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To-Day

No. 10.

Thursday, June 19, 1890.

Published weekly by J. MORRISON-FULLER, at 3 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass.

SUBSCRIPTION, $2.00 PER YEAR.

NOTICE THE WORKS OF HERBERT SPENCER. Subscribers will receive FREE (to the amount of their subscription) any of the Works of Herbert Spencer they may select. Authorized Edition.

Meanwhile, let us glance at the conclusions that have been reached. On the one side, government, originally one, and afterwards subdivided for the better fulfilment of its function, must be considered as having ever been, in all its branches, political, religious, and ceremonial, beneficial, and, indeed, absolutely necessary. On the other side, government, in all its forms, must be regarded as subserving a temporary office, made needful by the unfitness of aboriginal humanity for social life; and the successive diminutions of its coerciveness in State, in Church, and in Custom, must be looked upon as steps towards its final disappearance. To complete the conception, there requires to be borne in mind the third fact, that the genesis, the maintenance, and the decline of all governments, however named, are alike brought about by the humanity to be controlled; from which may be drawn the inference that, on the average, restrictions of every kind cannot last much longer than they are wanted, and cannot be destroyed much faster than they ought to be.

Price 5 Cents.

Devoted to the record of the facts and considerations which show that Individual Liberty is good for the people of the United States:

And that, therefore, Legislative Regulation is injurious for them.

IN MEDIAS RES.

SENATE.

On June 9, after petitions and resolutions one proposing a Constitutional amendment for the election of postmasters the Silver Bill was taken up, and Mr. COCKRELL addressed the Senate. He said that the discrimination which permitted the free and unlimited coinage of gold but not of silver was unjust, and should be discontinued.

The House Silver Bill was then laid before the Senate, but, consideration of it having been deferred, Mr. VEST called up his bill to "prohibit monopoly in the transportation of Cattle to foreign countries." After a most desultory discussion of the feasibility of introducing the previous question into the rules of the Senate, and of the probability of disposing soon of the Silver Bill, the consideration of the Cattle Bill was proceeded with.

[The bill provides that no clearance shall be granted to a vessel plying as a common carrier from the United States to a foreign country the owners or officers of which shall refuse to receive, in the order they may be offered, said vessel having storage room for the same, any cattle for transportation to a foreign country, the said cattle being in sound condition suitable for transportation and the shipper tendering the reasonable freight therefor; or who shall make any contract or agreement, creating a monopoly of the capacity of said vessel for carrying cattle in violation of the law governing and regulating the duties and obligations of common carriers of cattle to the public and providing unjust discrimination between shippers.]

A vote having been taken on an amendment to this disclosed the lack of a quorum, and the bill went over.

June 10th, after the House Silver Bill had been referred, several new bills were introduced:

Appropriating $7,752,000 to pay the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians certain claims;

Appropriating the money realized from the sale of the property of Mormon Church, lately declared forfeited by the Supreme Court, to the public schools of Utah, at the discretion of the Secretary of Interior;

Prohibiting the sale of liquor on the premises of any expositions, for which appropriations shall have been made by the United States.

The consideration of the Silver bill was then resumed, and it was agreed to end the debate on June 13.

A discussion sprung up on an amendment to order that no funds available for the public debt shall be retained in the Treasury in excess of $110,000,000.

After this, a speech by Mr. Teller was listened to (?), in which he declared that "Wall Street men," so far from representing the interests of the country, were men who had never done an honest day's work in their lives, never produced an article of commerce, nor promoted industry, etc., etc. He said that the debtors should be relieved of their burden, but without detriment to the creditors; he did not say how this could be accomplished.

Mr. Call spoke in favor of free coinage, after which several minor bills were disposed - public buildings for New London and Washington.

June 11th, the Finance Committee reported adversely the bill to lend money on mortgages, and the bill to abolish hard money, and these measures were laid aside indefinitely.

A bill was introduced to incorporate the International American Bank, as recommended by the Secretary of State.

The Silver bill was taken up, and Messrs. Eustis and Turpie spoke in favor of free coinage.

The consideration of the Cattle bill was resumed, and, after an insignificant amendment was immediately passed.

