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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (May 3, 1908)
THE SUNDAY OKEGONIAN. PORTLAND, 5IAY 3.' 1905. 9 SIDELIGHTS ON THE RESOLUTION rulton Measure on Oregon & California Grant Provokes Much Debate. HAWLEY TIRELESS WORKER Together With Townsend, of Attorney-General's Office,' Conducts Campaign of Education in the House Two Others Help. OREGONIAN NEWS BUREAU. Wash ington, April 27. (Special Correspond ence.) Side lights on the debate Inci dent to the passage through the House of the Fulton resolution authorizing the Attorney-General to bring suit to secure forfeiture of the grant to the Oregon & California Railroad show up a number of interesting facts not here tofore reviewed. . This resolution, after ieing consid ered very thoroughly In the public lands committee, where all parties were heard exhaustively, was reported to the House, but before it could be brought up for consideration the Demooratic filibuster was inaugurated, and the res olution was sidetracked. The House had to devote its full time to appropri ation bills, which always have right of way. Time dragged on and the reso lution did not come up. Its friends saw the end of the session approaching and were becoming slightly apprehensive. But, while delayed, they were not asleep. Representative Hawley, of Or egon, sponsor for the resolution in the House, worked ceaselessly In behalf of this piece of . legislation, for he be lieved It to be Just and proper and In the Interest of his state. Day and night he was In conference with members, explaining to them the importance of the proposed suit and the necessity for the passage of the resolution. Never a day did he miss in the House, and scarcely a minute was he off the floor. With him every minute waa valuable, and he made good use of his time. The result was that when the resolution did come up for discussion the House pencrally was at least apprised of its importance, and a great many were convinced of its merit. Townsend Works With Hawley. With Mr. Hawley worked B. D. Town, send, of the Attorney-General's office, the man who made the investigation for the Government, and who discov ered the necessity for the resolution. Townsend worked hftT-Hcf Ytnfnr committee getting a favorable report, hut when the report came out he spent much time convincing members that tliey should vote for the resolution and vote against all amendments. Town Sond and Hawley worked In entire har mony, and to their quiet campaign of education Is largely due the credit fo? the final passage of the resolution. While the resolution would probably have passed without material debate, this is one rare Instance where discus sion made votes. As stated, members generally had become interested In the subject, for It had become noised about that defeat of the resolution meant de feat of the suit, and this was equiva lent to donating to Mr. Harrlman 35, 000,000 worth of lands. Members want ed to know whether this was true or not. So they stayed . to hear the de bate. Mr. Fordney came forward with an amendment which sounded fairly reasonable to the unacquainted mem bers, and he made a plea that satisfied many. But as the debate progressed and the Iniquity and double meaning of that amendment was laid bare, those votes were changed. The amendment was defeated, to 44. Had it not been for the protracted debate the vote would have been much nearer a tie. It Is seldom that debate makes votes for any measure In Congress members usually know how they will vote beforehand, or else divide on party lines. No party line was drawn on this resolution. It was supported and op posed by men of both parties. Vote on Fordney's Amendment. An analysis of the vote in favor of the Pordney amendment shows nine from New lork. where the railroad mortgage bonds are held: nine in Pennsylvania, where reside some of the large stock holders In the affected lumber companies; seven In Michigan and four in Wisconsin. WM6rf .tr tbolders wield great po litical influence, and the other scattering .votes came from Representatives all of Whom had been appealed to by constitu ents who had bought lands from the rail road company Iowa 4. Minnesota 1, Mis souri l. North Carolina 3, Idaho 1, New Jersey 1 Utah 1, Ohio 1, South Dakota 1, and Ioul-slana L . . iJJZ1 If,', .' "fdit is due Represen tative Mondell for the manner in which he handled the' resolution before the .iSe- . 