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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,