oil busi prepared and sent out to customers. All competition has been ness of the country. The Allis-Chalmers Company, incorporated under the laws of New eliminated by the lumber trust, acting under u "g.entlemen's Jersey, with a capital of $25,000,000, controlling five great compa- agreement." The capital of the tr.ust. according to the late cen nies in four different States. · The American Can Company, inrorporated under the laws of New sus, is $611,000,000. Lumber constitutes the fourth largest in Jersey, with a capital of $88,000,000, controlling absolutely thirty-two dustry in the United States, being only surpassed by the steel companies and leasing twetve more. and iron, the textile, and the meat-packing industries. The American Car Foundry Company, incorporated under the laws of New Jersey, with a capital of $60,000,000, being a consolidation o:f It h~s been demonstrated by the Bureau of Corporations that the eight principal car companies of the country. price lists sent out from different localities are identical. They But why enumerate further? Enoui,ih has been indicated to show are printed in the. same type, turned out by the same press, and that the United States is, of all countnes of the globe, the most trust ridden. We have trusts on ice, on fiolll', on steel, meat, on cotton, oil, issued from a common center. These lists show that prices are and on almost every conceivable article of manufactured goods. the same in 1\finnesota, .Arkansas, Illinois, Texas, Indiana, 1\Iis In fact, the United States Government seems to be an organization souri., Louisiana, Ohio, and in the other Statesr of the trusts, for the trusts, a.nd by the trusts. Moody's 1\Ianual fm.· 1907 reports 1,466 industrial corporations, wtth a combined ca.pital of The profits of the trust are shown to have been enormous. $9,849,833,000. The value per thousand feet board measure of standing yellow One thousand and fifty-one of them have less than $5,000,000 capital pine timber, based on the highest price at which the GoT"ern each, or a combined capital of $1,606,658,000. The other 451 have a combined capital of $8,243,175,000. ment sold its stumpage last year, -was $-!. The average cost of Hon. CHARLES LITTLEFIELD, in a speech delivered in the House of cutting and hauling the logs to the mill is $3.50. Any reason Representatives in 1903, enumerated and had printed in the RECORD a ably equipped sawmill can put the lumber in the yard for $1. list of tr~sts in which he enumerated something more than 480 with a combined capital of $9,.231,136,698. He also enumerated about the An allowance of $1.50 brings the cost of the finished product up same number of local and natural monopoly trusts having a com to $1(} per thousand. This same lumber sold on the market bined capital of $4,519,579,819, ma.kin·g a grand total of trust capi during the last year ::tt prices ranging from $35 to $38 per tal of $13,750,000,000, or- an ownership of fully one-eighth of the entire property of the country. thousand feet. G~E:RA.L :REFLECTIOXS. The. difference between the cost of production and the retail The burden of the testimony before the Industrial Commission given price, from ~5 to $38 per thousand feet, represents the cost of by trust witnesses was that the principal object in the formation of transportation, the legitimate. expense of handling the business, every trust was an increase of profits. Commissioner Smith, in his report to the Presiden.t, estimated! the and what is considered an exorbitant profit for the trust. Re net earnings of the Standard Oil trust from 1882 to 1906 at $790,- liable data estimates the trust profit to be at least 200 per cent. 3526 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. MARCH 18,

Now, 1\fr. Chairman, the farmers and other consumers of lum The penalty prescribed, Mr. Chairman, is the thing that will ber are growing tired of being robbed year after year by this make this bill effective. The fine alone is not sufficient. What heartless lumber trust, and it is for this House to say whether does a trust care for a fine, so long as they have the power the tariff on lumber shall stand and the trust be permitted to to collect it off the people by increased prices on trust-made prey upon the people. goods? It is the fear of impri onment in the penitentiary that I believe, l\lr. Chairman, that whenever any commodity falls will compel obedience· to the law. We have been teaching our in the hands of a trust it should be immediately placed on the children that petit larceny is disgraceful and that grand lar free list. [Applause.] I doubt if you can find a Member of this ceny is respectable, by sending the man to the penitentiary who House who will publicly defend the tariff on lumber or the pow steals a few dollars, while the man who steals millions is al~ erful lumber trust, which controls the output and fixes the lowed to go free. Ah, l\Ir. Chairman, what we need to-day is a prices, yet you have permitted a bill I introduced in the House law that will punish the big thief as well as the little thief. on the 17th day of January; repealing all duty on lumber, to [Applause.] If the millionaire violates the law, clothe hin1 in lie in the Committee on Ways and Means without being re stripes and put him behind the bars, just the same as you do the ported, and I predict now it will never see the light of day. I man without property who violates the law. Compel every man, confidently believe that if my bill to repeal the duty on lumber no matter whether he lives in a cabin or a brownstone front was submitted to a vote there is not a Member of this House to obey the commandment "Thou shalt not steal." [Applause.] would dare vote against it and then go home and face his con I believe this bill will destroy every trust now doing business stituents. There is one thing absolutely certain, if you did in this country, and I hope the committee will give the House vote against it you would have to look to the trust for a job an opportunity of voting for or against it. If there is a better instead of the people you are now supposed to represent. [Ap bill before the committee than the one I have presented, I ask plause.] So far as I am concerned, I want the RECORD to show that it be reported. It makes no difference to me whose bill that I am now ready and anxious to cast my vote for the re it is, or whether it is of Democratic or Republican origin, if peal of the duty on lumber and the destruction of the lumber its provisions are sufficient to suppress trusts, I am ready to tru t. If you deny me this opportunity to so vote, I shall see vote for it. All I ask, :Mr. Chairman, is that the rights of the that my constituents are informed as to where the responsibility people be protected, and that the day of special privilege be rests. I have carefully estimated the amount of lumber used brought to an end. [Applause.] Coming, as I do, from the by the 11eople of my district, and I believe if you will pass my plain people, whose representative I am proud to be, as far as bill repealing the duty on lumber the people of my district will within my power lies I make this appeal for the purity and b'e !':aved more than $100,000 annually. And what is true of honesty of our Government and for justice and fair dealing the lumber trust is also true of other trusts. to the individual citizen. We are compelled to pay exorbitant prices for everything we If I had my way about it, I would destroy all indush·ial trusts buy. The trust greets the new-born babe as he sleeps in a conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity, and on their trust-made cradle; it attends him through life, and when at last ruins I would build " a mighty trust in God," with 89,000,000 he dies he sleeps in a trust-made coffin. [Applause.] people as stockholders, each drawing a dividend more valuable Now, 1\Ir. Chairman, what are we going to do about it? Shall than the combined dividends paid by all industrial trusts dur· we repeal the duty on all trust-made goods and pass an anti ing the history of their existence. When such a trust is firmly trust law that will put them out of business, or shall we permit established we will not need laws restraining men from in the duty to stand, and the Sherman antitrust makeshift to re juring each other. [Loud applause.] main as the law of the land, under which they have all been 1\Ir. BOWERS. I now yield to the gentleman from New organized and have built up colossal fortunes off the sweat and York [Mr. GoULDEN]. toil of the common people? No! God forbid that we should be Mr. GOULDEN. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to so derelict in duty. Let us proceed at once to take this Gov have printed in the RECORD resolutions adopted by the memorial ernment out of the hands of the trusts and place it in the hands committee of the Grand Army of the Republic of New York of the people. There is but one way to do it, and that is to re City disagreeing with the recommendation of the Appropriation peal the Dingley tariff on trust-made goods and pass an anti Committee in the matter of a single pension agency, which I trust law that will give the Government the right to put a few heartily indorse. [Applause.] trust magnates in the penitentiary. When this is done we will The CHAIRMAN. Is there objection? once more have a Government of, by, and for the people, and There was no objection. every man will have equal opportunities under the law. [Ap-· The resolutions are as follows: plause.] MDMORIAL CO:UMITTEE, Mr. Chairman, I have introduced a bill in this House, known as GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC, n. R. 18775, now in the hands of the Committee on the Judiciary, New York, March 17, 1908. which, if enacted into law, will give the Government the power To honorable United States Senators ana of to drive every trust out of existence. I believe this bill is as Members of House Rep1·esentati.,;es: nearly perfect as can be drawn; but if it is not, the committee The memorial committee of the city of New York, boroughs of Man hattan, Bronx, Queens, and Richmond, in meeting assembled, unani has the right and the power to amend it. It is drawn for the mously disagree with the proposition to discontinue the pension purpose of suppressing trusts, corporations, pools, and conspira agencies throughout the country and the establishment of an agency cies in restraint of trade, and provides that any corporation in the city of Washington, and they do most earnestly urge in behalf of the comrades resident in our city that the United States Senators organized under the laws of the United States of America, or and Members of the House of Representatives from the State of New under the laws of any other country, and which transacts any York use their influence and effort against the proposed law, and for business of an interstate or international character, shall not a continuance of agencies as at present existing under the law. enter into any pool, conspiracy, or combination in restraint of GEO. B. LOUD, Chairman. trade without becoming liable to the penalties prescribed by this EDWARD .J. ATKINSON, Sect·etary. bill. 1\Ir. GOULDEN. :Mr. Chairman, the time has not arrived, in It also provides that any foreign corporation violating the the judgment of many well-informed persons, when this action provisions of this act shall be excluded from doing business in can be adopted by Congress. The large sums paid out quar this country, and in the event of a violation by a domestic cor terly, covering every section of the country, aside from the poration, organized under the laws of the United States of justice and equity of the payments, is a splendid distribution America, its charter will be forfeited. Surely this Government of money. It goes with every artery of trade, and has done has the right to say to a foreign corporation violating our law much to make our country prosperous. that it shall not do business in this country, and also has the I am opposed to removing the various agencies through which right to take away the charter of a domestic corporation when these vast sums are and have been so satisfactorily distributed it disregards the laws of the Government from which it pro and hope that they will be retained. [Applause.] cures its right to do business. Mr. BOWERS. I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania It further provides that no corporation organized for the [Mr. 1\fcHEl\~Y]. purpose of forming a trust shall have the right to injure legiti 1\fr. McH:EL~RY. 1\Ir. Chairman, I beg your indulgence for a mate competition by selling goods for less than cost, or by giv few moments this afternoon· to call attention to H. R. 10556, ing them away, and shall not sell them at a less price in one introduced by me in the House of Representatives December 10, section of the country than in another for the purpose of crush 1907, and referred to the Committee on l\Iines and 1\Iining: ing out competition~ It further provides that any corporation, A bill (H. R. 105•56) for the purpose of supplying relief and alleviating tru t or combination violating any of the provisions of this act suffering incident to accidents in coal mines. Be it enacted, etc., 'l'hat for the purpose of supplyin~; relief and alle shall be fined in any sum not less than $3,000 for each day's viating suffering incident to accidents in coal mines within the territory offense, and each day the violation continues shall be considered of the United States there shall be organized in the Department o! a separate offense. It not only provides a fine s~ch as I have Commerce and Labor a bureau to be known as the " Bureau of Mines and Mining." Said Bureau shall consist of a Commissioner and such other mentioned, but it also adds imprisonment in the penitentiary employees as the work will require, with such limitations as Congress for a period of from one to ten years. may from time to time prescribe. 1908.. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3527,

The compensation ot the Commissioner of the Bureau of Mines and Third. It is right from a moral and humanitarian standpoint. Milling shall be $5,000 per annum; that of the prillcipal assistant $2,500 per annum ; clerks in the Bureau shall receive $1,800 per As to the need of the establishment of a Bureau of Mine~ and annum; the stenographer, $1,000 per annum, and a messenger 75 per Mining, I beg leave to call your attention to the recommenda month. These salaries and all other expenses of the Bureau of Mines tions set forth in the President's message on the opening of the and Mining shall be paid out of any money in the Treasury not other wise appropriated, upon warrants drawn by the Secretary of the De Sixtieth Congress, which reads as follows: partment of Commerce and Labor in the usual manner. 1\IINING. The Bureau of Mines and Millillg shall have power to Investigate as A Bureau of Mines should be created under the control and direction to the causes and effects of all accidents in coal mines and to afford of the Secretary of the Interior; the Bureau to have power to collect such relief as the exigencies demand and the funds provided in this statistics and make investigations in all matters pertaining to mining, bill permit. and particularly to the accidents and dangers of the industry. I1 this SEc. 2. That for the purpose of alleviatlng the suffering and want can not now be done, at least additional appropriations should be given in the families of miners who have been killed or injured by accidents the Interior Department to be used for the study of mining conditions, in the mines, from whatever source, there shall be levied and collected for the prevention of fraudulent mining schemes, for carrylng on the. from the owners and operators of coal mines a tax of 1 cent per ton work of mapping the mining districts, for studying methods for mini on all coal mined within the United States on and after the passage mizing the accidents and dangers in the industry; in short, to aid in of this act. ::)aid tax shall be paid into the Treasury quarterly, and all proper ways ~e development of the mining industry. accompanying each payment there shall be a sworn statement of the mine operator as to tbe number of tons shipped from the mine the The need of said Bureau is further emphasized in the annual operation of which he directs during the prev1ous three months. report of the Department of the Interior, fr()m which I quote 'l'he Bureau of Mines and Mining is hereby empowered to examine the books of any coal company or transportation company to determine as follows: th~> facts, in case of the allegation or complaint of fraud in the re The. figures given in this report indicate that during the year 19~6 turn, and in the event of the failure of any mine owner or operator, nearly 7,000 men were killed or injured in the coal milles of thiS whether individual or corporation, to pay into the Treasury of the country and that the number of these accidents caused directly or United States 1 cent per ton on the coal mined within the previous illdirectly by mine explosions has been steadily increasing. 1 t is three months, the Bureau of Mines and Mining shall proceed to col also indicated that this. increase has been due in part to the lack of lect the said sum in accordance with the laws of the State in which proper and enforceable mine regulations ; in part to the lack of reli the mine is located by legal process. Attorney fees. costs incurred able information concerning the explosives used in mining and the in the process of collection, and a penalty of 100 per cent shall be conditions under which they can be used safely in the presence of added to the tax due if default in payment or false return of product the gas and dust encountered in the mines, and in part to the fact compels resort to legal proceedings. that in the development of coal mining not only is the number of SEc. 3. That in case of the death or injury by accident of any em miners increasing, but many areas from which coal is being taken are ployee of any coal milling operation in the United States while in the either deeper or farther from the. entrance, where good ventilation is pe1·formance of his regular duties, a certificate of such death or injury more difficult and the dangerous accumulations of explosive gas more shall be duly made out by the superintendent or· manager of the mines. frequent. This certificate, which shall set forth all the facts in the case as far 'l'he increase both in the number and in the seriousness of mine as obtninable, shall be signed by two reputable and responsible physi e:xplosions in the United States during past years may be expected cians and the mine inspector in charge of the mine where said acci to continue unless, through investigations made ill the United States dent shall have occurred and be sworn to before a notary public or such as have proved elfective in other coal-producing countries, in justice of the peace. formation can be obtained and published concerning the explosives The form of certificate shall be provided by the Bureau of Mines used, the conditions under which they may be used safely in the. and Mining, and shall embody all details as to the. manner of death presence of coal dust or gas, and the general conditions which make or injury, the character, probable duration or permanency of the in for health and safety in coal-mining Ctperations. Such information, jury number of persons dependent upon said employee, and a state obtained through comprehensive and impartial investigations, may ment of the pecuniary and physical conditions of the family of such serve in this, as in other countries, as an intelligent basis both for legislative enactments and for agreements among persons associated peg-~nreceipt of such information the Bureau of Mines and Mining with mining operations. shall issue a warrant equal to 40 per cent of the amount, which, One after another of these terrible underground disasters awakens in the judgment of the Commissioner of the Bureau, said claimant the sympathies of the nation and arouses an earnest desire that they would be entitled to receive under the pro rata participation in the may be entirely prevented. Experience in the deeper and more dan insurance fund and forward the same to the said beneficiary. gerous coal mines of Belgium and other countries not only indicates SEC. 4. That the CommissioneL· of the Bureau of Mines and Mining that these mine accidents may be reduced to less than one-third their shall have full authority in the distribution of this fund in such man present number in the United States, but also gives promise of results ner as in his judgment shall appear to be fair and equitable to all which in the future may at least approach complete prevention. participants. In making his estimate as to the amount of the emer gency payment of 40 per cent he shall be governed by the average In extending my inquiries into this matter I have found a mortality statistics of the coal-mining industry of the United States condition of accident mortality existing in the coal-mining in during the preceding five years. At the end of each fiscal year, which shall be made as of De dustry of which the average citizen has but little knowledge. cember 1, he shall convey to a commission, hereinafter provided for, Our country has grown to such vast proportions and our race all funds remaining in his hands after reimbursing the Treasury for for dollars in this commercial age has become so intense that all money drawn therefrom for emergency payments, compensation of officials and employees of the Bureau, and other expenses of mainte the loss of a life heTe or a hundred there produces but a passin.g nance. thought except to those upon whom the burden of calamity, Annually, on the assembling of Congress, the President shall name a directly falls. To such an alarming extent have these disasters commission consistlng of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Mines and Mining, two Senators, and grown, increasing in ratio as per thousand men employed each three Representatives in Congress, whose duty it shall be to apportion year instead of decreasing, which I shall conclusively pl'Ove by and distribute the remaining part of the fund among the claimants ap figures gleaned from reliable sources, that the fatalities in this proved durillg the preceding twelve months. Ten per cent of the entire amount collected during the year shall be set aside for emergency pur line of industry have assumed such proportions as to merit the poses in the beginning of the new year and to meet exceptional calami efforts of the National Government in the interest of humanity, ties: Provided, ho'wever, That this reserve shall not exceed $500,000, to bring to bear this instrument of the people, our Government, and no fanrlly shall receive more than $1,000 out of the fund: p,·o vided turthet·, That no person shall be eligible to participate in the for the protection of our workingmen while in the pursuance relief fund provided in this act whose injury is not of a permanently of this ha7..ardous employment. disabling character or which shall have incapacitated him from the performance of his usual duties for a period of less than six weeks, and We boast of our wonderful progress as a nation in a com for such temporary injuries he shall not receive from the fund herein mercial way, but we seldom stop to count the cost, especially provided a sum greater than 50 per cent of the amount he would have when that cost is estimated in human lives, and to those men earned at his regular employment during the time of his disability. SEC. 5. That the commissioners appointed to apportion and dis who are now framing argument in their minds, conjuring illu tribute the fund shall receive no compensation for their labor, thOUJ1h sions of paternalism, unconstitutionality, and innumerable other actual expenses incurred in the performance of the duty shall be pru.d means known only to skilled legislators in accomplishing the out of the fund. SEC. 6. That the owner, manager, or operator of a mine in which an defeat of a measure before this House, I ask you in all eamest accident occurs shall not in any instance collect from the wages of any ness that before opposing this measure to give fair considera miner or other employee any part of the tax required by the provision tion to the facts which I shall now gtve you. I regret that of this act, and the violation of this section shall be deemed a misde meanor, punishable by fine or imprisonment, at the discretion of the I have not been able up to this time to procure full reports court for the year 1907. During the past seventeen years the num I desire to bring to this Congress this afternoon a message ber of men killed in the coal mines of the United States is as from a class of people who seldom come here for favors and follows: - much less frequently get them when they do come; a class. 1890 ------701 1900 ------1,493 which ranks second in the production of our national wealth 1891 ------1,076 1901 ------1,594 118!)3 92 ------______850 1902 ------1, 828 and through whose direct physical energy the commercial forces 965 1903 ------1,794 of our country are vitalized; a class whose labor contributes 1894 ------957 1904 ------1,999 both to the comfort and prosperity of our people to such an ex 1895 ------1,057 19051906 ------______2,097 1896 ------1,120 2,061 tent as to merit the deliberation of this House in the interest 947 1897 -----~~------TotaL ______22, 840 of the coal miners of the United States. 1898 ------1,049 While it is true that this bill carries a special interest, yet 1899 ------1,243 it is equally true that the interests and welfare of these miners Showing a total number of 22,840 men killed during this time, are inseparably interwoven with the interests of our great Amer and I invite your special attention to the fact that during the ican people, and I propose to prove- past six years the number of fatal accidents have practically First. That the bill comes within constitutional limits. doubled over the preceding eleven years. Second. It is sound in principle from an economic standpoint. It will be urged by mine owners that this increase of fatality 3528 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. MARcH 18,

Is due to a greater number of employees, but I again invite your I have merely invited your attention to the consideration of attention to the following schedule, which shows- . these figures to prove- • Jtlurnber of me1~ killed in the coal mines of the United States (01· eacll First. That there is evidently something wrong with our coal 1,000 men employed. mining indush·y. 1895 ______2.67 1901 ______3.24 1896 ______2.79 1902 ______3.49 Second. That what foreign countries have accomplished in re 1897 ______2.34 1903 ______3.14 ducing the fatal accidents of the coal-mining industry we ought 1 98 ______2.59 1904______3.38 to be able to accomplish in the United States. 1899 ______2.98 1905 ______3.53 1900 ______3.24 1906 ______3.40 Third. The appalling loss of life is sufficient to justify gov ernmental aid. From these figures you will observe that in 1895 the ratio But it is argued by gentlemen, and I believe with all sin killed per 1,000 men employed was 2.67, and, wtih an almost con cerity, that a measure such as I propose is unconstitutional, tinually increased ratio, reaching the enormous fatality of 3.40 and that Congress has power to levy tax only for the purpose per thousand in 1906, and with every probability that this rate of raising revenue. The fact is, however, that almost from the will be increased when the data is collected for 1907. beginning Congress has been levying and Government officials We might be persuaded and willing to accept these conditions collecting tax, not for revenue but for protection, and that in as unavoidable were it not for the fact that in European coun making the levy revenue was not even contemplated. tries the number of deaths per thousand employees are under The protectionists justify high-tariff schedules on the ground going a marked decrease instead of increase, as in this country. that they contribute to the " common defense and the general We are naturally unwilling to concede that Europe can surpass welfare of the United States." The authority to tax is con us in any form of business management or in the enactment of veyed in the first paragraph of the eighth section of Article I laws for ~e betterment of the common people, but as honest of the Federal Constitution, which reads as follows: legislators we must accept facts and conditions as they are, and The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, im if those facts and conditions prove our own theories and prac posts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense tice to be wrong, we should have the courage to throw off our and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts, and American egotism and adopt the practice of those countries who excises shall be uniform throughout the United States. have the mortality of mine operation reduced. If it were Mr. Chairman, I have never been quite able to bring my mind merely a question of dollars the matter would not be one worthy into acquiescence with an interpretation of this language to of consideration by the House of Congress, but it is a question justify the imposing of vast burdens upon the majority of the of human U,fe and is therefore within the province of the Na people in order that unearned largesses may be paid to a few tional Government to take upon itself the performance of its It has always seemed to me that this is an atrocious abuse of obligation toward the well-being of our people. the taxing power. Recently the President of the National The following figures show the number of men killed for Association of Manufacturers, a Mr. Van Cleave. in a statement each thousand employed in the coal mines of Belgium: made in this city, declared that "It is estimated by competent Gradual reduction in death rate since 1860 to 1906, from 3.28 to authorities that the graft, overcharge, and wrong done to the 1.02, or less than one-third the number of" men killed as compared American public because of the present tariff reaches three mil with earlier years. Great Britain : Mortality rate from 1894 to 1906 reduced from 1.60 lion ($3,000,000) dollars a working day." This vast sum of to 1.29 per 1,000 men. money does not go into the Treasury of the United States. It Prussia : Mortality rate from 1880 to 1904 reduced from 2.94 to goes into the pockets of the trust barons or into the vaults of 1.80 per 1,000 men employed. France : From 1901 to 1905 mortality rate reduced from 1.03 to 0.84. the favored trusts. Now, if it is constitutional and lawful that nine hundred The· full significance of these figures can best be determined million ( $900,000,000) dollars may be collected annually from by an examination of this comparative summary of the the earnings of American industry for the enrichment of a Number of men killed tor eacl~ 1,000 men employedr-avemges tor five limited number of rich men, why is it not possible to collect a yeat·s. much smaller sum annually to relieve the wants and alleviate France (1901-1905) ------0.91 the sufferings of poor men in vastly greater number? If adding Belgium (1902-1906) ------1. 00 Great Britain ( 1902-1906) ------1. 28 to the wealth of a few already rich promotes "the general wel Prussia (1900-1904)------2.06 fare," it seems to me that educating and feeding the children United States (1902-1906) ------3. 39 of unfortunate men who have suffered death or permanent I do not believe that any law or condition can be devised to injury in coal-mine calamities will achieve the same result remove entirely the loss of life through accidents in coal mines It is uni-rersally agreed that education adds both to the yalue or in any other form of manufacturing activities, nor can men and standard of citizenship. It must be admitted that with be protected by law against their own carelessness or of the the fathers of these families removed or disabled, it will be carelessness or mistakes of their fellow-employees; but any impossible for them to acquire the educational advantages person who is willing to investigate the reports of the physical essential to the highest standard of good citizenship. There conditions of the coal-mining industry of the world and leaves fore I hold, Mr. Chairman, that if Congress has power to levy his mind open to conviction will be forced to the conclusion and collect tariff taxes, not for revenue, but for " the protection that, in so far as protecting the lives of their miners, the Euro of the American manufacturers," it has power to levy and peans ha-re progressed much more rapidly than we in the collect a meager sum from a profitable indush·y to qualify a United States. In the further consideration of this subject it great host of children to exercise the highest duties of is well to carry our inquiry into the causes of mine accidents, citizenship. and we find that in 1906 the causes of the fatal and nonfatal If it is held that the exercise of one of these taxing powers ~ccidents in the coal mines of the United States were as follows: is constitutional, it must be admitted that the exercise of the Coal-mine accidents in the United States, 1906. other is equally valid. The educat;ion of the children of coal miners is of greater value to the country than the development Accidents due to- Killed. Injured. of the vicious natures of the idle rich and the pampered sons of millionaires, and I shall insist that either taxation for pro tection of manufacturers be abandoned or that taxation for the Gas and dust explosions------· 228 307 alleviation of the sufferings of worthy unfortunates be begun. Powder explosions------ 80 215 Falls of roof and coaL------1,008 1,863 To hide behind the Constitution and to plead paternalism Other causes------732 2,192 has long been the playground of predatory interests. If you agree with me that the principles embodied in this bill are It will be noted that 50 per cent of all the fatal accidents and 39 per meritorious, and surely there is no gentleman in this House cent of all the nonfatal accidents were the result of falls of roof and or any American citizen worthy of the name who would raise coal, and that accordingly these a.re the most prolific sources of accidents in the coal mines of the United States. The following statement of one word of objection to levying this paltry tax of 1 cent per deaths from this cause per 1,000 men employed shows how the United ton on coal, even though he were obliged to pay the 1 cent per States compares with several of the foreign coal-producting countries ton on the amount of coal he used. Then taking it for granted in this regard : that you agree that the law would be a good law, and granted Deaths from falls of roof ana coal per 1,01JO men cmployea. further that i1; may be unconstitutional in its present form )3elgium ------0. 40 then I invite your cooperation to help amend the bill in order France ------.47 Great Britain---~------• 64 that it may pass favorably under the scrutinizing eye of the Germany ------.92 Supreme Court of the United States. In the last analysis the :United States------1. 70 power of constitutionality rests with the Supreme Court, so To extend our inquiry further into the causes of mine acci the final interpretation of our laws is largely a question of dents or to suggest remedies would be superficial upon our part, human judgment. Take, for instance, the decision of the Su ns the suggestion of a remedy is subject-matter for the mine preme Court upon the question of the income tax ; four of the expert exclusively and the Bureau of Mines herein provided. distinguished members of the Supreme Court agreed tllat the

