Newspaper Page Text
The People’s Party Paper
VOLUME 11.
WASHINGTON LETTER.
A WEEKLY PICTURE OF EVENTS
AT THE CAPITAL.
The Flunk on the Car Coupler Bill.
Haiiroad Lobby on Hand—Mr.
Cobb of Alabama.
Washington, D. C., Feb. 23.
An all-night session of the House
is one of the rarities. Tuesday we
had it.
At the last Session we passed a
Bill requiring Rail Roads to us©
automatic Car - Couplers and Air-
Brakes on Freight trains, and sent
it over to the Senate.
Great credit was claimed by the
Democratic majority for this legisla
tion. The labor vote everywhere
was tickled and persuaded with it,
for although the Populists and the
Republicans voted for the Bill, the
Democratic House claimed all the
honor.
At Chicago the Democratic Na
tional Convention inserted a Plank
in its Platform demanding the pas
sage of such a Bill.
The Republicans at Minneapolis
did the same.
Thus both the old Parties claimed
that they favored the policy of com
pelling the Rail Roads to adopt
these safety appliances, and thus
save the lives of 30,000 laborers
who are killed every year coupling
cars.
At this session the Senate passed
the Bill. Bear in mind that the Sen
ate is Republican.
It comes over to the House, which
is Democratic—and the House has,
so far, prevented its passage.
By the terms of law, the Rail
Roads are to agree among them
selves which one of the hundreds of
Car-Couplers and Air-Brakes they
will adopt. Failing to agree, the
l Q)mmcx£Mi...
(.< » ch.4‘' Henco there is no
possible chance for any one Patent
Company to control the situation.
Yet the Rail Roads fight the meas
ure insolently and effectually. They
are not willing to spend any money
to save human life. They have less
feeling for the Brakeman than for a
car wheel. The wear of the one is
a loss to them while the life of the
other is not. Therefore 30,000 men
are to be crushed to death every
year, 30,000 families thrown into
mourning every year, 30,000 widows
I with their train of helpless children
thrown into beggary every year, to
' gratify the heartless avarice of the
richest corporations the world ever
saw.
There is nothing in this land so
cheap as human life.
THE BOODLERS HERE.
The Rail Roads had their Lobby
here as usual. Vice-President Stahl
man of the Louisville and Nashville
Road was bossing the job—just as
he did in the Georgia Legislature
some time ago. He cracked his lit
tle whip over the Tennessee Con
gressmen and they performed to
order. RjcharuSdH of that State led
the fight for the corporations. Stahl
man, the Ring Master, sat in the
gallery and saw the horses go round.
I shall always be glad that he had to
listen while I hammered Richardson
and his gang over the head. We
made it so hot for the Boes that he
A got up and left the gallery.
I We kept up the fight till nearly
\ sun-up and then adjourned upon the
agreement that we should have the
inside track next Monday—which is
suspension day.
The Populists all voted for the
Bill.
So did the Republicans.
Only the Democrats, those dear
friends of labor, fought it.
The Democratic Platform promised
the Workmen this Bill. To make
the promise appear to mean some
thing the Democratic House passed
. it last summer in the hope that the
Republican Senate would defeat it.
In that event they could prove to the
voter that the Republicans were to
blame; that the Corporations bossed
the Senate, and not the House ; that
the Democratic House had done all
it could to stand up for the rights of
labor.
I But the Republican Senators saw
\ the trick, and defeated it by passing
They knew that the Rail
r which is ,
of the street
FsMgrh-t*-® to A.ll Special Privilege® to None.”
roads controlled the Democratic
Party just as they do their own. So
they voted for a law they do not
favor just to make “the dear old
Democratic Party” show its true
colors.
And they succeeded.
BEFORE AND AFTER.
The same Congress which refused
to pass this Car-coupler Bill Tuesday
did pass it last summer. Democrats
who now oppose it then voted for it.
Why the difference ?
Last summer the elections hadn’t
come on.
Now they have passed.
There’s lots of difference between
“before” and “after,” with the “dear
old Democratic Party.”
“ WHERE AM I AT ” COBB.
Late in the night of the Car
coupler contest Cobb of Alabama
thought it was a good time to scatter
the silence which had clouded him
all this session. He wanted to ask a
questiou, but for some cause (which
I leave to be guessed at) his inquiry
got too strong for him and wolloped
him around till the House was tired
of the performance.
I don’t think I ever saw a “Par
liamentary Inquiry” get the upper
hand of a statesman so completely as
it did of Cobb. Mr. Cobb’s question
starts at the middle of page 2115 of
the Record and drags its victim all
through the balance of that sheet,
then collars him again at the top of
the next, pulls him ingloriously down
the whole of that sheet, and throws
him flat on his back at the top of
page 2117.