6 I",ade a "P'id opening statement, which set the House right on the proposition: then he gave opportunity to Republican and Democratic members or the public lands committee to voice their support, and also recognized Repre sentative Hawley, the man most Inter ested, and Representative Jones and Humphrey, of Washington, both well ac quainted and directly interested in the matter. Mondell himself,, by reason of his position, was able to show the House why the resolution was necessary and why it should not be amended, and such words from the chairman of the committee In charge had very great weight. Had he opened the way for the amendment, or even compromised, the vote might have been very different. But he . uncompro misingly rejected all proposals of amend ments, and made It plain that neither his committee nor the Department of Justice would stand for any change. ( Moiidell's Speech In Favor. Many interesting passages occurred during, the debate, some of them illus trating the feeling that was Injected into the discussion as the subject became bet ter understood. The House began to sit up and take notice when Chairman Mon dell. of the public lands committee, hav ing charge of the resolution, pointed out that the adoption of the Fordney amend ment would . virtually nullify the Fulton resolution and render suit impracticable. In this connection Mr. Mondell said: My opinion is that nothing could occur which would be so harmful or disastrous to the Interests of the Government, of the peo ple of the United States, and of Innocent bona tide purchasers themselves as the adop tion of this amendment. .The probability Is that the court would hold It to be uncon stitutional, as being- discriminatory, as being class legislation: and so at the end of long an( tedious litigation, the court of lam re sort having declared the whole resolution unconstitutional, the titles of the so-called "innocent purchasers" would h In the same position thsy are today challenged and In secure. If the court did not hold this amendment unconstitutional! It Is altogether probable that the Attorney-Oeneral- wou'd And It utterly Impossible to assert the rights and the remedies of the Government and people If this amendment le adopted. If It Is contended that limitations contained In this grant constitute a condition subsequent, then the conditions subsequent. If such they tie, have been breached ia the sales In vio lation of those conditions; and. If t.e Con gress, at the seme time that It authorised the Instittulon of the suits, provides that we shall forgive and condone the very breaches on which our suit must be founded, any suit undertaken by the Government would be al together futile and useless, and In that event the titles of the so-called "bona fide pur chasers" would still be In their present un satisfactory and Insecure condition. The rights of all bona fide purchasers from the railroad companies will be. fully pre served under this resolution wfthout amend ment. A court of equity which must pass upon these matters will and must take into consideration the equity of these purchasei-s, and all innocent purchasers will 'unquestion ably be protected. Eut If now. In the Ineli-. tution of the suit, in authorizing the Attorney-General to proceed and a&eert all the rights and remedies' of the Government, we condone the very acts, the very breaches, upon which we are proposing to assert this .forfeiture, what use will It be for the Attorney-General to Institute any emit? So in the Interest of the people, in the Interest of the Government, and in the Interest of the purchasers themselves this resolution should be passed, and paeged without a word or line of amendment. "Greatly Scared Innocents." Representative Craig, Alabama, Demo crat, was contending that the Fordney amendment was loaded, and was criti cising the protection It would give to large lumber companies that bought ex tensively concrary to the terms of the law. Fordney declared these lumber companies were bona fide purchasers. Mr. Craig came back with this hot 'one: Are they bona tide purchasers? That Is the question we' want - to submit to the court. The gentleman from Michigan has THE VANCOUVER TR.I-CIT1 LEAGUE TEAM HAS DEAF MUTE FLAYER. ' fjf. m'Awr. sn,iii.v vi'.-..-frw.y.'-7 1 5 Si - it v W. S. Hunter. W, S. Hunter, one of the new recruits added to the Vancouver, Wash., Trl-City Leag-ue team, la : the only deaf mute player In the league. He played four years at shortstop for the. Gallaudet Col lege, of Washington, D. C, before coming to Vancouver, and is rated a speedy, tellable player. He is a 10-second man on the bases, and played with the Sand Point, Idaho, team for a short time at the latter end of the last season. made an argument a If h were arguing this question before a court. If there are any of the equities which the gentleman from Michigan say a really exist, he ought not to fear to go into the courts of this country. I,oud applause.) But. Mr. Speaker, they are th worst scared innocent people I ever saw In my life, (laughter.) One of the most interesting speeches made on the resolution, and in defense of the Fordney amondment, was that of Representative Jenkins, of Wisconsin, chairman of the committee on judiciary, the man who wanted to get hold of the. Fulton resolution when it came 6ver from the Senate, and who would have killed it beyond all doubt. Jenkins had had letters from some of the poor "wid ows" In the case, and he got up on the floor, and with "tars In his voice" said it was the purpose of the Attorney-General to "proceed agaipst the little homes out there" and force the poor settlers to spend all their money defending their rights. He had the effrontery to declare that the actual settlers, those who bought strictly according to law, and those who slightly exceeded the law either as to quantity of land or price per acre, would have to go into court, when he knew full well he was not stat ing the truth; But