CONGRESS. (INTERPRETING PENSION LAW PROTECTION' OF THE PRESIDENT.) 



203 



Interpreting Pension Law. A joint resolu- 

 tion was passed by the Congress and approved by 

 the President, July 1, 1902, construing the act of 

 June 27, 1890. It is as follows: 



" Resolved by the Senate and House of Repre- 

 sentatives of the United States of America in 

 Conyress assembled, That the act approved June 

 27, 1890, entitled ' An Act granting pensions to 

 soldiers and sailors who are incapacitated for the 

 performance of manual labor, and providing for 

 pensions to widows, minor children, and dependent 

 parents,' is construed and held to include all per- 

 sons and the widows and minor children of all 

 deceased persons, subject to the limitations of 

 s-aid act, who served for ninety days in the mili- 

 tary or naval service of the United States during 

 the late war of the rebellion and who have been 

 honorably discharged therefrom, and section 4716, 

 Revised Statutes United States, is amended ac- 

 cordingly: Provided, however, That the foregoing 

 shall not apply to those who served in the First, 

 Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Regiments 

 United States Volunteer Infantry who had a 

 prior service in the Confederate army or navy and 

 who enlisted in said regiments while confined as 

 prisoners of war under a stipulation that they 

 were not to be pensionable under the laws of the 

 United States, nor to those who, having had such 

 prior service, enlisted in the military or naval 

 service of the United States after the 1st day of 

 January, 1865. 



" SEC. 2. That in the administration of the pen- 

 sion laws any enlisted man of the army, including 

 regulars, volunteers, and militia, or any appointed 

 or enlisted man of the navy or marine corps, 

 who was honorably discharged from the last con- 

 tract of service entered into by him during the 

 late war of the rebellion, shall be held and con- 

 sidered to have been honorably discharged from 

 all similar contracts of service previously entered 

 into by him with the United States during said 

 war: Provided, That such enlisted or appointed 

 man served not less than six months under said 

 last enlistment or appointment, that his entire 

 service under said last enlistment or appoint- 

 ment was faithful, and that he did not receive 

 by reason of said last enlistment or appoint- 

 ment any bounty or gratuity other than from 

 the United States in excess of that to which he 

 would have been entitled if he had continued 

 to serve faithfully until honorably discharged 

 under any contract of service previously en- 

 tered into by him, either in the army, navy, 

 or marine corps, during the war of the rebel- 

 lion^' 



Protection of the President. There was 

 much popular discussion of this theme, as the 

 assassination of President McKinley brought 

 home to. the people once more the danger to our 

 !hief Magistrate, not so much from treasonable 

 conspiracy as from criminal fools and fanatics. 

 The Congress early in the session undertook the 

 task of protective legislation. The Senate passed 

 a measure making it a capital crime to kill or 

 attempt to kill the President, or any official in 

 line of succession to the presidency, or any sov- 

 ereign or chief magistrate of a foreign country; 

 setting a penalty of twenty years' imprisonment 

 on instigating, advising, or counseling the kill- 

 ing of any of these persons, or conspiring for 

 the death of any of them; and proposing impris- 

 onment for ten years for any one threatening or 

 idvising such assassination, by spoken, written, 

 5r printed words. The Senate bill also provided 

 for a presidential body-guard of regular troops. 

 House of Representatives passed a substitute 

 jy way of amendment to this measure. It 



struck out the provision for a military body- 

 guard, drew the distinction that the President, 

 those in line of succession, and tin- li<;nl~ and 

 representatives of foreign governments must In- 

 assassinated or assaulted while engaged in the 

 performance of official duties to give the Federal 

 courts jurisdiction over the crime, and added 

 provisions against the general profession or 

 teaching of anarchy. There was no report made 

 by the Conference Committee appointed to har- 

 monize these differences. 



Reciprocity with. Cuba. This policy engaged 

 much of the attention of the Administration, 

 brought on heated discussion in Congress, and 

 became a subject of sharp political controversy 

 in the press. It is understood that President 

 McKinley promised reciprocal trade advantage 

 to Cuba in consideration of the adoption of the 

 Platt amendment by the Cuban constitutional 

 convention; and President Roosevelt urged the 

 concession in his annual message. The Ways 

 and Means Committee of the House of Repre- 

 sentatives framed a bill granting a tariff reduc- 

 tion of 20 per cent, on all Cuban imports, on 

 condition that the Cuban Government adopt the 

 immigration and contract labor laws of the Uni- 

 ted States, the President to proclaim the fulfil- 

 ment of the conditions and the operative effect 

 of the law. The Republican majority in the 

 committee could not act together on this bill, 

 and it was reported through the help of some of 

 the Democratic minority. Republican confer- 

 ences were held on the subject, and it was found 

 that there was strong opposition to the bill 

 within the dominant party. The source of diffi- 

 culty was in the sugar-growing interests in this 

 country; and a serious blow was dealt to the 

 measure when the House adopted the following 

 amendment to the bill, offered by Page Morris, 

 of Minnesota, April 18: 



" And upon the making of said agreement, and 

 the issuance of said proclamation, and while 

 said agreement shall remain in force, there shall 

 be levied, collected, and paid, in lieu of the duties 

 thereon now provided by law on all sugars above 

 No. 16 Dutch standard in color, and on all sugar 

 which has gone through a process of refining, im- 

 ported into the United States, 1.825 cent per 

 pound." 



This amendment, technical and harmless look- 

 ing as it is, touched a sensitive spot. The bill, 

 as reported, disturbed the relation between raw 

 sugar and refined sugar established in the ex- 

 isting tariff, and this amendment aimed at re- 

 storing the equilibrium, so that the reciprocity 

 should not be at the expense of the American 

 sugar-growers altogether, but also at the expense 

 of the refiners. It was adopted by a vote of 164 

 yeas to 111 nays; and the measure was then 

 passed. 



The following day Mr. Teller, of Colorado, of- 

 fered in the Senate a resolution to investigate 

 the relation of the Sugar Trust to the proposal 

 to reduce the tariff on raw sugar and the rumor 

 that American capitalists have secured large 

 holdings in the Cuban sugar plantations. June 

 16, he offered a resolution for the investigation 

 of the expenditures of money from Cuban funds 

 to promote reciprocity. The result was to cast 

 suspicion on the reciprocity measure. The Re- 

 publican Senators, after conference, determined 

 upon a substitute making it a condition of pro- 

 claiming reciprocity that it be proved the Sugar 

 Trust is not a party at interest: but it was 

 thought best to abandon the bill for the session 

 and depend upon the negotiation of a reciprocity 

 treaty. 



