( ' 'NGRESS. (THE FINANCIAL CONDITION THE DINGLEY BILL.) 



169 



power enough in 70.000.000 people and resources 

 enough in this country to cope with all the world, 

 and that we have also the power, which has been 

 frequently exercised and should always be exercised 

 in great emergencies, to create money good at 

 home. 



" The last clause of his message indicates that he 

 is panic-stricken, so to speak. Just listen to what 

 lie says. He needs support ; he needs the assistance 

 of a brave Congress. 



" He tells us that his apprehensions are such that 

 he wants Congress to come to the rescue, lest, by 

 executive action, he should increase the dangers in 

 the present emergency. What does he contemplate ? 

 I hope and I believe that he does not contemplate a 

 submission to the demands of Great Britain. I 

 hope he does not contemplate a submission to the 

 demands of Wall Street or Lombard Street. I hope 

 he does not contemplate another bond issue to 

 placate the enemies of this country. I hope the 

 fears which he says he has are not such as to pre- 

 vent him from executing the law. It is plain. All 

 he has to do in order to save the credit of the coun- 

 try is to pay the Government obligations according 

 to" contract. If he has not gold, the law says he 

 may pay silver. Let him announce that he will do 

 that, and there will be no more raids on the Treas- 

 ury. We owe no gold obligation. Every obligation 

 of this Government is payable in silver, except the 

 gold certificates, and there is enough gold in the 

 Treasury to meet them. There need be no appre- 

 hension." 



Senator Dubois, of Idaho, said : 



11 Mr. President, I regret very much that the 

 President has seen fit to send his last financial mes- 

 sage to Congress at this time. He must know, as 

 the country does, that Congress is not going to re- 

 tire the greenbacks, nor are they going to give him 

 authority to issue gold bonds. 



"I see in the New York 'Sun 'of this morning 

 the statement of ex-Gov. Flower, in which he says : 



' ' Congress will, in my opinion, pass a resolution 

 in accordance with President Cleveland's request, 

 and. if necessary, give him authority to issue $500,- 

 000,000 in short'-time bonds.' 



" President Cleveland must know, and Congress 

 certainly does, that no such authority will be given 

 him. and at this crisis all that the President accom- 

 plishes is suddenly to precipitate upon the country 

 a tariff discussion. If anything at all is accom- 

 plished by Congress it will be a revision of the tar- 

 iff on Republican lines, and this the President will 

 veto. Nobody that I know of wants to issue bonds. 

 Ni'body to speak of wishes to retire the greenbacks, 

 and it seems to me that it is extremely unfortunate 

 that the President has precipitated this discussion 

 at the present time. He might have put it off, or 

 he should have recommended something that there 

 was some hope of passing. 



' The Senate, if they are allowed to vote on it, 

 will pass as soon as they can get to it on the next 

 legislative day the resolution submitted this morn- 

 ing by the Senator from Missouri, declaring that 

 outstanding paper obligations shall be paid in sil- 

 ver as the law directs. The country might just as 

 well understand that. We understand it here. 

 Yet the supporters of the President in this cham- 

 ber will probably not let us vote on that proposi- 

 tion. They surely will not until after consider- 

 able debate and the consumption of much time. It 

 is utterly, absolutely impossible to legislate finan- 

 cially in accordance with the recommendations of 

 the President, because the Congress is not in favor 

 of it, and no one knows it better than the President. 

 The sooner the people clearly and distinctly under- 

 stand it the better, it seems to me, it will be for the 

 countrv." 



The Dingley Bill. On Dec. 26 Mr. Dingley, of 

 Maine, introduced in the House a revenue bill from 

 the Committee on Ways and Mean? "to tem- 

 porarily increase revenue to meet the expenses of 

 the Government and provide against a deficiency." 

 Mr. Crisp protested that the minority of the com- 

 mittee had not been allowed time to prepare a state- 

 ment of their views. 



Mr. Henderson, of Iowa, presented from the Com- 

 mittee on Rules the following resolution : 



"Resolved. That immediately after the adoption 

 of this resolution it shall be in "order in the House 

 to call up for debate, the previous question being 

 considered as ordered, a bill reported by the Com- 

 mittee on Ways and Means entitled 'A bill to tem- 

 porarily increase revenue to meet the expenses of 

 Government and provide against a deficiency ' : 

 that at 5 o'clock, without delay or other motion, the 

 vote shall be taken. General leave to print is here- 

 by granted for ten days.'' 



In reply to a request for an explanation of this 

 rule, Mr. Henderson said : 



" The effect of the adoption of this rule is to permit 

 debate upon the bill just reported by the chairman 

 of the Committee on Ways and Means for raising rev- 

 enue, the debate to continue until 5 o'clock to-day, 

 when a vote is to be taken upon the bill. I refer to 

 the bill changing the tariff rates in some particulars, 

 for members of the House will understand, I think, 

 that another proposition will be brought in later. 

 That other bill, however, will not be brought up un- 

 til to-morrow, so that this day until 5 o'clock will 

 be devoted entirely to the discussion of this tariff 

 bill. The provisions of the bill we will not now 

 stop to discuss. The discussion of them will come 

 on when the forty minutes allowed for debate upon 

 this rule are exhausted. I may say this, however, 

 at the present time that the bill is in no sense a 

 general revision of the tariff law. but is legislation 

 designed to promptly and efficiently provide suffi- 

 cient revenue for carrying on the Government. The 

 Chief Executive of the nation has by a special mes- 

 sage called our attention to the financial condition 

 of the country. He has sent us two messages, in 

 fact, which have produced a high degree of excite- 

 ment throughout the country, and we are given to 

 understand that the business centers are staggering 

 under the weight of the consternation that has fol- 

 lowed what I may call two feverish declarations 

 from the White House. The object of the bill just 

 reported to the House is to exercise the judgment of 

 Congress, to which the President referred the sub- 

 ject of his message. The President has stated the 

 conditions as he sees them, and has referred them 

 for action to the wisdom of Congress. The Execu- 

 tive and the majority of the members of this House 

 may perhaps differ as to the causes and the nature 

 of "these troubles, but these bills are designed to 

 meet the existing difficulties as the majority of the 

 House see them.'' 



The rule was debated by Mr. Crisp, of Georgia, 

 Mr. McMillin. of Tennessee, and Mr. Turner, of 

 Georgia, against : and by Mr. Dalzell. of Pennsyl- 

 vania, and Mr. Henderson, of Iowa, in favor. 



Mr. Crisp said, in part : 



" This rule relates to a tariff bill the gentleman 

 from Iowa says not a general, but a temporary bill. 

 Sir. a bill may be general although temporary. 

 This is a general tariff bill that affects all the 

 schedules on the list. -\s to some it prescribes a 

 specific rate of duty: as to others it prescribes a 

 horizontal increase. Now, under the rules of the 

 House (and I refer to those rules because there are 

 many members here who are not yet acquainted 

 with" the rules) under the rules adopted by this 

 body 'all motions or propositions involving a tax 

 or charge upon the people shall have their first con- 



