1072 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
Mr. Auuison. Practically that is just what it does. 
Mr. Harris. That is what I know. 
Mr. Atuison. It proposes to give a sum of money for distinguished 
services rendered to our Government and to our people and to mankind 
without compensation. Somebody has said that he is a public bene- 
factor who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before. 
Professor Baird made thousands of fish grow where only one grew 
before, and he rendered in that scientific work of his a service, not 
only to our own country, but to every country on the globe, which 
deserves the recognition of some government, and I think it is a small 
recognition to give him the sum proposed by the report of the Senate 
Committee on Appropriations. 
Mr. Harris. If the Senator will allow me to ask him one other 
question, I will promise to ask no more. Iam charmed with the 
frankness of the answers of the Senator. My question is this, and it is 
a pretty broad one: Does the Senator from lowa hold that we have the 
constitutional power to levy and collect taxes and donate the money 
so collected to any object that we may think meritorious? 
Mr. Auuison. The constitutional question I prefer not to argue just 
now. I could cite numerous precedents where we have done a great 
many things in that direction. 
Mr. Harris. I have no respect for those. I want the opinion of the 
Senator from Iowa as to the constitutional question. 
Mr. W. M. Stewart. I should like in this connection to ask the Sen- 
ator from Tennessee a question. 
Mr. Harris. I am very ready to answer any question the Senator 
from Nevada desires to ask me. 
Mr. Stewart. Does not the Senator think that the Government of 
the United States is under the same moral obligation to pay for bene- 
ficial services rendered that an individual would be where the services 
were rendered without a contract, or where for some technical reason 
no recovery could be had? 
Mr. Harris. I commenced my inquiry by asking if the Government 
owed a debt, and that certainly meant whether by express or implied 
contract. The answer was that it did not. The second answer was 
that this was a donation. The Senator can deal with that question as 
he pleases. If the Government owes a debt, no matter whether by 
express or implied contract, no Senator would go further in the direc- 
tion of paying it than I would; but I am not here to make donations. 
Mr. Stewart. If the Senator means by a debt only such matter as 
can be collected in a court, then we had better abolish the Committee 
on Claims and all other committees which are here daily considering 
equitable claims, claims which appeal to the conscience of the Govern- 
ment where services have been rendered and the party has not been 
compensated. I understand that Congress has regarded itself from 