Really a “Parliamentary Inquiry”
of this sort ought to be put under
Bond and security to keep the peace.
There is no telling when it will catch
hold of a statesman and toss him
helplessly around in the currents of
discussion.
Lois of things wrffch take plu'ce on
the floor do not appear in the Record
Members cut them out. The cus
tom allows this.
Therefore the account of Mr.
Cobb’s “Parliamentary Inquiry,”
while sufficiently curious to arouse
suspicion as to his condition, does
not contain that part of his spat with
Gen. Tracy of New York, in which
he said, “You shut up or I’ll give
you a smack on the jaw.”
Yet he did use those identical
words. When Tracy rose and was
about to bring the insult to the at
tention of the Chair, Cobb hastily
apologized.
I laughed at Tracy after it was
over, and reminded him that he was
one of Cobb’s witnesses last summer
to prove that he wasn’t drunk.
Tracey was considerably stirred
up, and remarked that Cobb must be
either drunk or crazy.
PENSIONERS MUST WAIT WHILE THE
SOCIETY SWELLS DANCE.
The “Jeffersonian simplicity” with
which Mr. Cleveland is to be inau
gurated is well illustrated by the fact
that one Department of the Public
Service must practically suspend
work for nearly ten days in order
that the dudes and dudines may take
charge of the Pension Building and
convert it into a Ball Room elabor
ately decorated. Congressmen de
siring information of cases pending
in the Department must wait till the
dancers get through. Many a poor
widow whose bread depends upon
her Pension allowance must wait as
best she may. Preparations for the
Ball have about suspended business
in the Pension Building..
CORPOEATIONS IN THE SADDLE.
It is curious to note the complex
ion of Cleveland’s Cabinet. He,
himself, is a member of a New York
firm of Corporation Lawyers.
Vice President Stevenson is a
Corporation Lawyer.
Bissell is a Corporation Lawyer.
Richard Olney is a Corporation
Lawyer, specially friendly to the Bell
Telephone Monopoly.
Dan Lamont is a Railroad Presi
dent.
W. C. Whitney, who managed
Cleveland’s nomination, is a million
aire Railroader and son-in-law to
Payne of the Standard Oil Company,
Villard, who acts as Cleveland’s
“confidential man,” is President of
the Northern Pacific Railway and
agent for German Bondholders.
ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY. MARCH 3. 1893.
The whole outfit with which Mr.
Cleveland has surrounded himself is
highly suggestive of “Jeffersonian
simplicity.”
It is indeed.
HOKE SMITH.
The Editors have suffered a good
deal with the above name. Some
how it was difficult for them to real
ize that a man would sit down delib
erately and tag his son with anv
such appellation. They believed it
to be a fictitious name like “Bill
Arp,” or “Mark Twain,” or “Merlin
da Sissins,” or “Simon Suggs,” or
“Sut Lovingood,” or “Major Jones,”
or my old friend,'‘Daniel Dennis.”
But the fact is gradually edging
its way to the front that Mr. Smith’s
name is not a job put up on a help
less infant by an unfeeling Parent*
but is a self-inflicted injury. It ap
pears that Mr. Smith’s daddy gave
him the name of Michael H. Smith
—a most respectable title. It is
likewise in evidence that Mr. Smith,
with all his personal dignity, was not
able to keep his friends from calling
him Mike. Now, all of us who have
seen Mr. Smith can understand that
to be called “Mike” by Tom, Dick
and Harry was a thing he could not
tolerate.
So one day he caught hold of him
self and chopped off part of his ap
pellative tail. The Michael disap
peared from history, and of course
the offensive word, Mike, went with
it.
Straightway he lengthened the H.
until it became Hoke, and there he
rested—his » name henceforth to be
Hoke Smith, and not Mike.
Whether Mr. Smith has ever un
dergone any conscientious scruples
for this rebellious rejection of the
name his daddy gave him, we, of
course, can’t tell. But as a Journal
ist we must protest against the prac- I
tine. We world like, to ki what ?
- • - >
every young man should, in -like
manner, get too big for his breeches
and kick av r y half the name his
father tied *■ ~iim.
If this thing goes on unrebuked,
our boys may not only get into the
habit of changing their names, at
any time, whether we like it or not,
but they may whirl around on us
some day and want to change ows.
Then where would we be at?
T. E. W.
THE CABINET.
Since the last issue of this paper,
Mr. Cleveland has decided to add to
his official family, which now stands
as follows:
Secretary of State Walter Q.
