6 vocated it were thieves and robbers. I opposed the whole scheme of increase of salaries chiefly on two grounds : First. That officers at the national capital were already receiving higher rates of pay than many of those serving at a distanceand that if we began to increase salaries at the capital, and particularly ur own, it would be indecent and unjust not to go through the whole list and make the increase general. To do this would greatly increase the expenditures already overgrown by the results of the war ; and, Second. I opposed it because I thought it peculiarly impolitic for the Forty-Second Congress to give any new cause for bringing itself into public odium. Much had already occurred to throw discredit upon it, and this would add a new shade to the colors in which it was being painted. On the other hand, there were grave objections to the defeat of the appropriation bill. Everybody knew that its failure would render an extra session of the new Congress inevitable. It is easy to say now that this would have been better than to allow the passage of the salary clause. Present evils always seem greater than those that never come. The opinion was almost universal that an extra session would be a serious evil in many ways, and especially to the Treasury. Its cost directly and indirectly would far exceed the amount appropriated for retroactive salaries. An unusual amount of dangerous legislation was pressing upon Congress for action. A measure to refund the cotton tax, which would take seventy millions from the Treasury, was pressed by a powerful organization in and out of Congress, and its consideration had only been prevented by interposing the appropriation bills. A vast number of doubtful claims growing out of the war were ready to follow in the wake of the cotton tax. To organize a new Congress, which would require the appointment and organization of new committees, and to begin this bill anew, perfect its details, and pass it, would require many weeks. In the meantime the field would be clear for pushing all schemes against the Treasury. But more than this, the defeat of the bill would carry with it the defeat of the only legislation by which Congress has attempted for many years to check the career of those greedy corporations whose powers have become so dangerous to' the public welfare. For the first time Congress was thoroughly aroused to the danger; and the sections concerning the Pacific railroad, which had been added to this bill, empowered and directed the executive, through the courts, to strike an effective blow against those who had already robbed the Pacific railroad at the expense of the National Treasury. If these sections failed, it was by no means certain that the new Congress would pass them ; and if it did, the interests of the Government would greatly suffer by the delay. Only a single day and night remained before the final adjournment, and three other great appropriation bills were still unfinished.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=