. ... 1908. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. 3529 income tax. was constitutional, five members of the court af in v~olation of the law,. been able to show larger profits than firmed that it was not constitutional; thus we see a great the European mine operator, but neither the stockholOnrs principle of government resting upon the final determination of nor the consumers of the coal'know the cost of the production one man. in human lives and suffering. I am now going to give you Had five members of the Supreme Court voted for the in this information. For every one million tons of coal mined come tax instead of four, the income tax would have been de in the United States during the past fi>e years a percentage clared constitutional and would now be a law, and placing a of 6.04 human lives have been sacrificed per each million tons portion of the burden of taxation rightfully where it belongs. mined and this does not include the thousands injured, or So, I repeat, that the interpretation of law and Constitution enough human blood and tears to sprinkle every ton of coal resolves itself more frequently into a question of human judg we use. ment rather than a technical knowledge of the law. If, how A few weeks ago I called on a sick friend in a Pennsylvania ever, the lawyel's in this body, for whose opinion I have the hospital. He had been reading about the proposed miners' most profound respect, agree that in its present form my bill is bill. He said to me : unconstitutional, then I am willing to have it changed, pro I hope you will use all the energy that God has given you to per vided the three underlying purposes of the bill are not de suade your colleagues to enact this proposed measure into a law, for there is not a day or a night passes in this hospital but what some sh·oyed or are accomplished in another way. poor, mangled sufferer is brought here from the mines for treat First. The establishment of a bureau of mines and mining for ment, and while the hospital authorities do the best they can to give the purpose of bringing to the aid of both mine owners and them promvt and good attention, yet it remains a fact undeniable that' because of the extreme poverty of many victims they do not receive workers correct information from the scientific mine operators the prompt and careful attention they would otherwise receive. The of .the Old World, which up to this time has either not been statement seems unbelievable, but so accustomed and hardened does an1ilable to the average mine owner or, if available, has not the average hospital emergency staff become to the numerous mining accidents that a crushed limb or a broken body brings forth scarcely been applied. · a word of comment or a heart throb of compassion. Second. To provide moneys for carrying on this work-and col lecting said money from the industry itself without taking it Mr. Speaker, I have already occupied more time than I ex from the peoiJle's Treasury, which represents, under our pres pected to in the presentation of this measure. There is one ent system, real estate and tariff taxation and a direct toll upon argument, however, upon which I have not yet touched. In the necessities of life and upon the producer'. the enactment of laws from a humanitarian standpoint the Third. To provide money for the alleviation of suffering as question of dollars is the basest of all forms of argument, but the re ult of mine accidents and for the education of the help it necessarily becomes a part of eyery public question, and I less orphan children. feel that I can not with fairness to the subject forego a state . I frankly admit that the third section is the bone of constitu ment in this connection. tional objection, from the lawyer's standpoint. Remove it, if The time has come in the history of human events and in you think it necessary to preserve the constitutionality of the the prngress of the American nation when greater emphasis bill, provided that in doing so it is fairly 1mderstood by present must be fixed upon what has heretofore been a somewhat neg l\Iernbers and the American public that the money collected by lected, though the greatest, asset of our nation, and that is the this tax shall go into the General Treasury, and that this and li-res and happiness of our men and women who toil. future Congresses shall appropriate a sum equivalent to the A tax of 1 per cent per ton on all coal mined in the United amount collected for the purposes set forth in the bill. In any States will produce an annual fund of $4,000,000, or sufficient event, I ask that the bill be reported out for debate and vote in to provide an insurance fund of $1,000 for the family of each the House, and if there are any objections in the minds of gen man killed and about $300 for each person injured-based upon tlemen, let the Supreme Court decide the matter. We will have mine accident statistics of the past five years. at least called to the direct attention of the States a suggestion When we add· to the natural mortality rate the additional for their consideration. death and accident rate of ten men in every thousand em It has been urged that ..a measure of this kind is distinctly a ployed, we practically les~en the miners' chance of longevity by province of the State, but, like every other form of insurance, one-half. . In other words the three score year and ten rule of the greater the numbers the lighter the burden. For instance, the average is reduced to thirty-five years for the average a half dozen men could not insure each other's life upon an miner's life, by reason of the life-sapping employment itself economical basis, but several thousand men can enter into a and the increased fatalities due to accidents. Thus we see the form of mutual life insurance, except coal miners, who are de productive energy of a -rast army of men cut off at an early age. barred from insuring their lives in the ordinary commercial in During the past seventeen years there have been over 75,000 surance companies, upon a basis that is economically sound and miners killed and injured by accident, leaving over 100,000 provide for their estate a future competence. So it is with the children without protection. Had the law which I now nronose States as compared with the United States on a proposition of been in force during this time there would have been collected this kind. A great calamity in any one State, such as we have about $40,000,000, or an average of about $500 for each person. recently had in the past few months, both in Pennsylvania and Now, I think gentlemen will agree with me that, with our West Virginia, would be amply provided for out of the general mines so equipped with the life-saving apparatus and the scien fund under this bill without placing a burden upon any individ tific skill applied to mine management as to have reduced our ual, whereas the single State could not operate under this law mortality record to a par with the mines of Europe, the per so admntageously as through the medium of the Federal Gov centage of lives saved and injuries avoided would have given to ernment. the country an increase credit asset from the labor of these Now, we come to the old-time camf)aign cry of paternalism, men to have repaid many times over on our national balance and the bill is objected to by gentlemen because it is paternal. sheet the sum collected in this insurance tax. Did tlwse gentlemen >ote for the establishment of a Federal Mr. Chairman, thus far I have confined myself to a practical pure-food law, and if so, are they now sorry for having voted for and strict business presentation of the case and have studiously it? It is paternal. Did the gentlemen who now object to pa refrained from any sentimental expression in the advocacy of ternalism, vote in favor of the Interstate Railway Commission this measure. I can not, however, withhold an appeal for the and if so, are they sorry that they supported the measure? It i~ helpless widows and children of these stricken coal miners. dire~tly paternal. Do gentlemen oppose this measure because of True, the world is full of sorrow and suffering, and it is both its paternalism, object to mail service, or establishment of par-' impossible and impracticable that . the National Go>ernment eels post, or postal savings bank, or of the tariff, all of which should undertake its alleviation. But here is a condition with represent various phases of paternalism? The question for out a parallel both as to the need, the practicability, and justi Members of Congress to determine in the near future is not fication of governmental protection. whether we shall have paternalism, for it has been with us for a Congress and State legislatures are much exercised over the long time, but it is important for us to decide whether paternal enactment of laws for the prohibition of child labor. Where ism of the National Government shall be in the interests of the the father is living and in good health there can be no excuse trusts and corporate wealth or in the interests of the common for the employment of child labor; but where the father has people who form the foundation of our Government, and from been removed by death, either by natural or accidental causes, whose physical eaergy must come the production of ali wealth. the widowed mother in many cases finds herself unable to sup The cry of paternalism holds no fear for me when applied ply the family wants from her own labor alone and she must to the general welfare of a great people, and when we come to choose between the ignominy of public charity or the necessity count the cost of industrial production, there must be a new of placing her little ones out to toil. column entered upon our national balance sheet of the future We spend millions upon millions of dollars for the protection to record the number of lives sacrificed. Tbe captains of in~ of favored industries that a few rich men may- make more dush·y, who have charge of the coal mines of the United States, money. This bill asks for the collection of an annual fund of doubtlcsa haye, through the combination of railroads and.mines $4,000,000 that these 100,000 miners' children may be educated 3530 . CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. ~lARCH 18~

to ~orne useful citizens and that their growing youth may be tions from their source. The one is for offering worthless spared the dwarfinO' influence of performing men's labor. securities for sale and the other, by ultrasensational state.. Let us help lift the embargo· of child slavery from their ments, damaging the sale of all securities. The agitation that young shoulders that their little souls may enjoy to some de has shaken this country to its very center should result in gree the freedom and beauties of childhood; that their little something more promising than the terrible cloud of uncer bodies and minds may grow straight and strong into noble citi tainty which now hangs like a pa.H over us. A refusal to act zenship, and bring to the widowed mother that help which she only aggra\ates the situation. It causes hesitation by the so greatly needs and which we can so easily give her. merchant who has goods to buy; lack of confidence in the man Do this, and there will come an echoing response of gratitude who has money to deposit; hoarding by the bank that has from the hearts of the American people who feel a human in money to loan; discouragement of labor, which can not hope terest in their fellows, and who know that the forces of Ameri to thrive, and misery to those whose employment is gone. can industry and of all productive energy, whether of the mine, Mr. Chairman, we receive a message from the President say the farm, or the mil1, are so closely allied that any law which ing that we are in immediate need of certain legislation in the works a beneficent influence to any part or class of our pro way of reform. A Republican Congress sits in inactivity and ductiye organization without imposing a burden upon others Members are not even given an opportunity to vote on these reflects an indirect benefit to all mankind. measures. I belieYe that the people of this country have a And from the miner and his family will come the daily silent right to know whether a Republican Congress stands for the prayer of thanksgiving for the blessings of a Government which thing which ouT President proposes, and they have a right to holds the liberty and the life of her citizens as matters of first know not only how Members talk, but how they v~te on these and lasting importance, instilling into the hearts and minds of measures. [Applause.] all who toil a patriotic love of country second only to love of · I do not see what good can come from a President sending God and of home. [Loud applause.] messages to Congress picturing a state of society that is awful Mr. BOWERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from and m·ging that they enact certain laws, while this body sits Indiana [Mr RAUCH]. idly by, the Republicans making speeches in favor of the Pres!~ Mr. RAUCH. Mr. Chairman, I have listened for a long time dent, yet refusing to accept his recommendations. to those who are older in years and service in the House than Mr. Chairman, he has proposed great things, but how many: myself, hoping to hear more on certain subjects which I believe of his recommendations have been enacted into law? Under to be of considerable importance to the people of this country his Administration have the people found relief from what he and which are likely to become questions of great concern to has designated "Every form of violence, corruption, and fraud, many Members in this body. With your indulgence, I wish to from murder to bribery, and ballot-box stuffing in politics?" call your attention to certain facts which are undoubtedly within Mr. Chairman, I regret that such a confusion of purposes your knowledge, but which may not have received your careful exists. It may result in indefinite delay in bringing about the consideration. enactment of laws which we really need. At the present time In accordance with that section of the Constitution which the Republicans by their promises bid us hope, but by their provides that- actions they condemn us to despair. Nor does their picture of Tlle President shall from time to time give to the Congress informa the future present a more pleasant view, because if the legatee tion of. the state of the Union and recommend to their consideration of the President, 1\Ir. Taft, should be installed at the White such measures as he shall judge necessary and ex:pedient- House he could not make a stronger demand in a message to Mr. Roosevelt fent a special message to the Senate and Honse of Congress, nor could this body 1gnore it more completely. RepresentatiTes on January 31, 1008, recommending for their Mr. Chairman, he speaks of the oppression of the wage• immediate consideration the following measures. He said: workers by predatory wealth, and says that he is trying to First. As regal'ds the employers' liability law, I advocate its imme secure an "equal opportunity for all." If that doctrine finds diate reenactment limiting its scope so that it shall apply only to that class of cases as to which the courts say it can constitutionally apply, its complete sense .in the expression, " Equal rights to all and but strengthening its provision within this scope. special privileges to none," it is a noble work, fit to occupy the Second. I also very Ul'gently advise that a comprehensive act be lifetime of any man. passed providing for compensation by the Government to all the em ployees injured in Government servic.e. Men appear upon the stage of action and pass away. The 'l'hird. I again call your attention to the need of. some action in con principles of eternal justice remain forever. They are not born nection with the abuse of injunctions in labor cases. nor do they die. They have been inscribed on the banners of Fourth. There should also be such action on laws to better secure control over the gl'eat business concerns engaged in interstate com thousands of men who have fought the fight which the Presi merce and especially over the great common carriers. dent now at the close of his second and last term claims to be Fifth. The Interstate Commerce Commission should be provided with fighting. History tells us that Thomas Jefferson had grown old the means to make a physical valuation of any road as to which it deems this valuation n ecessary. in that fight before the President was born. Our own knowl Sixth. The law should correct that portion of the Sherman Act edge tells us that before he was known as a figure of sucli which prohibits all combinations-whether they be reasonable or un na tiona! importance the Democrats had secured astounding rea onable. Seventh. Wit h measUl'es to restrain stock watering and overcapitali revelations that enabled him in his last days as Chief Executive zation there should be measures taken to pre-vent at least the grosser of the United States to see and to speak of the usurpations o~ forms of gambling in securities and commodities. predatory wealth. E ighth. Moreo-ver there should be no delay in supplementing the laws now on the statute books by the enactment of further legislation as Mr. Chairman, I am with the President when he says turn outlined in the message I sent to Congress on i~s assembling. on the light. The same light that discloses stock gambling Mr. Chairman, it is my purpose to show that the Repub and watering in Wall street should disclose the record of a Re lican majority of this House is not with the President; that publican Congress in Washington. The same light that shows certain elements in the Republican party are so hopelessly in the violation of law and abuse of human right throughout the opposition to other elements that it is impossible for them to land should show how far Congress has gone to apply the carry into effect the recommendations made in this message; remedies suggested to correct those abuses. The recommenda... that if the people of this country ever expect to see the prin· tions of the President are far-reaching and his demand for ciples set out in this message enacted into law and on the action immediate. He says that gambling and stock watering statute books, operating as real reforms, they must look to the should be stopped. What record has Congress made on that party that gave them birth. subject with the exception of a few speeches? There should be That this Congress is not with the President is proven by one, because the business man, the banker, the farmer, and the the fact that there has been no attempt to enact his recom manufacturer have a right to know if the money of this coun... mendations into law. That certain elements are diametrical in try is to be again enticed into investment in stocks of fie .. their opposition is pro-ven by the utterances and accusations of titions value, or whether it must find its investment in things each. Harriman and his crowd say that the President is respon of actual worth. sible for the panic, and the President and his crowd say that What record have we upon the law of injunctions? Bills the others are responsible for the panic. One crowd says it is have been introduced, but none reported on the floor of this the result of stock watering and stock gambling, and the other Honse for a vote. He says there should be a modification of the says it is the result of repeated expressions from the Chief law of injunctions. Has there been any? Has there been any1 Executive that has destroyed the confidence of the public in bill of this kind reported on the floor of this Rouse for a \ote't all stocks. Certain interests may know, but labor also has a right to It is not our quarrel, and, to borrow an expression from the know what the vote of this House would be on that question. gentleman from Missouri, "It does not become an innocent Yet one remains as silent as the tomb and the other waits in bystander to say which is to blame." The charges are laid at vain for the relief that never comes. the door of each. One is charged with bringing such conditions He says that the Interstate Commerce Commission should and practices into existence and the other with permitting them have the means to make a physical valuation of a railroad.. not only to exist, but to grow, accepting campaign contribu- Has this question been decided by Congress? No. Yet even

--- l 1908. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 35311 the stockholder in a railroad has a right to know whether the In compliance with your request to furnish a statement of my rea sons why this proposed change should not be made, I respectfully invite basis of i'lllue of his stock is to be the earning capacity or the your attention to the following facts, which appear to me to be con cost of production of this property. clusive in showing that consolidation and concentration of th& pension 1\Ir. Chairman, the President has said that "every one of agency service at Washington, D. C., by the reduction of the number of pension agencies from eighteen to one will not result in more these Jaws, if enacted, would represent a part of the campaign economic or more efficient execution of the iaws pertaining to the pay again t pri"lilege." Democrats have not opposed the passage ment of pensions. On the other baud, it will inevitably result in not of these measure . only largely increased cost to the Government; but, what is equally im· portant, it will impose upon the 900,000 pensioners peculiar hardships, 1\Ir. Chairman, why should we not legislate against these delays, and inconvenience. eYils? All is in readiness. We have had investigations and Objection is made to the proposed plan of the honorable Secretary of llltve secured facts that are a basis for legislation. Recom the Interior, as being (1) expensive; and (2) impracticable; and at tention is respectfully invited to the following considerations : mendations have been made by the Chief Executi"le of the 1. 'l'he honorable Secretary asserts that the ·adoption of his- plan United States. Bills ha "le been introduced and referred to the would result in an annual saving to the Government of at least various committees. Members have been waiting for an oppor $200,000 and, perhaps, $25,000 more. - tunity to ballot on these measures. Will that opportunity be OBJECTIONS. given? [Loud applause on the Democratic side.] {a) The Secretary fails to furnish an exhibit whereby to show how Mr. KEIFER. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey such a saving would be possible. If it be possible to arrive at such a [Ur. HAMILL]. result, it surely is practicable to set forth in detail the facts and figures ~JW~ ~hJ~~ such computation is based. This the Secretary significantly 1\lr. HAMILL. l\Ir. Chairman, in regard to the pending bill (H. n. 162G8) I wish to express some views of my own in oppo (b) The only possible reduction in the cost of paying pensions ac sition to that portion of it which provides for the consolidation cording to the plan proposed would be accomplished by the saving of the salaries of the eighteen p£-nsion agents, amounting annually to ::;72,000, in Washington of the pension agencies located throughut the and of $4,500 for rent paid by the New York agency. The first item to country, and wish also to present the views of others in opposi offset (at least, partially) this saving would be the necessary appoint tion to the same portion of the bill. I sincerely hope the com ment of a number of high-salaried clerks (chiefs of divisions) who would be charged with the work and responsibilities of disbursing ap mittee will reject this provision of the bill, and thus set the seal proximately $140,000,000 annually. Persons who would be competent of its disapproval on a proposition to be parsimonious with a to assume such responsibility would not be willing to do so without commensurate compensation. They would, in fact, if not in name, be class of our fellow-citizens who deserve at the hands of their pension agents. Each Uuited States pension agent is now bonded in grateful fellow-countrymen a far different kind of treatment. the sum of at least $75,000. The largest amount disbursed by any one . This measure affects 53,000 pensioners on the pension roll of pension agent for the year ended June 30, 1907, was $15,855,044.33. The the New York agency, through which payments are made to Commissioner of Pensions is not a bonded disbursing officer of the Gov ernment. It is more than probable that, if he be asked to assume the pensioners residing in the northern part of New Jersey, and added responsibilities of paying annually $140,000,000 for pensions, he this fact explains my particular interest in the measure before will be granted additional compensation; or, if some other officer be designated to pay all pensions, a suitable salary would be paid sucb us. The total number of pensioners in the State of New Jersey officer. is about 20,000. The second consideration to offset the saving of pension agents' These agencies were established for the convenience of the salaries is the fact that the present per capita cost of paying pension~ Government in handling the large volume of-business in the Pen by the pension agencies now located outside of the city of Washington, D. C., is less by $302.73 per annum for each clerk employed than the sion Department which could not be expeditiously discharged per capita cost of granting pensions by the Bureau of Pensions. Iu through one office. The system has been conducive to the othet· words, the clerks in these pension n~encies receive an average prompt and efficient payment of the pensioner, and hence to his annual salary of $977.99, whereas the clerks in the Bureau of Pen· sions receive an annual average salary of $1.280.72, a difference iu comfort, convenience, and needs. economy in favor of the pension agencies of $302.73 for each clerk. I1 While it may be true that the time will come when the change the 432 clerks now in the agency service should receive the same average suggested will have to be made, it is extremely obvious that the salaries as are paid to clerks in the Bureau of Pensions it would cost the Government for clerk hire $125,425.60 more than it now does. time has not come yet and will not arrive for· a very long period. Does t~e Secretary of the Interior anticipate that the clerks in the There are as many pensioners on the roll to-day as there were division of the Bureau to which should be assigned the payment of fifteen years ago. pensions will be paid per capita $302.73 per year less than clerks in othet· divisions? Surely the .financial responsibility of paying pen· This attempt at economy seems ill timed, and the effect of it sions is immeasurably greater than .that involved in merely gmnting will be to upset and destroy a Department which is now in sat them. The present· practice of the Department of holding financially isfactory running order, besides adding hardship to the old vet responsible the pension agents and their clerks for erroneous payments, while not holding the Bureau clerks responsible for erroneous allow· erans themselves, whose past services should entitle them to ances, is ample evidence of this. And justice demands that clerks generous treatment and many of whom would be thrown out of assuming such financial responsibility should receive adequate com· employment if this measure were enacted. pensation, as much, at least, as those who are relieved of such re· sr.onsibility. Or does the honorable Secretary contemplate the pos· Recently the house of assembly in New Jersey passed a reso stbility of disbursing $140,000,000 per year without placing the .finan. lution opposing the change proposed, and the matter has been cial responsibility upon anybody? A revolutionary change, surely! condemned by resolution by many Grand Army posts through To summarize: Average salaries paid to clerks in the Bureau of Pensions, out the country. per annum______$1, 280. 7.2 I have here a letter written on the subject by the pension Average salaries in pension agencies, not including the agent of Philadelphia, and, since it deals with the proposition agency at Washington, D. C., for clerk hire, per annum_ 977. 99 in a well-ordered and exhaustive manner, I submit it for read Difference per capita ------302. 73 ing in preference to any remarks of my own, confident that if it Inm·eased cost for clerk hire annually in the payment of is considered by the Members the proposed change will be seen pensions at Bureau rate ______125, 425. 60 to be detrimental and that it will be rejected by the committee. (c) To further demonstrate the futility of the Secretary's plan to [Applause.] effect a more economical administration of the laws relating to the payment of pensions, attention is invited to the fact that the average I herewith append as a part of my remarks the following annual per capita salary paid to clerks in the pension agency located letter: in Washington, D. C., is $232.78 in excess of the average annual salary Letter of inquir1J from Hon. Boies Penrose, United States Senatot·, rela paid to clerks in the remaining seventeen agencies. ti,;e to the abolition of pension agencies, and reply of St. Clair A. ·Average salaries paid to clerks in the Washington Pension Mulholland, United States pension agent, Philadelphia, Pa. Agency per annum ______$1,210.77 UNITED STATES SE:NATE, Average salaries at other agencies______997. 99 COMMITTEE ON POST-OFFICES AND POST-ROADS, January 18, 1908. Difference per capita------232. 78 Gen. ST. CLAIR A. 1\IULHOLLAND, And further, during the present .fiscal year, while a large number of United States Pension Agent, Philadelphia, Pa. allowances under the act of February 6, 1907, was being made by the DEaR GENERAL: I inclose herewith a communication from the Secre Bureau, the Washington Pension Agency, which received but one-halt tary of the Interior to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, as many of such allowances to pay as a number of other agencies, was relative to the proposed reduction in the number of pension agencies, granted a detail of seven extra clerks from the Bureau, while the other and, as you are an experienced officer of the Pension Bureau, I will be seventeen agencies were required to do as much, and in some instances glad if you will give me your reasons why this proposed change by the twice as much, work without a single extra clerk. honorable Secretary of the Interior should not be made. Surely these facts do not indicate that economy would result from · Yours, truly, such a plan as the Secretary proposes. Computing ttpon the basis ol BOIES PENROSE. the a,;erage annual salades paid in the Bureau, the cost would be $48,925.60 greate1· than it is now, after eliminating all pension agents' DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, salaries and $.1,500 for rent paid by the New Yo1·k City agency. Econ UXITED STATES PENSION AGENCY, omy, on the other hand, if it could be accomplished at all, would be Philadelphia, Pa., January 25, 1908. accomplished by consolidating all the agencies outside of the city of Hon. BOIES P.ENROSE, Washington rather than in the Bureau of Pensions. United States Senate, Washington, D. 0. (d) Evidently the Secretary contemplates that additional saving MY DEAR SENATOR : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of may be accomplished by the introduction of labor-saving machines and your letter of the 18th instant, inclosing a copy of a communication a general revision and improvement of ·the routine work of paying pen from the honorable Secretary of the Interior under date of December sions. This remains yet to be demonstrated. It is in only an experi 13, 1!)07, addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, mental state at present; but this may be said, and said with confi designated as Document No. 352, in which the honorable Secretary dence, in view of the facts and figures set forth above, that any re submits a proposal to reduce the number of pension agencies from duction in cost of routine work by the use of mechanical devices or by eighteen to one. improvement of methods can be as readily and as satisfactorily accom- ~ . .