After some discussion, a resolution was adopted requesting the President to confer with Great Britain, and procure the abrogation of the regulations which compel cattle imported from this country to be slaughtered at the port of entry.

With as little or less discussion, the bill for the Inspection of Cattle intended for export was passed. This requires the Secretary of Agriculture to inspect, when and where he pleases, cattle intended for export either as live stock or as meat; clearance to be withheld from vessels which do not exhibit the inspector's certificate.

June 12th, speeches were made on the Silver Bill by Messrs. Evarts, Vance, and Morgan. All seemed to favor free coinage.

June 13th, the time for debate on silver coinage was extended to June 16th, and Messrs. Morgan, Aldrich, and Stewart spoke. Mr. Aldrich opposed free coinage. The debate was continued by Messrs. Reagan and Daniel in favor of free coinage.

June 14th, a number of bills were taken from the calendar and passed: appropriations for buildings and bridges, as well as thirtyfive private pension bills. A discussion of the bill to apply the proceeds of land sales to the endowment of scientific and industrial colleges sprung up, but no vote was taken.

HOUSE.

June 9th, a new Silver Bill was introduced. It provides for the free coinage of silver, and for the issue of Treasury notes each year to the amount of the Federal revenue for that year; Treasury notes to be issued also to replace the retiring national-bank notes.

The Committee on Judiciary (which ought to be, but is not, the most important Congressional committee) reported the bill to prohibit the acquisition by aliens of titles to land. In the accompanying report it is stated twentyone million acres are now owned by non-resident aliens. The bill declares all aliens incompetent to hold land titles, and contains a provision intended to compel present owners to sell out or to become citizens within ten years.

June 10th, the Senate Bill regulating the bottling of beer was laid before the House, and the bill permitting the export of beer in bond, instead of under the present drawback system, was immediately passed.

The House then went into Committee of the Whole for a short time, during which the Post-Office appropriation bill was supposed to be under consideration. This was reported and immediately passed.

June 11th, the sundry Civil appropriation bill was reported from committee. It carries appropriations of over $27,849,000, or $2,000,000 more than that of last year.

The conference report on the Dependent Pension was introduced, and led to some discussion. Many members objected to the measure because it was not liberal enough. (According to report, the dependent and service clauses having been both omitted, leaving only the disability pensions.) The supporters of the bill said it would distribute $35,000,000 to soldiers, 250,000 being thereby pensioned for the first time, while the pensions of 50,000 already on the rolls would be increased. The report was agreed to (145-59).

The Anti-Trust bill from the Senate was reported and discussed, but went over without action.

June 12th, after some time had been wasted in trying to vote without a quorum, a new conference was ordered on the Anti-Trust Bill, and several reports were accepted, and a resolution of inquiry into the conduct of a steamship company in landing immigrants was adopted.

The Agricultural appropriation bill was considered in committee of the whole, and, on rising, was immediately passed.

It

June 13th, was devoted to the Civil appropriation bill in Committee of the Whole. was said that the fourteen regular appropriation bills, which have been reported to the House, provide for an expenditure of $306,000,000, or $35,000,000 more than the aggregate of the same appropriations for the current year.

Of this increase, the sum $18,000,000 went for pensions, $12,000,000 for the postoffice, $2,000,000 for the navy, while $3,000,000 were attributed to the "growth of the country."

June 14th, the consideration of the above bill was continued, but no vote was taken.

"The strike on the Consolidated Street Railway in Columbus, Ohio, which has been in progress seven days, culminated Monday in scenes which bordered on a riot. The principal trouble the company has had was the failure to get police protection to start the cars. Public sympathy has been with the strikers. An attempt was made Monday to run two cars, but the strikers were on hand in force, and crowded the cars to overflowing. They soon had the cars derailed, to the enjoyment of the thousands of spectators who lined the streets. Although four policemen were on each car, they made no show towards restraining the mob."

