Senator PEFFER's bill (No. 976) to loan exceeding $2,500 to any individual applying having real estate security provides for an immediate issue of not less than $700,000,000, and an ultimate issue of much more, but is not estimated in the total, being similar in principle to House bill 3436, above quoted. Representative KEM's bill (No. 5446), where not included in previous estimates, would require an issue of not less than....... 1,000,000,000 Mr. Watson's various bills are not estimated, being included in their princip es in previous estimates. Representative HUDSON'S pension bill (H. R. 3186) would require the immediate issue of..... 1,500,000,000 Representative DAVIS's industrial army bill (H. R. 6767) would require an annual expenditure of.. 500,000,000 6,300,000 500,000,000 Senator PEFFER'S charity bill (S. 1300) appropriates........ Representative BOEN's bill (H. R. 7908), for internal improvements, appropriates.. With an annual appropriation in addition. Representative BOEN's bill (H. R. 5745) to exterminate the Russian thistle, appropriates..... Senator PEFFER's rain water bill (No. 7896) makes an appropriation of...... Total......... 1,000,000 20,000,000 35,507,300,000 These estimates do not include any duplication nor many items of expenditure proposed in the bills named, nor do they include salaries of the thousands upon thousands of officials to be appointed under their provisions. As the total estimated money of the world, including paper, gold, silver, copper, brass and iron tokens does not exceed $10,100,000,000, it appears that the amount of money called for by the bills named is nearly five times the volume of the currency of the world. What our paper money would be worth under such circumstances anyone of ordinary intelligence knows. It would be worth nothing at all. On July 9, 1894, Senator PEFFER submitted a resolution, of which the following is a copy: "In view of existing social and business conditions, and by way of suggesting subjects for remedial legislation; be it "Resolved by the Senate of the United States, First. That all public functions ought to be exercised by and through public agencies. "Second. That all railroads employed in interstate commerce ought to be brought into one organization under control and supervision of public officers; that charges for transportation of persons and property ought to be uniform throughout the country; that wages of employees ought to be regulated by law and paid promptly in money. "Third. That all coal beds ought to be owned and worked by the States or by the Federal Government, and the wages of all persons who work in the mines ought to be provided by law and paid in money when due. Fourth. That all money used by the people ought to be supplied only by the Government of the United States; that the rate of interest ought to be uniform in all the States, not exceeding the net average increase of the permanent wealth of the people. "Fifth. That all revenues of the Government ought to be raised by taxes on real estate." To carry out the provisions of this resolution would require, at a very moderate estimate, some fifteen billions of dollars, making the total proposed expenditures upwards of fifty billions of dollars. Among the other things that would follow such legislation it will be seen that the enormous amount of money necessary to carry on the Government is to be raised wholly and alone upon real estate. Are the farmers of the country now ready to add to the burdens they have by a, still further tax to carry out these plans? Mr. SPEAKER: At no time in the history of the country was the clamor for office so insatiate as upon the accession of the last Republican Administration to power. The old-timers, who had spent most of their lives in office and had become imbued with the idea that the Government positions belonged to them, reenforced by the younger element, who had been almost entirely excluded from the public stalls, came rushing to the Capitol by the thousands, eager to receive a crumb from the table supposed to be so plentifully supplied. Rich and bountiful, however, as was the feast, it only served to sharpen the appetites of the hungry horde that swarmed through the lobbies, invaded the White House, filled the Departments and drove the members of the Cabinet to seek refuge in their private rooms. The endeavors to appease this inordinate demand resulted in the most brutal assaults that were ever committed upon the civil service of the Government. Amongst the many open, flagrant, willful, and corrupt violataions of the principles of the civil service during this period was the dismissal from the Railway Mail Service of nearly 3,000 efficient Democratic clerks and the appointment in their stead of inexperienced Republicans. The facts, briefly stated, were as follows: On the 1st day of December, 1888, President Cleveland issued an order placing the Railway Mail Service under the classified service, to take effect on the 15th day of March, 1889. Mr. Harrison became President on the 4th day of March, 1889, and within one week after his inauguration issued an order extending the time when the order of Mr. Cleveland was to take effect from the 15th day of March to the 1st day of May, 1889. That this extention was made for the sole purpose of enabling the Administration to make a raid upon the service in the interest of its partisans is as clear as the noonday's sun. From the 4th day of March, 1889, the day on which Mr. Harrison became President, to the 15th day of May, a period of less than two months, seventeen hundred Democratic clerks, with records for efficiency and integrity theretofore unequaled, were summarily dismissed, and their places filled with virulent Republican partisans without experience. The fact, however, that the service became classified on May 1, did not deter such reformers as Wanamaker and Lyman from completing the work they had begun. They had gotten rid of 2,000 Democratic clerks, the other 1,000 must go, and after that date, when the service became fully classified, 927 more clerks were