3532 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. - ~lARCH 18,

plisbed in the agency service, by those familiar with the work, as it Washington would result in a more economical administration of the can be in the Bureau, and at u lesser cost. laws relating to the payment of pensions without involving any unde {c) With reference to the question of decreased cost to the Govern sirable features, he has, nevertheless, failed to prove his contention; ment, attention is also invited to the fact that the payment of all pen whereas, on the other hand and contrary to the Secretary's claim, such sioners from Washington would involve an enormous increase in work proposed change would inevitably result in greatly increased cost to (and consequent expense) at the post-office in that city. Making a the Government and in inconvenience and peculiar hardship to the large moderate estimate for incidental correspondence, which would be very body of pensioners. considernble, the payment of pensions by the Bureau would require the Finally, the system now in vogue is excellent. It is entirely satisfac handling by the Washin~on post-office of 10,000,000 additional pieces tory to the pensioners, and is conducted at a minimum cost to the Gov of mair matter annually. This could not be done without greatly ernment; while the suggestions of the honorable Secretary of the Interior added expense to the Government. Nor would this be offset by de fall to promise improved efficiency or to prove reduction of expenses. creased expenses at post-offices in cities where agencies are now located. I have the honor to be, The work of no one post-office would be much reduced, but the work Your most obedient servant, of the Washington post-office would be greatly increased. 2. The Secretary states that equally p1·ompt and efficient payment of ST. CLAIR A. MULHOLLAl\TD, pensions could be accomplished by the Commissioner of Pensions as by United States Pension Agent, PhiladelpMa, Pa. eighteen agencies. Mr. . KEIFER. .1\Ir. Ohairman, I yield one hour's time, or OB.JECTIO:NS. such part thereof as he may desire, to the gentleman from New (a) He does not assert that such payment by the Commissioner of York [1\fr. WALDo]. Pensions could or would be any more prompt or efficient. Hence there is 110 improven1,ent an1icipated. The ability of the Commissioner of Pen 1\fr. WALDO. 1\fr. Ohairma~ we have been discussing in sions to even equal the agencies is, at best, problematicaL It remains committees of this House during this session the question as to to be demonstrated. whether any amendment is needed to the currency laws of this {b) Even if payment of pensions can be accomplished as promptly and as efficiently by the Bureau, it can not be done as economically. The counh-y, and, if any amendment is needed, what amendment work now done by the Bureau is not, and how this could be does not ought to be made. It is now over forty years that the present appear. · system of currency has existed in this counn·y. So far there (c) But it is exceedingly doubtful whether payment of pensions by the Bureau can be accomplished as promptly and as efficiently, even at in has been no question as to the validity of any currency issued creased cost, as by the agencies. The pensioners themselves are unani no question as to any national-bank note being good. And yet, mous and earnest in their protest against such a plan. Their experience during all this time there has hardly been a year but the de with the Bureau of Pensions, involving to their mind unnecessary de lays and correspondence in prosecuting elaims, etc., during a period of ficiencies of our currency system have been felt by the whole forty years, causes them strongly to dissent to such proposed change. country. Eve1-y year whenever the crops are to be mo'ed there 3. The Secretary as erts that "no inconvenience" would result from has not been sufficient currency for that purpose in the South the proposed plan of paying aU pensioners from. the Bureau, or by one disbursing officer, instead of by agents, as now. or in the West, .and yet during all that time, so difficult is it to OB.JECTIO::NS. make any change in the currency system of the country, (a) Again he promises no improvernent. practically nothing has been done. At this time, although we (b) While it is true that a portion of the pensioners are paid by might talk about it, we probably should do nothing, except for agencies remote from their places of residence, as by the San Francisco the tremendous financial disaster and panic that this country agency referred to by the Secretary, yet the number being so paid is relatively small. The total number residing in Montana, tah, Wash passed through last fall, largely, as is believed by all financial ington, and Wyoming, paid at San Francisco, as referred to by the Sec students, on account of the deficiencies of our currency system. retary, is only 14,41~, not as many as reside in single cities where some A large number of measures have been introduced into this agencies are located. Again, these States are not nearly so remote from San Francisco as they are from Washington, D. C. Tile Secretary calls House. The last time I investigated I think there were eighty attention to the fact that 10,000 pensioners living in the San Fran one measures in the House and in the Senate. Those meas cisco agency district are paid at other agencies. The San Fran ures are divided up into fifty-six House bills and twenty-fiye cisco agency- district embraces !'P.arly one-third of the whole area of the United States, viz: California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho. Montana, Wash Senate bills. Of these, twenty-five are for the insurance of de ington, Wyoming, Utah, and Arizona ; and in addition, pensioners in posits; nine are for credit currency; fifteen are for emergency Alaska, the Philippines, Hawaii, and other insular possessions in the or bond-secured currency; three are for emergency cotton Pacific Ocean are paid at this agency. So that these 10,000 pen sioners, scattered throughout such a vast territory, are almost insig secured currency; one is for a central-bank system; one is for nificant. .And it may be observed that one reason for their continuing a sovereign trust company; one provides for the issuance of two to draw from other agencies than San Francisco is because they are, in billion of United States bond notes; one provides that all United many instances, neat·or some other agency; as, for instance, Topeka or Des Moines; and another reason is because, in order to be transferred States bonds shall be legal tender; two provide that the national to the San Francisco agency, it is necessary to conduct correspondence banks may loan upon real estate mortgages; one provides that with the Bureau at Washington, make affidavit, etc., involving expendi all reserves shall be kept in the vault of the bank to which they ture of time and money. Many of those living in California and paid by other agencies than San Francisco, are only temporary residents belong; one provides for clearing-house districts, and there are there, seeking restoration to health, etc. twenty-one miscellaneous bills of various kinds. 4. The Secretary proceeds to set forth other considerations bear There are perhaps only four of these measures that have ing upon and in support of the proposed abolishment of agencies. He had any serious consideration. The Senate bill, known as the enumerates as follows ~ 1. That a large amount of correspondence between the Bureau and "Aldrich bill," the "Fowler bill" here in the House, the bill the agencies would be saved. which was introduced by Senator HoPKINs in the Senate and 2. That the printing of all vouchers for one disbursing officer, in by Mr. McKINNEY in the House-being the bill that was drawn, stead of for eighteen, would save e~pense. 3. That there is always danger of losing pension agents' accounts I think,. by the Bankers' Association, practically the same bill in transmission by mail. that was introduced last year-and the bill that was introduced 4. That the work done· by eighteen design&ted clerks can be done by six or eight clerks in the Bureau. by Senator PLATT that provides for clearing-house districts; 5. There is now a duplication of records involving unnecessary ex and I ought perhaps to mention the single bill that provides pen.sP-. that all reserves of the banks must be kept in the banks to OB.JECTIONS. which they belong. These are, to my mind, the only measures 1. (a) The amount of correspondence between the Bureau and the agencies would be more than offset by the increased correspondence that have received or can receive serious consideration from between the pensioners and the Bureau. Hundreds of personal in this House. Of course there are many people who belieYe, in quiries are made monthly at pension agencies resulting in increased cluding the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. II!LL], that a satisfaction to the pensioners and decreased expenditure of time on the part of clerks. One clerk can bear and answer a hundred in central banking system is the only system which can be suc quiries personally made who could not read and answer twenty-five .cessful in the best way. But there has been so general, and inquiries by mail in the same length of time. is now so general~ objection to any central system, any central (b) It is well known that the methods of conducting correspondence by the Bureau with pensioners are not as prompt or as economical as bank, that will put the whole interests of the country not the methods in vogue at agencies. only under one control, but, if a central banking system is to 2. The vouchers may now and it is likely will be, printed uniformly be successful, as in other countries, it must b under GoYcrn without tile pension agents' name Ol' agency. Even if they are not, the cost is infinitesimal. ment control, that that system can not, I think. in the present 3. (a) Provision against loss of accounts in transnnssion by mail temper of this House and the people of the country, be success is made by registering all official mail matter, in conformity with the ful or be adopted. The clearing-house system of notes is the decision of the Comptroller of the Treasury rendered April 17, ].906, ot which provision and precaution the pension agent whose vouchers one, if not adopted into law, that will be used in case of emer were lost evidently did not take advantage. gency if we do not do something better. It is the system that (b) The possibility of such loss is so remote as to be hardly worthy this country had to adopt in the late stress. In all the great of serious consideration. (o) Accounts may be settled, as in this case they are to be, from cities the clearing-house system is what sa--red the country other records in the agency. from the greatest financial disaster "We have ever had and per 4. The signing of pension agents' checks, now done by eighteen desig haps that the world has ever seen. nated clerks, does not require the entire time of said clerks. 'l'hey render other valuable clerical service in the agencies. No saving could The great trouble about our pre ent system, especially in a be accomplished by a change here. question of the currency, is that there is no agreement or co 5. The Division in the Pension Bureau, or the one disbursing officer paying pensions, would certainly require official records (1) authorizing ordination in the banking system of this country, except in a payments; (2) of payments made; and (3) of trans~ission of accounts few of the large cities where there are clearin.,. houses. Every to the auditor's office. The records would be practically the same as bank is for itself. It has no care for the welfare of its neigh those now in use in the agencies. bor, and until some geneTal system is provided by which all In view of the foregoing facts, figures, and other considerations, it would appear that while the honorable Secretary of the Interior asserts the banks are bound together and all must take care of each that the adoption of his proposed plan of paying all pensioners frorn we shall always have financial troubles. So that I say that 1908. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3533 the bill introduced here for clearing-house districts is the one vaults of the United States Treasury, where it can not be used, that this country will certainly work under in case of a new and about $1,000,000,000 is in the pockets of the public, serving emergency if we fail to pass some kind of legislation here this as pocket money, and about that amount stays in the pocket~ winter. of the public. So that leaves actually only about $1,000,000,000 The two measures that are receiving the most serious con to meet the demands of $13,000,000,000 of credits, and until sideration are, first, the Aldrich bill, providing for an emer some means are provided by which the banks can turn some of gency currency only; not intended, so far as I can hear or as this $13,000,000,000 of credit on their books into bank notes to certain from anything that is said or from the bill itself, not meet the d~mands of the~r customers there must be trouble every intended to meet the continuous wants of the country; not in year and m e\ery locality whenever an extraordinary demand tended to meet the annual demands for currency to move the arises. In the cities where there are large manufactories and crops, but. merely to meet some such emergency as we had this wh~n the pay ro:ns are enormous there is practically a currency last fall. It provtdes, or did provide, for the issuance of not strmgency, at times almost amounting to a panic, e\ery time exceeding $500,000,000 of currency, to be secured by State, the pay rolls are made up. They must send all over the coun county, and municipal 'bonds to 90 per cent of the market "T"alue trr t? gather up enough currency to meet that demand, and yet of those bonds, and railroad bonds to 75 per cent of their value, Withm a week or two that money is all back in the banks and the same to be deposited in the United States Treasury, and distributed over the country again. then provided for a graduated: tax on the currency, secured by When the panic arrived last fall the people came to their United States bonds, where the bonds did not draw more than banks, came to the New York banks, to banks which were in 2 per cent, one quarter of 1 per cent half yearly; on currency the soundest condition, to get currency. Many of them who secured by any other United States bonds, one-half of 1 per were not poor people and did not need the money to live on cent half yearly; on all other, one~half of 1 per cent per month, from day to day attempted to secure money, because they knew if they did not get it then they could not get it until the panic or 6 per cent per annum. was over. But there was not any currency to be had. The It is claimed that with a tax of this kind none of this emer New York banks alone needed more currency than this whole gency currency would be taken out except in time of panic or in country contained, and there was no means by which they time of great need by some railroad or some municipality when could get it. The only way by which they saved themselves they are willing to pay at least 6 per cent interest, and they from absolute bankruptcy was by the clearing-house banks would have to pay more than that in order to induce any bank getting together and issuing clearing-house certificates to meet to take it out. So that either this measm·e is a bank-panic cur this trouble. rency or is merely a scheme to sell railroad, city, county, and In Pittsburg they had to go further. They were unable to (J'et municipal bonds. It can only be useful in these two cases. cUl'rency enough to pay their workmen, and they issued ;ne It seems to me that this measure is practically of no use to and two dollar clearing-house certificates. They did that with meet the purposes of the country. Every spring and summer out any legal authority to issue it as money. They did it from there is accumulated in the great cities, largely in the city of the necessities of the case. It seems to me that there ou(J'ht to New York, upward of $400,000,000, mostly the reserves of the be some legal means by which the banks could meet thi; diffi Western, Southern, and country banks. Now, as long as these culty. That is not because we care anything about the banks in reserves remain in the banks that own them, not one hundred this House, except as the instrument of attending to the business of that $400,000,000 can be loaned. It must be kept in gold or of the country and to make the exchanges of the country. It is some other form of reserve, legal tender; but the moment that because it is for the interest of the whole people that there it goes into the reserve city, to New York, for example, all but sho~ld be some instrument by which the people can, when they 25 per cent of it can be loaned. I thinl\: that is so in all the desire, change the credit they have on the banks for currency great reserve cities; 75 per cent can be loaned the moment that that they can ship or use elsewhere; that there should be some it is deposited with the reserve bank. instrument by. which they can do it. There is none· to-day; as Then in the fall, when these country banks need the money soon as there lS a demand for currency there is no currency · it to move the crops, they send to New York to get the reserve does not exist. ' money that they have sent there. New York has loaned out The bill introduced by the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. 75 per cent of this. It has to loan it out because it pays 2 ~owLER] att~pts to meet thi.s difficulty, and extraordinary as per cent on the $4:00,000,000, and when the Western banks want 1t may seem, 1t meets here w1th the objection that it is some the money the $400,000,000 has disappeared, either in loans on thing new; that it is going to make some great chanue in the stocks and bonds or all kinds of enterprises in any part of the financial system. It is true it does make a great chan(J'e in world where money can be loaned. And instead of the banks our financial system, but it is not new and it is not untri~d in hav"ing for their use $400,000,000 of reserve money, there re this country. The only banks we had prior to the civil war mains only $100,000,000, and if times are at all hard, the New that were absolutely sound and were meeting the demands of York banks find it impossible to secure the money, and they their localities in the country were the banks that were based must in any event call in four times as many loans as they upon exactly this system, for example, the banks of Indiana ha\e made on this reser\e, at once causing what approaches Illinois, Louisiana, and the banks of New England. If I r;col~ a panic in New York City, Chicago, and more or less in St. lect, the old bank in Goshen, N. Y., used to issue what was Louis every year, as a result of this annual movement of the cal~ed a gold note that was at a premium anywhere in the crops and other products of industry from the interior to the Umt~d States, ~ecause it was redeemable in gold, a pure credit seaboard. Now, it seems to me there ought to be somethinu note 1ssued agarnst the credit of the bank. done at this time to meet that difficulty. "" .1\Ir. GOULDEN. Will the gentleman yield to an interrup The .Aldrich bill does not pretend to meet any such difficulty. tion? That bill is founded really upon a bill that was drawn by a 1\Ir. WALDO. Certainly. savings bank man in Pittsburg. He sent that bill all over the M:. GOULpEN. Did the bank at Goshen maintain a gold United States, to almost every financial man, and while this resene sufficient to redeem the notes or was it purely a ques- was somewhat modified and perhaps polished up by a lawyer tion of public confidence? ' before it appeared in the Senate, yet in substance the Aldrich .1\Ir. WALDO. The best answer I can give the gentleman is bill is the same thing as this Pittsburg man recommended to that they always did redeem them; they always kept a sufficient the whole country, and was intended by him not to meet the reserve on hand so that there was never a demand for the pay difficulties of this situation, but to make it so that savings ment of a Goshen note that it was not met. banks and trust companies and State banks could take the 1\Ir. GOULDEN. Why is it, if the gentleman can tell us that State, municipal, and county bonds that they held as securities we only see the necessity for more currency in the yea'rs in to \Vashington and trade them for currency to meet the de which the panics exist? Once every seyen or ten years this mands of their customers in time of panic. That was the pur shortage of currency seems to affect the country. Why is it pose of this bill, and, aside from furnishing a sale for railroad that all these other years we are able to supply from the New and municipal bonds, that is the only purpose that it can York banks all the country banks want; what is the trouble? sene. It has in it no annual automatic increase and decrease :Mr: WALDO. I think the question contains a false premise. of currency as the country demands it. There is only one I believe we ha\e a currency scarcity every year in New York. system that this country has ever seen or that the world has It has occurred every year in my recollection. There has never ever seen that can meet the condition which occurs yearly and been n ~all w~en there was not a scarcity of currency in New many times a year in different places, the system for cha~ cring York City, with the result that many commercial operations the credits of the banks into currency for the use of their ~ns were stopped becaus~ the banks could not meet them. They tomers. The credits of the banks to-day are about $13,000,- were obliged to call rn l?ans when they ought to be extending 00~,000. All the <:urrency of the United States, paper, gold them, but they were obhged to call them in in order to meet com, and everythmg, amounts, roughly speaking, to about the demands for currency of the Western and Southern corre $3,000,000,000. Of that about $1,000,000,000 is stored in the spondents. .

3534 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 1\{ARCII 18, - - 1\fr. GOULDEN. I want to say, and I think other business ada. He was asked what became of it, and he said that as soon men will join with me, that we have never noticed it. It may as they got through using it it went right back to the banks in be among the professional men. but, as a business man, I have Canada where it came from. never noticed that conditions of affairs in the city of New York Mr. HAYES. And was redeemed? in the twenty years that I have resided there, except in times of Mr. WALDO. Was redeemed at once; that they never lost financial depression. a dollar; that it never was any different, so far as value was Mr. WALDO. I will say that this stringency, which amounts concerned, in the readiness with which the people in that to a panic, does not arise every fall by any means ; it is ouly a locality took it, from United States Treasury or gold notes or stringency that shows a deficiency in our currency system. I gold. It came out of the banks of Canada, not only when the do not think there is a banker that I have talked with who has demand was made for it by Canadians who lived in that vicin correspondents outside of the city, that will not say that that is ity, but whenever the neighboring Americans were short they so in the fall of every year. went to these little Canadian banks and obtained all the money Mr. GOULDEN. Does not the gentleman think it is largely they wanted, paid their bills, and it went back again just as the lack of confidence, and as we are doing business not upon soon as use of it was through. a currency but upon the confidence of the public, does not the That is the history of the credit currency in this country. gentleman imagine that the credit system, the loans, checks, It is the history of it in Europe. If I recollect right the bank and drafts which become the people's currency, lacks that pnblic of Louisiana, which had a credit currency, not only withstood confidence, and then the currency trouble occurs? all the troubles for many years before the war, but never sus Mr. WALDO. I think that is not entirely so. Of course pended specie payments, even during the war, and only sus the checks and drafts system of the country takes the place of pended when the Union Army captured the city and compelled currency. It does it all the time. We could not do business the bank to either go out of busine s or come under the na without these checks and drafts. But notwithstanding that, tional banking system. The Bank of France went through sub every fall when New York City has to gather together from stantially the same experience when Paris was captured by three to four hundred millions of dollars in currency, the banks the Germans. It went through wars before that-through revo of New York have to call in perhaps a billion dollars of loans lutions. There never was a time when it was not ready to in order to get that money to send to the South and West. meet the demands of the country, and in such a time as this Mr. HAYES. Will the gentleman yield? that is, last fall-when our banks instead of extending their 1\fr. WALDO. Yes. loans were contracting them, in a most desperate attempt to Mr. HAYES. I would like to state that as a business man meet the demands for currency, the Bank of France, instead I was engaged for a great many years in the iron and steel of doing that, made loans to merchants whose credit was good business, and that I have personal knowledge that this currency and whose business was in good shape; and that is what we shortage occurs every fall without any reference to whether ought to have been doing and what we could have done if we there are panic conditions or not. Men who are engaged in the had a credit system. iron business, which is the business barometer of the country, Now, Mr. Chairman, that goes only to the system of cur find it difficult to get the money necessary to carry on their rency. There can not be any reason why such a system of operations during the latter months of the season, because of currency would not be as good as the present system. It would this shortage of currency. I wish also, if the gentleman will have behind it a gold reserve in the largest cities of 25 per cent, permit me, to ask him if he does not believe that he has and it would be secured by a fund in the hands of the United erroneously included the banks of Illinois before the war in the States Government of over $700,000,000-many, many times the same class with the system in New England and the banks of amount necessary to make good any losses that could possibly Indiana and Louisiana? occur, according to the history of our country. Mr. WALDO. No; I think not. There was one bank, if I Then there is another trouble with our present system, aside remember-- from its inelasticicy, and that is that it can not be obtained 1\fr. HAYES. Perhaps one bank; but the banking system of when it is wanted; it takes so long a time that the trouble is Illinois was a bond system, and its currency was nearly always over before you can get it. We have never had any trouble so at a heavy discount. far to keep our bond-secured currency on a par with the law Mr. WALDO. I understand that. I do not mean the whole ful money of the country, because the country has been, as a banking system, but I mean one principal bank in that State. general thing, in a prosperous condition, but we would not go I do not remember the name. through any protracted war before our United States bonds 1\fr. HAYES. It was run by a Scotchman by the name of would fall off 15, 20, or, perhaps, 30 per cent. As a result of Smith. the Boer war the English consols fell off 26 per cent. If we Mr. WALDO. Yes. had a war of any length of time with any country our bonds Mr. McMILLAN. Mr. Chairman, I would like to interrupt would certainly be at a discount of 20 to 30 per cent. Then the gentleman for a moment. I want to say that as a business where would the security for our currency be? It would be man and a banker, having been associated with my brother gone. Now, that is one objection. Another, and a more serious Representative, that in all my business dealings in the city of objection, is this, and which people generally can not seem to New York I have never met a stringency of currency if my understand: The assets of the bank ought to be liquid. They credit was good, and I have been a business man in the city of ought to be either in the shape of reserves of the bank or in the New York for thirty-five years and I have employed from 1 perfectly good· notes of the merchants-the business people of to 1,000 men. [Applause.] the locality. 1\Ir. GOULDEN. I will say that when I alluded to other The immediate result of this bond-secured svstem is some business men I a1luded particularly to my colleague, Mr. Mc thing like this : Take a bank of $100,000 capital. It takes MILLAN. $100,000 of money and it goes to the Treasury here and Mr. WALDO. I will say, in regard to that, that my colleague has to pay in the $100,000 in reserve money, or what is equal from New York may never have met that stringency himself to it, and it gets back not reserves, not money on which because he has been able to make arrangements to meet the loans can be founded, which will be reserves against its de demands upon him, and I have no doubt that he has. positors, but it gets back its own notes, no better than its own Mr. GOULDEN. His credit was good. draft in principle, for it has deposited its own money in the Mr. WALDO. His credit was good, but that does not meet hands of the United States Government, or what the money pur the main trouble that is existing continuously, not only in New chased, namely, the bonds. So the immediate result is that when York but in the money centers in this country-the necessity of it goes away, when it leaves New York or whatever other town obtaining a .large amount of currency every fall to move the the officers go from with this $100,000 of reserve money, and crops. which, if it had been kept in the bank, would have enabled it to Mr. HAYES. And move other things also. loan, according to the usual rule, $400,000, because that would Mr. WALDO. And move other things that have to be moved be ample to meet $400,000 of loans, they must reduce their loans at that time. I think there is not a civilized country in the in consequence $400,000. The moment they deposit that in world that has not a credit system or some branch of a credit Washington they can not loan a dollar, not one single dollar, system, except the United States. Some of them have been in until they get reserves from some other place. Notwithstanding existence for many years. Even our little neighbor up here, that they have $100,000 of their notes, of their own national Canada, has a credit system, and a gentleman of our committee, bank notes, they are not reserves, and they can not loan one the gentleman from Maine [Mr. PoWERS], informed the com dollar. The first thing they must do, if they want to loan mittee that whenever there was a shortage of currency, as that $100,000 when they get home to their bank, is to find there was often in his part of Maine, they secured all the somewhere $25,000 in gold or its equivalent. So that the very credit mtmey they needed from Canada, and it circulated like force and power, the very purpose of that bank, as an instru ~nited States money through that portion of Maine near Can- ment of accommodation to the people of the locaJity, is gone