Jenkins was mud. He was mad because the resolution had gone to the public lands committee in stead of to his committee: mad because the public lands committee allowed it to come before the House, when he could so easily have smothered it 'had it gone to the . committee on Judiciary. Jenkins Takes Himself Seriously. Jenkins takes himself very seriously; he regards himself as the great consti tutional lawyer of the House; nobody knows quite as much about the law and the Constitution as he. and with most superior air. after opposing the resolu tion, he Informed the House that "the railroad company is not in any danger under this resolution, and the learned Attorney-General will find he cannot proceed against the company, and that he has got to have further aid of Con gress." He said there was nothing In this controversy for a court of equity to act upon. "When you talk about a court of equity protecting these honest settlers, these innocent purchasers' said he, "It is a fraudulent statement. A court of equity cannot protect them." And yet he was much wrought up in his .opposition to a resolution, which he de clared was inoperative. "The Attorney General Is just as helpless after ye passage of this resolution as though it had never been passed," he said in clos ing. This- is the opinion of the mighty Jenkins the man who was sore because he did not have opportunity to kill the resolution. Representative Howland, of Ohio, a member of the committee,- did not mince words !n tearing the Fordney amend ment to pieces. He devoted himself en tirely to the amendment and was so caustic that Fordney jumped up to ask If the public lands committee had not rejected all amendments. Fordney was soon sorry he spoke, for Howland came back at him in this style: ' Mr. Howland It Is absolutely true that the Committee on Public Lands, of which I have the honor to be a member, has wise ly rejected every amendment which your attorneys have submitted to that body 4 applause), and we want tne House to re ject this amendment, because, in our judg ment, it deprives the United States Gov ernment of rights which It now has, amount ing to minions of dollars. (Applause.) Now, I again direct your attention to this amendment, which is the product of the combined abilities of tne best attor neys of the railroad companies, of the lum ber companies, and other wise men that hv -appeared before our committee. Mr. Fordney I y the gentleman's par don. What authority has he to say that this amendment was framed by the rail road company? Mr. Howland Because they have been working on these amendments lor the last two months. Humphrey Gets Applause. Early ' in theV debate John Wesley Gaines called Representative Humphrey to his feet and questioned him to .know whether his constituents favored the reso lution amended or unamended. Humph rey said they wanted it unamended, and had written and telegraphed Mm to op pose the Fordney amendment. Fordney said that could hardly be so, as the amendment had only been drawn the night before. Later Humphrey. In. his -own time, sent bom a hot shot that got the loudest applause of any part of the debate. He said: 1 Mr. BpAAker, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Fordney) asked how it. was that I was able to state that I had received dispatches and letters opposing this amendment, when hi amendment was not made public jintil last evening. I will tell the gentleman with a great deal of pleasure. I received letters and dispatches and resolutions, saying that the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Fordney) would offer an amendment Intended to pro tect the railroads and the lumber interests from prosecution. . And the moment I read the amendment offered by the gentleman I recognized it from that description. (Applause.) I deny that any bona fide purchaser from the Pa cific Coaet is insisting on this amendment. The tearful plea of the gentleman from Michigan has been" wasted. If the bona flde purchaser. Is In fear of thlsj -resolution, why were not the members from the Pacific Coast told of that fact 7 Has any protest come to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Hawley), in whose district most of this land is situated, upon this proposition ? None whatever. - It Is not a remarkable faot that these Inno cent purchasers have to go so far from home to And come one to defend them. I will tell you who is opposing this resolution; those who are here urging this amendment. After describing the big lumber com panies 'which bought large tracts,, Mr. Humphrey added: These are the people who want us to de clare their Innocence In advance; these are the poor innocent purchasers who- want us tb throw some obstruction between them and the prosecution of the Government. These are the men that want this amendment. It you paes this resolution no innocent person will be Injured, and I aak you to vote down the amendment so that no guilty person may escape. (Applause.) . Jones' Argument Is Strong. A very strong argument for the resolu tion and against the Fordney amendment was mode by Representative Jones, of Washington. In part he said: - Mr. Speaker, 1 desire to eay when this proposition first came up for