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Show CONGRESS TURNS ITS BATTERIES ON IBRISTOW REPORT; MEMBERS INDIGNANT 00000000 0 0000000000 0 0000 1 1 SOME CONGRESSIONAL WORD PICTURES. S it 1s, "BrlstoVs action mi neither courageous nor honest. He tinder- 0 took, in my Judgment, to blackmail Congress." REPRESENTATIVE 0 KITCHIN N. C.) "The Bristow report was born In Iniquity and conceived in sin." REPRESENTATIVE OROSVENOR (Ohio.) "Bristow or no Bristow, whoever assails me Is a coward." REPRE- 'i SENTATTVH BUTLER (Pa.) "That document is the production of a liar and scoundrel." REPRE- SENTATIVB HILL (Conn.) -v "That report is infamous." REPRESENTATIVE THOMPSON (Ala.) ' 0, Action of Fourth Asslst-: Asslst-: ant P. JlL-General.Char-: actcrizcd by Members in , No Uncertain Language. Lan-guage. WASHINGTON. March 10. That an Investigation of the Postoffice department depart-ment by the House of Representatives will result from the publication of the report Involving members of Congress In that connection was Indicated by every expression possible short of a vote In that body yesterday. With a whirlwind whirl-wind of protest the report was taken up by Indignant members, their, personal connection ' with it explained, and epithets epi-thets hurled at Fourth Assistant Postmaster-General Bristow. Asked for Postponement. Mr. Overstreet of Indiana, chairman of the Committee o,n Postofflces and Post Roads, was recognized. He had, he said, consulted with members on both sides of the house who desired more time than' three hours to discuss the Hay resolution bearing on the Bristow ' charges In connection with postal affairs. af-fairs. He therefore suggested a postponement post-ponement of the consideration of the resolution until next Monday. Mr. Hepburn (Rep., Ia.) said that any Investigation of the Postoffice department depart-ment would not elicit any facts not brought out by the committee report. Mr. Cooper of Wisconsin followed and said he was "one of the members under Indictment' Speaking with much feeling, Mr. Cooper said: "Who knows better than I do whether I am guilty?" Mr. Overstreet then withdrew his motion mo-tion to postpone, and the House proceeded pro-ceeded to discuss the. resolution under the order allowing: an hour and & half to each side. "It can be said with absolute assurance assur-ance of accuracy," Mr.-Overstreet continued, con-tinued, "that there was In no Instance any violation of any law whatever by any member of Congress in making any recommendation either for Increase of clerk hire allowance of Increase of rent of postoffice buildings." Against Investigation. The resolution proposes an Investigation Investiga-tion by five members of this body, he said, whereas a committee of seventeen members, i representing an equal number num-ber of States, both parties in politics, has already passed before it in a proper way this information and has unanimously unani-mously reported to the House that there Is no need for further Investigation nor would any further investigation elicit additional facts sufficient to change its conclusions. Mr. Overstreet moved that debate continue until 4 o'clock Thursday, whUa was agreed to unanimously. Charges Against Bristow. W. W. Kitchin (N. C.) charged Mr. Bristow with having deliberately suppressed sup-pressed important and material facts. - "Facts," he said, pounding his desk, "which could not be overlooked and which were suppressed. In my judgment, judg-ment, for the purpose of giving a false Impression to the country and misleading mislead-ing the "public. Brisiow's action waa neither courageous nor honest, but for partisan purposes. "He undertook. In my judgment, to blackmail Congress, to silence Congress, and to silence the country. It is a species spe-cies of intimidation." Gen. Grosvenor Protests. Amid a storm of applause, lasting for several minutes. Gen. Grosvenor (O.), -who was named in the report, said that this was a pretty good specimen of the readiness with which the newspapers of the country and the great body of the people grasp a publication or a statement state-ment and assume evil where they might assume good. He convulsed the House by reading n editorial which referred to Speaker Cannon and Representatives Payne and Hill as having been taken "red handed.' but, speaking seriously, he said, it was In accord with the views of 95 per cent of the newspapers of the country. The report was a malicious libel on. 191 member c-f the House and Senate. "I submit," he said, "that the investigation investi-gation which the gentleman from Indiana In-diana has apologized for is an outrage and a violation of every principle of Justice." ! M Prolonged applause followed this1 x statement. He wanted to know by what right the Bristow report had been published before be-fore the action of any tribunal had established es-tablished the truth of it. In order to show what he termed "the infinite rascality" ras-cality" of the Bristow report. Gen. Grosvenor Gros-venor explained the cases in which his name was mentioned. "I will resign my seat tomorrow," he said, pounding his deskl "If there is anything irregnlar or improper in what I did." Indignation Expressed. Then. Showing the effects of his indignation, in-dignation, Mr. Grocvenor pounded his desk again and said: "I condemn the man that sent that into this House. Can any self-respecting Congressman ever enter the office of the man who will produce such a document as that ?" This report, he added, would be printed abroad and it would be said that In the American Congress there were 191 rascals. If the Postoffice department de-partment had some official whose Judgment Judg-ment was so dwarfed by the opinion of a Congressman the official , had better be turned out, he declared. The Bristow report, he said in conclusion, con-clusion, was born in iniquity and conceived con-ceived in sin, and had traveled its course until it had struck the public of BBaBBSSMSKSMMBSSSSBSSSBSSSSHSSSMISMSSSSSSSSBSSSI the United States as a great attack on a body of men "as free from wrongdoing, corruption, crime and irregularity as an equal number of men on the face of the earth." Act of a Coward. ' Mr. Butler (Pa.), another accused member, said he never before understood under-stood the duties of Representatives, but he new conceived them to be of "singular "singu-lar and conspicuous inactivity." He differed, he .said, from Bristow, and he would defy anyone to closo the doors of the department to him. "What my constituent are entitled ' to," he vigorously remarked, "they shall have," and sneerlngly added, "Brlatow or no Bristow." Whoever had assailed him, he said, was a coward. "Liar and Scoundrel." Mr. Hill (Conn.), likewise mentioned in the Bristow report, denied that he had done anything improper. He read from the original papers and called attention at-tention to the omission from the Bristow Bris-tow report of certain Indorsements therein. "Was it malice, or was it ignorance, ig-norance, or what was it?" he inquired. He had, he said, "submitted certain questions to Gen. Bristow, answers to which had been refused. I am going to vote for a resolution to investigate myself and to investigate the Fourth Postmarter-General," he said, amid a round of applause. Holding up a copy of the report, Mr. Hill vehemently declared de-clared : 'That document is the production of a liar and a scoundrel." Bristow Report Infamous. Mr. Thompson (Ala.), also named in the report, characterized the report as infamous and having for its object the intimidation of members in order to to keep them from Insisting on their rights. I |