--- 1908. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3535

just the moment it obtains that currency. It must do some failure, one-fourth of any loss that accrues by reason of any thing else before it can accommodate any man. It can not pay loss of any bank of the district. So that instead of being a a dollar of its currency out until it has a reserve against it. bank examiner or a board of examiners, that ha\e no interest So the people who have to put up the $100,000 must put up a except so far as it may affect their personal standing in the surplus the next thing. Unless the reserve comes in as a de examinations of these banks, they are a board of examiners, a posit, they must put up a reserve themselves before they can board of managers, whose institutions must pay one-fourth of use a single dollar of their own notes. Now, that is the main any loss that accrues through the failure of any bank to take trouble with this system, that it puts a large percentage of care of its obligations. Now, the result of that would be, it the bank assets in the country now, about $700,000,000, into a seems to me, that no failures would occur, because the moment long-term bond, where it is absolutely of no use to the com any bank got into trouble by the directors making loans that merce of the country, and when it ought to be in the banks they ought not to, or otherwise by extravagant or foolish loans for the use of the business men. It ought to be there, where or investments, this board of managers have po,ver to close it could be used for loans to accommodate the people of this them up and put in one of the members as a receiver. country, and that $700,000,000 means four times, at least 1\Ir. 1\Icl\IILLAN. I would like to ask my colleague a ques- anyway, it means that in New York City-four times as much, tion. Would not that be a step toward a bank trust? or two billion eight hundred million, here contracted by means 1\fr. WALDO. I think not. of a bond-secured system. And the Aldrich, or the Thiers bill, 1\Ir. McMILLAN. I think it is. as I call it, preferably, because that is what it is, does not at 1\Ir. W-~LDO. On the contrary, it would pre¥ent that very tempt in any way to aid in that difficulty. On the conh·ary, thing. I think it would prevent the linking together of a whole it calls upon the banks of the country to look around and find string of banks, as done tmder our present system. It would more reserves, to part with the very reserves they have, in be under a board of managers. There would be no more lia order to buy these bonds, and makes them that much worse off bility of the linking of these banks, not so much as under the than they were before. present clearing-house system. Now, there are other provisions in the bill reported by the 1\Ir. GOULDEN. Does not the gentleman think that there House Committee on Banking and Currency that I believe are would have to be twenty trusts formed in that event? Would admirable features, but many of them are not necessary to there not be a division of power so far as a trust is concerned the adoption of the credit system of currency, although they instead of a concentration of power? would be of great aid and ought to be adopted, in my opinion. 1\Ir. W .A.LDO. Certainly. There is no more reason why a bank should not be permitted 1\fr. GOULDEN. Will not the gentleman tell the committee to issue its note, provided it is currency that would be good what the Fowler bill allows or permits as security to be used in any part of the cotmtry, than there is that it should take for a credit currency?· What are the classes of security per the money and give a man credit on its books. They are abso mitted under its provisions? lutely the same in principle. One is simply a credit on the Mr. W .A.LDO. There is no security for the credit currency. books and the other is a credit payable to bearer. That is all The credit currency is the same as the draft of the bank, ex the difference. There is no reason why any bank should not cept that it is issued by the United States Government, and is issue its credit in one form as well as another, why it should guaranteed by a fund raised on all the banks ; and under the not issue its note as well as its draft, provided it is guaranteed present bill it is estimated to be a fund of about $700,000,000. through some system of coordination, either by the banks them That would guarantee the notes. It will also guarantee the credits or deposits. selves or by a deposit with the Government. l\Ir. HAYES. I desire to call the attention of the gentleman Mr. GOULDEN. Will the gentleman yield? to the statement he has just made, saying that the currency Mr. WALDO. Certainly. would be issued by the Government of the United States. 1\Ir. GOULDEN. I should be very much interested, and I 1\Ir. WALDO. That is incorrect. All that I meant is that have no doubt that the committee would be, to know just it will be printed by the United States, so that it may all be in wherein the Fowler bill is strong and wherein it is weak, what the same or practically in the same form as national-bank notes are its weaknesses and what its strength, if you can tell us to-day, but it goes to the banks and is issued by them. briefly. I would like to hear that, because I believe the gen 1\Ir. GOULDEN. 1\Ir. Chairman, the gentleman is a distin tleman is a member of the Committee on Banking and Cur guished member of the Committee on Banking and Currency; rency and therefore familiar with it. He can omit the weak can he tell us how much of the proposed money· can be securely points if he likes and tell us thel strong ones. and safely issued under the Fowler bill? Does he think it can Mr. WALDO. I would say, in answer to the gentleman's be issued without limitation and always ha\e it safe and secure? question, that I do not admit that there are any weak points 1\Ir. W .A.LDO. Suppose that the gentleman is running a bank in it. himself, that his capital is $100,000, and that his deposits are Mr. GOULDEN. Then give us the strong points, please. $1,000,000. Now, it is necessary for him to pay off $100,000 Mr. WALDO. The strong points of the Fowler bill are, first, in a time of trouble. that it permits the banks to retain their assets in their vaults 1\Ir. GOULDEN. At any time? for the use of the counh·y and does not compel them to tie them Mr. WALDO. In time of trouble, because that is the time we up in long-term bonds, where they contract the loans that ought can not get it. You want the money. You can not get it from to be made to the merchants of the country, between two and the banks, because they all need it. Under our present system three billion dollars. That is the first result of this system, and they need it themselves. Under a credit system you would be it is one of the most serious results. In the first place, it would authorized to pay out these notes. Under the bill originally, I make it possible for the banks to furnish at less cost currency believe you can only issue credit currency to the amount of your for the use of the country at the time when a large amount of capital. The Aldrich bill provided for the issuance of emer currency is needed-in the fall and summer. In the next place, gency currency, including the bond-secured currency, capital it would permit them to guarantee the deposits, for if there is and surplus, but the Fowler bill provides for its issuance only anything in the note being guaranteed, there is no reason why to the amount of its capital, except upon application to the board the deposit on the books should not be. The bank pays for the of managers, when you can issue whatever the board of mana guaranty ; nobody loses by this . provision of the bill ; the gers think it safe for you to issue. whole thing will be comparatively light on the banks. It 1\Ir. HAYES. Up to a certain limit. .will raise some $700,000,000, all of which is reserved, and in Mr. W .A.LDO. Yes; up to double the amount of the capital. case of liquidation goes back to t:rie banks, less any charges Originally I think there was no limit. In that case you that may be made against the fund. would have your notes in your vaults, and when the demand But another, and one of the most beneficial provisions in this came in for $100,000 you could issue that amount. Under the bill, is the provision in regard to what might be called the present system, in time of panic, you would have to buy it at clearing-house districts. They are called bank-note redemp 5 or 10 per cent, and like enough could not even get it at that. tion districts, but they are really clearing-house districts. The There were times when it could not be obtained even at that country is to be divided into twenty districts, I think, in the price. But that money would merely represent $100,000 in your · bill as amended now. It is under the control of the Comptroller book accounts. You owed it just as much before, and if you of the Currency to decide where the centers of these districts were an honest and safe banker it would be just as safe in one for the redemption of the notes shall be. Now, each one of form as it was in another. If, on the contrary, there was any these districts has a board of managers of its own. It is their trouble with your bank, there would be $700,000,000 in the hands business to investigate the condition of the banks in their dis of the United States to guarantee that it would be good, and trict four times a year at least, and as much oftener as they all the banks of your district would guarantee one-fourth of that see fit. That does not interfere with the examination of the before any draft could be made upon the amount in the hands banks by the Comptroller of the Currency whenever he deems of the Government. it necessary. Each one ·of these districts must pay, in case of Now, there is one thing more that I intended to say before· 3536 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. l\{ARCH 18,

closing. There has been some suggestion that this might lead is already established in all civilized countries except this, a ' to recklessness in the banking business; that the directors currency system that will be a benefit to all of our people. would not be as careful as to loans that they made or in their [Applause.] invesbnents, but it seems to rue that this guaranty of the notes Mr. KEIFER. I now yield, Mr. Chairman, to the gentleman would ha1e no such effect, and the guaranty of the deposits from Pennsylvania [Mr. DALZELL] . could have no such effect, because the people who are inter Mr. DALZELL. Mr. Chairman, there are few subects of pub ested in the bank as a bank are the stockholders and the offi lic discussion about which there is more unjust criticism-! cers. And before one dollar can be taken from the guaranty might, without exaggeration, say, unjust abuse-than the rules flmd or from the district the bank is totally wiped out. In of the National House of Representatives. The criticism and other words, the stockholders must lose all their stock. They abuse come largely from Members of the Hou e when in the ,must also, under the law, lose as much more as the value of minority, and from newspapers and magazine writers, and some their stock, and the officers would be practically ruined in busi others of whom, without unfairness, it may be said that they ness and reputation before any attack could be made upon the have very little knowledge or intelligent conception of what they guaranty fund, so that the bank would be practically in the are writing or talking about. Indeed, I think it may be truly same condition that it is now. That is the only thing that said that there are comparatively few Members of the House keeps a bank conservative and keeps it safe-the fact that the itself, much less outsiders, who have any real knowledge of the men who own the capital, and the officers, have their interest rules. The rules are simple enough and entirely logical, but to in the business of the bank, in its stock, and in its reputation, the majority of Members of the House who have no special am which in the case of many of our most successful bankers is bition to familiarize themselves with them they seem compli practically all they have, because many of them are not wealthy cated. men. The stockholders must lose all their interest in the banks There .is nothing new in this protest against the rules. It is and must pay up as much more, so that the same inducement to human nature to be uneasy under restraint, and in all Con honesty, conserTatism, and proper banking would exist under gresses, even among the first, when the membership was small the Fowler bill as under the present law, it seems to me. and the rules were simple, complaint was heard as now from .After all, while that is one of the important things, the most those who could not have their own way. important thing for us to do to-day is to adopt some credit cur The rules of the National House of Representatives are not rency. It does not make so much difference in what particular the conception of any one man or set of men ; they are not the form or under what particular bill it is if some· measure of re product of any one Congress or of any combination of Con lief is afforded to the banking interests of this country and the gresses; they are an e>olution, the outgrowth of the parlia people of this country by which they may obtain in currency mentary experience, necessities and exigencies of all the hun when they need it the credits that are now on the bank books; dred years and more of our Congressional life. The book of that will obviate the real trouble in our banking system, aside rules contains no rule that had not a reasonable necessity for from the other question. Those two things, however, must be its adoption in the first instance and has not a like necessity in some way taken care of. We must have some legislation for its continuance now. As a whole the rules are so made as first that will allow a bank to issue its notes in place of the to render possible the most expeditious accomplishment in tlie national-bank notes and still retain its cash in its vaults for wisest way of the legislative business of our ninety millions of the foundation of loans and for a reserve against deposits, and American people. yet issue its notes against the credits that have come to it. An impartial examination of them will show that the power Then, secondly, we must make some provision by which the of recognition popularly attributed to the Speake~ as autocratic. banks are to be bound together in association and make all is grossly exaggerated; that that power, in point of fact, so far look after the honesty and conservatism and safety of each one. as the rules are concerned, is limited; and that the apparent Until those two things are done we are going to have trouble restrictions upon individual initiati-re, so far as they exist at every fall, and whenever a financial crisis arises we are going all, are due not to the rules, but to the character of the House to have a panic; and unless the banks get together at those as now constituted, and to the exigencies of the public business. times, as they did this last fall, and form clearing-house A brief review of the history of the rules will serve to dem associations, and take care of the business of the country in onstrate the truth of this statement. practically the way that the Fowler bill provides that it shall There have been two revisions of the rules within the last be taken care of all over the eountry, by these districts, we thirty years. are going to have serious trouble whenever times of depression In the Forty-sixth Congress (1880) the rules were re>ised come. And I trust that this House at least will not be fright under the direction of the Committee on Rules, consisting of ened by any talk of the danger of change. It is not proposed Speaker Randall and .Messrs. Stephens, Blackburn, Garfield, to try any new thing. It is proposed to adopt a system of and Frye. The changes then made consisted mainly in dropping credit currency that has been successful and the only system a number of rules that, by reason of changed conditions han be that has been really successful in this country in its history; come obsolete, in consolidating a number of others and chang~ the only system that is successful or that obtains in the civil ing their arrangement, and in the inb·oduction of a >ery few ized world outside of this country, a system that has been tried new rules. The Committee in its report, which was unanimous, hundreds of years, and whose workings are known jast as said: absolutely as they will be after we have tried the system a The objective point with the committee was to secure accuracy in hundred years, with the same benefits and the same success, business, economy of time, order, uniformity, and impartiality, and to prepare, if possible, a simple, concise, and nonpartisan code of rules, I believe, that it has been b·ied in other countries. which would neither surrender the right of a majority to control and Nothing can be done toward changing our currency system, dispose of the business for which it is held responsible, nor, on the other hand, invade and resti·ict the powers of a minority to check temporarily, to my mind, except following some such financial disaster as if not permanently, the action of a majority believed to be improper or we have just passed through, and if we conclude to adopt the unconstitutional, and to attain, if possible, the great underlying prin Aldrich bill, or some such measure, which does not attempt to ciple of all the rules and forms by which the business of a legislative change from a bond-secured currency to a credit currency, the assembly is governed, whether constitutional, legal, or parliamentary in their ori!?in, viz, ~·to subserve the will of the assembly rather. than .to same inertia that has obtained in this country ever since the restrain It, to facilitate and not to obstruct the expression of Its dellb adoption of the bond-secured system will continue until we erate sense." meet another and perhaps~ worse disaster. It seems to me that 'l'he rules then adopted remained in force until the Fifty now is the time to act. We look 01er the history of the cur first Congress (1890), when they were revised by the Committee rsncy systems of the world and our country, and we find here on Rules, consisting of Speaker Thomas B. need, .Messrs. ~Ic offered one that has been successful, and the only one that Kinley, GANNO ·,Carlisle, and Randall. By this revision, out of has ever been successful in the history of the world. We the total number of forty-seven rules, twenty-nine were allowed recognize the dangers that we have just passed through, and to remain unchanged, and in the remaining eighteen such barely escaped the worst financial disaster this country has changes as were made were only formal, except in four funda e-rer known. Now we have an opportunity when the people mental particulars. These related to (1) dilatory motions, (2) are interested in it, when they feel the necessity of having the counting of a quorum, (3) the number which should con something done. Now is the time when we can do something stitute a quorum in Committee of the Whole, and ( 4) the order that will really change our system and put it on a proper of business. This last revision was found necessary in order to basis, and unless we ·do it now it will rest until the next time carry out the announced objects · sought to be attained by the we are in need. · revision of 1880, viz, " Economy of time, order, and the right I trust, gentlemen, that we may have the courage to look at of a majority to· control and dispose of the business for which this matter squarely, to try to understand it, and to see that we it is held responsible." have nothing new before us-that we have offered in the Prior to this last revision, under then existing rules, the Fowler bill the only successful currency system-and let us go practice known as filibustering had grown to such an extent as ahead oo that line and try to establish in this country, as there to waste much valuable time and to threaten the power of the 1908. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3537

majority to deal with the business of the country. By the the Government, and {rom the Committee on Appropriations, use of the privileged motions "to adjourn to a day certain," and from the several committees having to do with the main and " to take a recess," and the practice on the part of Members tenance of the Government in its yarious arms, such as the of remaining silent and refusing to vote, thus breaking a Naval Committee, the Military Committee, and others. These quorum, it was in the power of the minority at any time ef bills when reported go to a calendar known as the Union Cal fectually to obstruct the passage of any legislation. A motion endar, but they are highly privileged, as they ought to be, for to adjourn to a day certain was subject to two amendments, without their passage the Go>ernment wheels would stop. They on each of which, as well as on the original motion, the yeas can be called for consideration at any time. They take pre and nays could be ordered. . The same was true as to the mo cedence of all other bills, and the Speaker has no alternative tion to take a recess; these motions could be repeated without but to recognize the Member calling them up. These bills are limit, and thus days could be consumed in useless calls of the considered not in the House, but in Committee of the Whole; roll. In point of fact, in tile Fiftieth Congress on one occasion the Speaker leaves the chair and another :Member takes his the House remained in continuous session eight days and nights, place. during which time there were over one hundred roll calls on the 2. Another class of bills are such as relate to some public iterated and reiterated motions to adjourn and to take a recess purpose, but cn.rry no appropriation, such, for instance, as and their amendments. On this occasion the reading clerks bridge bills and the like. To a large extent bills from the became so exhausted that they could no longer act, and certain important committees on the Judiciary and on Interstate and Members, possessed of large voices and strenuous luJ:lgs, took Foreign Commerce are of this class. These bills go on the their places. If this was not child's play it would be difficult to House Calendar and are entitled to consideration in the morn define it. Then, again, when a measure to which the minority ing hour. There being no privileged bills for consideration, objected was likely to pass, the yeas and nays would be ordered. the morning hour is the regular order. The Speaker must The objecting minority Members, sitting in their seats, would call the committees in their alphabetical order, and then the fail to respond when their names were called, and when the chairman of the committee which has the call is entitled to count was made it would appear that there was no quorum recognition by the Speaker, as of right. The House then pro present to do business, and thus the measure would fail. It ceeds to the consideration of such bill reported by the com seems now strange to realize that many eminent men acting as mittee in question and then on the House Calendar as the Speakers of the House maintained that for this manifest evil no chairman calls up, and continues its consideration until a vote remedy existed. It remained for the Speaker of the Fifty-first is had, subject only to a possible interruption at the end of Congress, Thomas B. Reed, the greatest parliamentary leader in sixty minutes, to which I will refer hereafter. But even if the history of English-speaking people, to make an end of this interrupted, its consideration is continued thereafter, when manifest absurdity. He declared that physical presence and business of that character is in order, until it is finally dis constructive absence was impossible; that the quorum called for posed of. by the Constitution was a present and not a voting quorum; 3. In addition to public bills such as I have enumerated, and so, on a certain historic occasion, he added to the names of some carrying an appropriation and others not, there is an those voting the names of those present and not voting and an other class of bills, the most numerous of all-private bills nounced the result accordingly. He has no greater glory than providing for the relief of private individuals or corporations. that the principle he announced and put into practice has not These have a Calendar of their own called the Private Calendar, only been indorsed by the Supreme Court of the United States, and are in order on every Friday of each week. They are but also by his partisan foes when they came into power in the generally speaking, bills from the Committee on Claims, from House, and by the practical results which recent years of wise the Committee on War Claims, and from the Committee on legislation unobstructed by foolish tactics have put on the Pensions. As to these bills the Speaker has no independent statute book. Under present rules the motion to adjourn to a right of recognition. When addressed by the chairman of the day certain and the motion to take a recess are not privileged, appropriate committee on a Friday he must recognize him, and, furthermore, the Speaker is not allowed to entertain any and unless the House declines to consider these bills the dilatory motion. If a quorum has been ascertained by actual Speaker must leave the chair and nominate a Member to pre count to be present, a measure voted on passes or fails in ac side in his place. In the last Congress there were reported cordance with the recorded vote, whether all Members have 6,834 private bills; 6,624 were passed, leaving 210 undis voted or not. posed of. In the Committee of the Whole 100 now constitutes a quorum There is another class of bills that, like private bills, have instead of a majority of the whole House. This is in the inter a day of their own under the rules, viz, District of Columbia est of the expedition of business. bills. As is well known, there is no right of suffrage in the Bills are now introduced by filing and not by presentation in Dish·ict of Columbia, and the Senam and House act as its the open House, and thus much time is saved. Business once select and common councils. District of Columbia bills are entered upon is continued until concluded instead of, as under in order on two Mondays of every month. As to these bills, prior rules, being limited to a certain time for its consideration again the Speaker has no alternative but to recognize the chair and then not having been concluded being sent to the graveyard man of the District Committee when, on his allotted day, he of the calendar of unfinished business. calls up his business. In the lfl.st Congress (Fifty-ninth) there were 386 Members 4. A fourth class of bills provide for various rna tters of (in this Congress there are 391), and there were introduced a public concern and are such as involve a charge upon the total of bills and resolutions numbering 27,114. It goes without Treasury. These go to the Union Calenda1·, and when con saying that not all of these bills could be considered, nor could sidered must be considered in Committee of the Whole. At all of these Members have a hearing. Theoretically, every :Mem the end of the morning hour (sixty minutes) a motion may be ber of the House is the equal of every other Member ; every con made to go into Committee of the Whole for the consideration stituency is entitled to equal recognition with every other con of bills on the Union Calendar or for the consideration of some stituency, but practically there can not be 3!)1 Speakers; there particular bill thereon. This motion the Speaker is bound to can not be 391 chairmen of committees, nor equal recognition entertain. for debate given to 391 Members. The real purpose, then, to Then, a large part of the business of the House is done wholly be accomplished by the rules is the selection from the mass of outside of the rules, by unanimous consent. Some gentleman, bills ·introduced those proper to be considered. There is no for instance, arises in the House and, being recognized by the limitation on the right of a Member to introduce bills; as Speaker, asks "unanimous consent for the present consideration many as he likes and of whatever character he pleases. Every of the following bill." Unless objection is made the bill fs bill introduced goes to an appropriate committee for considera considered and voted on. It is in connection with this practice tion, and whether or not it gets upon a House Calendar for and because of it that autocratic power is without any reason action depends upon its being reported by the committee. It ascribed to the Speaker. But the rules have nothing at all to may never be reported, and, of course, if not reported can never do with this. The applicant for recognition asks that all rules be considered in the House. In the last Congress, of the be set aside. To this any Member of the House may object. 27,114 bills and resolutions introduced, there were 7,839 re Why should complaint be made if the Speaker exercises his ported; the others remained in the pigeonholes of the various right of objection by refusing to recognize a.n applicant for tee· committees. Of the bills reported, 7,423 were considered and ognition in any particular case? Because he is Speaker he is passed. Bills when reported go upon certain calendars of the no less a Member of the House; no less a Representative of hi a House, according to the character of the bills. Congressional district. If he were on the floor he could inter 1. Revenue and appropriation bills. These are few in num pose an objection to any request for unanimous consent. ber, not to exceed, perhaps, 20. They come from the Committee Should he be less able to interpose that objection because he is on Ways and Means, whose office it is to provide revenue for in the chair? Certainly not. That the Speaker's power in

XLII--222 3538 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. MARcH 18~ .

this regru:d is only, in the last analysis,. that of a Member may ~?Jr~ orb to eminence won outside;: no place where 50 Httle conf.fidera· easily b~ lllustrated. During the latter part of the Fifty-fourth .Lo_n Is s own for the fee.Iings or failures of beginners. What a man CongreRs when Mr Reed ,vas Q,...en l>-er· there s M b gifams in the House he gams by sheer force of his own characte1· and 'T ' . · ' ~>< o..:rp u..A ' wa a em er he lO eS and fa_Ils back, ,he m!JSt expect DO mercy, and Will receiV~ from :Nebraska named Kern who announced that he would no sympat.Ily. It IS a. field rn which the survival or the strongest is the object to any consideration of bills by unanimous consent. recogn~ed rule. and where no pretense can survive and no glamour After the announcement, on the first day, the Speaker's room Cai!- ...m~sleha.d. The . .r~al man is disco>ered, his worth is impartially: wetgueu, 1s rank IS ll'revocably decided. · was crowd ~ d , as usual, with applicants for recognition. Mr. Reed prom1sed to do the best he could, but re<...~lled to his ap-pli- Undoubtedly the ~ule~ contribute to the Speaker's power in cants Kern's threat to object. Still members persisted one of so far as they pla~~ ill his hai:Ids the appointment of committees. them was recognized, and Kern objected. The next day the l!e .can, by a JUdicious selection of committee membership to a throng at the Speaker's room was not so great, but still of u:ruted extent~ shape le"'islation in adv-ance to accord with his large proportions. Members had faith that Kern would not views. But. att.er all,. his power in this respect is limited by a: persist: . Again Mr. Reed promised to do his best; again a number of con~Ideratwns. In the appointments to committees recogmhon was had and again Kern objected. On the thil·d day fie must recognize tlle claims of localities, the qualifications and tile Speaker's room was deserted, while an anxious throng sur- length of se:vice of . hi~ appointees, and various other things. rounded the desk of Mr. Kern, and fi·om that time on,. Kern Aboye a~ things, he IS mterested in the success of his adminis being persistent, the Sp-eaker had peace; Mr. Kern was tlle tratiol:l• m the standing of his party, and in his own reputation autocrat, and the business of the House proceeded umier the for farrness. Wha~ he does he does in the open, where all men regular order. ~an see. And, bes1des~ how else could committees be selected There is. no doubt that a great many measures of questionable m a House .of so large a membership as the present House of character are passed by unanimous consent. Members can not Repr~sen!atives? Cau~us selection would mean selection by keep the run of all bills reported, and are loath to object, both combmations. representing localities or special interests; would because ignorant of the merits of the particular measure pro- turn °':-er the power of the House to the States having large posed and because they may have measures of their own to be delegations. C~ucus s~lection has been tried in the past, and , considered and they fear a reciprocity of objection. In a major- abandoned ~ rmpracticabl~. Committees can best be seleCted ity of cases the only real intelligent objection made to measures by an authonty that can Wlth certainty be located and made to proposed for unanimous consent is that made by the Speaker, bea.r the burden of responsibility. who has had opportunity to examine, as was his duty, the bill. I know of nothing more ll]teresting in the history of Congress On two Mondays in every month and during the last six days of th~ f.!lose passages which relate to the expedients to which the a session a motion is in order to suspend the rules and pass maJOrity has been compelled to resort to obtain control as bills, which requires for its adoption a two-thirds vote of a against ~bstructive tactics upon the part of the minority. quorum. The object of this rule, of course, is to expedite busi- Early m on.r history unlimited debate was resorted to to pre ness by getting rid of bills to which two-thirds of the House are \ent. legislativ~ ac"?-on, and the result was the adoption of the agreed. But the demands for recognition to move to suspend prevwus question rn the House. A.ccording to Mr. Calhoun it the rules are so far in excess of any possible power of grant was adopted- upon the Speaker's part that he is confronted by the embar- in ~nsequence of the abuse of the rfght of debate by Mr. Gardenier~ rassing necessity of making a choice. There is no doubt that he of New York. remarkable for his capacity for making long speeches performs his unpleasant duty with due regard to his obligation He could keep the floor for days. • to the public service. · B~t .1\Ir. Ga~denier was only a type~ and the adoption of the It is manifest that even under the methods provided by the previous question marks the first step in our Congressional his· rules for tlle consideration of all clasges of business there must tory taken by the majority toward securing its ;right to rule. necessarily be measures of great public importa.n~ that, by rea- Til~ next step was the adoption of the hom· rule, pursuant t() son of their late report from a committee or far some reason or Whlch a Member of the House is confined to the use of one hour another, can not be reacned in the regular order of business. in debate. These are provided for by special orders reported by the Com- It must ~ confessed that in a House constituted of so large mittee on Rules, which consists of the Speaker, two Members a membership as the House o:t. Representatives unlimited debate from the majority, and two from the minority. Like the rules would be impossible, having any due regard to the dispatch of themselves, the Committee on Rules is made the subject of much the public business. There is little if any complaint about the unjust criticism. Autocratic power is ascribed to it. But it hour rule. Anyone fa..m.lliar with the record of the last few must be recognized first that the existence of such a body is a Congresses will concede that notwithstanding the existence of necessity, and seoond that the only power it exercises is the the ho~: rule there has been practically no limitation on the op power of the House. The Committee on Rules does not dictate portumties for debate. All parties desiring to be heard have it simply suggests. Its report is of no consequence until it ha~ be~ furnished an opportunity, and when greater latitude as been adopted by a majority. The fact that the eommitte~s re- to tune has been asked it has readily been granted by unani ports are uniformly adopted, so far from being any evidence of mous consent. The House will always listen to the Member undue authority or power on the part of the committee, is evi- who really has. something to say. dence of the discretion of the committee in recognizing and: mak- With each decennial apportioni:nent the House of Representa· ing possible what the Bouse wants to do. The real temper of tives increases in numbers. As the numbers increase in the the House upon any question at any given time, it may be as- very nature of things the importance of the individual Member sumed, is better known by the Committee on Rules than by any decreases and the influence of a few increases. What the rem one else. The committee, so far from being the master, is the edy for this is I do not undertake to predict, or what new or servant of the House. Of the 7.423 bills considered last year, modified ru1es may in the future become necessary. But under only twenty-four were bronght forward by the Committee on present conditions the rules of the House of Representatives Rules. are as, efficient as present wisdom and past experience have been All of these were of large national importance, and considera- able to devise "to subserve the will of the assembly rather tion of them was in accordance with the well-known desire of than to restrain it. to facilitate and not to obstruct the expres· a majority of the House, as for instance, among others the fol- sion of its deliberate sense! )owing: The statehood bill, the immigration bill,. Philippine Mr. BOWERS. Mr. Chairman, I now yield forty-five minutes tariff bill~ pure food bill, railroad rate bill, bills relating to to the gentleman from Alabama [1\Ir. HEFLI ]. Isthmian Canal, and so forth. Mr. HE'F'LIN. Mr. Chairman, more than three thousand years While it is true that the authority of the Speaker as to recog- ago cotton was found gTowing in Indiar and Herodotus tells us nition is very much limited~ it would be useless to deny that he that the natives called it "tree wool." He said: exercises a great power upon the business of the: House.. But They made clothes of this tree wool and claimed that it exceeded in this is not due to the rules in the first insUm.ee, but to the per- beauty and goodness the wool of the sheep. sonu.lity of the peaker himself. Much of his power lies back In 1492 Columbus found cotton growing in the West Indies of his office. It is because of his character, his experience his and it is certain that cotton came to Jamestown with on~ service, his position as a party leader that he- is Speaker.' He fathers in 1607; for it was cultiv-ated that year in Virginia. comes to his high office because he is primus- inter pares. A. Pickett, in his history of Ala.b::una, tells us that as early as leader on the floor, he does not cease to be a leader when he 1728 cotton flourished in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. becomes Speaker. One who was himself a d.istinguished How to separate the cotton from the seed was an important SpeakCl' of the House of Representatives. James G. Blaine, in problem with our fathers, and this tedious task was performed that most eloquent eulogy pronounced 11pon his chief, President with the fingers. So s!ow was the process that four pounds ot Garfield, said: lint per week was as much as a good hand could do. In 1788 There is no test of a man's ability in any department ol public life there was great rejoicing in the South when a man in Phila· more severe than service in the House of Representatives; there is no delphia invented a machine for separating seed and lint and place where so little deference is paid to reputation previously ac- this machine could turn out only ten pounds of lint per' day\ ..-...... 1908. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-· HOUSE. 3539

