200 



CONGRESS. (CHINESE AFFAIRS.) 



them to time, as I suppose this Congress is alto- 

 gether likely to fail to do anything whatever, 

 which is exactly what all these railroads want, 

 and we shall go on again, year by year, with- 

 out taking any single step in advance. 



" At least three or four years ago the matter 

 came to the knowledge of the Committee on 

 the Judiciary that the Union Pacific was not 

 obeying this statute, and had been for some 

 one, two, three, four, five, or six years declar- 

 ing and paying dividends; whether it paid all 

 the 75 per cent, that was left or not, I do not 

 know ; and that committee was rather disposed, 

 Republican though it was, to see if it was pos- 

 sible to have the laws of the United States 

 obeyed by a great corporation, whose president 

 was a very eminent man, and whose stock- 

 holders were widows and orphans. We made 

 considerable of a stir on the subject in a quiet 

 way, and the result was, without trying to do 

 the almost impossible thing of getting the two 

 Houses of Congress to do anything about it, 

 that we got a little more than three quarters of 

 a million of dollars paid into the Treasury, and 

 it is there yet, I suppose, a part of the surplus 

 or part of something. After that time it be- 

 came to be a serious question whether it would 

 be advisable for the directors of the Union Pa- 

 cific Railroad Company to declare any more 

 dividends. 



"Now, what, since the time they stopped 

 paying dividends, has become of the 75 per 

 cent, clear net earnings, I confess I do not 

 know. I assume that the directors have dis- 

 posed of it, not having paid dividends, in some 

 suitable and proper way. I have no suspicion 

 to express, no inquiry to make. It is their 

 affair, if they obey the law as far as it goes, 

 what they did with the other 75 per cent. 



" Why should not this corporation out of this 

 net income of the aided part of its lines, and 

 no other, do something more than appropriate 

 25 per cent, of the net earnings for the bene- 

 fit of its creditors, and advance 15 per cent, to 

 40, leaving them still 60 either for dividends or 

 for enterprises as they may please, and thus 

 accumulate and not lose but save, to meet their 

 inevitable obligations to become due in ten 

 years, amounting to in round numbers $200,- 

 000,000 ; or are they to be left free to dispose 

 of this clear net balance of cash in such a way 

 as they please, and let the beast I will not say 

 that other individual, because nobody in the 

 Senate would know who I meant 'take the 

 hindmost? ' 



" My friend from Massachusetts says it would 

 injure the credit of the company to be com- 

 pelled to save its funds for the benefit of its 

 creditors. That is not the way we understand 

 it in the rural country where I live. We gen- 

 erally think that a man who saves his funds to 

 pay his debts is rather benefiting his creditors, 

 but it may be different in Massachusetts. I 

 can not say." 



The measure, as amended, passed the Senate 

 without a division ; the House non-concurred 



in the Senate amendments and a conference 

 committee was appointed. It reported, March 

 2, in favor of the bill as passed by the Senate, 

 with the following amendment : 



Strike out, in the first and second lines, the -words 

 " by and with the advice and consent of the Senate," 

 and add to the first section as follows : 



The term of office of said commissioners shall not 

 extend beyond the beginning of the next session of the 

 Senate. If the Senate shall DC convened after the 4th 

 day of March, 1887, and before the 1st of December 

 in "said year, and the duties of said commissioner shall 

 not then be completed, the President shall, by and 

 with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint 

 three commissioners who shall perform and complete 

 the duties prescribed in this act within the time therein 

 specified. 



The President approved of the measure 

 March 3. 



Chinese Affairs. Jan. 6, 1887, the Senate 

 passed, without a division, a bill to provide for 

 the execution of Article II of the treaty con- 

 cluded between the United States of America 

 and the Emperor of China, Nov. 17, 1880, and 

 proclaimed Oct. 5, 1881. The bill passed the 

 House Feb. 8, 1887, without a division, and the 

 President approved of it February 23. The 

 text of it is as follows : 



He it enacted, etc. That the importation of opium 

 into any of the ports of the United States by any sub- 

 ject of the Emperor of China is hereby prohibited. 

 Every person guilty of a violation of the preceding 

 provision shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, 

 and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine 

 of not more than $500 nor less than $50, or by im- 

 prisonment fora period of not more than six months 

 nor less than thirty days, or by both such fine and im- 

 prisonment, in the discretion of the court. 



SEC. 2. That every package containing opium, 

 either in whole or in part, imported into the Unitea 

 States by any subject of the Emperor of China, shall 

 be deemed forfeited to the United States ; and proceed- 

 ings for the declaration and consequences of such for- 

 feiture may be instituted in the courts of the United 

 States as in other cases of the violation of the laws re- 

 lating to other illegal importations. 



SEC. 3. That no citizen of the United States shall 

 import opium into any of the open ports of China, 

 nor transport the same from one open port to any 

 other open port, or buy or sell opium in any of such 

 open ports of China, nor shall any vessel owned by 

 citizens of the Unitea States, or any vessel, whether 

 foreign or otherwise, employed by any citizen of the 

 United StateSj or ownea by any citizen of the United 

 States, either in whole or in part, and employed by 

 persons not citizens of the United States, take or cany 

 opium into any of such open ports of China, or trans- 

 port the same from one open port to any other open 

 port, or be engaged in any traffic therein between or 

 in such open ports or any of them. Citizens of the 

 United States offending against the provisions of this 

 section shall be deemed guiltv of a misdemeanor, and, 

 upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not 

 exceeding $500 nor less than $50, or by both such pun- 

 ishments, in the discretion of the court. The consular 

 courts of the United States in China, concurrently 

 with any district court of the United States in the dis- 

 trict in which any offender may be found, shall have 

 jurisdiction to hear, try, and determine all cases aris- 

 ing under the foregoing provisions of this section, 

 subject to the general regulations provided by law. 

 Every package of opium or package containing opium, 

 either in whole or in part, Drought, taken, or trans- 

 ported, trafficked, or dealt in contrary to the provis- 

 ions of this section, shall be forfeited to the United 

 States, for the benefit of the Emperor of China ; and 



