IBS 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATM. 



On* of my reasons is that, if you will pat i 

 bers of Congress beyond U-mptation by u 



: mcm- 



giving 



them an adequate salary, you will pass fewer 

 snbaidy bill*. I believe we earn the $7,600 for 

 which I propose to vote ; if I did not BO believe 

 I would not vote for it I remember another 

 in.-i'K-iit in connection with ttie increase made 

 four or five years ago. At that time there was 

 one member so pure that he refused to take 

 from the Treasury the money Congress voted 

 l.iiii ; and his constituents voted that they 

 wanted no such man to represent them. 



Now, Mr. Chairman, on that particular 

 principle I believe I am right ; I believe I earn 

 that money ; and if my constituents are not 

 willing to pay me what I earn tliey bad better 

 find some other Representative." 



Mr. Hoar, of Massachusetts, said : " Mr. Chair- 

 man, I oppose so much as relates to the in- 

 crease of the salary of the members of the 

 House and Senate. I do not do it from any 

 fear of my own constituents. They are will- 

 ing to pay their representative generously ; 

 and they will deal generously with any thing I 

 shall do ; and they will accuse me of no selfish 

 motive in doing it I am sure, whether my opin- 

 ion shall be in accord with theirs or not But, 

 sir, I have been long of the opinion there are 

 some classes of public sen-ante which must de- 

 rive compensation from conscientious discharge 

 of public duty." 



Mr. Whitthorne, of Tennessee, said : " I be- 

 lieve that in the present condition of the 

 country, embarrassed with a heavy debt, and 

 that debt increasing the burden resting upon 

 the shoulders of the people, who are now com- 

 plaining of the weight of that burden, it is our 

 duty to take it off instead of adding to its 

 weight, more especially adding to its weight 

 in the direction of benefiting ourselves. I 

 might admit that there are some officers of 

 the Government who now receive inadequate 

 pay; but, when the measure of their relief is 

 so framed as to be coupled with one in which 

 I and others like myself on this floor are in- 

 terested, I do not believe that I ought to, or 

 that I can conscientiously, support the other 

 measure, though I might favor it if placed be- 

 fore ns on its own merits. I am therefore 

 opposed to the amendment." 



The Chairman: "The question is next on 

 the amendment of the gentleman from Mnsnn 

 chnsetts (Mr. Dawe*)." 



The question being pat, there were yeas 

 44, nays 100. 



So the amendment offered by Mr. Dawes, in 

 the nature of a substitute for the amend- 

 ment of Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts, was not 

 agroi 



Mr. Upson, of Ohio, said: "I offer the fol- 

 lowing amendment to the amendment: 



Strike ottt the wordu " Including Stniton, Bepre- 

 SflUtiTM, sod IfelenU* in the Forty-Scoond Con- 

 ." *>& tl words " including tboM of the Forty- 



" I am opposed to the increase which has 



been proposed by the gentleman from Massa- 

 chusetts (Mr. Butler) to the salaries of num- 

 bers of Congress, whether members of the 

 present Congress or of any future ' 

 I am opposed to that proposition. becau-c I 

 believe that the salary now provided by Itiw 

 for members of Congress is as large u> it 

 ought to be, and no reason for the proposed 

 increase has been given which has been 

 satisfactory to my mind or which in my judg- 

 ment will be satisfactory to the people of this 

 country. 



"But certainly, whatever reason there may 

 be for the increase of the salaries of future 

 members of Congress, no reason has 1" n 

 given why that rule should be u|>|>Heil to the 

 members of the present Congress. \V are 

 now within about a week of the close of this 

 Congress. The abolition of the franking privi- 

 lege, which is stated as one reason \vhy the 

 salaries should be increased, has not yet i;,k.n 

 effect, and does not take effect until the 1st 

 day of July next "We, therefore, who are 

 members of the present Congress, have lost 

 nothing by the abolition of the franking ]um- 

 lege. And, among all the other reasons which 

 have been given, there is no one I think 

 which will commend itself to the judgment 

 of the people of this country. I believe that 

 their deliberate judgment will be that this ]>ro- 

 posed increase, so far especially as jt relates 

 to the present Congress, has no excuse or 

 justification whatever, and that they will 

 place the seal of their condemnation upon 

 every member of this Congress who votes for 

 such a measure as that. I believe it will bo 

 regarded by the people as simply disgraceful." 



Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts, said: "I am 

 sorry to trespass once more upon the House, 

 but I can suggest a remedy to every pent!. 

 who does not think this increase of salary 

 is right and proper: let him come up and sign 

 a pledge that he will not take the increase. 

 Virtuous men and true, come up and sign it. 

 I am simply endeavoring to fix the rate of 

 pay at what I know a man, economically liv- 

 ing here with his family, con live upon. My 

 amendment covers nothing more and a little 

 less. I do not believe that a man is bound to 

 come to Congress and get into a back-room 

 in the third story of a boarding-house, climb- 

 ing up two or three flights of stairs at night 

 when his duties for the day are done. I 

 think he ought to live as he does at home 

 and receive enough to pay his family ex- 

 penses and to educate his children. New, that 

 cannot bedone on less than $7,500. 1 am < t r- 

 tain every man here ought to have bis living 

 expenses, and that is my experience of the 

 cost of living here. I am ready to go to my 

 constituents on that, and I know that they 

 gt-1 their money in the harden! way. 



" I know that the people of this country arc 

 not half so much troubled about what salaric s 

 we get as about what we do. If we con l>o in 

 a condition so that we can feel easy here to do 



