Show The house WASHINGTON Dec Butterworth brought up the famous Ohio ballot box contract which figured so conspicuously In the last campaign by offering a resolution reciting that of the persons whose names appear on said paper all except one were t the time of said publcaton and except S Cox dec lj and are still members of the Hou3e or Snate and that a committee of five be appointed to investigate it The resolution further said that if the contract were genuine the signers were unfit to sit in Congress The resolution was adopted and the report of the Silcott committee was presented to the House The report of the Silcott committee gives a detailed statement of the assets and liabilities lia-bilities of the office on December 5 The shortage is stated at 7070390 The report states that the committee has not yet sufficiently ciently investigated the matter of discounts dis-counts and notes Many notes the committee com-mittee believe war forged to cover defalcations defal-cations already existing I says the committee com-mittee cannot too severely condemn the manner In which the conducted con-ducted the affairs of his office It appears that a portion of the cash under the control of Silcott has never been counted during the six years of Mr Lee doms incumbency by any other person wA than Silcott and it does not appear that t Leedom ever asked for a count until the k A evening of the 5th instantwhen the deficiency de-ficiency appeared Mr Leedom seems to have exercised no careful supervision of the interests committed to his care Payson of Illinois immediately upon the conclusion of the reading of the report offered of-fered a resolu tion authorizing the committee commit-tee to examine the accounts but to take charge of all the assets of the office until further order of the House and to receive any proposal from Leedom for making good proposa any deficiency and also to make a full report re-port as to the effect of any deficiency 1 There was a protracted debate over this regarding the responsibility of the ser geantatarms and whether he was acting as agent of the members of the treasury department and the opinions expressed A were conflicting Finally Boutelle of Maine offered a substitute resolution directing di-recting the committee t report as to the effect or result of any deficiency and especially es-pecially as to the unpaid salaries to members mem-bers accompanying the report with a bill if necessary This was adopted as was also one offered by Hemphill of South Carolina directing Sergeantratarms Holmes arrange with tho treasury department de-partment for the payment of mileage of members Brown of North Caaolina introduced a bill for the repeal of the tax on tobacco in all its forms Referred Wilkinson of Louisiana announced the death of his colleague Gray of the third Louisiana district and as a mark of respect the House adjourned until Monday |