The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-27
FIGHT OF THE SENATOR'S.
No Plan 10 Stop The Ald-RCpeal Talk
eTS Hit Upon YET.

An Attempt to Enforce Closure Would
Only Precipitate a Debate on a New
Line-Continuous Sessions Would
Wear Out the Majority and Benefit
the obstructionists- No Sign of a
Compromise Yet.
Washington, Sept. 26-The situation
in the Senate as to the repeal bill is sub
stantially unchanged from what it has
been all the time. The problem Of
/ whether the bill can be brought to a vote,
/ and if so, how, is yet unsolved, and is ap-
/ parently as far from solution as it ever
/ was. Repeal men are determined to make
/ no concession to the silver men; the sill
yer men are determined to carry the OBJ
/ structing business to the last extreme;
/ the closure men, most of
I them, are afraid TO press
/ closure, and many of the repeal men,
| while very anxious to bring on vote,
| which they know would be carried their
way, are still unwilling to adopt a closure
rule. And so the case stands hedged
about with difficulties on all sides diff
culties which are insurmountable by any
means that have yet been thought OF.
People who find fault with the Senate for
not acting do not realize how difficult it is
TO act.
THREE WAYS OPEN.
There are three ways by which con-
clusiOn might be reached. One is by
continuous sessions Of the Senate; that is,
by the repealers holding continuous ses-
sions until they tire out the anti-repeal-
This nnVVpN-ap lO1npqptiFH hlp
| though it was talked about for time
| To carry out this idea, the repealerS
would have 10 keep a quorum in the Sen
ate chamber all the time. If they did
not, the silver men could step out of the
hall and break the quorum, and the re
pealers would either have to produce the
quorum or adjourn. Nearly all
the repeal men would have
to be on duty all the time, while but very
few of the silver men would need to be
present. The latter could keep few of
their men on duty, while the others
rested; but the repeal men could not alb
sent themselves from the hall. The tir-
ing-oUt process would operate much
harder on repeal men than on the silver
men, For that reason no thought of adopt
ing it is now especially as
quite number of the rcpealers are old
men and unable to endure the fatigue in
separable from a continuous session.
THE CLOSURE PLAN.
Another way is by closure, or closing
the debate in order to take the vote
Closure might be had in two ways-by
the action of the presiding officer, or by
the Senate changing its rules The Vice
President might stop the debate, when he
thinks it has gone far enough, by deClin-
ing to recognize any other senator who
may rise to speak, and then putting the
. QuCStiOu before the Sonata for vote
This would be an innovation on the prac-
tiCe of the Senate so radical that il would
amount to a revolution and it is safe to
say that there is no proba bility of the
Vice President resorting to it. A promi-
nent gentleman said here to-day that if
the President were presiding over the
Senate he would do that. Maybe he
would, but the Vice President will not
Closure might be had by changing the
rules of the Senate. In the early history
of the Senate there was provision for
closure, but it was abandoned long ago
in the early part of this century, | believe
and has never been resorted to since
Under the rules which have prevailed
since then, there is no such thing as pre-
vious question in the Senate. A ques-
ton does not come to vote except by
unanimous consent. 1t is open for debate
as long IS there is a senator who wants to
debate it. To order vote on a question
when a senator wanted to speak on it,
would be considered an outrage on the
rights of that senator too gross to be toll
Grated for a moment.
HILLS CLOSURE RESOLUTION.
Recently Senator Platt of Connecticut
and Senator Hill of New York have IN
troduced rules which We're intended to
change the old established order of
things and bring about closure. These
n nt haa, Cd
were they would spring a new issue in
| the Senate, which would open n debate
! that could not be brought to close any
! sooner than the debate now going on,
! which the repealers find it impossible to
! close. For this reason and perhaps
| others, the closure resolutions have
not been pressed. Just
now it appears impossible
! for the Senate to adopt closure. Thought
full men say that it will have to come
after awhile-that the Senate will event
| ually be compelled to adopt some rule
which will make it come to vote when
| the majority desires it; but it will hardly
| be done while this question or any other
| of great impOrtance-iS pending 1t will
| have to be adopted-if ever it is-when
it will not affect pending question Of
| great Importance.
a COMPROMISE IMPROBABLE.
announcer way TO DrlnE ABOUT vote IN
| the Senate is by compromise or conces-
sion. This seems to be almost, if not
| quite, as improbable as the other ways
| just suggested AS has been said repeat
| eddy, the silver men would accept any
| concession, however slight that would
! give recognition to silver as money They
say to pass the repeal bill as it stands is
to wipe out the last recognition of silver
as a money metal; hence, they say that
! they will never consent to it. that their
/ obligations to the people and their fidelity
| to the democratic platform require them
to oppose unconditional repeal.
There are many senators who are as
| strongly and as conscientiously in favor
| of unconditional repeal but IL ere is rea-
son to believe that some of them would
be willing to make some concession to the
silver men, rather than prolong the fight
indefinitely, if it were not for the intiu-
ence of the President. He is unalterably
opposed to the slightest concession, and
will not even talk about it. He is not
even willing to allow an intimation to be
made tnat he will even consider any meas
far hi oil 81.