Not until Ely Whitney, of Georgia, invented the saw gin in 1793 England leads in exporting cotton goods, and Germany is was this feature of the cot ton problem solYed. The first cotton second in the list; the United States is third, and France is gin operated by any power other than the hand was run by fourth. Last year the United States imported more· cotton water in Fairfield, S. C., by James Kincaid, in 1795. For a goods than she sold or exported. long time spinning and weaving were done by indhiduals and England, or the United Kingdom, exports every year rr..ore families in their homes. They used the little hand carder, the yards of cotton cloth than our American mills produce for · one-thread spinning wheel, and the wooden loom. These were both home and outside trade. During the calendar year endlng followed by the in>entlons of Cartwright, Watt, and others, the December, 1906, the United Kingdom exported cotton manu carding engine, the spinning jenny, and the power loom, all factures to the value of $484,000,000, and the United StatE.:S run by steam; and the manufacture of cotton became one of the during the same period exported cotton manufactures to the most important industries in the world. value of $52,000,000, and yet we exported twice as much as we Iu 1784 we exported from the United States 8 bales of did in 1904. cotton to England, and this fiber had been separated from the In 1~G Great Britain sold China $50,000,000 worth of cotton seed by the hand. At Annapolis, Md., in a political convention, goods, and we sold her $28,000,000 worth. China is indeed an 1786, James Madison, of Virginia, the author of the Federal inviting field. That dim old Empire, with its four hundred mil· Con ~titution, said in a speech: "The United States will one day lions of people, is the most inviting of all the countries for our become a grEat cotton-producing country." [Applause.] We cotton trade. were then producing 5,000 bales. United States Consul Anderson, speaking of our trade with 1\Ir. l'tfadison's prediction has come true. The South pro China, said : The principal cause for slow development of trade with China is due duces 80 per cent of the world's crop of cotton. This cotton to the lack of enterprise on our part rather than to anythin.,. that belt is 1,450 miles long from east to west and 500 miles wide has been IJone or left undone by China. Naturally. China will b~y the and has in it 448,000,000 acres. Nowhere in the world are goo.ds offered for sale in China, other things being equal ; and the nation which does not offer an aggressive commercial campaign in its own sunshine and shower so mingled and measured out to the behalf can not expect the trade. cotton plant as is the case in the beautiful South. [Applause.] Roy S. Anderson, who represents the merchants' guild at Sou Charles J. Haden, of Georgia, a splendid authority on the cotton plant, says: "Cotton is a child of climate more than Chow, China, has been on a visit to the southern cotton mills. of soil. '.rhis plant requires a certain average temperature Now, _co~on .reaches Chinese ports only by New York, where a commiSSion IS, of course, necessary. From the time it leaves during the young and tender period-a certain average temper the southern cotton mills and reach the Chinese merchant it ature during the days of its development-and a certain other i~ subject to no less than 7 commissions and one of these as higher average temperature during the days of its fruition." high as 100 per cent. As a consequence, :\lr. Anderson says that "Coupled with these conditions," he says, "there must be a cer he _?as seen c~mmon calico sold for 25 cents a yard in Sou Chow, tain degree of moisture in the air. The hot winds from the Chma. By direct trade with our southern mills Chinese mer south Atlantic crossing the gulf stream and meeting the colder chants can save the cost of 6 of these commissions, and this will air currents from the Appalachian chain produce this degree of enable us to sell calico to China cheaper than any other nation. moisture." " These facts have been proven," he says, " by a Special Agent Hutchinson suggests the sending of competent century of experiment and scientific research." Climatic con men to South America. He is enthusiastic over the outlook for ditions make the South the greatest cotton-producing country a splendid cotton trade there. He says : in the world. The demand for cotton goods is large and increasing There is a The fact is established that here, and nowhere else in the general awakening in the cotton trade everywhere. · world, can cotton be grown in abundance, and scientists tell England sold South America in 1906 $18,000,000 worth of cotton us that the South will remain the great cotton-producing coun goods, while our cotton-goods trade amounted to only $3,000,000. try until the Creator reconstructs the earth. Not only is ours Mr. Chairman, our export trade in cotton goods has fallen the most favored country in the world for the production of off woefully. Here are some figures that tell the tale. cotton, but it is blessed above all others in ways and means The total exports of cotton manufactures from the United for the manufacture of cotton. States to foreJgn countries for the last three years are as While the first cotton mill in the United States was erected follows: in Massachusetts in 1790, it has been demonstrated that nowhere 1905 total exports------$43,666,080 in all the world can manufacturing be done so cheaply and 1906 total exports------52,944,033 profitably as in the South. As Phillip said to the eunuch, 1907 total exports------32,305,412 "Here is much water "-over there is the cotton field and In 1905 our exports to Japan of cotton cloths amounted to yonder the mountains groan with millions of tons of coal. $1,154,274, and in 1907 our exports for cotton cloths amotmted [Applause.] to only $140,000. This shows a decrease in our Japanese In 1880 the amount of capital invested in cotton mills in trade. the South was $21,000,000, and to-day we have invested in this In 1906 all our exports of manufactured cotton cloths in important industry a little over twelve times that amount creased to practically all the foreign countries, and increased $255,000,000. from $43,320,542 in 1905 to $52,181,860 in 1906. Twenty-five years ago the South had only 600,000 cotton spin In 1907 our exports to the countries above named decreased dles, and to-day we have about 10,000,000 spindles. In 1890 from $53,181,860 to $21,239,247, principally on the Chinese and there were 336 cotton mills in the South, and now we have over Japanese trade. China decreased from $29,641,188 in 1906 to 600. Great Britain, or the United Kingdom, is the greatest $5,714,191 in 1907. cotton manufacturing country in the world and has 49,000,000 The United Kingdom has the best cotton goods trade spindles. America stands next to the mother country with with China and Japan and we are second. Our trade abroad 26,000,000 spindles. Germany comes third with 9,000,000 spin has been sadly neglected-that is, our trade in manufac dles, Russia is fourth with 7,000,000, and France is fifth with tured cotton goods. There is much that can and should be 6,000,000 spindles. done along this line. Our manufacturers of cotton goods are In 1906 New England cotton mills consumed 2,349,478 bales and have been for the last two years manifesting more interest of cotton, and in the same year our southern mills consumed in their business than ever before. The fact that the producer 2,37 4,225 bales, 25,000 more bales than our northern mills con is demanding a better price for his cotton than he formerly did sumed. This is a splendid showing for the South, when you is causing the manufacturers to look for broader fields and remember that the North has nearly twice as many spindles larger Rales. We must send agents to the foreign field, learn as we have. There is one fact, however, connected with both their methods of doing business and the tastes and desires of that we applaud, and that is that both northern and southern the people, find out the kind of goods they want, and manu mills consumed more cotton than eyer before. '"e are the facture them. With England, Germany, ancl France acti>e in greatest cotton-producing people in the world, with the cheapest. these foreign counh·ies, it is up to us to go after our share of and best manufacturing facilities on earth. [Applause.] this foreign trade, and not sit supinely down and expect it to come to us. Like the old darky who prayed for the good Lord Cotton mills are increasing rapidly in the South. In 1900 to send him a turkey on Christmas. Twice he had gone down Massachusetts stood first, Rhode Island second, South Carolina on his knees, pleading for the turkey to be sent him, but the third, New Hampshire fourth, North Carolina fifth, Connecticut sixth, Maine seventh, and Georgia eighth. Now, Massachu turkey didn't come, and Erastus changed the form of his prayer setts still occupies first place, but South Carolina is second, saying, before he prayed : ' De Lawd ain't agwine ter do nuthln fer you, what you can ao fer Rhode Island is third, North Carolina is fourth, Georgia is fifth, yu'sef. Gude Lawd, gib me de power and de ambishun to move New Hampshire is sixth, Connecticut is seventh, and Maine is swif'ly, an' befo de moon gits up and de pepul begins ter stir, 1~n me eighth. fer de turkey whut I ben er prayin fer. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3540 I ~fABCH 18,

And before the clock struck 12 that night Erastus had stormed The census of manufactures obtained by the Government shows the roost of his white neighbor and carried home in sable that the business of the silk manufacturers is being invaded. triumph the choicest gobbler of the turkey tribe. [Laughter Cotton is about to put the silkworm out of business, and in and applause.] Like old Erastus, if we want a fair share of competition with this white fiber of the field the sheep shows this foreign cotton trade we must go after it. [Applause.] traces of tire. [Laughter and applause.] The great increase in Our exports of raw, or unmanufactured, cotton for the years the consumption of artificial silk (mercerized cotton) is ac 1V05, 1906, mid 1907 are as follows : counted for by its adaptability for braids, fringes, dress trim To all foreign countries in 1905, 8,337,964 bales; value, mings, etc. The consumption of cotton yarns by the manufac· $379,!)65,014. turers of woolen goods has also greatly increased. In 1906 the total exports of raw or unmanufactured cotton A bale of cotton worth $50 when manufactured into sh~etings amounted to 7,050,356 bales, amounting to $401,005,921. and denims is worth from $200 to $600; when made into thread In 1907 the total exports of raw or unmanufactured cotton or lace it will bring from $1,500 to $2,000. amounted to 8,708,469 bales, with a value of $481,277,797. It A bale of cotton worth $50 will bring the producer about will thus be seen that each successive crop since 1V05 brought twelve dollars and a half clear profit. The spinner upon an increased millions of money to this country. average, at the very least, makes $35 on the bale clear profit. An increase of over $21,000,000 in 1906 over 1905, and an in On the principle of live and let live let's divide the profit and crease of $80,272,441 in 1907 over the amount received from for take $12 from the spinner and gi1e it to the producer. Then eign countries in 1906. Good prices for cotton help the whole the division of profits is more equal-the producer has twenty country. [Applause.] four dollars and a half and the spinner twenty-three. This dif l\1r. Chairman, there is another branch of the cotton industry ference on a crop of 13,000,000 bales would amount to $100,- to which I will now refer, and I wish to quote what Col. Robert 000,000 to the producer. A Frenchman, familiar with cotton J. Lowry, of Atlanta, Ga., said recently: and its various uses, says that the " spinner realizes from forty Now the cotton plant is a wonderful thing. The actual cotton staple to fifty dollars profit on every bale of cotton." Is not all that the South gets from this product of the soil. The by When cotton fares well in the market our people are pros products of cotton have added millions to the annual income of the ::)outh. Take, for instance, last year 1906. The totnl cotton crop, as perous and happy. Here are some figures that show what good I have previously stated, was 13,500~00 bales. This produced approxi cotton prices have done for our people. Total deposits in mately 6,500,000 tons of seed. Sixty per cent of this appproximately Southern banks in 1900, $375,000,000. Total deposits in 1906, was sold to .the cottonseed-oil mills, or, say, 3,900,000 tons of seed. A ton of seed will yield approximately 40 gallons of cottonseed oil, about $995,000,000. [Applause.] Cotton is the basis of credit in all 800 pounds of meal, 700 pounds of hulls, and 35 pounds of lint. This the South's business transactions. yield, at prices ruling during last year, would be $21.77 per ton of We have been taught that the law of supply 9-nd demand was seed. At 21.77 per ton last year the income from the cottonseed was $84,fl03,000. as fixed and as certain of enforcement as the law of the Medes The manufacture of by-products from cotton seed is comparatively and Persians, but not so always. We have seen the cotton n recent enterprise. Several cotton seed oil mills had been bnilt in exchanges in the United States and Liverpool defy and set aside the United States as early as 1840, but it was as late as 1870 before the industry was considered as being of commercial importance. The the law of supply and demand, and by their unholy practice statistics will afford a striking example of progress in this line, which obtain a cotton crop at destructive prices to the farmer. Th'ey would almost stagger one who had not watched its annual growth as it have been the means of bankrupting the farmer and impover progressed. Before the advent of the oil mills, about the only value attached to cotton seed was for planting and fertilizing. From the ishing his soil. The price he received for cotton did not afford raw cotton seed we get three distinctive parts from which the by a profit and its production being unprofitable, the farmer was products are manufactured-that is, linters, hulls, and meats. From the linters-that is, the reginning to take up the adhering short cot rendered unable to care for his soil and improve it as he should ton-we manufacture carpets, rope, and twine. With the hulls ha-re. These exchanges have robbed the Southern farmer every we can fertilize, or make paper, or we can feed cattle. Especially year of millions of dollars. The uncertainty that has ranged is this food desirable for cattle when mixed with cotton-seed meal. around the price of cotton and the constant fluctuation of the For a long time the hulls were considered as fit for only fuel or oil mill engines, but when it was discovered that hull ashes possessed price and the lack of means by which the producer could be qualities of fertilization, then their commercial value was at once recog assured that his cotton would not be a drug on the market nized. From the meat of the cotton seed we get, first, crude oil and haYe kept him in a state of embarrassment and despondency. cake and meal. - From the cake and meal we get a good fertilizer, or, when mixed with hulls, a most excellent food for cattle. The crude This evil of the speculator that has preyed upon our cotton in oil, when passed through the first refining process, yields summer yl el dustry so long must be destroyed. This gambling exchange is low oil and soap stock. This summer yellow oil is of varying qua lty not a help but a hindrance to the producer. It is not a friend, and, of course, is subject to further refining to produce better soap stock, winter yellow oil, stearin, and summer white oil. From the but a dangerous enemy to th'e farmer. It is not a blessing, but soap stock we get soap, from the stearin we get butter oil, salad oil, · a curse to the South. [Applause.] and emulsion, and from the summer white oil we get lard compound. That competition is the life of trade is and has always been The by-products of the cotton plant are continually on the increase, for experiments show us still further valuable characteristics of this a cardinal principle of the Democratic party. What the pro most wonderful plant. A very high-class food known as white cottolene ducer needs is an open market-open to the world. In order to is made by mixing hog lard with highly refined cotton-seed oil. It is obtain this he must fight anything and everything that hinders now believed that the cotton-seed meal can be properly manufactured into n nutritious food for human beings, being cheaper than flour and competitive buying. Like greedy vampires these leeches of the containing more of the fats necessary to the human system. Even exchange fasten upon the producers and cotton dealers of the confectioners have found that parched kernels of the cotton seed are South in the harvest time, and they suck and dratn our indus valuable substitutes for peanut brittle and other candies. trial life blood to feed their putrid veins. [Applause.] .Mr. ChaiJ:man, when I used to chop cotton and follow a mule Time was when the professional speculator, hoary in evil around the row I never dreamed that it contained candy for practice and corrupt methods, wanted us to crowd the market children and food for men. [Laughter and applause.] and part with our cotton at a low price he would publish thrill Speaking of experiments, it may be said In this connection that it ing, extraordinary stories about the cotton plant and its pro has peen but recently discovered that the yield of lint can be increased ductile prospects in foreign countries. Th'ey would tell us of approximately 10 per cent by allowing the seed cotton, after picking, to rest a month or so before ginning. In other words, the lint continues the discovery of a cotton tree-and this was always j ust be to grow during these few weeks from the nourishment which the seed fore or about the time we commenced to sell cotton-sometimes imparts to the lint. Intelligent farmers have recognized this as a it was in Australia, then in India, and the last one made its scientific fact and are profiting by that knowledge. 'Ihe South's cot ton crop this year is estimated by Mr. Richard H. Edmunds editor of appearance, I believe, in Africa. They would try to frighten the Manufacturers' Record, an eminent authority, at $000,000,0.00. If us into believing that these trees, wild in the woods, were all of the cotton was allowed to rest, so to speak, for a month or two hea1ily burdened with cotton and all that was necessary to before ginning, you can readlly see what the lint growth would mean ln dollars as a further complement to the possibility of this wonderful be done was to shake the tree and the ground in an instant cotton plant. Experiments are also being made with the cotton stalk would be white as snow. [Laughter and applause.] and boll, which are believed to be a good paper stock. Or, they would fill the newspapers with stories to the effect Now, 1\Ir. Chairman, a few more words about cotton. that India was about to put us out of the cotton busineo::s, and Cotton is more widely used now than e1er before and its uses when they deemed it necessary, they threatened us with laN!e are increasing e1ery day. The hjgh prices of wool, linen, and ·crops of cotton in China and Japan. They talked and wrote silk are causing cotton to be more widely used than ever. :Many about it as if the cotton plant was a stranger in those part and articles of dress and ornament formerly made of linen and of that the people there were just now making efforts to grow it, silk are now made of mercerized cotton. " Cotton," says Charles when the fact is India produced cotton and cotton goods over W. Dabney, former Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, "on three thousand years ago, and the army of Xerxes wore uni account of its cheapness and its many excellencies, is rapidly forms made of cotton. Tile Greeks used a kind of cotton goods superseding its seyeral rivals," meaning, of course, wool, silk, for saddle blankets three hundred years before Christ. otton and linen. sacks are mentioned in the tales of tho .Arabian Nights, and Cotton is substituted for woolen goods and can be manufac Cortez used cotton to stuff the jackets of his soldiers to protect turoo into cloth so resembling wool that you haYe to apply the them from the arrows of the natives. chemical test to tell the difference. The substitution of mer Blankets made of cotton have been found in the ancient tombs cerized cotton yarn for silk has greatly affected the silk trade. of Peruvian mummies. In the heyday of the republic India - - 1908. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. 3541 muslin made of cotton was worn and highly prized by the And continuing he says: coquettish dames of Rome. We demand that the prices of the world"s commodities shall in the future be governed by the economic Jaws of tb~ world's supply and de In the far-off Hme of the Pharaohs cotton was worn as head mand,, and not as at the present and in the past, by bull and benr dre ~ s by the dark-eyed Egyptian women and prized for its gamblrng operations in nonexisting products and by the manipulations beauty and its glory. It grew in sight of the Pyramids and thereof, for the sole benefit of the gamblers, through options and fu ture cont~ac~. _Surely aU governments will see there is nothing but cotton robes were worn by the priests of Egypt. Wicks woven absolute JUStlce m these propositions. The course of prices for agri of cotton burned in the temples of the Hindoo, and cotton con cultural products should be fixed in the future so far as is possible stituted the holy pillows for the priests. It nodd~d its white through the medium of the producers. ' ' plumes to Alexander the Great and his conqu~ring armies. It Again 1\Ir. Smith says: flourished along the Ganges and bowed its white head in grief ~be Austrian Government proposes that all gambling operations in when heathen mothers offered up their infant offspring to the option~;> and futures of cereals, without the obligation of delivery, en- · cruel gods of a faLse religion. [Applause.] Cotton is no tered rnto by any persons residing in Austria, either on the Bourse of It Budapest or those of any other foreign country shall be treated as stranger to the Old World. came to America with our fathers, illegal_, ~ the s~id operations come under the 'penal clauses of the and its white fiber has been our constant companion and helpful Austnan bill. ThiS is as it should be in all countries. friend. The cotton seed was not content until it found lodgment Listen to this appeal from the same high source: in Southern son, and cotton did not ass.el't his kingly prerog Finally- ative until he took up his abode in the land of pure democracy and a Southern sun kissed his snowy crown and bade him clothe Says .Mr. Smith- ! can only express a prayer that the governments e king cotton reigns in snowy splendor, and his royal subjects economic, moral, and spiritual perils, which bankers, capitalists, and are at last showing appreciation of their vantage ground in the marke~ gamblers, through the medium of these international gambling world of agriculture and are manifesting signs of independence operations, are slowly but surely bringing upon all God's creatures. in their manufacturing industries, their commercial establish [Applause.] ments, and financial institutions. [Applause.] Speaking of the evils of speculation in his own country, thi.s The producer is not going to rest until the cotton business great enemy of the gambling exchange said: is placed upon a level with the best regulated business con .And th~ world will have to realize that these sentiments are ap cerns of the country. It requires money, labor and time ~o plicable to all other nations. But it is through the unjust power o1 these international gambling operations in the world's stock, produce, make cotton and the producer is entitled to a fair price for 1t. and metal exchanges that these unscrurmlous men of wealth have Manufacturing and mercantile enterprises are not left to the been enabled to become predatory, and thereby directly and indirectly mercy of the speculator, but they are conducted upon the to exploit all properties, including land and labor. The result is that all men's private properties have been turned into " gambling coun soundest business principles. Why, then, should not the cotton ters,'' and this in order to establish on the world's exchanges " a traffic upon which all these other industries depend be pro Monte Carlo without the music," at which the great international tected by law and conducted on sound business principles? capitalists and market gamblers preside and hold the bank, to the jeopardy of one and all. Discussing the question of money to move the Southern cotton Further, it is by such deadly "bull and bear" international gam crop of 1907, a New York banker said: bling weapons that these men have also cunningly and secretly obtained It may be that the S~uthern Cotton Planters' Association will be the key to the financial, agricultural, and commercial conquest of the successful this year (speaking of 1907) in holding back the staple world. I maintain I have ampl~ justification in denouncrng interna from the market so as to prevent the sacrifice in values that in other tional financial and commercial gambling in "options and future3" years has been caused by rushing the crop to market in order to en as standing out as the greatest of all perils which the world has to contend with in the future, in connection with preserving the rights able plwters to pay their debts. of property, as well as upholding the libet·ty and privileges of the A. B. Coles, a banker, discus.sing cotton as collateral in the people. It is a matter of personal gratification, after nearly twenty years Southern Banker, said to the bankers: of laborious public work carried on all over the civilized world, to be Be diligent in the matter of knowing personally that the cotton is a~le to place on record for the benefit of my fellow-countrymen how, not actually in existence. Withstanding the secret antagonism of the world's market capitalists and of the press whlch they control, the truth of the views I have been Tile farmer does not object to this, but. he does object to preaching. Let me briefly set forth for the benefit, especially of the these exchanges selling cotton that is not actually in existence British Government, the numerous examples of the ruin caused to and by so doing destroy the price of cotton that is actually in Egypt during the past two years only by Bourse gambling, not only in stocks and shares, but also in cotton and other products. existence. [Applause.] If we must have cotton exchanges,. In 1905 th~ Egyptian cotton manufactory was ruined. In· 1006 let's have them like the Bremen cotton exchange in Germany. the E.eyptian Society of Sugar Refineries was declared bankrupt. In Its members are not allowed to speculate in cotton futures, and 1006-7 the Egyptian speculators lost enormous sums of money in gambling operations in " futures " of Egyptian and American cotton this exchange is devoted entirely and expressly to handling on the exchanges in Egypt and in Liverpool. Since 1906 there has spot cotton. It is against the laws of Germany for her cit~zens been a prolonged period of financial depression, caused solely by over to speculate or gamble in staple commodities of any kind. speculation and rank gambling. Germany has thrown the arms of a righteous law around the 1\Ir. Chairman, comment is unnecessary. The truth of his great agricultural interests of her people, while th~ United contention is apparent to every Member of this House, and the Stutes under the reign of the Republican party permits the evils of speculation, the suffering and want that have fol speculator to fatten upon the substance of the great producing lowed in its wake, are known to millions of producers in the classes. [Applause on Democratic side.] .South and in the West. Let this Congress meet the issue hon .Mr. Chairman, I desire to read from an editorial in the estly and fearlessly, and grant the relief here asked for. [Ap Review of the London Magazine of Commerce. It is entirely plause.] germane to the subject under discussion and pays a high com In 1900, there were 400 bucket shops and gambling exchanges pliment to one who has spent the best years of his life fighting in the United States. In six years the number increased to the " bull " and " bear " gamblers in options and futures. This 1,000. Now there are shrewd market manipulators and a gang is what it says: of gamblers backed by large interests who have designs on the THE ECOXOMIC RUIN OF THE WORLD. cotton crop every year. Arrayed on that side are men of In every age there are a few men who have one great aim in view. brains and men of millions. Let us not underestimate their They devote their lives to the end that they have set for themselves; strength, but rather let us admit that they are strong, unprin they concentrate all theit· efforts on their chosen destiny ; and neither cold opposition nor callous ridicule can swerve them from their path. cipled, and powerful. They are the trained soldiers of a war History gives us many examples of the type. To this class of en fare that has cost the South-millions and millions of dollars thusiasts belongs Mr. Charles W. Smith (of England), who for thirty that has sown the horrors of debt and mortgage upon the homes yenrs has been endeavoring to obtain legislative restriction of inter and farms of our people. The Farmers' Union and the South national gambling in options, futures and warrants. The simple fact stands forth that gambling in fictitious commodities is an evil which ern Cotton Association routed these robbers in 1906 and carried has often dealt widespread ruin. Everybody admits that gambling in out the scriptural idea of " Breaking the jaws of the wicked fictitious commodities is a pest with spasmodic eruptions of a vet·y and plucking the spoil out of their teeth." [Applause.] dangerous kind. Mr. Smith is doing yeoman service in educating the public into the existence of the evil. 1\Ir. Chairman, I wish to cRll attention to an editorial which appeared last week in the Saturday E-;-ening Post. Discussing 1\Ir. "Smith says : speculation in commodities, it said: Let the world's agriculturists' one united cry be, "Away with all :fictitious international dealings in options and futures" and ... Down First and last, a lot of money is made out of this gambling. Other with that enemy to humanity-the 'bear' opm:ator-who for the past wise it would not continue. Whether the bull finally gets this money, thirty years has been suckin.q our very life blood." Let each govel·n or the bear, or simply the broker~, does not matter. \Vhoever gets it ment also remember that agnculture is the national industry of every does not earn a penny of it. He uoes not produce or transport or dis country; that it is the backbone of aU countries; that land is the first tribute a bushel of grain or a pound of cotton. He conh·ibutes abso and most important of all raw materials; that without a prosperous lutely nothing to industry itself. He merely sits outside and bets on agt1culture a nation must perish; and, lastly, that the world's agricul it. So that the money that is made in speculation, whatever the ture i~ now of an international character; like its commerce and amount and whoever receives it, is just so mu-ch scooped out of the finanCE', and exet·ts everywhere a great influence on the destiny of wealth that the country produces, with no return on the scoopet·'s nationu. part. 3542 CONGRESSION .AL RECORD-HOUSE. ~fARCH 18,

