Mr. COOPER of Indiana. I stated, as one of the reasons why the checking division of the Sixth Au litor's Office was behind, that the chief of that division had occupied much of his time and the time of the clerks in that service in preparing and publishing a life of ex-President Harrison. While I was absent temporarily from the Hall of the House on yesterday, the gen leman from Ohio, after having, I will say in justice to him, endeavored to ascer. tain my presence, had read from the Clerk's desk a letter from this ex-chief of the checking division, in which he substantially contradicts the statement made by He said, in substance, that that division was about three years behind when he took charge of it, and that the prior Administration of the present President was to blame for that fact, and that during his incumbency the work was brought up something like a year in advance of what it was when he undertook it. me. Now, Mr. Chairman, I wish to send to the Clerk's desk and have read a letter from one of the employees of that division, who is still in that service, upon that point. The Clerk read as follows: TREASURY DEpartment, OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR OF THE TREASURY SIR: In reply to your request of this date, as to any facts I may know relative to Mr. Charles Hedges, late chief of the checking division, Sixth Auditor's Office, having during his term of office devoted his time, or caused clerks and other employees to have devoted their time during office hours to the preparation of a biographical sketch and compilation of speeches of ex-President Benjamin Harrison, I have this to state: That I have seen Mr. Hedges very busily engaged at his official desk, and during_office_hours, preparing writings, which turned out to be "Life and speeches of Hon. Benj. Harrison, President." Mr. Hall, one of his clerks, was at work in his room, using the typewriter, which seemed strange to me, as there is no work in that division which requires correspondence. Sometime thereafter I noticed the room adjoining the chiefs used as a storeroom for books, and upon inspecting them found they were the aforesaid mentioned books. Mr. Glendenning, one of his clerks, was engaged in addressing these books to subscribers and postmasters during office hours, and whilst his name was carried on the rolls. Shortly after, this clerk, a substitute, was appointed to a $1,000 posi tion over a Miss Pettigrew, who stood at the top of the list in a competitive axamination for promotion, notwithstanding that THOMAS B.REED had interested himself in her behalf. It is the impression of the office that the appointment of Mr. Glendenning was the result of his labor for Mr. Hedges. Very respectfully, Hon. GEORGE W. COOPER, House of Representatives. CHARLES A. GIVEN, Clerk Sixth Auditor's Office. Mr. COOPER of Indiana. Now, I send forward a letter from another clerk, which I wish to have read. The Clerk read as follows: OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR OF THE TREASURY SIR: In reply to your request of this date for information that I may possess relative to Charles Hedges, late chief of the checking division of the Sixth Auditor's Office, having used the Government's time for his own purposes by working himself, and, as chief of his division, causing Government employees under him to devote their time during office hours to the preparation of a book containing a biographical sketch and speeches of Benjamin Harrison, ex-president of the United States, I have this to say: It is a matter openly talked that Judge Thomas, now chief clerk, Postoffice Department, and late superintendent and disbursing clerk of the Postoffice Department, complained to the chief clerk of the Sixth Auditor's Office about one of the rooms of the Busch Building being occupied by some two wagonloads of mail sacks filled with the speeches of Benjamin Harrison, compiled by Charles Hedges, and that they were not removed until after complaint had been made. It was a matter of common discussion in the division at that time that messengers, laborers, and clerks were used by Mr. Hedges during office hours, in violation of the rules and regulations of the Treasury Department, to prepare letters and circulars to promote the sale of said book, to unpack and store away in the Busch Building these books as they were received from the publishers, and wrap up singly or otherwise to deliver or mail to purchasers. It was stated that Thornton Chesley, an employee of the office, was instructed by Mr. Hedges to make a canvass of the office for the sale of said book and that he did so during office hours, which is a violation of the rules and regulations of the Treasury Department prohibiting all canvassing whatever. I know that clerks bought the book who could not afford to, to prevent incurring the displeasure of Mr. Hedges, and that clerks who did not buy the book felt that they were oppressed for not having done so. As to the condition of the work on Mr. Hedge's division at the time of his retirement, I have this to say: Chaos pervaded the entire division. New York postal notes were lost; not an an official or clerk in the building could tell where to find them. The 9,000 books used in checking were everywhere but where they were wanted. It required three month's work of the assistant chief to catalogue and reduce to business system these books alone. The division under Mr. Hedges had run itself. The clerks had checked as they choosed, or if they did not choose, had turned in their weekly averages as checked when they were not, and sent the work to the files for this administration to take out of the files by the thousands and do over properly. In the basement were huge basketfuls of 1889, 1890 and 1891 work that clerks had left laying around loose and reported as done. There was no uniformity in the work. As an illustration: Colorado not checked since 1889; Minnesota postal notes not checked since 1888; Washington, D. C., not checked since 1888; New York postal notes not checked since 1890. Checking when done had been so badly done that more time of clerks was wasted erasing mischecks than would have been required to do the whole correctly in the beginning. The work is all reviewed now, and perfect business system followed in