The advocate. [volume], February 20, 1895, Image 1

About The advocate. [volume] (Topeka, Kan.) 1894-1897

Image provided by: Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, KS

                
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VOT,.VII. NO. 8.
$1.00 A YEAB.
TOPEKA, KANSAS, FEBRUARY 20, 1895.
Gn.CIAL STATE PAPEB.
STATE LAW FACTORY.
THE SENATE'S PLAN TO EN
FRANCHISE WOMEN.
The Appellate Court Bill Meets With
Partisan Opposition in tha House,
From Which It May Recover.
When Senator Parker, the matter-ot-
fact, well baked eolon from Johnson
county, introduced a bill providing
for the enfranchisement of certain
women named therein, some of his
fellow senators looked pityingly at Mr.
Parker while others sneaked out as if
they thought the state house was going
to fall down. They wondered what was
the matter with Parker. But the clca
est observer failed to notice any recent
ohange in his appearance. Ha waa cot
only in hia right mind but he waa in
earnest. lie had simply gone in league
with the woxen to test the constitution
and see if it would permit them to vote
when a statute said they might. It ap
pears that the scheme was concocted
between Althea Briggs Striker, Dr. Era
Harding of Topeka, and several of the
senatorp, to put suoh a bill through the
senate, seme cf them believing that the
constitution permits of enfranchising
women by special legislation. Mrs.
Striker says the women would be justi
fled in setting up a government of their
own right here, because not being recog
nized as citizsLs of the Btate they could
not be guilty of treason. "But," she
says, "if the legislature treats us half
way fair this will net be done, but if they
continue to refuse our requests the
women will create a government of their
own aid make the men ashamed of
' themselves."
ThoEe whose names are in the bill
along with that of Mrs. Striker, are
Mrs. Moss of Lyon county, and the fol
lowing Topekan?: Dr. Era Harding,
Mrs. Purvianep, Mrs. J. E. Whit, Mrs.
Gracia Potts, Mrs. T. S Lyon, Mrs. W.
D. Church, aid Mrs. D. P. Nichols. The
bill passed the senate and may make its
appearance in the executive ofibe seek
ing the governor's signaturebsfore this
session ends. Its promoters may have
been provoked to the rash act by the
recent presentation of a petition of over
6,000 names asking the legislature to re
submit the suffrage amendment The
passage of the special bill might prevent
any more such petitions.
The senate is now getting well along
with its buBinete, and it will probably
not shirk the responsibility of aoting on
the important measures. The best of
them, iccludirg D nelson's jidgment
tizizg bill, the maximum freight rata
bill, and the charitable institutions bill,
will find thsir way to the house.
Senator Sterna has what some call an
anti strike bill. Section 1 says: "If
any locomotive engineer, conductor, fire
man or brakeman, or any other person
employed in the running of any train,
shall willfully and maliciously abandon
hia locomotive or train upon any rail
road at any other point than the regular
schedule or destination cf such locorao
tive or train, he shall ba fin ed not lssj
than $20 nor more than $100, and con
fined not less than twenty days nor more
than ninety days in the county jail."
The next section provides that "any per
son or persons who shall willfully ob
struct the regular operation of the busi
ness of any railroad company, or other
corporation, or of the regular running of
any freight or passenger train, or the la
bor and business of any corporation
firm or individual, shall, on conviction
thereof, be punished the same as pro
vided in section 1."
But the house has "raised cane" with
some of it's big brother's pet measures.
one of whioh was the resolution giving
the people a ohance to say at the next
general election whether they wanted to
vote at a later election on the question
of a constitutional convention. The
proposition waa too complicated for the
house and when it got there the mem
bers voted it down as if to adopt it
would be forcing something onto the
voters instead of giving the voters a
chance to ohoose or reject.
Then the appellate court bill, whioh
went through the senate, got its face
knocked out of shape in the house com
mittee of the whd, out of which it
came with an amendment providing that
the governor shall appoint the six (ap
pellate judges, instead of their being
chosen by the three members of the su
preme court, es was intended by the
senate bilL Toe objot of the house
amendment is to make the judgeships
partisan merchandise ai are other ap
pointive offices. The prospeots now are
that there will be no law this session
creating an appellate court, for the sen
ate will not agree to the house amend
ment.
AN APP0IHTMX3T.
The confirming of S. M. Fox's appoint
ment as adjutant general was a solemn
duty for the senate to perform, after it
had been necessary for the governor to
slaughter the aspirations of the tin sol
der, Colonel Hughes, in order to choose
Fox, who is a Manhattan man, and an
old friend of the governor. But the
senate heroically set its teth and in
four seconds after the message waa re
ceived FvX was adjutant general, all but
taxing charge cf the c3:e. Speaking
of his woe, Hughes said the governor's
action indorsed the Dansmore house.