This editorial, though brief, properly characterizes the specu I will here read from the Atlanta Constitution's report of the lator and his nefarious profession. [Applause.] proceedings of that day : - Mr. Chairman, in some letters recently written to Mr. E. J. Gambll~g in cotton futures and whether it was wise to adopt the reso Cook secretary of the Farmers' Union of Alabama, and pub lution of Congressman HEFLIN was the question which consumed the greater part of the Wednesday morning session of the growers and lished in the Farmers' Union Guide, is some interesting read spinners' conference_ ing. These letters are written by members of the New York Vigorous speeches on the question were made by both th~ growers flnd and New Orleans cotton exchanges. Evidently the New York spinners. The growers, with one accord, in~orsed the H~flm resoluti?n, which was favorably reported by the committee on buymg and sellmg man did not know what the New Orleans man was writing or cotton ; but the foreign spinners, while condemning gambling in futures, had written for the New York man says, "Our future market is were advocates of the cotton exchange. robbed of it~ natural support by continued adverse legislation," while the New Orleans man says, "Restricted legislation has Mr. Chairman, I was convinced at that cotton conference that · depri'red this market of its natural support-the southern spec the spinner had and held a Yery cordial relation with the cotton ulator-thereby transferring the balance of power to New York speculator. They could join us in condemning gambling in and Liverpool, whose interests naturally are always against futures, but when the time came for action they stood by their higher prices." Both admit that cotton should bring 15 cents old and trusted friend, the gambling exchange. 1\ly resolution per pound, but they suggest that the way to do that is to let calling on Congress and the Parliament of Great Britain to the exchange alone and let it have its way. prohibit gambling in cotton futures in these two countries was Now the New York Exchange can say truthfully that the unanimously indorsed by the Farmers' Union and the Southern New O~·leans Exchange is also naturally opposed to high prices Cotton Association; but the spinners were hard to enthuse on and all these exchanges now are, because they are dominated the subject, and they voted to postpone the matter for another by interests that want cheap cotton. [Applause.] year. Now then, to my mind it did and does appear that the In a speech delivered recently in New Orleans, the home of spinners and the speculators are mutual friends. one of the cotton exchanges, Mr. Paul M. Potts, president of 'l'heodore Price, a well-known operator of New York, in 1905 the Louisiana State Cotton Association, said: denounced the South's effort to organize and hold her cotton for a fair price as an " oppressive trust." He said: " That this The establishment of these cotton-future trading boards was a death blow to the producers of cotton and the country merchants, because it attempt will fail is a foregone conclusion." He further said: enabled the speculator to carry 10,000 or more of bales of future cotton " The South's effort to organize and hold cotton was economical or paper contracts with the same amount of money invested that he suicide." Well, Mr. Chairman, if that is suicide, the pity is that would have to invest to carry 1,000 bales of actual or spot cotton, and the effect of it is to make spot cotton a drug on the market subject to we didn't commit that particular kind of suicide long ago. the whims and caprices of the heartless speculator. New York futures Again we see spinner and speculator together, and Theodore to-day, October 25, 1907, are nearly 2 cents per pound under the price Price addressed the cotton manufacturers in a convention in paid at interior points in the South for actual spot cotton. It Is a far graver question than ever the Louisiana Lottery dared to Philadelphia in 1006. He assured them that this movement be. The lottery only injured directly the. purchasers of lo~tery t~ckets, to demand a fair price for cotton would accomplish nothing but the operations of the cotton gambhng exchanges inJure directly and sought to stimulate their faith in him and other speculators every man, woman, and child in the South who are dependent on cotton. [Applause.] to manipulate the price, as they had done so often before. 1\lr. Chairman, let us go back to the old days for a moment. Mr. Chairman, there is no getting around the proposition here Time was when cotton dealers in New York only bought and of laid down. Mr. Potts strikes full in the face the great evil fered for sale cotton to arrive, and this cotton was actually that now so sorely disturbs the cotton industry of the South. on its way to New York. Then there was demand for cotton The president of the Farmers' Union of the United States, Mr. itself, and men bought it and sold it to the manufacturer and Charles S. Barrett, of Georgia, said recently: others who desired cotton. Here the law of supply and de The time has come when the speculator and the gambler must be mand was the law of the cotton market. The producer then eliminated from the cotton trade, and the spinner must come direct to the farmer for his supply of raw material. had an open market, and cotton, not margins, was in demand. How is it now, Mr. Chairman? They do not buy or sell cotton Mr. Harvie Jordan, of Georgia, president of the Southern to arrive-cotton on its way to New York-but they offer for Cotton Association, said in a speech some days ago: sale in unlimited quantities a fictitious stuff which they plea e Cotton exchanges have so grossly abused their privileges and have to call cotton, and by so doing they injuriously affect the price become so detrimental to legitimate trade that they can not now claim to have any lawful reason to exist, and should be promptly of the real product. They substitute a sham sale for a traus outlawed from every civilized community in both America and Europe. action in real cotton, and this to the great injury of the pro ducer. [Applause.] Time was when the cottq,n buyer in LiYer Mr. B. Cameron, of North Carolina, president of the Farmers' pool would go directly to the South to the cotton fields of the National Congress, said to me a few days ago : United States and there ascertain from the farmers and cotton I regard speculation in farm products as the great~st e:vil with merchants the price of cotton, and he bought his cotton there which the farmer has to de~l, and I trust that your btU to prevent gambling in cotton futures Will become a law. and it was shipped to him at Liverpool. Then the producer Mr. Chairman, I bring to you and to this House these mes had something to say about the price of cotton. Then the cot sages and expressions from the chosen leaders of the great ton merchant and the cotton manufacturer based all of their army of American producers. I submit that these men, occupy operations in the cotton market upon the cotton actually pro ina- high and responsible places in their organizations and in duced or to be produced and nothing else. [Applause.] How th: confidence and esteem of those they represent, are entitled different now. The cotton merchant has been outlawed and the to be heard in the interest of just and fair legislation. Back of manufacturer has turned away from the producer of cotton to them is the producer, who denounces the gambling exchange, and the gambling exchange. And this exchange, under present he pleads with Congress for deliverance from its blighting curse. methods handling fictitious stuff and dealing in margins, has [Applause.] been in ~peration for years to the detriment of the great army Six months ago, Mr. Chairman, the cotton growers and cotton of cotton producers. [Applause.] You buy a. paper contract, spinners of the world met in Atlanta, Ga., in the greatest say for a hundred bales of cotton, you do not have to pay the cotton congress that the world ever saw. I was a delegate, full value of the cotton-in fact you are only required to put representing the cotton growers of Alabama, and in that con up anywhere from one to five dollars per bale, and on a hundred vention I introduced the following resolution: bale contract with $100 you can affect the price of $6,000 worth of cotton. But one of the members of the New York Exchange Whereas the uncertainty that ranges aroun~ the pri~e of cott

!·delivery, and let the seller sell in good faith intending to deliver. living profits. All that he asks Congress to do is to remove the If these cotton exchanges were compelled by law to have behind licen~d obstacle that stands between him and an open market ' every contract for future delivery the actual cotton to deliver, open at all times to everybody who wants cotton. Then the law ! the producer could not and would not complain; but he does of supply and demand will controL But now, when you have· a 1 complain, because thouE"ands of these paper contracts are of the few men constituting what they call a cotton exchange, with its wild-cat kind and represent no real values, and into outrageous limited membership of four hundred and :fifty men, nnd every competition with these the real producer is drawn. seat around the pit worth twelve thousand five hundred dollars. 1 Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, the producer must be relieved regulating the price of cotton always toward the bear side, the ' of the outrageous and destructive competition to which he is producer has no voice and no chance in the premises-he is now subjected by the speculator who offers upon the exchange an object of prey for their greed. The high licensed, close cor a fictitious product which he can not and does not intend to poration millionaire club gather around the pit of the exchange, deli-rer. These gambling exchanges buy and sell a fictitious and there behind closed doors and in secret conclave the south product, and the price that they fix is intended to determine the ern people are robbed-systematically robbed of a produce _price of the entire cotton crop. This obnoxious method deprlv~s upon whose fair price depends the happiness ani! well-being of the farmer of his right to a voice in fixing the price of this 26,000,000 people. [Applause.] important product-a right which is accorded other· producers. 1\Ir. Arthur Marsh, member of the New York Cotton Ex [Applause.] change, says: The South wants an honest market and such prices as will All the arteries of the cotton world lead not merely to New York, follow the unhampered operation of the law of supply and but to the very floor of th.e cotton exchange. demand. We want to return to the principle which is as old as Yes, Mr. Chairman, and there behind closed doors they rob commercial intercourse itself, and that is that the seller shall the South annually of millions and millions of dollars. We be compelled in good faith to deliver the commodities sold at ha\e seen this gambling in stocks and in products in New York the time and place specified in the contract. [Applause.] lure money from legitimate channels, destroy legitimate busi If a man does not own a certain kind of property, but repre ness, paralyze commerce, and place southern and western pro sents that he does and obtains money on it he can be punished ducers at the mercy of those who would rob them of the fruits for obtaining money under false pretenses. And this transac of their toil and cause the wails of a financial panic to be heard tion in one sense only a.ffects the party who loans the money in all the States of the Union. [Applause.] ' and the party who practices the deceit. If a man obtains Employing the phraseology of another, let me say, "Why money or other thing of value, giving a mortgage on property should we not be permitted to call upon the Government for aid that he does not own, he is guilty of a penitentiru.·y offense and as do the gambling-stricken banks when pressed by frenzied must wear stripes for his crime. And in this transaction only speculation?" The banks South and West help those directly: the mortgagor and the mortgagee are affected; and yet Congress engaged in gainful pursuits; their borrowers produce the mer permits the cotton gambler to obtain money by offering for chandise that brings gold from its foreign hoarding place and sale something that he does not own and never expects to own, that maintains the Treasury's reserve. Such aid would uplift and through this evil performance in the speculators' exchange the price of cotton, and every dollar thereby added is an Amer the real product upon which millions· of people are dependent ican dollar-a dollar that circulates through the pockets of men for a livelihood is injuriously affected. IS' this treatment of whose sweat and sacrifice maintain the prestige of the Stars the world's cotton producerS' fair and just? [Applause.]. Ev and StripeS; [Applause.] ery buyer is the direct friend of the producer, for- he buys, and New York, by governmental sanction, has become the financial under the free exercise of the law of supply and demand hopes tyrant of the United States. In the fall of 1907 eastel'll banks to see the market sustained and advanced. To have this de holding our securities failed and refused to let us have money mand for cotton met with an artificial supply is antagonistic to already arranged for. Cotton speculators in New York urged the legitimate interests of the cotton industry and is a crime southern bankers to withhold money from the farmer and force against the great body of cotton producers in this country. him to sell his cotton. Is it just or prudent that any one city [Applause..] . or section should, by approval of the Government, financially The spinners are interested in seats on the New York Cotton dominate all other cities and sections? Shall the United States Exchange. They are represented there-r mean spinners in sublet, even in part, its prerogative that the regulation of money this country and spinners in foreign countries, too--and TII.St shall be by Congress, as provided in the Constitution? Can this millions are back of these men, and it is used from time to Republic allow the fiTst fruits of its soil to be exposed to the time to create a bear market, because the spinner wants to buy foreign bear or leave its protection to the mercy of speculators the raw material as cheap as possible and he has long since or the caprice of the banks of any city, m; to the agony of an lea1'Ded that the cotton exchange can be relied on as the handy always possible Black Friday? In the name of the producers instrument to accomplish this purpose. [Applause.] of the South and West I appeal for relief from the financial 1\lr. SillS. Will the gentleman permit me to ask him a ques difficulties under which they now labor and for deliverance tion? from the curse of gambling exchanges which doth now so sorely 1\fr. HEFLIN. Certainly. affiict us. For a long time these exchanges, intrenched by au Mr. SIMS. The cotton exchange is "Very hard on the bucket thority of the law and backed by many millions and undisturbed shops. I want to ask the gentleman if he thinks the bucket by anyone, flourished at the expense. of the producer. The shops c_ould last one minute without the cotton exchange to people knew that something was wrong, but they did not know furnish quotations on which they bet? just what it was. They saw the price of. products rise and falL Mr. HEFLIN. They could not. Mrr Chairman, the bucket at the beck and call of the exchange, but the exchanges man shop is merely the crap shooter in the cotton game, while the aged to have the price going down while the product was in exchange with a fixed hand is the stud-poker player in the the hand of the producer. great crime against the producer. [Laughter and applause.] :Mr. FITZGERALD. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman from Here is the South Carolina law = Alabama yield for a question? No dealing in futures permitted where the person contracting for 1\Ir. HEFLIN. If it is short, I will. the sale is not the actual owner, or agent tor the owner of the com modity dealt in, or where it is not the intention of the seller actually Mr. FITZGERALD. I want to ask the gentleman if there to deiiver, and of the buyer actually to receive. Penalty from $200 to ever has been any complaint of injustice done by the classifica· J?500, with possible imprisonment. tion in New York? If I go into the exchange in the morning and can get a ma Mr. HEFLIN. Yes, sir; a thousand times. [Applause.] .jority of the members, which is easy to do, as nearly all of Mr. FITZGERALD. Has not the objection on the part of the them represent spinning interests, to join me in bearing the cotton planters been more to the number of grades that have market, our success is assured and the producer is robbed. been established? :And this has been done without the use or the delivery of a Mr. HEFLIN. The planter objects to the exchange and all of single pound of cotton. The producer appears in the market its nefarious practices. [Applause.] - · ~ith a hundred bales of real cotton to sell. Having counted the Mr. Chairman, one of the chief advocates of the gambling cost of production and knowing something of the demand for exchange says that-- raw cotton and its value to the consuming world, he demands speculation is chief among the means by which modern life combats twelre and a half or fifteen cents per pound. Then your gam the uncertainties of the future. bling exchange gets in its work, bears the market, and proposes When the fact isT this speculation as now carried on is chief to sell a hundred bales of something which it is allowed by law among the means by which a few men who control large sums to call cotton for nine or t en cents per pound; and I submit that of money and who concentrate it at the place of the exchange this criminal procedure, licensed by the law, is the deadly deprive the producer of any voice in fixing the price of his enemy of the produC"er and ought not to be countenanced for a produce. :More than that, Mr. Chairman, speculation in farm day. [Applause.] The producer is entitled to fair prices and products as now all_owed is chief among the means by which a ·3544 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. ~i.AROH 18, coterie of nonproducers actually rob the producers, and by Before the South organized her producers the spinners con which a class of men with vast sums of money are threatening tracted with the speculators for the year's supply of cotton; the great producing class with a condition. of industrial slavery. then the spinner did not care or bother about the cotton mar The great agricultural interests of the United States cry out ket. He had his cotton bought and the price agreed on. now to Congress for frank recognition and equal rights with all did this leave the producer? In his unorganized condition he other interests in all the marts of trade. Rome reached the was helpless. The spinners who wanted cotton arranged with zenith of her glory when she laid greatest stress and emphasis the speculator and retired from the scene, and the producer on her agricultural interests. When agriculture was exalted was left to the mercy of the speculator and the speculator :md became the first fruits of her consideration and care Rome was doing all in his power to buy the cotton as cheaply as pos was prosperous and happy, and never until the producer was sible. They contract to sell so many bales at a certain price, ignored and agriculture neglected did she show any signs of then they go to work to keep the price of cotton down. If they decay. The agricultural classes of the United States beg you sold it for 7 cents and can buy it for 5 they have made 2 cents to remove from their path the gambling exchange which dis- per pound on two-thirds of the crop, and should we make turbs and destroys competitive buying. They plead for an 11,000,000 bales it would be seventy-odd million dollars in the open market-open to the world where all men who want cotton pockets of the gamblers. If 15 cents is a reasonable price for can bid and buy in the open. [Applause.] this cotton, and it is, the speculator backed by the spinner, One newspaper commenting on the effort to regulate cotton has robbed the producer of the difference between 5 cents exchanges by Congress, says: and 15 cents on 11,000,000 bales, which is the enormous sum It will give a shock to the business interests of tlie country if the of $550,000,000. manufacturer of cotton cloth, or the millers, who often sell their We know the c01mtries that need and must haYe cotton, and product for future' delivery at home or abroad at a time when they th h neither have cotton o1· wheat could not protect themselves by buying ey know t at we, and we alone, can grow cotton in abtmdance, cotton or wheat for future delivery. and it is foolish to say that we must rely on cotton exchanges Mr. Chairman, it is not our purpose to disturb legitimate to exploit our cotton and tell us its Yalue and cause us to have business; on the other hand, it is our purpose to encourage and buyers. protect legitimate business. If the manufacturer of cotton This close corporation in New York called the cotton ex goods sells the output of his mills in advance and wants to be change deprives the producer of any voice in the conduct of sure that he can get the cotton with which to manufacture the exchange. The cotton to be delivered by the exchange, or the goods and meet his contracts, he can buy in good faith rather by any member, is submitted to th'e samplers and weigh cotton for future delivery, and the legislation for which we ask ers of the New York Exchange. The producer has nothing to will not affect him. But he must buy the cotton from people do with it; and upon all matters as to grade the members and who intend to and who are capable of making the delivery. their representatives act, and their decision is final. The mem lle is in the cotton business and wants and must have cotton. bers of the classification committee are salaried officers paid The grower is also in the cotton business; he employs his skill, by the exchange, not by the producers, and the grade of cotton expends his energies; and devotes his time to the production of certified to is final and from it there is no appeal. So that this important crop, and when the cotton is produced it repre- all the dog-tail cotton in the country, once in New York and sents a year's toil, vast sums of money expended for land, labor, bearing a certificate of good character, a certificate issued by the stock, and farming implements. , exchange itself, serves their unholy purpose. [Applause.] Unless the grower can sell his cotton for a fair and reasonable l\fr. Chairman, I wish now to read a portion of the Agricul- price he can not live decently and worthily. It costs more to tural Committee's report on the Hatch bill, which passed this produce cotton now than ever before. The legislation that we House in the Fifty-third Congress, but was defeated in the desire will not deprive the producer of the right to sell his cotton Senate. The committee said in part: in good faith for future delivery. The cotton manufacturer has The foundation principle of this bill, and that which runs all through · t d · h" t t · t f Th it, is as old as the system of commercial trading, and for a hundred Inves e m IS gre~ en erpnse vas sums o money. e years or more in this country was not only the basis of all transactions farmer has invested in the great cotton-growing business Yast but was · honestly and universally adhered to; and that is that the sums of money. The grower and manufacturer must of neces- seller shall be compelled in good faith to deliver the commodities sold sity have an eye to the future. The producer i.s dependent upon at the time and place specified in the contract. Actual delivery was made the basis of all the original laws and rules of the boards of the price and demand for raw cotton, and the manufacturer trade in this country as well as of Europe. is dependent upon the price and demand for manufactured Every produce and every grain board of trade i.n the United States cotton goods, and the business of each should be left to the to-day has upon its rules the right of the buyer to demand and the obligation on the part of the seller to deliver what he agrees to sell fo r full and fair operation of the law of supply and demand. These future delivery; and they always recognize this principle. They know, men, growers and spinners, devote their money and their lives as every lawyer in the United States knows, that no contract without to the cotton business. such a provision behind it can be enforced in any of the State courts of the Union or the United States courts. What the great body of the pro- There is another class of men who are properly called cotton ducers of the United States now complain of is that this principle is gamblers. They do not grow cotton and they do not spin or daily, hourly, and almost universally violated. Pretending to enforce · Th d 1 1 · th t" a delivery of the commodity sold, they have invented ways and means, h andl e cott on In any way. ey ea on Y m e specu1 a Ive phrases and methods, to evade the plain provisions of their own laws, side of the market, where margins and paper contracts are sub- their own rules. This bill contemplates nothing that is not embraced stituted for actual cotton. The unfair and ridiculous compe· in the rules of the boards of trade except that it will enforce the actual tition to which this farcical performance subjects the grower contracts made and absolutely prevent the open and flagrant violation of them. It provides that every contract made for future delivery of deserves the condemnation of this House and of decent men these commodities shall be terminated by an actual delivery, and not everywhere. [Applause.] !J-D e~asive or simul.ativ~ one, of the commodities sold. If the question The manufacturer must base his contract for future delivery IS fairly presented It Will be seen that only the speculative centers are affected by a measure of this kind. They have no interest in common of cotton goods upon his ability to secure a portion of the cotton with the producers. Inside the walls of their close-corporation struc crop to be grown out of the ground and not produced in chalk tures they set up the mandate of markets, and no producer is permitted marks on the blackboard of a (J'ambling exchan(J'e. [Applause] to approach the throne from which issue the edicts that destroy his r , t:>. • • t:>. : : prosperity. The producers, the shippers the manufacturers, and the The cotton gambler s contract IS conceived rn Sin and born lll consumers alike are excluded !rom the daily sessions wheL·e the pros iniquity. He bases Lis contract, not upon his desire or his perity of the nation is made secondary to the manipulators ot the price ability to deliver cotton when sold and the party with whom of food products. the sham sale is perfected does not 'expect or desire that actual It is simply amazing to me that Congress has permitted this delivery of cotton be made, and yet by speculating in a fictitious condition of things to exist so long, for it is clear to e\ery product which they call cotton, th~ price of the real product is man who has given it any thought that the producer, under injuriously affected. I repeat, these men are cotton gamblers this system of speculation, is outraged and robbed. (Ap- pure and simple. [Applause.] plause.] The cost of production, the happiness and well-being of that Here is an exhibition of rascality and crime practiced and great army of cotton producers in the South do not enter into committed through the system of speculation now in vogue in their remorseless and thieving game. The man in the market New York: with &.ctual cotton for sale sees a fictitious product meeting the NEW YORK, June 19, 1;106. temporary demand for cotton, and his own product becomes a The trial of E. S. Holmes, jr., formerly assistant statistician on the Department of Agriculture crop-reporting staff at Washington, who is drug on the market. The price of cotton goods and the amount charged with selling advance information about the crop reports of the of the cotton supply coupled with the demand for both ought Government, is arousing keen interest in Wall street. It will be to and would shape the price of r aw cotton if speculation in recalled that in 1905 a serious charge was made by the Southern Cotton Growers' Association to the ef!'ect that the Department of cotton futures were prohibited by law. The exchanges for a Agriculture crop reports were being peddled out in advance to long t\me in spite of the bear market, which they created and stock and cotton brokers and others. In other words, these reports upheld, succeeded in deceiving a great many of our people into were available to those desirous of operating on them at least twenty four hours ahead of the official publications to the world at large. An believing that the cotton exchange, as operated in New York official investigation was immediately demanded into the whole business, and New Orleans, were the friends of the producer. But now and is now being conducted at Washington. Mt·. Louis C. Van Riper, they ue no longer deceived. the chief witness of the day, declared that Holmes had for a long time 1908. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. 3545

