Mr. KELLEY. I oppose the amendment and insist upon 70 cents. My distinguished friendfrom Ohio [Mr. SPALDING] is pained at the very suggestion that any American should have a monument of Italian marble. Sir, he cannot point to polished marble in any of our large cemeteries that is not Italian. And does he mean to say that our soldiers shall have monuments that are neither enduring nor polished? Does he mean to say that henceforth all such work as cmbellishes our cemeteries shall be excluded? There are certain things that we cannot construct of American marble so that they shall vie with foreign art or devclo our own art genius from our own marble. I do not ask that we should interfere with the market for Vermont marble. It has its place in the market, and Italian marble cannot interfere with it. It is more easily worked for indoor embellishments. Where polish is not required it is more elegant than Italian marble. In this whole vast structure you find the Speak er's, Clerk’s, and Reporters’ desks, some few slabsin the Marble Room. some of the surbases, and some of the steps of the extension, where the hardest stone was needed, made of Italian marble. Further than that it does not compete with American marble in this great structure. Nor would it in our markets. You do not find Italian billiard table tops. They are made of Vermont marble. I do not want to dispute the excellence of Vermont marble. It is vastly superior to that which is quarried in my immediate neighbor hood, and superior for all these uses. It has its own distinctive character, and that character is known to the trade. Vermont marble men will notsell one cubic foot less with a dut of 70 cents than they would with a duty 1 dollar. I appeal to the gentleman himselt to say whether there is any stock of uarn'ed marble on hand for sale today, and whether thereis not always an active demand for all the marble that can be quarried. It is for the American artists, it is for the men who deal in marble in our cities that I am pleading, that they may have an opportunity of buying the small quantity they require of the stone in which they can embody their skill in art, so that their work may endure as that of the ancients has done. [Here the hammer felL]