Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-30
CHANGE OF OPINION.
Force Bill Advocates Are Now Quite
Sure of It's Passage.
FAVORABLE TURN IN SENTIMENT.
Senator Hoar Takes the Floor in Defense
of the Measure.
THE POSITION OF CAMERON AND QUAY
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WASHINGTON, Dec. 29.-There was a
deal of elections bill talk in the precincts of
| the Senate wing of the Capitol to-day, and
the weight of opinion was certainly favor
able to the theory that the bill will be passed
by the Senate. The vacillation of sentiment
in regard to the fate of this measure is some
thing almost unique in the annals of Con-
| gress. Two weeks ago the most earnest ad-
vocates of the bill could hardly be induced
/ to predict its passage, and vet these advo-
Gates now say they were convinced from the
first that it would have nearly if not quite
the solid Republican support.
Mr.. Aldrich's action in regard to the
cloture amendment to-day, in reporting it
and having it laid over, is accepted by both
Democrats and Republicans as notice that
the proposed change of antiquated rules will
be brought up for discussion the moment it
becomes apparent the Republicans have a
| quorum, and that in some way it will be
adopted without prolonged discussion.
A Weapon Against Tammany.
John !. Davenport, Supervisor OF Elec-
tions In New York, who was hopeless in re-
gard to the elections bill fortnight ago, has
said, within the last few days, that he was
law. Much of the change of opinion, Mr..
| Davenport thinks, is due to the fact that
Republican Senators who were lukewarm in
regard to the measure because of its appar-
ent sectional character, are at last convinced
that it Is more important in its application
to the North than to the South.
1t has leaked out that the Democrats care
far less for its operation in the South than
in New York city, for they feel.that it will
avail them nothing if they gain the whole
Southern section and lose the metropolis by
a curtailment of the method of Tammany.
Senator McPherson's declaration the other
day in regard to corruption in Philadelphia
elections was intended to draw the fire away
from New York. 1t is now believed that
! the lukewarm Senators have all been in
duced to come over to the support of the
bill with the understanding that if it be-
comes law, nothing shall be done in its
application to the South which would to
any important degree renew sectional
hatred, but that it shall he rigidlv operative
in Northern cities like New York.
Cameron and Ouay's Position.
A prominent Pennsylvania said to-day
that while he believed both of the Pennsyl-
vania Senators were opposed to the bill as
affecting the South, for the reason that they
believed it would be imperative at best and
would arouse sectional bitterness without
any counterbalancing good, neither of them
have at any time seriously intended to vote
against the bill if it came to vote in the
Senate, with nything like the unanimous
support of the Republican side.
Now that new Republican Senator from
Idaho has been sworn in, with another to
come within a few days, and both of them
supporters of the elections bill, few Re-
Iiaop ho cio ol-
pressing business, as Senator Ingalls, is and
any Republican measure will still have suf-
fcient support to put it through.
Indications are not wanting to evidence
the purpose of the majority of the Republi-
can Senators to terminate the debate on the
elections bill. There will be a determined
effort to adopt the cloture rule and to press
the bill to speedy determination.
Hoar's Defense of the Bill
Senator Hiscock addressed the Senate to-
day on the bill, and at the conclusion of his
speech Senator Hoar arose for his defense OF
the measure for which he is sponsor
He rejected and repelled. with all the in
dignation which the calumny deserved, the
aspersion that the bill was partisan meas
ure, or that any man who supported it was
actuated by partisan purposes. Its sup
porters undoubtedly believed 1t to be true
their constitutional rights were deprived of
them because of their political opinions.
But that the operation of the bill would
give one party an advantage over another he
utterly denied. The committee that re-
ported the bill had merely undertaken to
act on the advice of Mr.. S. S. Cox and other
leading Democrats and to extend the ben
Efficient system of electoral supervision in
forced in New York to other parts of the
country.
If the pending bill should become law,
and should prove effectual, he said, it would
be the last of the great measures that had
anything of the legal restraint which the
changes in the Constitution had made
necessary. Another measure which he had
fondly hoped would precede this one would
have to follow it. That was measure to
secure for every child on American soil the
education which would fit him to read and
understand the Constitution of his country
When these two things were brought to
pass. the era of the Republic would be real
The struggle for the pending bill was a
struggle for the last step toward establish
ing a doctrine to which the American
people were pledged by their history, their
Constitution, their opinions and their
interests.
An Honor to Be Abused.
Republican Senators charged that, through
election practices in operation in some of
the States, the seats of at least 80 Repre-.
sentatives had been illegally usurped; that
the Constitution of the United States had
been SO violated and overthrown that for IA
years minority had controlled the National
House OF Representatives and that for four
years the Presidency OF the United States
itself had been held Dy a usurper.
What had Senators on the other side
answered to that? Some of them had seemed
to think that their best answer was in rail-
ing and reviling at the Senator who had
charge of the bill. Their abuse had done
him Mr.. Hoar)an honor to which he would
not have laid claim. 1t brought him into a
company into which he should otherwise
have been 100 modest to seek admission. 1t
was Democrats who had reviled Adams and
Sumner and Seward and Lincoln and Grant
The Senators from Virginia and West Vir-
ginia (Mr. Daniel and Mr.. Keuna) had but
repeated, with far less capacity, what their
predecessors had said to men. the latchets
OF whose shoes he (Mr. Hoar) was not
worthy to unloose.
Without concluding his speech Mr.. Hoar
yielded to an executive session, and the
Senate soon adjourned IIGHTNEP