"Why," he said, MI was indorsed by
the republicans of ninety-seven counties,
Gmtmi o pas i. I
TREASON EXPOSED.
INTENSE AND INCREASING! OP
POSITION TO OLEVELANDISH.
The Bond Question Widens the Breach
in Both Old Parties Copy of Bond
Oontraot-Whsra Will It End?
Washington, Feb.. 14. If the presi
dent dcea not raaliza by this time that
he undartook too much when he started
out to have congress sanction hia last
treasonable gold-bond soheme, he never
will. To-day hia third attempt on that
line failed in the house. First, the Car
lisle bill for the reform of the currency
system went down; next, the bill for the
issue of 600 million dollars of gold bonds
and the retirement of the legal tenders,
recommended in the president's special
message, was defeated last Thursday by
a majority of 27, and to-day the house,
by a majority even larger (17), refused
to order to a third reading the resolu
tion by which it waa proposed to author
ize the issue of 65 million dollars of 3.
percent, gold bonds to substitute for
the 4-per-cent., thirty-year bonds sold
by Secretary Carlisle under the contract
with the Rothsohild-Morgan syndicate.
The resolution is as follows:
"Resolved, by the senate and houBe of
representatives of the United States in
congress assembled, That the secretary
of the treasury be and is hereby author
ized to issue and dispose of, at cot less
than par, in gold coin, bonds of the
United States with the qualities, privi
leges and exemptions of bonds issued
under the act approved July 11, 1870,
entitled, an act authorizing the refund
ing of the national debt to an amount
not exceeding $05,116,275, bearing inter-
eat at a rate not exceeding 3 per cent,
per annum, prinoipal and interest pay
able in gold coin of the present stand
ard of weight and fineness; said bonds
to be made payable cot more than
thirty years after date; provided, how
ever, that no part of the proceeds of the
sale of such bonds cor of the cotes re
deemed with such proceedj shall be
available for the payment of the current
expenses of the government."
The action of the house to-day was the
culmination of the exciting events whioh
have occurred since the president sent
his special message to congress, whioh
resulted in the report of the ways and
means committee of the resolution, to
authorize the issue of the gold bonds.
A special order was brought in as soon
as the home met this morning to bring
the resolution to a vote at 6 o'clock to
night. The debate upon the resolution,
which lasted over five hours, was inter
esting tnd ftt times of an itfltmmabla
ch txscltr. The gHUtks wmpackadaad
there was much oocfuaion on thefljer,
but the interest centered in the oonrsa
which the republicans would pursue, it
being conceded that the fata of the reso
lution rested with them.
There was much maneuvering among
their leaders. The republicans west of
the Alleghenies, led by Messrs. Hopkins
and Cannon cf Illinois, started off with
impetuous speeches against a gold bond
that would discriminate against the
bonds already issued. The speeches of
Mr. Wilson, Mr. Raed, Mr. Hopkins and
Mr. Bryan were the features of the da
bate. Analysis of the vote shows that
69 democra's and 31 republicans (120 in
all) voted in favor of the resolution, and
93 democrats, 62 republicans and 7 Pop
ulisfs (167 in all) against.
CUCKOO WILSON.
Mr. Wilson, chairman of the ways and
means committee, who opened the de
bate, cautioned the house at the very
outset that unless the debate could be
restricted to the resolution from the
ways and means committee, to the ex
clusion from all partisanship, it would
ba impossible to vote intelligently on
the question at its oonolaaion. Mr. Wil
son then proceeded to carefully state the
caa?, covering the ground traversed by
his report to the house yesterday. He
spent much time elaborating tha event
leading up to and the conditions which
compelled the secretary of the treasury
to make the contract with the syndi
cate for the purchase of gold. He said
there waa no dearth of revenues in the
treasury. Today he declared, there waa
an available cash balance in the treasury
of 165 million dollars, a larger balance
than on J une 30, 1892, by 30 million del
Urs, when it was 129 million dollars, in
oluding the gold reserve. To-day the
gold reserve stood at $12,213,000. He
reviewed the history of the gold reserve
established to insure the resumption of
spsoie payments.
The reserve had cot been threatened
until the panic of 1890 when in a single
month (November) 24 million dollars of
gold had been withdrawn. In the courss
of the panio of 1890 the 53 million dol
lars of the bank trust funds had been
passed to the available assets of the
treasury. Since then bonds had bean
sold three times to replenish the gold in
the treasury twice within six months.
The previous operations of the treasury
had resulted, he said, in the United
States exchanging its own bonds for its
own gold, and cow Secretary Carlisle
had done what Secretary Sherman did
time and time sgain when he was re
funding the public debt he had pur
chased gold in other markets than ours.
Mr. Wilson contrasted the situation cf .
the treasury in 1892 with its situation
cow in regsrd to the burden to be lores
by the gold rtieive. Then no grctn-
, Coniinuid oncost