| Show THE LAW MAKERS I They Yesterday Tackle The Labor Question THE INTERESTING DEBATE A Bill for the Keller of the LaborIng Labor-Ing Classes of the United States The Senate WASHINGTON February 13Dawes from the committee on appropriations reported the Indian appropriation bill with amendments Placed on the calendar cal-endar f Ingalls said he had observed in certain cer-tain quarters a statement that the Republicans Re-publicans of the Senate were endeavoring endeavor-ing to so direct legislation as to compel disre ogislii d rf extra session He asked Allison Alli-son chairman of the appropriatian committee com-mittee as to the condition of the appropriation appro-priation bills Allison said the military academy bill was the only bill that had been signed by the President The District of Columbia bill the pension bill and the consular and diplomatic bill were now in the conference committee The army bill passed the Senate yesterday The Indian bill had just been reported I by the Senate committee and would he hoped be considered by the Senate tomorrow that left with the Senate committee only the agricultural bill which will be ready for consideration on Monday The other appropriation bills had nut yet come to the Senate from the House The work of the Senate committee was well in nand If the House would take care of the bills there would be no difficulty in the Senate Beck said he had had many years experience ex-perience in the appropriation committees commit-tees of both houses and he thought the work on the appropriation bills in the House was better up than usual for the short season Ingalls was glad to have the assurance that the appropriation bills were likely to get through and denied that the Republican Re-publican Senators desired an extra session ses-sion If there was to be an extra session ses-sion the responsibility for it would depend de-pend upon the party friends of the head of the next administrationu Hoar fron the committee on privileges privil-eges and elections reported a resolution allowing George E Spencer formerly Senator from Alabama 7132 being actual and necessary expenses in maintaining main-taining the title to his seat Saulsbury said as a member of the committee he did not concur in the resolution re-solution On objection of Cockrell the reso tion went over one day Hoar from the conference committee on the electoral count bill reported that the House and Senate committees Were unable to agree The disagreement Hoar said had taken place in the first week of the ses sion The Texas Pacific land forfeiture bills bill-s the pending special order was placed before the Senate Blair asked unanimous consent to take up the antiforeign contract labor bill illVan Wyck declined to yield Van Wyck said the Senate and country understood the nature of the bill He dId not wish to put it in further peril had been in peril already It had been > displaced by taking up another bill whose principal feature made it impos sible to get the concurrence of the other < < house The principal features ot this forfeiture bill were so plain that if Van Wyckmight be allowed he would sav they had been passed by the House of Representatives almost unanimously The Chair said it was not in order to make reference to the proceedings of the House of Representatives Van Wyck said that he merely wanted to get the idea in some way before the Senate Some things Van Wyck said were very remarkable The very moment mo-ment the land grant forfeiture bill loomed up in this body terror seized in some directions The bill was demanded by the unanimous consent of the American Amer-ican people There was at least unanimity unanim-ity there whether there had or had not ieenunanimit in the other place We could not dally in a double sense with a matter of tins kind The people had demanded and the platform of both political parties had demanded that there should be action in the direction direc-tion of this bill prompt and speedy action Every days delay imperiled the bill Soon the bill would be met by the appropriation bills and then ingenious ingeni-ous gentlemen would by long speeches 1 be able to prevent its consideration Only one of the forfeiture bills had been able to get through Congress and that was the bill that the railroad company itself had been anxious to get passed Had the Senate forgotten the celebrated letter writtenby the celebrated historian histo-rian Huntington of the Central Pacific as to what was done about the Texas Pacific when he was lobbying here We should be admonished by that history to furnish no opportunity for any other historian like Huntington or possibly Huntington himself to duplicate or reproduce re-produce similar historical chapters Van Wyck wished to say this much now because he did not know whether owing to the rules and processes of obstruction he would have a chance to say anything more on the subject Blair moved that the Senate proceeu to the consideration of the labor bill Van Wyck asked the Chair if this would not again displace the Texas Pacific forfeiture bill and relegate it to the calendar The Chair said it would Van Wyck Then I want that distinctly I dis-tinctly understood Van Wyck called I for the yeas and nays on motion I and it was agreed to yeas 30 naya 10 I The labor bill was therefore taken I up and its consideration proceeded I The labor bill is a house bult and entitled en-titled An act to prohibit the importation I importa-tion and migration of foreigners and 1 aliens under contract or agreement to I perform labor in the United States its I Territories and the Distriot of Columbia I Colum-bia Considerable debate arose on tbeiiIlL Hawley thought the bill was in contravention con-travention of natural rights McPherson thought it would prevent people from coming here even as colonists col-onists Blair said the wages of the working classes should be protected from the effects ef-fects of imported gangs of labor In the course ot his remarks Blair alluded to the reccir disturbances in Hocking Valley wInch were attributed to the class of people this bill would exclude Those disturbances had already resulted re-sulted in a loss of 51000000 Ingalls said he sympathized with Hawley in his regard for natural rights but we were conhonted with a portentous por-tentous exigency We should soon be called on to decide whether everyman every-man woman and child on the face of the earth no matter in what condition of physical or intellectual elopment I or moral standing has the natural right to come to the United States and do and act as he pleased to the detriment detri-ment of those already here There were I at this present moment Ingalls said 500000 wage workers in this county who were idle but were willing to labor for their dependent women and children that would make 3000000 people who amid the extraordinary rigors of an unusually inclement winter are suffering form the necessaries of life They needed shelter they needed clothing that might be manufactured from the surplus productions of our factories now stored in warehouses awaiting purchasers They were in need of corn that was today being used for fuel on the plains of Nebraska and wheat that was being fed to hoss in the valleys of Kansas The question was had we the right to protect our own citizens against dangerous danger-ous and determined competition where forced on us by the ambition of those desiring to improve their condition or by the cupidity of those great employers employ-ers who were indifferent as to the JUeans they employed to swell their already al-ready egregio is gams The nations of this earth under this doctrine of natural rights had bten dumping their paupers and criminals and dangerous dan-gerous and uneasy classes upon us until un-til in Ingalls opinion in view of recent events in New orkCincinnati and Chicago Chi-cago the time had come to consider whether we might not be called on to modify in some degree our views as to the significance of the Declaration of American Independence and universal rihts of man Bayard did not see the present direct application of Ingalls remarks Those remarks were directed against the communistic com-munistic forces which proposed an ar ray or numbers against property it was not however by bills of this character char-acter that such forces were to be met but by measures amending criminal law so as to punish unrelentingly the foes to human society whose doings and threatenings had been adverted toby to-by Ingalls That was the obvious right and the obvious duty of every State asa as-a means of selfpreservation But this bill was not levelled at the difficulties involved in dynamite Bayard then reviewed re-viewed the bill to show its provisions were impracticable Sherman defended the bill It was directed not against freemen but men whowere not their own masters who did not come as free individuals but were imported in a body at a prearranged I prear-ranged price to compete with tree and intelligent American workingmen It was not a race discrimination Sherman Sher-man had voted against the Chinese bill and would have opposed this bill if it were a discrimination on account of race After further debate the Senate without action adjourned |
