Birmingham age-herald., 1894-08-14
HOW IT V'ST DONE.
  Speaker Crisp ; the Caucus of Repr' <. tatives
MADE THE MOTION TO ACCEPT
The Senate Bill, With Separate Votes on Coal, Ore, Sugar
 and Barbed Wire.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13.-A gloomy
 morning broke upon a majority of the
 house of representatives, and the. members
 were tardy in reaching the capitol. A
 meeting was held in Speaker Crisp's room
 this morning to decide what action the
 house leaders should take in reference to
 the tariff bill in caucus. There were present
 in the committee room, besides the speaker,
 Mir. Wilson of West Virginia, chairman of
 the ways and means com mittee and Messrs.
 McMillin of Tennessee, Montgomery of
 Kentucky, Turner of Georgia and Breckin-
 ridge of Arkansas, also members of the com mittee. AL five minutes before 10 o'clock the statement was made on author ity of one of these gentlemen that it had been decided to accept the seuate bill. At
 10 o'clock not more than two score mem
 bers were in the chamber. Every one felt
 that the time had arrived when some de-
 cisive actioo should be taken regarding
 matters in dispute between the two houses,
 and hope was generally expressed that no
 opposition would be made to the senate bill
 in order that speedy termination of the
 long contest should be reached. As the
 members gathered the air was full of
 rumors, and dozen conflicting stories were
 in circulation.
 The intimation was broadly given out
 last night by some of the house leaders
 that the senate bill would be accepted
 without material objection at the caucus
 today, while there, was another report
 that at today's caucus the house leaders
 would insist upon the policy of delay in hope that some agreement might yet be
 reached in conference fairly satisfactory to all sides. If, however, tho story which comes from the speakers room this morn- ing is correct and it comes from the highest authority that the house leaders have de-
 cided that the only hope of tariff legisla-
 tion is in the acceptance of the senate bill
 the caucus will make short work of the
 matter.
 Mr. Holman, chairman of the caucus,
 took the chair. When the roll call (which
 showed 153 members present) was com
 peted hush of expectancy fell upon the
 caucus.
 Mir. Wilson, chairman of the ways and n cans committee, took the floor. Although
 outwardly calm and cool he was manifestly
 laboring under deep emotion. His speech for the first five minutes was general ip character, and contained no spe- ciic points. 1t was devoted in the begin ming to explanation of the endorsements under which tlSe house conferees had labored. He said that representatives of the house had gone into conferences with the desire of faithfully representing the
 wishes of their colleagues, and that they
 had failed to reach a satisfactory concu-
 sion, a conclusion honorable alike to tue
 house and to the democratic party, was not
 their fault.
 MT. Wilson went on to show that the house people had contended stoutly for a specific rather than ad valorem duty on
 sugar. Specific duty would show precisely what benefit the trust would get, while it
 would be impossible to determine this ac- curately under the ad valorem system. He said that the sugar trust, becoming con
 vinced that the senate schedule would be adopted, had made heavy purchases of for
 eign raw sugar. He then made the star ting statement, on the authority of lead ing democratic senator, that the trust had bought sugar to the amount of $112, 900 ,0OO in foreign markets in anticipation of the senate sugar schedule receiving the ap- proval of the president. Under the senate schedule the trust would reap a profit of SAC, ,000 ,000. The declaration made by Mir. Wilson that the ''sugar trust had the peo- ple by the throat'' and that it was now a battle between the people and this great monopoly was greeted with hearty round of applause.
 Mir. Wilson referred to the proposition made to the house conferees by their sena- torial associates to accept free sugar. This proposition was rejected, inasmuch as rep resentatives of the house had ascertained that compact existed in the senate to de-
 feat tariff legislation or postpone it's con- I were made part of the conference report. He turned at this point snd called upon
 Breckinridge, Ere McMiliin and Turner, to substautiate this statement. MT. McMil- lin immediately arose, and said that from the beginning of the conference they had been given to understand from day to day that any displacement of the senate votes on sugar, coal and iron ore would lead to absolute defeat, or at least to postponement of the bill.
 MT. Wilson stated substantially that there was no prospect for tariff legislation unless the senate bill was adopted. When MT. Wilson had finished Speaker Crisp arose and was greeted with applause. He began by saying that the house must take the senate bill. While the senate bill must be adopted the house would make determined effort for free sugar. He elab- orated his statement that the senate bill must be accepted or there would be no tariff legislation at this session, and his declaration that the house representatives had used every honorable end fair means to secure the passage of their bill without avail was vigorously applauded. Speaker Crisp closed his brief speech by offering resolution that the house recede from its position and accept the senate bill. The resolution also includes provision placing barbed wire, sugar, coal and iron ore on the free list by a series of separate bills. Bourke Cochran of New York then took the floor in opposition to the resolu- tion. Two propositions were made of the resolutions.
 On the motion to accept the senate bill the vote stood 130 to 21. There was no division on the vote to pass separate bills placing coal, sugar, iron ore and barbed
 wire on the free list.
 At 11:52 the caucus adjourned sine die.