180 



CONGRESS. (TiiE DINGLEY BILL.) 



mean to enslave the people of the United States, be- 

 cause They are using the only means by which slav- 

 ery can be produced, the only means by which any 

 great, nation was ever reduced to serfdom. They 

 arc depriving the people of their money, and they 

 propose to do it. In this very bill they propose to 

 add to the grievance under the pretext of raising 

 revenue. I'nder the pretext of raising revenue and 

 increasing taxation they want to take from the peo- 

 ple more of the means by which they can pay taxes, 

 reducing Ihem faster than the gold standard will do 

 it if legitimately operated. We tell you that the 

 people will not indorse the union of the Republican 

 and Democratic parties for the purpose of oppres- 

 sion and wrong. They will not do it." 



A discussion upon the position of the Republican 

 party on the question of bimetallism followed be- 

 tween Senator Allen, of Nebraska, Senator Stewart, 

 of Nevada, and Senator Teller, of Colorado, on one 

 side, and Senator A Id rich, of Rhode Island, Senator 

 Platt, of Connecticut, and Senator Gallinger, of New 

 Hampshire, on the other. 



Senator Frye, of Maine, said : 



" Mr. President, I have been instructing my con- 

 stituents, business men, for the last month and a 

 half that there was not the slightest possibility of 

 the House tariff bill becoming a law. I think I 

 have known for a month that it was dead. After 

 the two votes, one of a fortnight ago and the other 

 of to-day, there is not a Senator here who does not 

 know that it is as dead as Julius Caesar, and that 

 there is no resurrection whatever for it. The busi- 

 ness men of this country ought to know it now, and 

 they ought to conduct their business with a view to 

 the fact that it is dead. When the Democratic 

 party of the Senate and the Populistic party of the 

 Senate both announce that they by their votes will 

 not support this tariff bill, that they will not con- 

 sider it, it is utterly hopeless for any Republican to 

 undertake to obtain its consideration. 



" Suppose, as the Senator from Ohio suggested, it 

 should be taken up and could be amended, there is 

 not a Senator here who does not know that more 

 than 600 amendments would be offered to it, and 

 Senators know perfectly well that more than three 

 months' time would be consumed in its considera- 

 tion, and that the business of the country would be 

 held on the ragged edge for the whole of that 

 period. Business has had blows enough during the 

 last two or three years. Congress should not inflict 

 any more upon it. 



" I trust, sir, this bill will not be heard from 

 again, and that no Republican Senator, no friend 

 of protection, will ask the Senate to give it any 

 further consideration. Let it be dead, and let the 

 responsibility lie where it belongs." 



On Feb. 26 Senator Allen, of Nebraska, intro- 

 duced an amendment to the bill, adding three sec- 

 tions providing for silver coinage, and making the 

 title read : " A bill to promote the prosperity and 

 happiness of the people of the United States, and 

 for other purposes." In introducing the amend- 

 ment he said, in part : 



" I took occasion yesterday to ask the Senator 

 from Rhode Island and the Senator from Connec- 

 ticut, who are representative Republicans, if there 

 were any circumstances under which they would 

 agree to the free and unlimited coinage of silver 

 at .the ratio of 16 to 1, and they both emphatically 

 said there were no circumstances under which they 

 would agree to that. I asked them if they were 

 willing to take this House bill 2749, providing for 

 a temporary increase of the revenues to meet the 

 expenses of the Government with a free -silver 

 amendment taking the protective features of the 

 bill together with a free-coinage amendment and 

 they said no. I asked them, at the suggestion of 



the Senator from Alabama, if they were willing to 

 take the McKinley bill, which now seems to be the 

 shibboleth of the Republican faith, with a free-coin- 

 age amendment attached to it, and they said no. 



"Mr. President, I do not believe in this House 

 bill 2749, and 1 want to announce to the Senate and 

 to the country that I do not commit myself to its 

 policy or to the rate of taxation it imposes. But to 

 show the venerable Senator from Vermont, the hon- 

 orable chairman of the Finance Committee, that he 

 has strength enough to carry this bill through here, 

 I want to say to him if he can unite the Republican 

 party upon this measure with a free-coinage 'amend- 

 ment not a free-coinage substitute, but a free- 

 coinage amendment by which the tariff therein 

 provided shall become a law and silver shall be 

 coined at the ratio of 16 to 1, the Populist party 

 have votes enough to give you in this chamber to 

 make both those provisions a law." 



The amendment consisted of the four sections of- 

 fered by the Finance Committee, as given above, 

 which were added to the bill as passed by the 

 House. 



Senator Baker, of Kansas, asked Senator Allen if 

 he would pledge himself and his party to vote for 

 the tariff bill with a proviso for the free coinage of 

 American silver only. Mr. Allen answered that he 

 would not so vote, but declined to answer for his 

 party, and asked if Mr. Baker would vote for the 

 bill as introduced by him with the free-coinage 

 amendment, to which Senator Baker replied that 

 he would not, " because it provides for the free 

 coinage of all the silver of the world at the ratio of 

 16 to 1, and would put us down as simply silver 

 monometallists." 



The amendment was ordered to lie on the table. 



The same day the resolution of Senator Carter, of 

 Montana, to recommit the bill to the Committee on 

 Finance was laid before the Senate. Before he 

 spoke on the resolution Senator Lindsay, of Ken- 

 tucky, offered an amendment, adding these words: 



" And said Committee on Finance is instructed to 

 report an amendment to the said IT. R. bill 2749, in 

 the way of an additional section, in substance as 

 follows : 



" ' SEC. 5. That so much of section 182| of Sched- 

 ule B of the act which became a law Aug. 27, 1894, 

 entitled "An Act to reduce taxation and to provide 

 revenue for the Government, and for other pur- 

 poses," which provides as follows : " And upon all 

 sugars above No. 16, Dutch standard in color, and 

 upon all sugars which have been discolored, there 

 shall be levied, collected, and paid a duty of one 

 eighth of 1 cent per pound, in addition to the said 

 duty of 40 per cent, ad valorem" be, and the same 

 is hereby, repealed, and the collection of said addi- 

 tional duty, from and after the passage of this act, 

 is hereby discontinued.' " 



Referring to charges of party disloyalty made 

 against himself and 4 other Senators, Senator Car- 

 ter said in the course of his speech in support of 

 his resolution : 



" Before the convening of Congress it was very 

 generally understood throughout the country that 

 the President would announce in his annual mes- 

 sage an existing need for additional revenue to meet 

 a deficiency and to provide against its recurrence. 

 Republicans were generally united in a determina- 

 tion to meet this demand of the Executive by tariff 

 legislation along Republican lines. To the surprise 

 of every one the President did not make the antici- 

 pated demand in his annual message, but in va- 

 rious ways has directly and indirectly announced to 

 Congress that the executive department is not in 

 need of additional revenue to conduct the Govern- 

 ment, and it has been steadily maintained by the 

 friends of the Administration, in and out of Con- 