Gresham, of Illinois.
Secretary of the Treasury—John
G. Carlisle, of Kentucky.
Secretary of the Interior—Hoke
Smith, of Georgia.
Seerstary of War—Dan Lamont,
of New York.
Secretary of the Navy—Hilary
Herbert, of Alabama.
Postmaster- General—Partner Bis
sell, of New York.
Secretary of Agriculture—J. Ster
ling Morton, of Nebraska.
Attorney-General—Richard Olney
of Massachusetts,
The United States and Reading’.
The appointment of Mr. McLeod
as receiver of the bankrupt Reading
company makes him an officer of the
Federal courts. He takes this prop
erty as the guardian of vested inter
ests in the name and as a representa T
tive of the Government whose laws
he defied while he was president of
the corporation.
The most valuable franchise of
the road is a conspiracy in which
Mr. McLeod, as its president, in
volved it. The object of the con
spiracy is to increase the price of a
necessary of life by creating a mo
nopoly in an object of interstate
commerce. Attorney-General Miller
has assented to this breach of the law
by refusing to take any action against
the offending corporation.
The coal contracts are to be main
tained. The Lehigh Valley road has
already announced its purpose to
keep to its agreement with the Read
ing. In other words, an officer of
the Federal courts is violating a Fed -
er al statute.
What does Mr. Miller intend to do
now ? Is he to remain supine ? Is
he to continue to wink at the misde
meanors of a corporation ? It is cer
tainly time for him to act when offi
cers of the courts of T&ich he is the
first prosecuting officer defy the law.
• SAFETY ON RAILROADS.
3
1
LAW PASSED TO ENFORCE THE
USE OF AUTOMATIC COUPLERS.
The Vote Decided by the Ten Populist
1 Members, Who Sustain the De
mands of Labor.
The statistics of railway casualties
put down the number of injuries to
' employees growing out of the use of
the dangerous car-couplers and
brakes now provided by railroad
■ managements at nearly 30,000 each
year, and increasing in direct ratio
to the added mileage.
The best available reports tell us
that at the battle of Antietam, the
bloodiest of the civil war, the killed
and wounded in both armies num
bered 22,882, or threc-fourths as
many as are the victims of the greed
of railway corporations in this par
ticular department of labor.
It is time to realize that this loss
is in human life, and that sorrow
and poverty follow in its wake for
women and children. It were an in
sult to humanity to estimate a sum
in dollars and cents that would state,
a compensation. Stalwart manhood
is without price. But tlie argument
of those who opposed the bill which
has passed Congress was that the
corporations could not afford to set
aside the money necessary to guard
against this great annual loss—this
perpetual Gettysburg which con
sumes the young men of the country
in a battle prolonged by greed.
Though the National Conventions
of the Democratic and! Republican
parties declared for thclpassage of a
law to promote the safety of em
ployees and travelers up -m railroads
by compelling the use |zf automatic
| couplers and continuous brakes,
| there has been a >fight in
x . . .. .--’cd UX v(i ~
the purpose. foeb in the
House the bill came up jti its regular
order, and at once its exponents be
gan dilatory motions, <ie first, by
Mr. Richardson, of Tennessee, being
to postpone for one and the
next, by Mr. Livingston, of Georgia,
being to refer to the committee on
interstate commerce. The House
proceeded to the consideration of the
Senate amendments, however, and
settled down to a fight in which the
minority resorted to every species of
dilatory tactics known. The motion
to refer was defeated by 3 vote of
64 to 185. Later it was developed
that a quorum was not present, the
hour being then late in the evening.
The streets of the city were covered
with ice, and the sergeant-at-arms
was sent to the homes of absent
members, failing to bring in a suffi
cient number to make a quorum. A
mock debate then occurred on a
motion to excuse Mr. Allen, of Mis
sissippi, who was on the floor and
had not asked it. This was all for
eign to the purpose of the matter
before the House, and was evidently
intended to prepare for an adjourn
ment, which would have been final
defeat for the law. While this was
going on, at a late hour of the night,
Mr. Watson secured the floor and
said:
Now. sir, I desire to say this, with the
indulgence of the House. I am as
anxious, I presume, to get home and
have rest after this day’s session as any
gentleman here, but I am tired of the
perpetual surrender of the majority to
the minority, which takes place on this
floor.
I feel that upon a question of this sort
if we of the majority, championing a
measure which both the leading political
parties have pledged themselves in favor
of, which the votes here have demon
strated that a majority of the House is
in favor of, which has at last reached a
stage where it appears that it can pass if
this House will accept the amendments
of the Senate—l feel, I say, that it will
be a piece cowardice on our part if we
surrender to the minority, or if we do
not fight it out to the bitter end.
