Mr. DAVIS. I rise to o of the Gentfrom ll ine is, Mr. Wasa aonnn. That same questiou, I clieve, was presented to the House ast winter, and we went into a full discussion of it and the reasons for it. I suppose those reasons exist in the same force today as they existed then, and no more. After a very full consideration of this subject, the House struck out the amendment which the gentleman persistently and repeatedly attempted to force upon us. The House decided, as I believe in accordance not only with law and equity, but with strictjustice, that no such provision ought to be incorporated in the appropriation bill or in any form adopted. Isuppose the object of this amendment is simply to prevent the Illinois Central Railroad Company receiving from the War Dept the commutation allowed to them by the Government for transportation of military stores troops, and munitions of war. I understan very well, as do gentlemen here, that in the grant of land which was given by this Government to the State of Illinois for the purpose of aiding in the construction of the Illinois Cen tral railroad, there was a provision of this an. ture, that troops and munitions of war should be transported or carried over the line of that road without any charge or toll thereon to the Government. Yet gentlemen well know, and those who were members of this House last year well know, that that provision in exactly that language was incorporated in bills giving grants of land to aid in the construction of canals in the western States and yet no one ever pretended that the Government or anyone else in making these appropriations to aid in the construction of those canals everexpected anything more than the simple privilege of transporting troops and munitions of war in their own vessels, or chartered for them, through the canal without payment of tolls to the State. The idea that the State of Illinois in accepting the nt of land for the construction of the cane, upon which it never intended to at any vessel or boat for transportation, should carry the troops and freighto the U.S. free of charge, is one at never was entertained. The State simply had the right to impose tolls upon vessels putupon that canal by other parties and when you look at the condition of the State of Illinois exercising this privilege and this right, nobody ever supposed that the State was under any obligation to furnish vessels to the Government for the transportation of its munitions and its stores. There is something singular in the fact that from the time the Gentfrom Illinois [Mr. WASHBUENE] entered this House, or rather from the time the Illinois Central railroad was constructed, he has allowed no opportunity to escape him of doing something to brin reproach if possibleupon that company. hey are strangers to me I never was interested in the road. I never passed overit, as some Gentlemen have done, without paying full fare. I have never asked any favors of the Illinois Central Railroad Company. But when I find men here attempting to do whatI believe to be absolute and monstrous inustice, I must rise in my seat to say that I will defend the company so far as I can from that injustice. Let us look one moment at the condition of things during this war. The Illinois Central railroad was constructed for the purpose of nffording commercial facilities to the tote of Illinois through the entire lengthof which it was constructed and they rnished these facilities to the extent of its on acit. It had a long line of road, over 7 unred miles, and bad facilities for doing the ordinary business of the country, transporting those who desired to travel over the road and carring the products of the country to market. hen this war came on, the demand of the Govern ose the amendmentment for transportation was so great that the Government was obliged to take the stock of connecting railways and putit upon the Illinois Central railroad in order to carry what the Government demanded for military purposes. Yet by the argument of the Gentfrom Illinois, the Government is to refuse to pay the Illinois Central railroad one dollar of compen! sation, not only for what was done on the road by the stock of the company, but by all that was gut upon it from other roa s by direction of the government. New, sir, I say that no such condition of things was ever contemplated by the parties when the State of Illinois accepted this land grant. There were times when, for 6 weeks together, trains of cars coverin in extent 6 or 7 miles of railway laid Iiack of Cairo awaiting discharge by the Government. This company was prevented from doing its business. Its business was almost susoprednindaeay. Yet, although the company was subjected to all these inconveniencies and cases, the Gentfrom Illinois comes here and asks that the At torney General should be directed to prosecute this company for the recovery of money aid to them, under the authority of the last on gress, for service rendered by them. During the war the land grant railroads, at least in the West, and I believe elsewhere, proposed. by way of making an equitable arrangement with the Government, that the companies should take, I think, 1/2 of the ordinary prices of transportation on reerty carried for the Government. They did whatcver the Depts believed to be right by way of allowance for the easement which the Government intended to rant and which the State of Illinois receive. No one has ever questioned that if the Government itself had purchased or hired rolling stock and employed it in running the Illinois Central railroa, no tolls or charges could have been rightfully demanded of the Government for its use of the road.