The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-27
The Senatorial Caucus.

Nothing was done by the senatorial
caucus yesterday TO advance the Wilson
bill. II was hardly expected that any
thing would be done. Senator Voorhees,,
the cha rman of the finance committee,
said that the subcommittee was looking
carefully after the interests Of the whole
country, and that he believed that the
changes that had been made in the bill,
and those that would be made, would
meet with very general approval. 1t is
sincerely TO be hoped he is right, and that
the bill will not be kept in the Senate j
long time before being acted upon.
Last week il was reported that the sub
committee would report the bill yesterday
to the full committee. Whoever is re
sponsible for that report was not well in
formed. There was no meeting of the
CON mittee yesterday, for the reason that
there was not a quorum. A number of
the mem bers of the committee evidently
had business elsewhere which they re-
garded Of more importance, or else they
were informed that the bill was not yet
ready to be submitted to the committee.
The slow way in which the Senate does
business does not Justify the expectation
that the bill will be pushed rapidly to a
vote when it gets into the Senate. IL is
more than likely that weeks will be oc-
cupied in debate, and that it will be well
along in the spring before a vote is
reached.
In the meantime the country is waiting
for definite information as to what
changes are to be made in the tariff.
There will be no general revival in bust
ness until it is definitely known what the
changes are, though it Is evident from
the fact that mills are being started in
different parts of the country, that there
viii be great activity in all kinds of bust
ness as soon as the tariff is settled.
The republicans are doing what they
can to prevent the passage OF the Wilson
bill, and will prevent it if they can. The
Washington correspondents of the repub-
hcan papers are asserting that the demo-
cratic senator's are so divided in respect
TO certain features of it that an agree
ment among them is practically impossi-
BILE. Their information is not the best.
As matter of fact, they have no informa-
ton at all that is reliable The discus
sion III the caucus OF the democratic SeHd-
tors yesterday morning did not Indicate
the probability that the democrats would
not be able to so shape the bill as to Sc
cure the vote of every democratic SEN
ator.
There need be no fear that the bill will
not be passed. The future of the Demo-
cratic party depends upon its passage
The democratic leaders know that if il is
not passed the next congress will be a re-
publican one. The promise to the people
to lower the tariff has got to be carried
out.
While there is no anxiety about the
passage of the bill there is a good deal
about the delay in passing it. The coun-
try is practically standing still waiting
for the Senate to act, and the Senate
does not appear to be in hurry. If the
finance committee would get down to
steady work and quickly send the bill to
the Senate, and the Senate would show
that it means to act promptly when it get
control Of the bill, there would be very
general feeling of relief.