consideration I received some telegrams from people in my state urging mo to insist that some amend ment should be inserted in the resolution protecting bona fide purchasers. That sound ed very good to me. but when I began to look into the matter further the difficulties became greater, and I appeared before the public lands committee 'and listened to the representative of the Attorney-General's of- flee, and became satisfied from his statement before that committee that the Insertion, of any amendment of this character upon this resolution would very greatly Injure the pro ceedings desired to be Instituted by the Gov ernment of the United States, and It has seemed to me that the interest of the few in thU case, must be subservient to the inter est of the people of the entire country. (Ap plause.) There Is no doubt but that many of these purchasers were acting In perfect good faith and supposed that they were acquiring a good title. Their interests should be protected, but we should not sacrifice the far greater interest of the public in order that these should be protected in their equitable rights. There can be no question anyhow but that they will oe fully protected in their equitable rights by the courts and by Congress by such legislation as may be necessary In order to do full Justice. The plain letter of the law has been gross ly violated by the company, and it must have been done knowingly. . The law has been violated- by the purchasers, pospibly unwittingly. They have not paid the price nor purchased the quantity required by law, nor are they actual settlers. If this were all, however, there would be no difficulty In dealing with the situation. If the title 'of these purchasers Is good now. It will not be affected by the?e proceedings. If It is not good, then they are not entitled to confirmation, by act of Congress, and that seems to be what they deeire. If the grant to the company is forfeited, these purchasers will still have the right to present their equi ties for the consideration of the courts, and if legislation Is necessary to do full justice, there la no doubt It will be enacted. This amendment is unfair In Its very terms. It proposes to except bona fide purchasers other than railroads. Why this exception? If there is ft bona fide railroad purchaser. It Is just as much entitled to protection as atiy one else. This simply emphasizes -the real purptwe of this amendment und the lengths to which those interested will go In order to secure their own selfish ends. Gaines Arouses the Speaker. An Interesting feature ofy the prelim inary debate is found in the talk of Rep resentative Gaines, of Tennessee. Speak ing of the attitude of the public lands committee, Mr. Gaines made the follow ing statement which led to exciting col loquy: Mr. Gaines They do not approve of any amendment, and this morning they voted 16 to 1 to instruct the chairman of the commit tee to lneist on the passage of the Senate resolution 48 without amendment. The De partment of Justice General Bonaparte and its special counsel, Mr. Townsend, have been before that great committee and Insisted up on this resolution blng passed exactly as it was sent here by the Senate of .the I'nited States lHt February, and it has been un der consideration by that committee -down until this morning at 11:30 oc!ock, when they were called here to vote on another public land bill. As I say, this morning, by a vote of 15 to t, the chairman of the committee was directed to insist ujxm the Senate reso lution and that alone. The Speaker The gentleman from 'Tennes see will suspend. The chair will state that It is not in order to refer In the House to what pasped in the committee. Mr. Mondell I want to call the gentleman's attention to the fact that the committee has offered no amendment; that the committee M opiosed to all amendments.. The gentle man from Tenneesee knows that it is Im pownble to get on the floor for consideration of these matters unless we give an oppor tunity to the House to consider an amend ment. Mr, Gaines of Tennessee I am informed here and elsewhere com-erning this matter that the Speaker absolutely refused recogni tion to bring up Senate resolution 48 without this amendment. Mr. Fordney The gentleman Is mistaken about that. Mr. Gaines of Tenneseee That Is what I am Informed by members of the public lands committee, who have the matter in charge, and I eay it without reflecting at all upon the Speaker. The Speaker has- the right tn do it. The Speaker --If the House will Indulge the Speaker and this is not to be taken out of the time of the gentleman from Tennessee the Speaker desires to say that this is? a mo tion to ruspend the rules, and the Speaker did, in the performance of his duty as a member of the House and as Speaker, pro pose that the motion to suspend the rules should give the House a chance to vote upon the amendment. (Applause.) Cannon After Delegates. Thus did John Wesley Gaines "smoke out" the Speaker, and maRe him admit full responsibility for forcing considera tion of the Fordney amendment. Mr. Gaines did not relate the peculiar friend ly feelings existing between the Speaker and Mr. Fordney relations which may or may not have