Mr. CAREY.  I ask that the report of the conference committee be concurred in.
    Mr. MANDERSON.  I am extremely desirous that there shall be legislation finally concluded with reference to the government of the Yellowstone National Park.  Years ago, when a member of the Committee on Territories, I had occasion to look into this matter very thoroughly, and I know the Senator from Missouri [Mr. VEST] has for years taken great interest in this subject matter, which is one of great importance.  It is utterly impossible to tell in what condition the bill will be left if the conference report be concurred in.  Perhaps it ought to be printed as finally agreed upon.  But if the Senator from Wyoming [Mr. CAREY] will give the detail of the changes, so that they may be understood, I think it certainly will be very desirable.  I should like particularly to learn from the Senator from Missouri (with whom I have been in such entire accord for so many years upon this subject) whether he has given the report his scrutiny and whether, as agreed upon, it is as it should be, for I rest myself implicitly upon his action in that behalf.
    Mr. VEST.  If the Senator from Wyoming will permit me, I will state that I am a member of the conference committee.  We took up the bill on Saturday and went through it very carefully, and I am satisfied that my friend from Nebraska will thoroughly indorse our action.  It is a good measure as far as it goes.  It does not go so far as the bill that he and I worked upon and reported to the Senate some years ago; but it is as far as Congress can go now under existing conditions.
    The bill as amended provides for the protection of the animals and objects of curiosity in the park and provides punishment for poachers.  That, as my friend knows, is a very great step in the right direction.
    As he knows, heretofore there has never been any law which amounted to anything in that regard.  All that could be done, for instance, with a criminal the other day who killed a number of buffalo and boasted that if let alone a few days he would have made two or three thousand dollars by killing as many more, was to take away his old gun and a pair of blankets and put him outside the park.  We have no law there now even for the punishment of a felony.  I was there some years ago when a stage was robbed, and the man who robbed it went scot free, because there was no law to punish him.  The bill meets those wants in the way of jurisdiction and punishment.  As I said to my friend from Nebraska, it does not go so far as I would like to have it go, but it goes very far in the right direction.
    Mr. MANDERSON.  I should like to ask what, if any, change is made in regard to the boundaries of the park?
    Mr. VEST.  None at all.
    Mr. MANDERSON.  And there is nothing looking to any entrance by any railroad?
    Mr. VEST.  Nothing at all.  My friend can rely upon me in that direction.  The bill makes no change in the boundaries, and it has nothing in it that permits any railroad to go into the park.  It is simply a measure providing for the punishment of people who go in the park to kill game or to destroy the objects of interest and curiosity.
    Mr. TELLER.  I wish to ask the Senator from Wyoming, who has had charge of the bill, to state briefly what the bill does.
    Mr. CAREY.  The conference report makes no changes of importance in the measure as it passed the Senate.  It changes it in a few respects by making clerical corrections.  The bill provides for the punishment of offenses committed in the Yellowstone National Park and for the building of a jail in the park, and an office for the use of the commissioners.  It does not touch the past boundaries of the park, nor in any way allude to the future boundaries of the park.  It is simply a bill for the punishment of all classes of offenses in the park, and otherwise provides legislation for the park which has not heretofore existed.  It includes poaching, and it is a bill that should be placed upon the statute book quickly, as it is said that during the last month one party of men, or as we call them in the West an "outfit," killed game to the value of more than $10,000, and they remarked when they were arrested and finally turned loose, after the confiscation of their guns and traps (and probably there was no authority whatever for the confiscation), that they would have made two or three thousand dollars in their two months' work if they had not been apprehended when they were.
    The VICE-PRESIDENT.  The question is upon concurring in the report.
    The report was concurred in.

    The bill (H. R. 6373) making appropriations for the support of the Army for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1895, and for other purposes, was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Appropriations.

    A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. T. O. TOWLES, its Chief Clerk, announced that the House had passed the joint resolution (S. R. 74) for the proper enrollment of Thomas R. Proctor in the Navy of the United States.

    The message also announced that the Speaker of the House had signed the enrolled joint resolution (S. R. 66) providing additional clerical force for the Librarian of Congress; and it was thereupon signed by the Vice-President.

    Mr. HARRIS.  I renew my motion that the Senate proceed to the consideration of House bill 4864.
    The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, resumed the consideration of the bill (H. R. 4864) to reduce taxation, to provide revenue for the Government, and for other purposes, the pending question being on the first amendment reported by the Committee on Finance.
    Mr. QUAY.  With the consent of the Senate, I yield the floor to the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. LODGE], who will be followed by the Senator from Washington [Mr. SQUIRE].
    Mr. LODGE.  Mr. President, there has been a good deal said in the course of the debate during the last few days on the subject of delay, and intimations have been made by Senators on the other side of the Chamber that we were engaged in delaying the bill, and that the long delay which has already occurred is owing to the Republicans of the Senate.  I think it is just as well that the matter should be clearly understood, and that the country should know that the responsibility for delay rests on the Democratic majority.  There has been an opportunity to carry into effect the great principles of tariff reform ever since the 4th of March, 1893, when the Democratic party took possession of all branches of the Government.  They could have called Congress together within a fortnight after the 4th of March.  They did not do so.  They did not call Congress till the 7th of August, and when they called Congress on the 7th of August they insisted that our attention should be confined exclusively to the repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman act.  In September, if we are correctly informed, the Democratic party, through the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, began to devote what it is pleased to call its mind to the consideration of the tariff.  From that time that subject has been under consideration by the Democratic majority in both branches of Congress, and until the beginning of the month of April last there has been no opportunity whatever for the Republican party to delay the passage of the bill even if they so desired.  It has been absolutely in the control of the Democratic majority, first in the House of Representatives and then in the Senate.  The bill came to the Senate on the 2d of February.  It was held by the majority of the Committee on Finance until the 20th of March, and it never got before the Senate nor was it taken up for debate until the 2d day of April.  In other words, the minority, representing great States and great interests, vitally affected by the bill, have had no opportunity to discuss or consider it until one month ago.
    It must also be remembered that there have been practically no public hearings upon the bill.  There have not been the usual opportunities to the persons affected by it to present their views before committees in regard to its provisions.  There were hearings before the Committee on Ways and Means of the other House which lasted, I think, about a fortnight, beginning with some British subjects from the island of Bermuda, who wanted the duties taken off of potatoes because they said those duties fell upon the foreign exporters--that is, upon them--disregarding entirely the fact that the President of the United States had settled that question by stating that tariff duties were a tax which always came out of the consumer and never fell upon the foreigner.  Beginning with those people, we had very brief hearings for a fortnight.  That was all.  Finally the bill came to the Senate.  No hearings have been given here.  The representatives of some of the great trusts have had an ample opportunity to talk over the provisions of the bill with members of the Finance Committee, but the workingmen, the wage-earners, who sent on their committees, the small manufacturers who are deeply affected by the provisions of the bill, have had no opportunity whatever to be heard.  Therefore the only chance to discuss those items legitimately and fairly is here in the Senate of the United States.
    It is true that it was stated, and stated with great elaboration and much advertising, that a million inquiries had been scattered over this country to all the manufacturing industries; that those inquiries were to be answered by the various representatives of the industries, and that their replies would be considered by the Finance Committee, and when considered by them that the com- Go to the next page