Mr. SHERMAN. I offer this amendment, to come at the end of line 17 of section7, of page 26: And all provisions of company law requiring any railroad to purchaserailroad iron of American Inam yuefaacrtsure exclusively are hereby suspendedfor 2 from and after the taking effect of this act. This amendment was submitted to the ComFinance, but it was thought better to Present it to the Senate, because it modifies several important laws relating to the Pacific railroad. I do not know that it is necessary to explain it very fully, because it explains itself. By the provisions of the act organizin the Pacific railroad that road and its. i branches are required to be made of iron exclusively of American manufacture. They have found it very difficult during the last sum mer to get that iron in sufficient quantities at reasonable rates. The California branch of the road especially has found it extremely expensive to transportrailroad iron from Pennsylvania and other parts of the country around to California; and J.exclusion prevents them from entering into ordinary competition, a competition which is but reasonable and fair. The U.S. has a very large interest in the Pacific railroad; it is interested in its rapid construction; and yet the railroad companies are now compelled to pay largely advanced rates on the iron consumed by them on account of this restriction. There is no reason for the restriction in my judgment, because if these companies purchase the iron abroad, as any other railroad company may do, they have to pay the duty when it is introduced here. I may state the fact that the Pennsylvania Central Railroad Company and other railroad companies connected with it are now purchasing iron in Wales, and transporting it and laying it down alongside of the very works which are making American bars, and shipping them to Omaha and thence westward for the Pacific railroad. To require a company in which the U.S. has so large an interest to enter into a competition of this kind is simply sui cidal. It may be said that to repeal these provisions of law would be unreasonable, and there oI have provided only for their suspension or the next 2 years, in which time it is impossible for the American works now in operation to supply the enormous demand for railroad iron. There is not a single establishment engaged in rolling railroad iron that is not now employed to its fullest capacity. The great number of railroads now building, and the enormous quantity needed to supply the waste material, will keep every rolling mill, in my judgment, working to its fullest capacity for 2 or 3 years. I think there is no reason for continuing this restriction, at least during the next 2 years. Perhaps at the end of that time our rolling mills may be able to supply the demand at reasonable rates. The Present price of railroad iron in Wales is only between 5 and 6 pounds per ton, not over 30 dollars. under these circumstances to require this railroad in which we are so much interested to pay the Present rates, which I believe are from 80 to 90 dollars, is, it seems to me, unreason able.