under the law that created the commission. The law provides that the auditor must accept every voucher of expenses that is signed by the chairman or the acting chairman without question as to amount or the object for which it was expended. If we are to have commissions of that extravagant character in great numbers without limit upon their appropriations, with no limit to the number of people they can employ, then it will only be a question of time until the Government will be practically bankrupt. We have been substantially that way for some years past. We have been living beyond our income; we have gone beyond the realm of good statesmanship and good business judgment and business sense, and we ought to call a halt to such expenditures before it is too late. Why, sirs, Walsh, of Chicago, was only extravagant in the expenditure of trust funds; Morse, of New York, was only extravagant with the trust funds that were confided to his keeping; both high up in life, and yet one of them at this hour is serving time in the penitentiary at Atlanta and the other in the penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kans.; and unless we call a halt it will only be a question of time when commissions will go so far that they, too, will be called before the bar of justice, certainly before the bar of public opinion, and the demand made that they correct their ways, that they shall no longer extravagantly waste the people's money in the profligate way they have been doing. Mr. Chairman, I hate graft and despise grafters and for that reason I expect to raise my voice against them every opportunity I have, and I declare an extravagant expenditure of trust funds, whether belonging to nations or individuals, to be graft pure and simple, and there is no truthful way of getting around it. I thank the House for its attention. [Applause.] Mr. Chairman, assuring the House that I will not put a single unparliamentary thing in my remarks I would like to have the privilege of revising and extending them. I will not allow anything to appear in violation of the rules of the House. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Arkansas asks unanimous consent to extend his remarks in the RECORD? Mr. PERKINS. Mr. Chairman, I feel constrained to object. The gentleman has twice been called to order, and I think under the circumstances the request should not be granted. Mr. MACON. Mr. Chairman, I expected that much from that side of the House, but I can outlive it, thank God, and the American people will call upon you to account for your extravagances, whether you allow me to expose them in the RECORD or not. RESOLUTIONS, VIEWS OF SOUTHERN GOVERNORS, NEWSPAPER RELATIVE TO EXCLUDING UNDESIRABLE IMMIGRANTS BY AMENDING THE IMMIGRATION LAWS PRESENTED BY MR. OVERMAN JANUARY 11, 1912.-Referred to the Committee on Immigration and WASHINGTON 1912 |