provided to the well-known cotton operator and manipulator, Mr. Theo- religion, escapes prosecution, and when court adjourns, Io! dore n. Price, advance information as to crop estimates, and had been th h t th t k h' 1 · h' d h ld h' f paid liberally for so doing. 'l.'he witness even went so far as to assert e aun s a mew rm once c aim 1m an o 1m as o that Holmes had had, at the time in question, over $50,000 for his yore. [Laughter and applause.] We have seen in the New services in this direction. York Exchange and the New Orleans Cotton Exchange, on the And now, in defending speculation, Mr. Theodore Price, of same day, a difference of from one cent to a cent and a half a New York, says: pound, the highest being at New Orleans and the lowest being Solomon, reputed the wisest of men, said, "Where there is no vision at New York. It has been estimated that the New York Cotton the people perish." In all literature- Exchange has cost the South $75,000,000 a year. This ti·emen- continues Mr. Price- dous drain has been going on for a long time. My bill would put a stop to this exchange and its evils and put its gambling mem therestatement. is no Thejustification world's greatof speculation things have so beenvivid doneor trenchant by men wh.oas thisare bers in the penitentiary where they ought to be. Price is not willing to take risks and whose willingness was inspired by the picture now a member of the New York Exchange, but bas a representa of success which they kept constantly before the1r minds and their tive on the floor always. So, where is the difference? aml.Jitions. Mr. SMALL. Will the gentleman yield? Mr. Chairman, Solomon in all his glory never dreamed that Mr. HEFLIN. For a question; my time is limited. an exchange gambler would employ the above quotation in justi- Mr. SMALL. I would like to know what legislation the fication of his crime. [Laughter and applause.] This man Price gentleman thinks would accomplish the purpose of stopping this is authority on" vision,"" pictures,"" risks," and" willingness" gambling. to undertake great things. I have in mind a picture now, and Mr. HEFLIN. I am coming to that. Theodore Price is a conspicuous figure in it. He is looking We must deny to the exchanges that gamble in futures the toward the Agricultural Department in Washington, and there use of the telephone, telegraph lines, and the mails for gam is revealed to his "vision" valuable statistical crop informa- bling purposes, and wild speculating in cotton futures will tion, and this man of "risks" and great "undertakings" cease. [Applause.] invades the secret service of the Government and offers to buy Hereafter the producer is going to employ some business tact. statistical data prior to the day fixed by law for its publica- He is going to count his own time, the cost of labor, and in tion. He bought and used this information in his gambling fact the oost of everything that enters into the production of operations; but this man of "risks" and great " undertakings" cotton; and then be is going to display a measure of intern did not stop with that measure of crime against the producer gence by adding a little profit. Not until the producers as and against the Government-he paid money to Holmes, of the serted themselves through their organizations did the spinners statistical department, not merely for advance information ever talk of dealing directly with the producers of cotton. regarding crop statistics, but he had the statistics changed and Never, until we branded these professional gamblers in cotton made the Government repo!t tell a lie to the world. [Ap- futures as enemies to the cotton growers did foreign spinners plau~e.] .The producer was m a woeful fix. ~he. exchange w~s want to make our acquaintance and talk business with us. robbmg hrm at_ New Yo.r~ and the_re was 11; thief m ~e Depar~~ . These spinners responded to the exchanges, and the exchanges ~ent at Washmgton g1vmg out information to Pnce and hi.... made them perform like jumping jacks. They were ready to kmd. . . . make any announcement about cotton, or trouble at the mills- 1\Ir. ~hll;Irman, l~t me ~1ve you a bnef statement from the anything that would serve their purpose. With these shrewd. grower s Side of this ques~IO~ . He says : . rascals in the exchange backed by the combined power of the A decline of $6 per bale Withrn less than a w~ek repr~sents a seri.ous spinners the producer was helpless until he organized. Now loss. The fact that values could be thus annihilated Without any JUSt . . . or reasonable cause is a consideration of grave importance. A man may he stands up ill the open, and by concert of action through his waste his pro~erty or los~ it through igno.rance or mistaken judgment, organizations demands that Congress destroy the cotton gam but when ones _Property iS taken. fr~m him by unexpected assault he bier. [Applause.] And many things testify to the fact that loses not only his property, but his rights. It is therefore of the first th . . . . . importance that the agency inflicting such a loss be discovered, and e producer as organized IS becomillg a power ill the land. He the remedy for the wrong be found and applied. has been able in two years to bring the foreign spinners across Mr. Chairman, these speculators do not own a pound of cot- the seas and throu~h the co~ntry d?wn to the cotton belt for ton. What right have they to offer for sale cotton belonging the purpo~e of gettmg acquamted. With the prod?cer of cotton, to the producers in the South? No man is allowed to sell or and to brmg about a better relatiOn. between sp~er and pro offer to sell without authority from the owner stocks or bonds du_cer. In oth~r words, by your assistance, we Will cause the belonging to a certain railroad. No man can sell or offer to spillner to realize that he must look. hereafter to the prod~cer sell any share in a given corporation without the authority and not to th~ speculator for the pnce of cotton. How thmgs from the owner. If a man who has no stock in a certain rail- have.changed ill the past two years. Not long ago the only dis road should offer for sale some of the shares or stocks in the cussion that we indulged in concerning cotton was, will the exchange, those who really own the stocks would object to and ~rop be large or. small, and what ~o you suppose we'll get for stop the performance which might injuriously affect their prop- It. How about It now? Conventions are bemg held at h~me erty. Then are you surprised that the cotton grower should and abroa~ by J?anl!facturers and produ~ers, a_nd the subJect complain when men who do not own or have any connection they are discussmg IS cotton. The q~estwns w1th us now are at all with real cotton offer cotton for sale? Is railroad prop- not so much ::'-s to whe~her the cr?p Will be large .or small, and erty or shares in a corporation more sacred than property in how much will they g1ve u~ for It, but the questiOns are, how farm products? [Applause.] shall we des!Toy the enemies of cotton, what is a fair ·and The fact is the New York Cotton Exchan"'e is the rottenest reasonable pnce, and how much shall we demand? cotton-dealinO' establishment in the world. o The outcast and Mr. Chairman, all that the cotton producer asks is an open refuse cottono of the world is in good standing at this exchan"'e market free from the tricks of trade employed in the exchange. and serves their unholy purpose. Harvie Jordan, president ~f These cotton gamblers have the~ own bureau of infori?ation the Southern Cotton Association, found on his trip abroad that and they ma!lufacture whatever IS necessary to sen~ their pur- 9,000 bales of American cotton had been shipped from Liverpool pose. Here ~s a sample. Not long ago Theodore Pnce sent out to New York to fill July contracts. It was such a dirty low a letter say~g that the cotton crop would be eleven million grade cotton that it had been refused on the Liverpool Ex- bales. The mk was h::'-rdly dry upon that circular until he change. [Applause.] issued another one saymg the crop would be thirteen million . The Members of Congress from the South called on the Post- bales. This man spends thous~~ds ?f dollars a day sending Office authorities at Washington to issue a fraud order ao-ainst messages over the country practicmg ill a new -way the old, old the New York Cotton Exchange on the ground that it w:s not game of" come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly." [Ap doing a legitimate business, and we asked that the use of the plause.] mails be denied them. It was further charged that the cotton The wool grower does not have an exchange to inform him sold on contracts on the floor of the exchange was never de- of the value of wool, and yet he has prospered when the cotton livered at all and that the cotton delivered in any instance was grower was hard pressed and helpless in the hands of the not of the middling grade, or its equivalent, but a rotten com- exchange. No exchange stands in the market path of the hay modity which can not be spun. It is only fit for making horse crop, and yet the hay crop in the United States is of greater ~ollars and mattresses. We have caught them in the act of value than the cotton crop. rascality, and now, when we are trying to put them out of busi- The gambling exchange has ruined more men in the South ness, when we have exposed their methods to the world- than we can ever know. It has robbed us of millions every about twenty · members profess to have had a change of year. It has destroyed homes once happy and prosperous. It heart, and they, together with Theodore Price, claim to want a has sent men raving to the madhouse and others reeling into revision of grades and a change of rules. These new converts the suicide's grave. [Applause.] remind me of the fellow who runs a blind tiger in the com- This cotton gambler has demanded a frightful sacrifice of munity until just before the grand jury meets, pretends to get manhood and honor. There is scarcely a community in the 3546 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 1\f.A.RCH 18,

South where you can not find the foot tracks of this remorseless Mr. BOWERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from monster. Gambling in cotton futures is one of the meanest North Carolina [Mr. SMALL]. forms of gambling-it ruins morally the speculator and destroys 1\lr. SMALL. Mr. Chairman, I have receive

and justice to come out in suppor-t of the Government in its efforts Accordingly the committee rose; and the Speaker having re to provide adequate ar·mament pending the effective establishment of arbitration as an actual and reliable system. sumed the chair, 1\:fr. CHA EY, Chairman of the Committee of The apparent inconsistency in advocating both armament :md arbi the Whole House on the state of the Union, reported that that tration disappears after even a casual analysis of these means of committee had had under consideration the pension apprcpria justice in their relation to each other and to national security and to international peace. tion bill, and had come to no resolution thereon. The North Carolina Peace Society has declared itself for adequate WITHDRAW A.L OF P.APERS. armament and effective arbitration, on the ground that it is the duty of American citizens, individually and collecti"Vely, to support the Gov By unanimous consent, leave was granted to l\Ir. STEPHENS ernment in both of these means of protecting the nation's rights in its of Texas to withdraw from the files of the House, without leav relations with other powers. Greatly as we regret the necessity of making any preparation for ing copies, the papers in the case of W. J. Chrisman, Sixtieth war, we recognize that the United States is in duty bound to main Congress, no adverse report having been made thereon. tain such an armed force on land and sea as will enable the nation to To Mr. GARDNER of Michigan to withdraw from the files of protect each of the States in the full, free, and perpetual exercise of all the rights reserved under the Constitution, to preserve, unimpaired, the House, without leaving copies, the papers in the case of all the national rights and interests, and to execute a just policy in Frank D. Newberry, Sixtieth Congress, no adverse report hav our foreign affairs. ing been made thereon. Such preparation is the penalty we must pay for the condition of affairs which confronts the nation. Not to make this preparation would ENROLLED BILL SIGNED. correspond to permitting your gas plant and fixtures to fall into bad repair as soon as you decide there IS a better system for lighting and Mr. WILSON of Illinois, from the Committee on Enrolled before you have installed such a s:vstem. Such action would be not Bills, reported that they had examined and found truly enrolled only unwise but very dangerous. On the other band, making proper bill of the following title, when the SPEAKER signed the same: preparation for emergencies which may arise before we can install a reliable system of International1 arbitration, would help rather than H. R. 17311. An act to authorize the Pensacola, Mobile and hinder the prosecution of this necessary and laudable work. It will New Orleans Railway Company, a corporation existing under tend to preserve a temporary peace until the things that pertain to a the laws of the State of Alabama, to construct a bridge over permanent peace can be ascertained and put into effective operation the world over. and across the Mobile River and its navigable channels on •a Without claiming to be acquainted with all the highly technical and line approximately east of the north boundary line of the city complicated questions involved in a proper determination of whether of 1\fobile, .Ala. the Navy now needs two, four, or four times four battle ships of the first class, we are convinced that, upon principle, every nation should COMMITTEE RESIGNATION. have an unquestionably superior force in its own territory and In the The SPEAKER laid before the House the following : waters adjacent to its possessions, provided the national resources make this possible; also that no pains should be spared, even by the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, most powerfully armed nation, to perfect as rapidly as possible a com Washington, March 16, 1908. plete system of international law as a substitute for war in the inter Hon. JosEPH G. CANNON, national realm. House of Representatwes, Washington, D. 0. Inasmuch as facts, not personal opinions or preferences, determine DEAR MR. SPEAKER: Assuring you of my appreciation of your kind what is adequate armament for any particular country and what is ness in appointing me upon the Committee on Naval Affairs, I hereby effective arbitration, the North Carolina Peace Society believes that tender my resignation as a member of the Committee on Merchant Ma the ships asked for by the President and by the Navy Department rine and Fisheries. should be provided by Congress and that a commission should be ap I am. with greatest respect, pointed to investigate thoroughly the whole question of national se Yours, truly, J. T. WATKI S. curity and international justice, in the light of what was done and what was left undone by the Second Hague Conference, and in the light of The SPEAKER. Is there objection to relieving the gentl~ the events that caused the transfer of our entire navy power to tbe man from Louisiana from further service on the Committee on Pacific Ocean, and of such other facts, including the attitude of other governments to our vital interests, as may have a bearing upon the Merchant Marine and Fisheries? proper determination of a scientific naval policy for our country. There was no objection. In proposing such a commission -our society does not mean to reflect upon tbe competence of the members of the Naval Committees of tbe MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE. Senate and House or upon Congress. On the contrary, the innumerable A message from the Senate, by 1\fr. PARKINSON, one of its duties devolving upon the Members of Congress call for a scientific and thorough investigation at this time of these two questions, so vital secretaries, announced that the Senate had passed bills of the to the prosperity of our people and the peace of the world, by persons following titles, in which the concurrence of the House of Rep having the same ability and patriotism as the Members of Congress, resentatives was requested: but freed from the engrossing cares of office, which prevent even the most conscientious Members of Congress from giving to these questions S. 4049. An act authorizing a credit in certain accounts of the the attention which their importance makes proper and which their Treasurer of the United States; and complexity makes necessary. S. 624. An act providing for the appointment of an appraiser Such a commission would seem to be incomplete unless it contains a representative of the Army and Navy as well as a member of the of merchandise for the customs collection district of Puget Second Hague Conference and the Third Pan-American Conference. The Sound, State of Washington. addition of a member of the Senate and also of the House of Repre The message also announced that the Vice-President had ap sentatives would undoubtedly be of great service, on account of their experience in our National Legislature, upon which the responsibility of pointed Mr. BAILEY and l\lr. GALLINGER members of the joint right decision must finally fall. committee on the part of the Senate, as provided for in the act You will of course know what weight should be given to this memo of February 16, 1889, entitled "An act to authorize and provide rial and whether it merits tbe attention of the House. It occurs to us that the Speaker will not be averse in such case to permitting the for the disposition of useless papers in the Executive Depart House to bear this memorial from his native State, though his im ments," for the disposition of useless papers in the Department partiality in the conduct of the high office which he bolds would pre of Commerce and Labor. · vent bis giving it any consideration wbicb its contents do not entitle it to. It contains names interwoven with the best endeavors of our The message also announced that the Senate had passed the State in the present and iu the past, and I sincerely believe that it following resolutions: can be regarded as the sense of the representative people of North Carolina, who would be glad of an opportunity, in my judgment, to Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of the join with the signers in presenting it to Congress. The near approach death of the Hon. WILLIA~I PINKNEY WHYTE, late a Senator from the of the time for final actiOn on the Naval Committees' report prevents State of Maryland. ou1· giving them this opportunity. Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these proceedings to the Copies of tbis memonal and letter have been sent to Senator OVER House of Representatives and transmit a copy thereof to the family of MAN and to each of the North Carolina Members of the House, and the deceased Senator, and that, as a further mark of respect to bis they will no doubt be glad to cooperate with you in taking such action memory, the Senate do now adjourn. upon it as your judgment and their wishes may indicate as proper and DEATH OF SENATOR WHYTE. expedient. Assured of your cooperation in all ways proper to effectuate these .Mr. GILL. Mr. Speaker, it is with more than profound sor ideas, and with best wishes, I beg to remain, Very sincerely, yours, row that I rise to call the attention of the House of Representa HAYNE DAVIS, President. tives to the resolution of the Senate which has just been read, announcing the death of the late Senator from Maryland, Ron. I wish to say that I do not intend, Mr. Chairman, in submit WILLIAM PINKNEY WHYTE, and to ask the House to adopt the ting this memorial or any remarks I may make, to indicate the resolutions which I shall presently send to the Speaker's desk. position of the delegation from North Carolina in this House. 1\fr. Speaker, Senator WHYTE believed in the simple life. He Speaking for myself, I may say that I shall not vote for four lived the simple life, and at his death or just prior thereto he battle ships as I am at present advised, but vote for a maximum requested that the funeral services should be of the most simple of two battle ships, which number, as I understand, will be character. In accordance with that request we have omitted recommended by the Nayal Committee. from the resolutions which we shall ask the House to pass the The distinguished names appended to this memorial and usual appointment of a Congressional committee to attend the the proposition they submit are of sufficient importance, in ruy funeral. judgment, to submit to the House and to be incorporated in the This, Mr. Speaker, is not the time to express our feelings as RECORD. to our loss nor to speak of his life and his great public services. l\Ir. KEIFER. l\Ir. Chairman, I move that the committee do Some time later I shall ask that a day be set apart for that now rise. purpose. I present the following resolutions, which I send to The motion was agreed to. the desk and ask to have read. 3548 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 1\iA.RcH 18,

The Clerk read as follows : ing pensions and increase of pensions to certain soldiers and Resolrea, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of the sailors of the civil war, and certain widows and dependent rcla death of the Hon. WILLIAM PINKNEY WHYTE, late a Senator of the tl\es of such soldiers and sailors, reported the same with amend United States from the State of Maryland. Resol!;ed, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate, ment, accompanied by a report (No. 1266); which said bUl and and transmit a copy thereof to tbe family of the deceased Senator. report were referred to the Private Calendar. . Resoh:ed, That as a further mark of respect the House do now Mr. DRAPER, from the Committee on Pensions, to which was adjourn. referred the bill of the House (H. R. 19475) granting pensions The SPEAKER. The question is on agreeing to the resolu and increase of pensions to certain soldiers and sailor of the tions. Regular Army and Navy, and certain soldiers and sailors of The question was taken, and the resolutions were agreed to. .wars other than the civil war, and to widows and devendent Accordingly, in pursuance of the foregoing resolutions (at 4 relatives of such soldiers and sailors, reported the same with o'clock and 24 minutes p. m.), the House adjourned. amendment, accompanied by a report (No. 1271); which said bill and report were referred to the Private Calendar. EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS, ETC. Under clause 2 of Rule XXIV, the following executive com munications were taken from the Speaker's table and referred CHANGE OF REFERENCE. as follows: Under clause 2 of Ru1e XXII, committees were discharged A letter from the assistant clerk of the Court of Claims, trans from the consideration of bills of the following titles, which mitting a statement of the French spoliation cases dismissed were thereupon referred as follows : April 22, 1907, on motion of defendants, for want of prosecu A bill (H. R. 3631) granting an increase of pension to Charles tion-to the Committee on Claims and ordered to be printed. 1\f. Montgomery-Committee on Invalid Pensions discharged, • A letter from the assistant clerk of the Court of Claims, trans and referred to the Committee on Pensions. mitting a copy of the findings filed by the court in the case of A bill (H. R. 8381) granting an increase of pension to David Shelby Grisham, administrator of estate of Daniel Thompson, Peters-Committee on Invalid Pensions discharged, and re against The United States-to the Committee on War Claims ferred to the Committee on Pensions. and ordered to be printed. · A bill (H. R. 16353) granting a pension to D. G. Harrison A letter from the assistant clerk of the Court of Claims, trans Committee on In\alid Pensions discharged, and referred to the mitting a copy of the findings filed by the court in the case of Committee on Pensions. Dan Thomason, administrator of estate of Joel Harrell, against A bill (H. R. 19322) granting a pension to Vina Linden The United States-to the Committee on War Claims and bower-Committee on Invalid Pensions discharged, and re ordered to be printed. ferred to the Committee on Pensions. A letter from the assistant clerk of the Court of Claims, trans mitting a copy of the findings filed by the court in the case of R. M. Rogan, administrator of estate of F. S. Heiskell, against PUBLIC BILLS, RESOLUTIONS, AND MEMORIALS. The United States-to the Committee on War Claims and or Under clause 3 of Ru1e XXII, bills, resolutions, and memo dered to be printed. rials of the following titles were introduced and severally re A letter from the assistant clerk of the Court of Cmims, trans ferred as follows: mitting a copy of the conclusions of fact and law in the French By Mr. BRADLEY, fr()m the Committee on Invalid Pensions: spoliation cases relating to the schooner Oent1trion, Phllip A bill (H. R. 19463) granting pensions and increase of pensions Greely, master-to the Committee on Claims and ordered to be to certain soldiers and sailors of the civil war and certain printed. widows and dependent relatives of such soldiers and sailors---. A letter from the assistant clerk of the Court of Claims, trans to the Private Calendar. mitting a copy of the findings filed by the court in the case of - By 1\Ir. GAINES of Tennessee: A bill (H. R. 19464) author Samuel E. Fitzhugh, administrator of estate of Samuel H. izing the use of H-ounce internal-revenue stamps for manufac Fitzhugh, against The United States-to the Committee on tured snuff-to the Committee on Ways and Means. War Claims and ordered to be printed. By 1\Ir. McKINLEY of illinois: A bill. (H. R. 19465) to create a national university at the seat of the Federal Government REPORTS OF COMMITTEES ON PUBLIC BILLS AND to the Committee on Education. RESOLUTIONS. By 1\Ir. HARRISON: A bill (H. R. 19466) to establish a court of patent appeals, and for other purposes-to the Commit Under cause 2 of Rule XIII, bills and resolutions were tee on Patents. severally reported from committees, delivered to the Clerk, and By 1\Ir. McLAUGHLIN: A bill (H. R. 19467) appropriating referred to the several Calendars therein named, as follows : money for public building at Manistee, Mich.-to the Committee Mr. RODE!\~ERG, from the Select Committee on Industrial on Public Buildings and Grounds. Arts and Expositions, to which was referred the bill of the House By Mr. FERRIS: A bill (H. R. 19468) authorizing the Secre (H. R. 10530) to encourage the holding of an Alaska-Yukon tary of the Interior to sell sites for schoolhouses, not exceeding Pacific Exposition at the city of Seattle, State of Washington, 2 acres in quantity, to school districts in the State ot Okla in the year l909, reported the same with amendments, accom homa-to the Committee on Indian Affairs. panied by a report (No. 1267) ; which said bill and report By Mr. BYRD: A bill (H. R. 10460) to subject to the laws were referred to the Committee of the Whole House on the of any State or Territory all intoxicating liquors shipped therein state of the Union. by railroads, express companies, and steamship lines-to the · Mr. FERRIS, from the Committee on the Public Lands, to Committee on the Judiciary. which was referred the bill of the Senate (S. 4922) providing By 1\Ir. AIKEN: A bill (H. R. 10470) permitting the building for the platting and selling of the south half of section 30 of a dam across the Savannah River at Calhoun Falls-to the township 2 north, range 11 west of the Indian meridian, in the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. State of Oklahoma, for town-site purposes, reported the same Also, a bill (H. R. 10471) authorizing the building of a dam without amendment, accompanied by a report (No. 1270); across the Savannah River at Trotters Shoals-to the Commit which said bill and report were referred to the House Calen tee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. dar. Also, a bill (H. R. 19472) permitting the building of a dam Mr. PRAY, from the Committee on the Public Lands, to across the Tugaloo River at Hattons Ford-to the Committee on which was referred the bill of the Senate (S. 206) to extend Interstate and Foreign Commerce. the provisions of the mining laws of the United States to cer By Mr. JOHNSON of Kentucky: .A bill (H. R. 19473) to tain lands situated in the Bitter Root Valley, State of Mon amend an act approved March 3, 1897, entitled ".An act to allow tana, above -the mouth of the Lo Lo Fork of the Bitter Root the bottling of distilled spirits in bond "-to the Committee on River, reported the same without amendment, accompanied by Ways and Means. a report (No. 1272); which said bill and report were 1·eferred By l\fr. SIMS: A bill (H. R. 19474) to erect an addition to to the House Calendar. the post-office and court-house building in the city of Jackson, State of Tennessee-to the Committee on Public Buildings and REPORTS OF COMMITTEES ON PRIVATE BILLS AND Grounds. RESOLUTIONS. By Mr. DRAPER, from the Committee on Pensions: A bUl Under clause 2 of Rule XIII, private bills and resolutions (H. R. 19475) granting pensions and increase of pensions to cer were severally reported from committees, delivered to the Clerk, tain soldiers and sailors of the Regular Army and Navy, and and referred to the Committee of the Whole House, as follows : certain soldiers and sailors of wars other than the civil war, and Mr. BRADLEY, from the Committee on Invalid Pensions, to to widows and dependent relatives of such soldiers and sailors_, which .was referred the bill of the House (H. R. 19463) grant- to the Private Calendar. 1908. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3549 ------r------PRIVATE BILLS A....1'1D RESOLUTIONS. By Mr. HOWELL of New Jersey: A bill {ll. R. 19?00) grant ing a pension to Laura E. 1\IcChesney-to the Committee on In Under clause 1 of Rule XXII, private bills and resolutions of valid Pensions. the following titles were introduced and severally referred as By Mr. HUFF: .A. bill (ll. R. 10510) granting a pension to fOllO\TS: Edit h Patton-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. By Mr. AL~~ER of New York: A bill (H. R. 1947?) Also, a bill (H. R. 19511) granting a pension to Emily C. granting an increase of pension to John Engel-to the Comnnt tee on Invalid Pensions. Bio-ham-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. ..AJ.so, a bill (H. R. 19512) granting an inc.reuse o~ pension to Also, a bill (H. R. 19477) granting an increase of- pension to Charles Roques-to the Committee on Invalid Penswns. George W. Williams-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. Also, a bill (H. R. 19513) granting an increase. of pen~ion to Also, a bill (H. R. 19478) to remove the charge of desertion Georo-e W. Mechling-to the Committee on Invalid Penswns. from the military record of David Curry-to the Committee on Al;o a bill (H. R. 10514) granting an increase of pension to Military Affairs. . w. N: Baker-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. . By Mr. ANDREWS: A bill (H. R. 19479) granting a penswn Also, a bill (H. R. 19515) granting an increase of pensiOn to to Antonio Salazar-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. _ Maurice I. Covert-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. By Mr. BARCLAY: A bill (H. R. 19480) granting an increase of pension to William C. Robbins-to the Committee on In Also, a bill (H. R 19516) granting an increa~e of p~nsion to valid Pensions. Andrew J. Artman-to the Committee on Invalid Penswns. Also, a bill (H. R. 19517) granting an increase of pension to By :Mr. BUTLER: A bill (H. R. 19481) granting a pension to Robert Moore-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. Frank E. Laurence-to the Committee on Pensions. Also, a bill (H. R. 19518) granting an ~crease ?f pension to By Ur. CALDER: A bill (H. R. 19482) granting an increase Jacob Dewalt-to the Committee on Invalid Pens1ons. of pension to Alonzo D. Brown-to the Committee on Invalid Also, a bill (H. R. 19519) granting an. increas_e of pension to Pensions. Amos Kiehl-to the Committee on Invalid Penswns. By Mr. CALDERHEAD: A bill (H. R. 19483) granting a Also, a bill (H. R. 19520) granting an increase of pension to pension to Guy R. Martin-to the Committee on. Invalid Pen John c. Stuchal-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. . sions. Also, a bill (H. R. 19521) granting an increase of penswn to By hlr. CANNON: A bill (H. R. 19484) granting an increase John Williams-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. of pension to John P. Terrell-to the Committee on Invalid By Mr. LAFEAN: A bill (H. R. 19522) for the relief of the Pensions. legal representatives of Samuel Fitz, deceased-to the Com By Mr. CLARK of Florida: A. bill (H. R. 194-85) for the re mittee on War- Claims. lief of George H. Wright-to the Committee on Claims. By Mr. McGUIRE: .A. bill (H. R. 19523) granting an increase By Mr. COOK of Pennsylvania: A bill (H. R. 19486) grant of pension to Jacob Amberg-to the Committee on Pensions. . ing an honorable discharge . to Charles Gardner-to the Com By Mr. McLAUGHLIN of Michigan: A bill (H. R .. 19524) mittee on Military Affairs. granting a pension to Ishmael Comstock-to the Comnnttee on By Mr. COX of Indiana: A bill (H. R. 19487) granting a Invalid Pensions. pension to George A. Cox-to the Committee on Invalid Pen sions. By Mr. MADDEN: A bill (H. R. 19525) for the relief of Also a bill (H. R. 19488) granting a pension to Samuel B. John C. De Lany-to the Committee on Claims. Wellm~to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. By Mr. MURDOCK: A bill (H. R. 19526) t~ correct -f;h.e Also a bill (H. R. 19489) granting an increase of pension to military record of Lewis Cracraft-to the Committee on Mili l\Ianda'lis Bailey-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. tary Affairs. By Mr. DAWES: A bill (H. R. 19490) granting an increase of By Mr. NORRIS: A bill (H. R. 19527) gra~ting an increa~e pension to John Smith-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. of pension to Cyrus · S. Beers-to the Comnnttee on Invalid By Mr. DENVER: A bill (H. R. 19491) granting a pension to Pensions. Ellen Miller-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. By Mr. NYEJ: A bill (H. R. 19528) granting a pension to Also a bill (H. R. 19492) granting an increase of pension to Tony K. Wilson-to the Committee on Pensions. Will i a~ J. Srofe-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. By Mr. PAYNE: A bill (H. R. 19520) for the relief of James By Mr. FLOYD: A bill (H. R. 19493) granting a pension to G. Van Marter-to the Committee on Military Affairs. Patrick F. Flaherty-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. By Mr. SHACKLEFORD: A bill (~. R. 19530) grantin? an Also, a bill (H. R. 10494) granting a pension to Frances increase of pension to George G. Robmson-to the Comnnttee Brasel-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. on Invalid Pensions. . By Mr. FOSTER of Illinois: A bill (H. R. 19405) to remove By Mr. SMITH of Missouri: A bill (H. R. 19531) gra~ting the charge of desertion from the record of George Forbus, alias an increase of pension to John W. Snyder-to the Comnnttee George Davidson-to the Committee on Military Affairs. on Invalid Pensions. . By Mr. FULLER: A bill (H. R.19496) granting an increase By Mr. STURGISS: :A. bill (H. R. 19532) granting a pension of pension to Ruhamah D. Sawyer-to the Committee on In to Willis B. Cross-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. ·mlid Pensions. Also, a bill (H. R. 19533) granting an increase of pension to Elisha A. Hartman-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. By Mr. GAINES of Tennessee: A bill (H. R. 10497) granting By Mr. THISTLEWOOD: .A. bill (H. R. 19534) granting a an increase of pension to Margie A. Morgan-to the Committee pension to Alfred Hayton-to the Committee on Invalid Pen on Pensions. sions. By Mr. GILHAMS: A bill (H. R. 19498) granting an increase By 1\Ir. WOLF: A bill (H. R. 19535) grantin_g an increase ?f of pension to John Runes-to the Committee on Invalid Pen- pension to Lionel 0. Coleman-to the Committee on Invalid sions. . Pensions. By 1\lr. HAMLIN: A bill (H. R. 19499) granting a pension to By Mr. WOOD: A bill (H. R. 19536) granting a pension to Jesse G. Smith-to the Committee on Pensions. Elizabeth Foran-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. By lli. HARDWICK: A bill (H. R. 19500) for the relief of By Mr. PADGETT: A bill (H. R. 19537) gran.ting an increa~ the estate of William F. Youngblood, deceased-to the Commit of pension to John H. Bratsch.i-to the 0oll1Jlllttee on Invalid tee on War Claims. Pensions. Also a bill (H. R. 10501) for the relief of Lieut. James B. Fowle~-to the Committee on War Claims. Also a bill (H. R. 10502) for the relief of William B. PETITIONS, ETC. Brook~to the Committee on War Claims. Under clause 1 of Ru1e XXII, the following petitions and Also a bill (H. R. 19503) for the relief of John E. Herrod papers were laid on the Clerk's desk and referred as follows: to the' Committee on War Claims. By the SPEAKER: P etition of Brotherhood of Railway Em By Mr. HAWLEY: A bill (H. R. 19504) granting a pension ployees, against passage of H. R. 15447, relative to investigation to Almon Shibley-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. of controversies affecting interstate commerce, etc.-to the Com Also, a bill (II. R. 19505) granting a pension to Elanor 1\Ic mittee on Interstate and F oreign Commerce. Dantt-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions By Mr. ADAIR: Petition of New York Board of Trade, Also a bill (H. R. 19506) granting a pension to Eleura J. against Aldrich currency bill-to the Committee on Banking and Lewi~to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. Currency. Also a bill (H. R. 19507) granting an increase of pension to By l\1r. AIKEN: Paper to accompany bill for relief of R. W. L. Defianey-to the Committee on Pensions. Smith Bailey-to the Committee on War Claims. Also a bill (H. R. 19508) for the relief of S. A. D. Hun By l\Ir~ ALEXANDER of New York: Petition of Lodge No. gate-fo the Committee on Claims. 417, Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, of East Buffalo, N. Y .. 3550 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. MARCH 18, for La Follette-Sterling liability bill, Rodenberg anti-injunction Also, petition of North American Fish and Game Protective bill, and Clapp free-pass amendment, and against the Knox Association, for treaty with Canada for international control bill-to the Committee on the Judiciary. of fishing interests on the Great Lakes-to the Committee on .Also, petition of Buffalo Credit 1\Ien's .Association, for H. R. Foreign Affairs. 132GG, for the national bankruptcy law-to the Committee on By 1\Ir. FITZGERALD: Petition of Mercantile Association the Judiciary. of New York, against Gardner eight-hour bill-to the Committee .Also, petition of Elisha L. Haywood Post, No. 542, Grand on Labor. Army of the Republic, of Buffalo, N.Y., against consolidation of Also, petition of 330 citizens of New York, against building pension agencies-to the Committee on .Appropriations. four battle ships-to the Committee on Naval Affairs. By Mr. ASHBROOK: Paper to accompany bill for relief of Also, memorial of senate and assembly of New York, for a John M. Stacking-to the Committee on In-valid Pensions. volunteer officers' retired list-to the Committee on Military By Mr. BATES: Petition of Randolph Grange, No. 100, Affairs. Patrons of Husbandry, for Federal aid in building roads-to the Also, petition of North American Fish and Game Protective Committee on Agriculture. Association, for treaty with Canada for fisheries control on the .Also, petition of H. Akerley, of West Springfield, Pa., for the Great Lakes-to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Crumpacker bill, relative to Thirteenth Census employees-to By 1\Ir. FOSTER of Illinois: Petition of W. E. Bailey and 17 the Committee on the Census. other citizens of Fayette County, Ill., against sale of intoxicants By Mr. BR.dDLEY: Petition of Chester Grange, Patrons of in the District of Columbia-to the Committee on the District Husbandry, of Orange County, N. Y., for a national highway of Columbia. commission-to the Committee on Agriculture. By 1.\Ir. FULTON : Petition of citizens of Oklahoma, against By Mr. BURKE: Paper to accompany bill for relief of James the Penrose bill-to the Committee on the Post-Office and Post Bond-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. Roads. By 1\Ir. BURLEIGH: Petition of Massachusetts Institute of By 1\fr. FULLER: Petition of C. H . Beach, adjutant of Technology, for forest reservations in White Mountains and Potter Post, Grand Army of the Republic, of Sycamore, Ill., Southern Appalachian Mountains-to the Committee on Agri against consolidation of pension agencies-to the Committee on culture. Appropriations. By Mr. BURTON of Ohio: Petition of the Calvary Evan Also, petition of Rich. O'Brien, ex-chief operator of Army of gelical Lutheran Church, for the Littlefield original-package James and of Department of North Carolina, for Lorimer bill bill-to the Committee on the Judiciary. (H. R . 175)-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. By Mr. CALDER: Petition of North American Fish and .Also, petition of Thomas Williamson, of Sh·eator, Ill., against Game Protective .Association, for international control of the Penrose bill-to the Committee on the Post-Office and Post Great Lakes-to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Roads. AI o, memorial of the senate of the State of New York, for a Also, petition of Missouri and Southern illinois Division of volunteer officers' retired list-to the Committee on Military National German-American Alliance, for repeal of the anti Affairs. canteen law-to the Committee on Military Affairs. By 1\Ir. CAPRON: Petition of West Kingston (R. I.) Grange, By 1\Ir. GAINES of Tennessee: Paper to accompany bill for No. 10, Patrons of Husbandry, for a national highway com relief of Margie A. Morgan-to the Committee on Pensions. mission-to the Committee on Agriculture. By Mr. GRAHAl\I: Petition of citizens of New York and Also, petition of Northeast Manufacturing Jewelers and Sil vicinity for relief of heirs of victims of the General Slocum versmiths' Association, for the Gallinger amendment to the disaster-to the Committee on Claims. shipping act of March 3, 1891-to the Committee on the Mer By Mr. GRANGER: Petition of Jason W. Gifford and others, chant Marine and Fisheries. of Tiverton, R. I., for a national highway commission-to the By 1\Ir. CAULFIELD: Petition of Central Trades and Labor Committee on Agriculture. Union of St. Louis, against prohibition legislation-to the Com Also, petition of William R. Metcalf and other citizens of mittee on the Judiciary. New Mexico, against Penrose bill-to the Committee on the By Mr. CHA.l~EY: Petition of \V. W. Clayston and others, of Post-Office and Post-Roads. Lyons, Ind., for a national highway commission-to the Com mittee on Agriculture. By 1\lr. HAMILTON of I owa: Petition of many citizens of By Mr. CLARK of Florida : Paper to accompany bill for relief Iowa, against the Penrose bill-to the Committee on the Post of John A. Tucker-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. Office and Post-Roads. Also, paper to accompany bill for relief of Susan A. Bell By Mr. HAMILTON of Michigan: Petition of Berrien Center to the Committee on Pensions. Grange, No. 14, for a national highway commission-to the Also, paper to accompany bill for relief of George W. Wright- Committee on Agriculture. to the Committee on Claims. . By l\Ir. HAMMOND: Petition of Builders' Exchange of St. By Mr. DAVIS of Minnesota: Petition of St. Paul Credit Paul, Minn., for H. R. 534-to the Committee on Agriculture. Men's ,Association, for H. R. 13266 (amendment to national Also, petition of Twin City Foundrymen's Association, against bankruptcy law)-to the Committee on the Judiciary. anti-injunction and eight-hour bill-to the Committee on Labor. Also, petitions of Allied Agricultural Associations of Penn Also, petition ·of Red Wing Commercial Club, of Red Wing, sylmnia and Builders' Exchange of St. Paul, for the Davis Minn., for Davis bill-to the Committee on Agriculture. bill (H. R. 534)-to the Committee on Agriculture. Also, petition of Minneapolis Credit Men's Association, for By Mr. DAWSON : Petition of John Schmidt and 17 other H . R. 13266-to the Committee on the Judiciary. citizens of Muscatine County, Iowa, for a national highway Also, petitions of city council of Stillwater, Minn., and Com commission-to the Committee on Agriculture. mercial Club of St. Paul, Minn., for improvement of Missis~Sippi By l\Ir. DRAPER: Memorial of the senate of the State of New River-to the Committee on Rivers and Harbors. York, for a volunteer officers' retired list-to the Committee on By Mr. HAWLEY: Paper to accompany bill for relief of Military Affairs. Samuel Hawken-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. By l\Ir. DRISCOLL : Memorial of the senate and assembly of Also, petition of residents near Goose Lake Forest Reserva the State of New York, for a volunteer officers' retired list-to tion, for placing said lands under administration of Forest the Committee on Military Affairs. Service--to the Committee on the Public Lands. Also, petition of Lamar (N.Y.) Grange, No. 588, for national By Mr. HAYES: Petition of San Jose Chamber of Commerce, highway commission-to the Committee on Agriculture. against the Hepburn amendment to interstate-commerce act By Mr. DUNWELL: Petition of Local Union No. 11, Amal ( S. 125) -to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Com gamated Sheet Metal Workers' International Alliance, of New merce. York, for building a battle ship in Brooklyn Navy-Yard-to the Also, petition of citizens of Alviso, Cal., against the Penrose Committee on Na-val Affairs. bill-to the Committee on the Post-Office and Post-Roads. Also, petition of board of directors of Merchants' Association Also, petition of citizens of San Francisco, against any h·e..'lty of New York, against the Gardner eight-hour bill-to the Com of arbitration with Great Britain-to the Committee on Forejgn mittee on Labor. Affairs. Also, petition of Peace Association of Friends, of Philadelphia, Also, petition of Sacramento Valley Branch of the Pacific Coast against building four more battle ships-to the Committee on Hop Growers' Union, against any prohibitory legislation-to the Naval Affairs. · Committee on Alcoholic Liquor Traffic. Also, petition of New York Board of Trade and Transporta By Mr. IDLL of Connecticut: Petition of Hermannsachne tion, against the Aldrich currency bill- to the Committee on Lodge and Schiller Lodge, F . L. H ., of Stamford, Conn., against Banking and Currencyr any prohibition legislation- to the Committee on t he Judiciary. 1908. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 35511