dismissed and 1,212 were appointed by the disgraceful and fraudulent practice of antedating the notices of removals and apppointments. At the time I first introduced the measure I had but a faint conception of the extent to which this abuse had been carried. As soon, however, as the contents of the bill became known, I began to receive letters from every part of the country, giving information as to the ruthless manner in which Democrats had been discharged and the indecent haste in which Republicans had been rushed into their places. While I am not at liberty to give the names, I cannot refrain from publishing extracts from a few of these letters, as they convey more forcibly than I can express, the manner in which the work was accomplished: TURKEY, N. C., October 2, 1893. DEAR SIR: Having seen in the New York World that you had introduced a bill with reference to the restoration to service of ex-Democratic railway postal clerks, and being one of the number myself for whose purpose your bill is intended to secure justice, I here with beg leave to thank as well as congratulate you for the position thus manifested in our behalf. During Mr. Cleveland's first administration I received an appointment as railway postal clerk on one of the trunk lines of the country from Washington D. C., to Wilmington N. C., passed my examination on all the postoffices in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, with a general average about 95 per cent; was always prompt and attentive in the discharge of my duty; had my absolute appointment, and was actually under the civil service, but was removed May 21, 1889, to gratify a Republican that wanted my place. All the Democrats on mine and connecting roads were removed in like manner. I am yours, Hon. WмM. D. BYNUM, Washington, D. C. The most striking illustration, however, of the haste to get rid of Democrats and restore Republicans comes from the State of Maine. I am conscious that the living of that State are always willing to sacrifice themselves in the public service, but I was not aware that in their eagerness to get rid of Democrats they were willing to make requisition upon the sextons of the cemeteries. Such, however, seems to be a fact. WATERVILE, ME., October 16, 1893. DEAR SIR: I received a copy of the bill you introduced in the House a short time since, and I wish to say to you that the ex-postal clerks are very much pleased with your undertaking and trust the bill may pass. In their haste to remove as from the service they appointed one man who had been dead for more than one year, another who was nearly dead and who told the superintendent that he could not go back, he was too sick; but they made him go on, as they said, till they could straighten things out. He went on, and after a few months resigned, went home, and died. Yours respectfully, Hon. WILLIAM D. BYNUM, Congressman, Washington, D. C. [Laughter and applause.] APPENDIX. In reply to the fourth inquiry I have to state that the number of clerks appointed, reappointed, or reinstated to said service and who commenced service subsequent to the 1st day of May, 1889, though appointed, reappointed, or reinstated upon orders bearing date prior thereto, was 1,212, and the dates upou which said clerks entered upon their duties were as follows: May 1, 1889. Number of clerks. ............... ............. ..................... May 24, 1889.... Ma 5, 1889. .................... May 6, 1889. May 7, 1889. May 8, 1889. May 9, 1889. ............. May 10, 1889. May 11, 1889. May 12, 1889. May 13, 1889. May 14, 1889. May 15, 1889. May 16, 1889. May 17, 1889. May 18, 1889. ........ May 19, 1889 May 20, 1889. May 21, 1889. May 22, 1889 ....................... May 23, 1889. June 22, 1889 .... July 16, 1889.. 4 6 7 Ju y 17, 1889.. 1 July 23, 1889. 1 21 July 24, 1889.. 1 ................... 15 ..... Aug. 1, 1889. 15 Aug. 3, 1889 1 May 30, 1889. 6 Aug. 23, 1889. 1 7 Aug. 25, 1889. Sept. 25, 1889.. ............ Mr. Speaker: In the palmiest days of Congressional spoils, I venture that a record more replete with a debauchery of the public service cannot be found. It has been said by way of excuse that during Mr. Cleveland's administration a large number of experienced and efficient clerks were dismissed from the service to make room W. S. BISSELL, for Democrats, and that the great number of changes made during that period had impaired the efficiency of the service, and that it was necessary to restore the old clerks to improve its standard. This assertion is unqualifiedly false. It is a well known fact, and the official records support me in this statement, that the service had never before attained the standard of efficiency it did during the administration of Mr. Cleveland. From the very beginning the service began to improve. From the annual report of the Superintendent of the Railway Mail Service for the year 1893, I take the following figures: Table of pieces of mail distributed, etc., annually since July 1, 1883. It will be seen from the foregoing table that in 1885, the first year of Mr. Cleveland's administration, there was an increase of nearly five hundred millions o pieces distributed, and a decrease in the number of errors of nearly three hundred thousand. In 1884 there were 3,872 pieces correctly handled to each error, while in 1885 there were 5,575 pieces correctly handled to each error. During the year 1888, the last wholly under Democratic administration, 7,026,837,130 pieces were handled, with a total of 1,777,295 errors. To each 3,954 pieces correctly handled there was one error, while during the first year, wholly under Republican Administration, from July 1, 1889, to July 1, 1890, 7,847,723,600 pieces were handled, with a total of 2,769,245 errors. The increase of errors was 991,950. The first year under the reforms inaugurated by the Republicans, the number of pieces correctly handled to each error fell from 3,954 to 2,834. It thus appears from the official records that in the first year of Mr. Harrison's Administration the standard of efficiency was reduced nearly 28 per cent. |