Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-03
ANTI-0PTI0N'S FATE.
Senator Washburn's Bill May Never
Get to Final Vote.
AMENDMENTS Tackled ON TO 1T
That May Keep the Whole Act Out Of Sight
at the Next Session.
1T MIGHT HAVE BEEN FOUGHT OVER NOW

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 2.-When the Sen
ate agreed last week to the postponement of
the anti-option bill under the impression
that the day of adjournment was at hand
they ordered 1t to be reprinted with the
various amendments made by the Senate.
Copies of the reprint were received
from the printer and distributed
among the Senators to-day. Under
the motion of Senator Washburn
the sponsor of the bill in the Senate, it has
been formally agreed that it shall be the
unfinished business for the first Monday in
December next, and that the reprinted act
as passed by the House and amended in the
Senate shall be considered as the original
act Accordingly at the next session the bill
will come up for action every day after the
expiration of the morning hour until dis
posed of or until the final adjournment Of
the Fifty-second Congress takes place.
1t seems hardly possible that the po-
nents of the m easure can postpone action
upon it for three months, but they are de-
termined and persistent and may be able to
keep the appropriation bills and others en-
titled to the right of way before the Senate
SO continuously as to prevent vote upon
the obnoxious anti-option bill They at
least propose to attempt to do SO.
One Amendment VIII Be Discussed.
There is one amendment to the bill
now pending and which will be the first
one debated next winter. 1t was offered by
Senator Daniel and proposes to strike out
the entire section numbered ten in the re-
print This is the section requiring tine
maker of any contract for future delivery
to prove his ownership in the article con.
tracted to be sold in case his right
to dispose of them shall be questioned by
the Internal Revenue Collector or other per-
son authorized to examine as to the legality
of contracts Failure to furnish acceptable
proof of such ownership renders the con-
tractor liable to the 81, 900 penalty pro-
vided for violations of the text.
The most radical amendment, however,
the one that in the opinion of several able
lawyers in the Senate robs the bill of all
its sting, making 1t practically harmless
and imperative, has already been adopted
and appears in the reprint as part of the
bill and as proposed by MI. Washburn
himself The credit for its conception and
presentation belongs to Senator Dixon, of
Rhode Island, who at an opportune time
offered it as the result of careful study of
the provisions of the bill in the interests of
the public generally and his New England
constituents particularly.
The Clause That Nul'ifies the Whole.
Mr. Dixon's amendment provides that
the provisions of the act shall not apply,
among other exceptions, ''to any contract
or agreement made by or with any person
to furnish and deliver at any time or within
any designated period any of said articles
for use, consumption or traffic in his bust
ness occupation. or manufacture, or for the
sustenance of his family, guests, servants,
tenants, employees or domestic animals"
When this amendment was originally
offered by Mr.. Dixon, Mr.. Washburn,
anxious to avoid conflict with the in-
fuences behind it, agreed to accept it with
out debate. Later when the reprint of the
bill was ordered Mr.. Washburn presented
the Dixon amendment as his own end it is
now q part of the bill. Good lawyers say
that the terms of ofthis.amendment nulIify the
most essential objects of the bill,
although at Mr.. Washburn's suggestion
clause has been added to it, providing
be made in or upon any Board of Trade,
produce, cotton, hop, merchants or other
exchanges, or other commercial association
or any place or upon any premises where
price quotations of said articles are an
nounced, bulletined or published, nor be
subject to the rules or regulations of any
such board, exchange or other commercial
association.
Lucky IL 1t Gets Confederation. {.
Senator Washburn feels sanguine that his
bill will become law before the expiration
of the next session, but he is apt to be dis
appointed, especially if he does not exhibit
greater parliamentary skill in handling the
bill than heretofore.
Had be stood firm and declined to enter
tain appeals from numerous colleagues who
desired to interect measures of local inter-
est into the anti-option debate, he might
have forced the bill before the Senate sew
eral weeks ago, before he did, and had he
not later been misled into thinking
that Congress was ready to adjourn
several days ago, his bill might now be
under discussion instead of being laid away
on the shelf to be committed to the tender
mercies of three months session which
does not get down to business until the
second month and which is from that time
on engaged almost constantly in the con-
sideration of the privileged appropriation
bills