The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-07-25
ALL WAS NOT HARMONIOUS.
DEMOCRATIC sEHAToRs Iy CAUCUS
 ON THE pARIFF BILL.

Said He Would Oppose the Hill as Long
 ns the Income Tax Was in it-May Send
 1t Back to Conference.
 Washington. July A-A few minutes before o'clock this afternoon the dem ocratic senators went into caucus for the purpose of formulating a program in regard to the disposal of the tariff boil For three hours the discussion con- tinued, and then without having reached any conclusion an adjournment was taken until tomorrow at the same hour.
 MT. Hill was not notified officially of the caucus until just a few minutes be- fore the adjournment of the senate. He was then notified in the cloak room by MT. German, and requested to be pres ent. MT. Hill frankly told the chairman of the caucus that as he was opposed to the senate bill and would do all he could to defeat 1t so long as the party saw fit to keep the meme tax in 1t he did not believe he ought to participate in a conference that had for its ob- ject the passage of the measure and the settlement of party quarrels. For that reason MT. Hill did not attend the cau- GUS. Neither MT. Murphy nor MT. Irby went to the caucus, and their absence caused some remark. Senators Voor- hees and Daniels were prevented by ill., ness from attending the caucus.
 Every other senator in the city was present Soon after the caucus con- vened MT. Jarvis of North Carolina of- fered a resolution providing that the bill be sent back to the conference without instructions of any sort to the conferees. Upon this resolution all dis cussion was based. The conservatives, so-called, the men who formulated the present bill, did none of the talking, but one of the senators said after the caucus was over that those who did the talking were as zealous in their ad- vocacy of the senate bill as any of the conservatives could be, and insisted as
 
 prevail.
 Almost all of the debate and cross fire between the senators was directed at MT. Villas in an effort to induce him to withdraw his motion to strike out the differential on refined sugar. MT. Villas could not indicate to the caucus bust what he would do, but made a plea for the administration, saying that in view of the strong letter the president had written there should be some sort of concession on the part of the senate and he believed the concession should be, among other things, on the sugar schedule.
 Messrs. Caffery and Blanchard said that concession of some sort was ab- solutely necessary and they would be content if the senate placed a fiat" duty of 45 per cent. on all sugars, raw and refined, and gave the planters half the bounty for 1894. This increase in the duty, they said, would compensate them to some extent for the loss of the bounty which compromised them should be given, and which was de- cided upon by the former democratic caucus.If the senate would not agree to this change, which was of advantage to the growers of sugar, the Louisiana senators must insist not only on the one-eighth of a cent differential, but also on the bounty that was promised them, Wr. Gallery warned the caucus that unless this was done he and his colleague would vote against the bill.
 MT. Smith of New Jersey made very effective speech, in which he notified the cauous that if the differential rate was disturbed, a rate which had been promised and agreed upon in caucus, then there would be forthcoming the the necessary democratic votes to in- definitely postpone the conference re- port.
 The result of the sugar discussion was that the caucus did not get clear idea how Mr. Villas was going to conduct himself.
 Coal and iron ore proved to be as in- keresting 8 subject for others of the southern men as was sugar. MT. Pugh pf Alabama told his colleagues that neither of those articles must be touched. The previous caucus had agreed to leave them on the dutiable list and had fixed the rate. If it was and the senate conferees receded from the senate amendments on these items he warned the senators that neither he nor his colleague would support the bill and he likewise assured them that there were other senators who stood ready to vote in the same way As coal. iron ore and sugar were the three items of disagreement nothing else was discussed in detail.
 The sentiment was almost solidly In favor of the senate bill and the in sistence of the conferees. One senator tonight said that MT. Villas was the pnly man in the caucus who appeared ko be friendly to the administration and was the only one who voiced any rhange in the existing bin."
 A prominent democratic senator who has been largely instrumental in get ting the bill through the senate. said tonight he believed the caucus would lo-morrow adopt 8 resolution to send the bill back to conference without instruc- lions. This senator spoke, as he said by authority.
 The general feeling among democrats after the caucus was that the end was ln sight and that the senate bill would | yet receive the signature of the presi- lent.