A..lso, petition of Colebrook Grange, No. 82, for Federal co- Also, petition of Union Veterans' Union of Omaha, for a val- operation in matter of good ro.ads-to the Committee on Agricul- unteer officers' retired list-to the Committee on l\.lilitary Affairs. ture. .Also, petition of T. 1\I. Drivis, against .Aldrich and Fowler Also, petition of New Haven Chamber of Commerce, for for- currency bills and in favor of McKinney bill (H. R. 15262)- est reservations in White Mountains and Southern Appalachian to the Committee on Banking and Currency. . Mountains-to the Committee on Agriculture. Also, petitions of Central Labor Union of Omaha, voters of Also, petition of New Haven Chamber of Commerce, again~t Danbury, Nehr., and commandery I. A. M. Lodge, No. 587, of Crumpacker census bill-to the Committee on the Census. McCook, Nebr., against the Penrose bill-to the Committee on "By Mr. HUFF: Petition of Rochester Business Men's .Asso- the Post-Office and Post-Roads. ciation, against a parcels-post law-to the Committee on the Also, petition of Omaha Clearing-House Association, against Post-Office and Post-Roads. legislation prohibiting national banks loaning funds to dealers Also, papers to accompany bills for relief of W. N. Baker, in grain future sales, etc.-to the Committee on Interstate and Emily C. Bigham, Maurice I. Covert, Charles Roques, George Foreign Commerce. W. Mechling, Andrew J. Artman, Jacob Dewalt, Robert Moore, By Mr. NYE: Petition of Post No. 120, of l\faple Plain, De Amos Kiehl, John C. Stichal, John Williams, and Edith Pat- partment. of Minnesota, against abolition of pension agencies- ton-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. to the Committee on Appropriations. .Also, petition of citizens of Butler County, Pa., for S. 3152 Also, petition of Twin City Foundrymen's Association, against (additional protection to the dairy interests)-to the Commit- the anti-injunction and eight-hour bills--:-to the Committee on tee on Agriculture. the Judiciary. By 1\fr. KNAPP: Petition of Three Mile Bay Grange, of New Also, petition of St. Paul Credit Men's Association, for amend- York, for Federal aid in building highways-to the Committee ments to the national bankruptcy law-to the Committee on on Agriculture. the Judiciary. By Mr. LAWRENCE: Petition of master and secretary of Also, petition of Oliver P. Morton Post, No. 1.71, of Minneapo- Rowe Grange, No. 167, of Massachusetts, for a nati-onal high- lis, Minn., against abolition of pension agendes-to the Com- way commission-to the Committee on Agriculture. mittee on Appropriations. By .Mr. LLOYD~ Petition of 105 citizens of Macon County-, By Mr. OVERSTREET: Paper to accompany bill for relief of 1\fo., for prohibition in the District of Columbia-to the Com- Charles M. Montgomery (previously referred to the Committee mittee on the District of Columbia. on In-mlid Pensions)-to the Committee on Pensions. By Mr. LI~TDBERGH: Petition of Minnesota Farmers' Club, Also, petitions of Fred A. Gregory and Laurence E. Davis, for H. R. 18204, relative to industrial education-to the Com- of Indianapolis; Kahn Tailoring Company, W. E. Hayward, mittee on Agriculture. Noelke-Richards Iron Works, and W. H. Small & Co., for Also, petition of citizens of New York and vicinity, for relief appropriation for the Lincoln Farm Association for memorial for heirs of victims of General Slocum disaster-to the Com- to Lincoln-to the Committee on Appropriations. mittee on Claims. By Mr. PADGETT: Paper toaccompa.nybillforreliefof John By Mr. LTh"'DSAY: Petition of North America Game and H. Bratschi-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. Fish Protective Association, for treaty with Canada to protect Also, papers to accompany bills for relief of Margaret Me fishing interests on the Great Lakes-to the Committee on For- Gavock, E. Y. Andrews, and estate of Mrs. Martha B. Skillern- eign Affairs. to the Committee on War Claims. Also, petition of New York Board of Trade and Transporta- By 1\lr. POLLARD: Petition of Tailors' Union No. 273, of tion, against S. 3023 (Aldrich bill)-to the Committee on Bank- Lincoln, Nebr., against prohibition in the District of Columbia- ing and Currency. to the Committee on the District of Columbia.. Also, petition of Merchants' Associati-on of New York, against Also, petition of Union Veter.ans' Union of Omaha, Nebr., for Gardner eight-hour bill-to the Committee on Labor. a volunteer <>fficers' retired list-to the Committee on Military .Also, petition of Ainshe B. Isaacs, for a copyright law to pro- Affairs. teet musical composers-to t1re Committee -on Patents~ By Mr. REYNOLDS: Papers to accompany bills for relief of Also, memorial of senate and assembly of New York State, Jacob P. Caster and James A. 1\IcVicker-to the Committee on for a volmiteer officers' retired list-to the Committee on Mili- Invalid Pensions. tary Affairs. By Mr. SCOTT: Petition of 157 ex-Union soldiers of Ottawa, By Mr. LITTLEFIELD: Petition of Simon Holden and othe; Kans., for the Sherwood bill-to the Committee on Invalid f Pensions. citizens of the State of Maine, or a national highway commis- Also, petition of 240 voters of Second Congressional District sion-to the Committee on Agriculture. By 1\fr. LOWDEN: Petition Qf citizens of northern Illinois, of Kansas, against Penrose bill-to the Committee on the Post Offi~e and Post-Roads. for appropriation to deepen Roek River at ~nd below the city of Also, petition of Lone Elm Grange, No. , of Anderson Dixon-to the Committee on Rtvers and Harbors. 152 By Mr. LOUDENSLAGER: Petition of Anchor and Clayton County, 12 citizens of Johnson County, 43 citizens of Endora, granges, of New Jersey, for national highway commission-to and :Miami Central Grunge, of Mia.mi, all in the State of Ka.n- the Committee on Agriculture. sas, for a national highway commission-to the Committee on f u Agriculture. By Mr. McKINNEY: Petition ° Local Union No. 166• nited Also, petition of Western Retail Implement and Vehicle Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, for a postal Dealers' Association, for a volunteer officers' retired list-to the savings bank-to the Committee on the Post-Office and Post- Committee on 1\iilitary Affairs. Roads. By Mr. SMITH of Missouri: Petition of citizens of Bonne .AJso, petition of John Burford Post, No. 243, Grand Army Terre, for the Littlefield original-package bill-to the Commit of the Republic, of Rock Island, ID., against consolidation of tee on the Judiciary. pension agencies-to the Commi.ttee on Appropriations. By l\Ir. SPERRY: Petition of Chamber of Commerce of New .Also, petition of illinois National Guard Association, for Haven, Conn., in relation to the Crumpacker census bill-to th-e H. R. 14783-to the Committee on Militia. Committee on the Census. Also, petition of Arthur W. Marsh Post, Grand Army of the Also, petition of Windsor Locks Business .Men's Association, Republic, against proposed inscription of the monument to .against a p.arcels~post law-to the Commitee on the Post-Office Wirz-to the Committee on the Library. and Post-Roads. By Mr. McLAUGHLIN of Michigan: Paper to accompany bill Also, petition of citizens of Chester, Conn., for national high- for relief of Ishmael Comstock-to the Committee on Invalid ways-to the committee on Agriculture. Pensions. Also, petition of chamber of commerce, for forest reserva- By Mr. .MADDEN: Petition of citizens of New York and tions in White Mountains--to the Committee on Agriculture. vicinity for relief for heirs of victims of General S1ocurn dis- By Mr. STURG ISS : Paper to accompany bill for relief of aster-to the Committee on Claims. Elisha A. Hartman-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. By Mr. MOUSER: Petition of citizens of New York and Also, paper to accompany bill for relief of William B. Cross-- ;icinity for relief for heirs of victims of General Slocum dis- to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. aster-to the Committee on Claims. By Mr. SULZER: Petition of North America Fish and Game Also, petition of First Presbyterian Church of Marion, Ohio, Protective Association, for treaty with Canada for int9rna for the Littlefield original-package bill-to the Committee on tionnl control of fisheries interest in the Great Lakes-to the the Judiciary. Committee on Foreign Affairs. By Mr. NORRIS: Petition of C. F. Schwarz, adjutant-general Also~ memorial of the senate of the State of New Yot·k, for of Nebraska, for the Steenerson militia bill (H. R. 14783)-to the a volunteer officers' retired list-to the Committee on Military Committee on Militia. Affairs, 3552 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. MARCH 19,

By 1\fr. THOl\IAS: Paper to accompany bill for relief of heirs The message also announced that the House had passed the of D. W. Bell-to the Committee on War Claims. following bills and joint resolution, in which it requested the By 1\fr. WHEELER: Petition of George Woodside and 34 concurrence of the Senate : others, for S. 3152, additional protection of the dairy interests H. R. 10540. An act to amend section 73 of the act to pro to the Committee on Agriculture. vide a government for the Territory of Hawaii; By 1\fr. WOOD: Paper to accompany bill for relief of Eliza H. R.13448. An act to authorize the counties of Allegheny beth Foran-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. and Washington, in the State of Pennsylvania, to change the AlEo, petition of J. Warren Fleming and others and Aausta site of the joint county bridge which now crosses the Monon L. Hart and others, for a national highway commission for gahela River at 1\Ionongahela City, Pa., and to construct a new construction of highways-to the Committee on Agriculture. bridge across said river in the place of said present bridge upon Also, petition of Local Union No. 301, Painters, Decorators, a new site; and Paperhangers of America, of Trenton, N. J., for consh·uc H. R.16743. An act for the removal of the restrictions on tion of at least one battle ship at a navy-yard-to the Com alienation of lands of allottees of the Quapaw Agency, Okla., mittee on Kava! Affairs. and the sale of all tribal lands, school, agency, or other build Also, petition of J. Warren Fleming and others, of Titus ings on any of the reservations within the jurisdiction of such ville, N. J., for a rural parcel. post, as per S. 5122-to the Com agency, and for other purposes; mittee on the Post-Office and Post-Roads. H. R.17301. An act to authorize the Secretary of the In terior to lease allotted or unallotted Indian lands for mining purposes; H. R.17707. An act to authorize William H. Standish to con SENATE. struct a dam· across James River, in Stone County, Mo., and THURSDAY, lJf divert a portion of its waters through a tunnel into the said arch 19, 19(}8. river again to create electric power; Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. EDWARD E. HALE . . , H. R. 17710. An act to increase the efficiency of the personnel The Journal of yesterday's proceedings was read and ap of the Life-Saving Service of the United States; proYed. H. R. 17983. An act for completing the pediment of the House CHOCTAW AND CHICKASAW INDIAN ROLLS. wing of the Capitol ; The VICE-PRESIDENT laid before the Senate a communica H. ll. 18689. An act to authorize the Secretary of War to fur tion from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting, by di nish two condemned brass or bronze cannon and cannon balls rection of the President and in response to a resolution of Jan to the city of Winchester, Va.; and uary 15, 1008, a list of the rolls of the Choctaw and Chickasaw H. J. Res.124. Joint resolution authorizing the presentation Indians now in the possession of the Auditor for the Depart of the statue of President Washington, now located in the ment of the Interior, etc., which, with the accompanying paper, Capitol grounds, to the Smithsonian Institution. was referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs and ordered The message further announced that the House insists upon to be printed. its disagreement to the amendments of the Senate to the bill (H. R. 15219) making appropriations for the current and con DISPOSITION OF CHICKASAW FUNDS. tingent expenses of the Indian Department, for fulfilling treaty The VICE-PRESIDENT laid before the Senate a communica stipulations with various Indian h·ibes, and for other purposes, tion from the Attorney-General, transmitting by direction of the for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1009, agrees to the further President, and in response to a resolution of the 3d instant, a conference asked for by the Senate on the disagreeing votes of report with reference to certain indictments formerly found the two Houses thereon, and had appointed Mr. SHERMAN, 1\Ir. against D. H. Johnston, P. S. Mosely, George 1\Iansfield, J. F. MARSHALL, and Mr. STEPHENS of Texas managers at the confer McMurray, and Melvin Cornish, and later dismissed, in the ence on the part of the House. matter of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations of Indians, The message also transmitted to the · Senate resolutions of which, with the accompanying papers, was referred to the Com the House on the death of Hon. WILLIAM PINKNEY WIIYTE, mittee on Indian Affairs and ordered to be printed. late a Senator from the State of Maryland. FRENCH SPOLIATION CLAIMS. ENROLLED BILLS SIGNED. The VICE-PRESIDENT laid before the Senate a communica The message further announced that the Speaker of the tion from the assistant clerk of the Court of Claims, transmit House had signed the following enrolled bins, and they were ting a list of cases filed under the act of January 20, 1885, in thereupon signed by the Vice-President: the French spoliation claims and dismissed April 22, 1907, by H. R.16143. An act to provide for payment of the claim.s of the court on motion of the defendants for want of prosecution, the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippine Islands; and which, with the accompanying paper, was referred to the Com H. R.17311. An act to authorize the Pensacola, Mobile and mittee on Claims and ordered to be printed. New Orleans Railway Company, a corporation existing under He also laid before the Senate a communication from the as the laws of the State of Alabama, to construct a bridge over sistant clerk of the Court of Claims, transmitting the findings and across the Mobile River and its navigable channels on a of fact and conclusions of law filed under the act of January line approximately east of the north boundary line of the city 20, 1885, in the French spoliation claims set out in the annexed of 1\Iobile, Ala. findings by the court relating to the vessel schooner Oent·wrian, PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS. Philip Greeley, master, which, with the accompanying paper, The VICE-PRESIDENT presented a petition of Local Union was referred to the Committee on Claims and ordered to be No. 286, International Typographical Union, of Marion, Ind., printed. praying for the enactment of legislation to relieve trades unions FINDINGS OF THE COURT OF CLAIMS, from the provisions of the Sherman antitrust law, which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. The VICE-PRESIDENT laid before the Senate communica He also presented a memorial of sundry citizens of Chicago, tions from the assistant clerk of the Court of Claims, transmit Ill., and a memorial of the Irish League of Boston, Mass., re ting certified copies of the findings of fact filed by the court monstrating against the ratification of the pending treaty of in the following causes: · arbih·ation between the United States and Great Britain, which In the cause of Adelaide L. Spall, administratrix of George were referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. Sands, deceased, v. United States; and He also presented a petition of the Indiana and Ohio confer In the cause of Barbara A. Melville, administratrix de bonis ence of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church, praying for non, cum testamento anexo of William Shreve, deceased, v. the enactment of legislation to prohibit the manufacture and United State . sale of intoxicating liquors in the District of Columbia, which The foregoing findings were, with the accompanying papers, was referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia. " referred to the Committee on Claims, and ordered to be printed. He also presented a memorial of the National Association of MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE. Clothiers, of New York City, N. Y., remonstrating against the passage of the so-ca.lled "Aldrich currency bill " and praying A message from the House of Representatives, by 1\Ir. W. J. for the passage of the so-called "Fowler currency bill," which BRoWNING, its Chief Clerk, announced that the House had was ordered to lie on the table. passed the following bill and joint resolution: He also presented a memorial of Local Union No. 804, Broth S. 4377. An act to carry into effect the international conven erhood of Painters, Decorators, and Paper Hangers, of Marion, tion af December 21, 1904, relating to the exemption in time Ind., remonstrating against the passage of the so-called " Pen of war of hospital ships from dues and taxes on vessels; and rose bill," to exclude nonmailable periodicals from second-class S. n. 58. Joint resolution authorizing· the Secretary of War mail privileges, which was referred to the Committee on Post to establish harbor lines in Wilmington Harbor, California. Offices and Post-Roads.