I will stay here till the ants tote me
out of the keyhole before I will give up
this fight if the gentleman in charge of
this bill will just order us to stand by
and fight it out. [Applause.]
Mr. Wise. Will the gentleman allow
me to interrupt him?
Mr. Wason. Certainly.
Mr. Wise. I will stay here forever,
sir, rather than give up.
Mr. Watson. Then, brother, we are
with you ! [Applause ]
Mr. Speaker, I am tired of this eternal
fashion of the railroads bossing this
House. We are dealing here with a
question of life ; we are dealing here
with a question that ought to be sacred
to the hearts of the American people.
While this very debate has been going
on, men have lost their lives by the sel
fish refusal of these corporations to spend
money in buying these safety appliances.
The appeal of labor comes to this Cham
ber. Each one of the parties pretended
in the last election that they would heed
this appeal; and now when the election
is over and the corporations send their
orders into this House we are asked like
cowards to bend our heads and take the
lash of the plutocracy, instead of hearing
the demands of labor.
Mr. Speaker, I appeal to this majority ;
let us assert our manhood one time ; let
us make the minority yield one time ; let
us make the corporations retreat one
time; let us stand by the people one
time, and we will go home having re-.
deemed in some measure the otherwise
discreditable record of the Fifty second
Congress. (Applause.]
The time of the House was thus
taken up until 6:30 o’clock Wednes
day morning, when adjournment put
an end to the all-night session.
Thursday, when the newspapers
had given the public the facts above,
Mr. -Sweeney and his committee tel
egraphed Mr. Watson as follows :
Chicago, Feb. 24 —Hon. T. E. Watson
of Georgia : Urge the passage of the
coupler bill in its present form. It will
result beneficially to all Railroad em
ployees and Railroads.
Frank Sweeney,
Wm A. Sinnott,
G. D. Buchanan,
Chas. Parsons,
J. Warren.
The following dispatch was also
elicited by the incident:
Terre Haute, Ind., Feb. 24. —Thos.
E. Watson : Your earnest efforts in be
half of the coupler bill now before the
Fifty-second Congress have not escaped
the notice of the Railway employees of
the nation, who are deeply interested in
its passage. We urge you to persevere
in your labors in their behalf, that the
measure may become a law and protec
tion of life and limb be.* accorded to
this large body of men who contribute
so much toward the prosperity of the
nation. Frank P. Sargeant,
Grand Master B. of L. F.
Monday, under a suspension of
the rules by a two-thirds vote, the
bill became a law. The vote on
its final passage showed a
majority of but five. The People’s
Party members voted for the bill
solidly, and thus saved it from de
feat.
REFLECTIONS SUITABLE TO THE
HON. DINK BOTTS.
Hail to thee, Hoke I Illustrious bloke 1
In vain do envious rivals poke
Fun at the sounds thy names evoke.
Hail to thee, Hpke! From th% land of
~t x iigeuf political Sod, 1 .. .
Art thou reality ? Or ,
J ’art thou jnfej
Hail to thee Hoke, in
Holders of office thou -
(“Soak” is a species of Equivoque.)
Hail to thee, Hoke 1 Thy fortunate
Stroke
The slate of the measly Mugwumps
broke,
As a housewife breaks an ancient yoke.
Hail to thee, Hoke! Statesmen may
croak,
But none of them dares thy wrath to
provoke,
Lest in their wheels they should find a
spoke.
Hail to thee, Hoke! Abe Slupsky
awoke,
And found he was dead as a blasted oak
In the light of thy fame, illustrious
bloke !
Lumpkin County, Ga., Feb. 19.
She Got There.
Oh, the wiles of these Washington
women.
I heard a story yesterday of the
way in which a distinguished mem
ber of the House was recently en
trapped. He is a Southern man and
has been mentioned prominently in
connection with a cabinet position.
I could tell his name, but—
Well, not over a few days ago, a
woman came to this Congressman.
She wore the dismal trappings of
woe, and with copious tears bemoan
ed the untimely death of her husband.
She was pretty and attractive, and
her sorrowful tale stirred the sympa
thetic cockles of the Congressman’s
heart. She wanted a place in the
Census Bureau. She claimed to be
from—l mean the State which the
member represents, and he bestirred
himself in her behalf. He was suc
cessful, and to-day the woman is a
clerk in the census office.
But she wears no widow’s weeds
now. Oh no; she is not a widow at
all, and, what is really a funny coin
cidence, her husband is a clerk in the
same office. I wonder if the Con
gressman has learned this sequel to
the little comedy in which he played
so earnest a part.