everything. Respectfully, Hon. GEORGE W. COOPER, House of Representatives. CYNTHIA E. CLEVELAND, Mr. COOPER of Indiana. Now, there is another letter at the desk. have it read. It is a short letter. The Clerk read as follows: I ask to WASHINGTON, D. C., May 25, 1894. SIR: In reply to your request of this date for any information that I may have relative to the clerks or other employees in the Sixth Auditor's Office having devoted their time during office hours to the work of preparing a book containing a biographical sketch and speeches of ex-President Harrison, I have this to state: The statements made by you are substantially correct. I was his private messenger and was employed during office hours, when my office work was done, in doing up for mailing from the office copies of the book in question. I did this under instructions from my chief, Mr. Hedges. Very respectfully, Hon. GEORGE W. COOPER, House of Representatives. PATRICK DOOLAN, Messenger Sixth Auditor's Office. DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM. Adopted by the National Democratic Convention at Chicago, Ill., June 22, 1892. "Section 1. The representatives of the Democratic party of the United States, in National Convention assembled, do reaffirm their allegiance to the principles of the party as formulated by Jefferson and exemplified by the long and illustrious line of his successors in Democratic leadership from Madison to Cleveland; we believe the public welfare demands that these principles be applied to the conduct of the Federal Government through the accession to power of the party that advocates them, and we solemnly declare that the need of a return to these fundamental principles of a free popular government, based on home rule and individual liberty, was never more urgent than now, when the tendency to centralize all power at the Federal Capital has become a menace to the reserved rights of the States that strikes at the very roots of our Government under the Constitution as framed by the fathers of the Republic. AGAINST POLICY OF FORCE AND FRAUD. "Section 2. We warn the people of our common country, jealous for the preservation of their free institutions, that the policy of Federal control of elections, to which the Republican party has committed itself, is fraught with the gravest dangers scarcely less momentous than would result from a revolution practically establishing monarchy on the ruins of the Republic. It strikes at the North as well as the South, and injures the colored citizens even more than the white; it means a horde of deputy marshals at every polling place armed with Federal power, returning boards appointed and controlled by Federal authority, the outrage of the electoral rights of the people in the several States, subjugation of the colored people to the control of the party in power and the reviving of race antogonisms now happily abated, of the utmost peril to the safety and happiness of all, a measure deliberately and justly described by a leading Republican Senator as 'the most infamous bill that ever crossed the threshold of the Senate.' Such a policy, if sanctioned by law, would mean the dominance of a self-perpetuating oligarchy of officeholders, and the party first intrusted with its machinery could be dislodged from power only by an appeal to the reserved rights of the people to resist oppression, which is inherent in all self-governing communities. Two years ago this revolutionary policy was emphatically condemned by the people at the polls, but in contempt of that verdict the Republican party has defiantly declared in its latest authoritative utterance that its success in the coming elections will mean the enactment of the force bill and the usurpation of despotic control over elections in all the States. "Believing that the preservation of republican government in the United States is dependent upon the defeat of this policy of legalized force and fraud, we invite the support of all citizens who desire to see the Constitution maintained in its integrity with the laws pursuant thereto which have given our country a hundred years of unexamp'ed prosperity; and we pledge the Democratic party, if it be intrusted with power, not only to the defeat of the force bill, but also to relentless opposition to the Republican policy of profligate expenditures which, in the short space of two years, has squandered an enormous surplus, emptied an overflowing Treasury, after piling new burdens of taxation upon the already overtaxed labor of the country. REVENUE TARIFF. "Section 3. We denounce Republican protection as a fraud—a robbery of the great majority of the American people for the benefit of the few. We declare it to be a fundamental principle of the Democratic party that the Federal Government has no constitutional power to impose and collect tariff duties, except for the purpose of revenue only, and we demand that the collection of such taxes shall be limited to the necessities of the Government when honestly and economically administered. "We denounce the McKinley tariff law enacted by the Fifty-first Congress as the culminating atrocity of class legislation; we indorse the efforts made by the Democrats of the present Congress to modify its most oppressive feature in the direction of free raw materials and cheaper manufactured goods that enter into general consumption, and we promise its repeal as one of the beneficent results that will follow the action of the people in intrusting power to the Democratic party. Since the McKinley tariff went into operation there have been ten reductions of the wages of the laboring man to one increase. We deny that there has been any increase of prosperity to the country since that tariff went into operation, and we point to the dullness and distress, the wage reductions and strikes in the iron trade, as the best possible evidence that no such prosperity has resulted from the McKinley act. "We call the attention of thoughtful Americans to the fact that after thirty years of restrictive taxes against the importation of foreign wealth, in exchange for our agricultural surplus, the homes and farms of the country have become burdened with a real estate mortgage debt of over $2,500,000,000, exclusive of all other forms of indebtedness; that in one of the chief agri |