In a case decided in the Court of Claims, the Cunard Steamship Company has been made to suffer for a change in the laws of the United States. The company was not in this case, observe, made to suffer merely by a law, but by a change in the law. The Court has refused to allow the drawback on some coal stored in the bonded warehouse in Boston, imported for use by the company. While the coal was in the warehouse, Congress passed an act limiting the brawback to American vessels. The Court held, quite properly no doubt, that importers must take the risk of a change in the laws; but what a contemptible, sneaking performance on the part of Congress! - quite on a par with its rejection of copyright, and showing better than almost anything else the low state of morality in that body. It deserves to be noted, too, that this action is an underhanded, covert, subsidy to American ships, a subsidy which, if the drawback allowed is large, will be much felt by competitors.

In the Italian Chamber of Deputies, a minority may demand on every measure a secret ballot. Mr. Trollope relates a very striking instance of the reversal of the vivavoce decision by the secret process. A vote was being taken on a measure to enforce the law already existing for the stamping of all contracts, from which the government was supposed to derive a handsome revenue, sadly diminished, however, by fraud. The government was sustained by a very respectable

majority on the open vote, but was defeated by a still larger majority on the secret ballot. The explanation was, of course, that nearly all members were "interested" against the measure personally, but were ashamed to confess their lack of public spirit.

The curious thing in this connection is the contrast to the method of English and American legislatures. Here, the right of the minorities is to demand not a secret but an open ballot. In effect, the minorities can here compel the majority on every occasion to go on record by name; while in Italy, the effect is to permit members to escape responsibility for the way they cast their votes. Evidently, the representative system cannot possibly be more than a name where the representative can conceal his vote from his constituents. The wonder is that such a method is found to work at all. Yet it evidently has one good point: it liberates the individual representative from the tyranny of the caucus. But the end will hardly justify the means.

Mr. H. G. Hewlett, in the course of his review of Mr. Morley's "Life of Walpole," quotes with approval Emerson's saying, that, "All history resolves itself very easily into the biography of a few stout and earnest persons." No doubt history of a certain kind resolves itself into biography, but the question arises whether this is the history best worth knowing. For example, since he speaks specially of England, into the biography of what "stout and earnest persons" does the history of Ireland in the present century resolve itself? What few stout persons were they who produced the famine of 1847, and the consequent disturbances which are said by the leaders of the present government to threaten the integrity of the British Empire? The great Irish famine and the industrial state from which it resulted, as well as the industrial and political conditions which have succeeded, are facts and, I presume, parts of history. But any other than a disciple of Carlyle would find great difficulty in resolving these events into the biography of a few stout persons, however earnest. It is barely possible, I think, that physiology may have played some part in the drama. The attorney-general of Great Britain invited the judges of the Parnell Commission to consider the deflection of the Gulf Stream in their study of the causes of the condition of the

people on the west coast of Ireland. What very stout man is responsible for the decline in the fertility of the soil of that Island? What stout and earnest persons are responsible for the present condition of the Balkan States? What are their names who have produced the unstable equilibrium of European nationalities at the present moment? Who has laid the train which shall presently explode that mine on which rests the Armed Peace? Stout and earnest persons-perhaps; but certainly not few, unless you take millions for your units.

The secret of the success of the English method of conducting the government is the solution given to the problem of the relation between a representative and his constituents. This is a very important question indeed, because in a country with a large population the representative system is the equivalent of democracy, being the only known means for giving effect to the will of the majority of voters. The problem is: What range of discretion is left to the representative? how far does he retain responsibility, and with it freedom of action? Theoretically, indeed, the question is settled at every election; but .experience shows that this is only theoretical, and that the occasions which actually arise for the representative to cast the vote for his constituents are more often than not occasions for which they have given him no instructions at all, or else quite inadequate instructions. It has become abundantly evident that representatives must vote as they have been instructed to vote — or, as we say, that they must adhere to their party or to their platform. But this covers only part of the questions on which they will be called to vote, and even these are susceptible of such infinite interpretations that the instructions are often of the vaguest import.

For example, the Republican members of Congress may properly regard themselves as instructed to adhere to the policy of "Protection." But what directions have they received from their constituents as to how they shall vote on the question of bounties to silk and sugar growers? How have they been instructed to vote as to duties on hides, tinplates, or glass? As to the latter details, it may be suggested that representatives have been sufficiently instructed by the platform on which their constituents voted, but no

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