influenced the Speaker In giving the Fordney amendment a show. Gaines knew of these facts, but they were hardly a proper subject for discussion on the floor. It seems that Fordney, accord ing to Michigan men. is a Cannon man, and is booming Cannon for President. At the premature convention held in Ford ney's district, two delegates were instruct ed for Cannon. The unfeeling National Committee declared those delegates ir regular, they having been chosen prema turely, and at the second convention two new delegates wore named, neither in structed, but one of them Is Mr. Ford ney. It Is stated by a member of the Michigan delegation that "Uncle Joe" is looking for delegates, and saw his oppor tunity to get one, and possibly two from Michigan. Whether this surmise Is cor rect or otherwise, is for no uninformed man to say. Reed French Piano Mfg. Co. Sixth and Burnside Sts., Pianos. Play ers and Player pianos. "Frora Maker to Player," CAUCUS DF REPUBLICANS HOUSE MEMBERS' TO CONSIDER FINANCIAL QUESTIONS. Majority Hopes Second Vreeland Bill Will Pass Another Confer ence on Anti-Trust, legislation. WASHINGTON:, May a It has prac tically been decided to hold the Iong-talked-of conference of Republican mem bers of the House to consider financial questions next Thursday evening. It is believed that the sundry civil appropria tion bill will be - disposed . of by that time, and the House will be free to enter upon the consideration of any bUl on the currency question which the con ference may recommend. -. The leaders declare they have ho purpose of trying TiECOffl Fifteen Gents a Copy . land ViU to force any measure upon the party which is not generally acceptable. Most of them are hopeful that the sec ond Vreeland bill will receive approval, but there will be an effort to confine leg islation to the appointment of a commis sion which may be the outcome of the con ference. Soon after the financial caucus, but possibly not until the end of the week, another conference will be held to con sider the advisability of legislation for the modification of the anti-trust taw and the regulation of the issuance of Injunction. There is a growing belief that something may be accomplished in this line, and if anything is done it will be along the lines ot the recommendation of the Civic Fed eration. Cholera Kills Philippine Soldier. WASHINGTON, May 2. Private Will lam F; McQue, Company. G, First Bat talion of Engineers, died of Asiatic cholera ' at Camp Commel In Samara on April 22. So far as known at the War Department, there has been no other cases of cholera In the Army In the Philippines for several months past. . . i i , : t . , Metzger fits firlAsses tor $1.00. NG ITIIVWT FOR MAY WILL BE A OUlOil SPECIAL FLEET NUMBER . The frontispiece is a beautiful 36-inch panorama in 3 colors showing the fleet in San Francisco Bay By W. H. Bull The special articles, will include THE BATTLESHIP FLEET By H. A. EVANS, U. S. N. DEFENSE OF THE AMERICAN NAVY By ADMIRAL CAPPS, an answer to magazine critic Reuterdahl JAPAN'S WELCOME TO THE FLEET By CHOZO KOIKE, Consul-General of Japan, San Francisco These articles will be illustrated by photographs of the 8 admirals and 32 commanding officers of the fleet, also numer ous pictures of battleships, showing interesting details, etc. Also the second installment of OWEN WISTER'S STIR- X JTVT TVfT T? A TV T RING COWBOY STORY '.LIJN lVlCly.LLrN , ALCOHOL IN SOFT DRINKS ENGLISH TEMPERANCE BEVER AGES NOT TRUE TO NAME. Many Popular- Tipples Are Stronger Than Ordinary Hock or Claret. Makers Unaware of fact. LONDON, April 23. Mr. Asquith has given the following list of government analyses of beverages sold as temperance drinks which contained more than the 2 per cent of alcohol allowed: Samples over Samples 2 P.C 2-3 - 4-6 Over Tear taken. ,plrlt. P.C. P.C. P.C. P.C. 1004 1.011 801 233 7S 42 8 190R 24 . 840 248 68 35 8 1806 1,183 4i!2 i 71 8" 8 1807 1,079 417 218 81 32 6 Totals.. 4,147 1,640 1.085 288 14ti 30 "It Is a grave danper to the public OF THE FLEET All health," writes a medical correspondent, "that so-callod temperance drinks should in any circumstances contain such a high percentage of alcohol. Herb beer con taining 8 per cent of proof spirit Is as intoxicating as ordinary claret or hock. More than one-third of the samples test ed in the last four years have been as highly alcoholic as ordinary beer or por ter, which contains from 2 per cent to S per cent of alcohol. "These "temperance' drinks are largely consumed by children, and the thought that the boy who drinks a pint bottle of one of these overproof temperance bev erages Is taking more than the alcoholic equivalent of half a pint of champagne is startling. t "These high percentages are, of course, accidental, and are due presumably to natural fermentation taking place after the bottling." "Alcohol." said Dr. T. D. Xister to the Stepney Council of Public Welfare yesterday, "is still considered by -thej masses as a necessity instead of a lux ury, and tea Is regarded as a life-giving food instead of a drug of the same con temptible value as alcohol." He found as much illness among female workers from tea drinking as from taking alcohol In excess. Newsdealers