Administering Under Guardianship.
St. Louis Republic.
The appointment of Hoke Smith
of Georgia as Secretary of the In
terior will make it necessary for Mr.
Cleveland to be very careful in his
selection of a Commissioner of Pen
sions and a Second Assistant Secre
tary of the Interior. There is no
doubt that before the expiration of
Mr. Cleveland’s term, unless some
heroic reform measures are enacted,
the annual pension appropriations will
amount to $250,000,000. Os course
the Grand Army walking delegates
and the pension sharks will raise a
new rebellion if the son of a Con
federate soldier, like Hoke Smith,
should attempt to inaugurate pension
reform. It will, therefore, be incum
bent on Mr. Cleveland to appoint a
strong, capable Union soldier Com
missioner of Pensions, and a strong,
level-headed man with a judicial
mind from a Northern State Second
Assistant Secretary of the Interior.
NUMBER 2
OFFICE SEEKERS.
THE PILGRIMAGE TO THE NATION
AL CAPITAL.
Mr. Cleveland Will Recognize a New
Crop—Those Retired Four Years
Ago Have No Chance.
St. Louis Republic.
The Colonels, the Judges and V lO
Majors are arriving in Washington.
They are coming in force. The
streets are thronged, the hotel corri
dors crowded and it is difficult to
move about in the halls of the Capi
tol. The candidate for office be
lieves that his own presence on the
ground is necessary to his success.
Os course it is not, but nevertheless
he believes he ought to come. One
instance came under the observation
of the Republic correspondent to
day, where a man paid $67 for a
railroad ticket between his home in
the far West and Washington to
secure a postmastership in his town,
the revenues of which are less than
SSOO a year.
The appetite for office is simply
terrific. Every string is being pulled
by the applicants. They are driv
ing Senators and representatives
half crazy. They crowd the news
paper offices and make life a burden
to correspondents. You can’t turn
around a corner, go into a hotel, a
barroom, or anywhere else in fact,
without running across somebody
hot on the trail for an office, who
immediately beseeches your aid. It
was very bad four years ago, but it’s
worse now.
The Democrats say that they have
a grievance, Sieving that a majority
of the people of the country are
Democrats and that fully 90 per cent
of the people employed in the de
partments at Washington are Repub
lieaiu’XLx.rd ora- 1 < square
Should be turned out and L’&mbciai*—
let in till lhe balance in the employ
of the Gokevnment between the two .
'greu-v-parties is pretty evefi. Every- *
body that comes here in , quest of
office is inthigh hopes. He invaria
bly makes a good, substantial demand
in order to give himself a margin to
get down to what, perhaps, he-really
expects.
The crop of men turning up here
for the assistant secretaryships is
amazing, not only because of its ex
tent, but because of the character of
the men who are reaching out for
these places. When the word char
acter is used it should be understood
to mean mental, rather than moral.
One thing that will be of interest
everywhere is the authentication of
the report frequently heretofore
given in these dispatches that Mr.
Cleveland intends to have a new deal
this time and that those who held
office under him four years ago will,
as a very general rule, be barred this
time and that a new crop of patriots
will be given an opportunity to feed
at the public crib.
This determination on the part of
Mr. Cleveland comes to the Republic
correspondent from straight author
ity ; comes to him, in fact, from one
of the chief Cabinet officers of the
new regime. This rule will not be
rigid. Men who served in the rail
way mail service under the former
administration are substantially
barred from the general boycott, but
postmasters, marshals, attorneys, con
suls, ministers, plenipotentiaries and
envoys extraordinary, collectors of
customs and collectors of internal
revenue, gaugers, inspectors and all
the great mass of Federal officials
who held office under Mr. Cleveland
before, will be invited to go to the
rear and give a new crop a chance.
This will be a sad disappointment
to an immense crowd of people in
Washington. A great many men
who held office here under Mr. Cleve
land’s former administration have
continued to reside here during the
Harrison regime and are now up
again for the offices they formerly
held. They have regarded Mr.
Cleveland’s re-election as President
as their re-election, but Mr. Cleve
land is going to disappoint them.
They will have to continue to hustle
for their truck for the next four years.
A Mexican Protest.
City of Mexico, Feb.- 20.— El
the anti-American paper of
Mexico, has an editorial reiterating
its warnings against American influ
ence, offering the annexation of
Hawaii as an example of American
intentions towards entire Latin
America. The article is a follower
of an editorial a few weeks ago on
the same theme in which it counseled
patriotic Mexicans to have nothing
whatever to do with Americans com
mercially, nor to sell any mine, rail
road concession or other enterprise
to Americana,