Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-02-23
SENATE MAY SIT SUNDAY
An Effort to Force the Railroad
 Pooling Bill Through.
OPPONENTS WILL FIGHT IT HARD.

The Democratic Steering Committee In- tends to Have the Bill Taken Up This Afternoon and Fought Out-senator Pet tigrew's Threat.
 WASHINGTON, Feb. 23.-Thc Democratic steering committee of tho senate, after many postponementS, held meeting and decided to recommend to tho senate that Senator Butler should be permitted to
 move at 3 o'clock this afternoon for the consideration of tho pooling bill; that this bill should continue to be the unfinished
 business until 12 o'clock Monday, and that if 1t should not be disposed of by that time it should give place to other business. The understanding created great inter est among the opponents of the bill as soon as 1t became known, and they immediate ly began their propositions to Antagonize | not only the bill itself, but, if possible, to prevent its being taken up. The pro- gramme was immediately construed into a decision to hold Sunday session, and this fact was made the most of by those of | the senators who oppose the bill. The advocates of tho bill did not admit in so many words that their purpose in cluded a Sunday session, but they con fessed that if they should succeed in get ting the bill up they would uso their ut
 most endeavors to have it voted upon be-
 fore the expiration of the time set for its | consideration.
 As this time would include only about
 three hours of the Saturday session and
 one hour of the Monday session, they
 would necessarily have very limited time | for the bill without either a night or a
 Sunday session.
 Senator Buffers Plan. When Senator Butler, who, as chair | man of the interstate commerce commis-
 sion, will have charge of the bill in the
 senate was asked what his purpose was
 as to a Sunday session, he said he did not
 want to be quoted as saying anything that could be construed into n threat, and that
 he would only say that he would use his
 best endeavors to get the bill before the
 senate, and that if he should succeed in
 that he would continue his exertions in its
 behalf until n vote could be reached He said he felt confident of the success of the bill in case a vote could be reached, l and he believed clear majority would be
 shown on the vote for consideration. | While Senator Butler would name no fig
 ureS, it is understood that other friends of
 the bill claim that final vote would show | that two-thirds of the members of the sen | ate favor It
 1 ne opponents OI the Dlll COnCeuS LnaE | if vote should be reached it would pass,
 but they arc determined in the declara- 1 tion that it shall not reach the point when 1 the test of its strength shall be made
 The tactics which they will pursue were | foreShadowed in Senator Pettigrew's brief
 statement in the senate just prior to ad- 1 journment.
 The feeling is such as to make it clear | that there will be a very sharp clash when ] the effort Is made to take the bill up and | the indications are for period of most
 decided parliamentary sparripg against
 the measure, which will probably be led
 by Senator German on the Democratic side
 and by Senators Chandler and Aldrich among the Republicans.
 In Senate and House. As the session of the senate was about
 to close Mir, Pettigrew of South Dakota | gave a decidedly interesting turn to the l otherwise tedious debate on the Indian
 appropriation bill It has been discussed
 for several days and Mir. Call, in charge
 of the measure, sought to secure an agree
 mont for final vote today. There were l numerous objections, and among them
 one from MT. Pcttigrew, which was em- l phasizcd by the brief but pointed state | ment hc made.
 1 It was in the nature of disclosure that 1 O private arrangement had been reached
 among the senators whereby the pooling
 bill would be taken up at 8 o'clock this 1 afternoon and held before tho senate day | and night and over Sunday until passed.
 The statement came so unexpectedly 1 and was the sequel to such active work
 throughout tho day by tho friends of the 1 pooling bill that it created something of a | sensation among tho senators and spCcta-
 tors. MT. Pcttigrew added to his an | nounccment that he would take effective
 steps to defeat the passage of the pooling g | bill by objeCtinG to the disposal of the In
 dian appropriation bills or other measures | having precedence
 Tho contract school item of tho Indian
 bill was completed in such q form as to | provide 9 per cent reduction from the | expenditures of last year. MT. Morgan of l Alabama spoke throughout the afternoon
 in favor of n judicial system for the In
 dian Territory, but his amendment to that
 effect was finally ruled out of order.
 The house devoted the day to the fur
 ther consideration of the general deflcien-
 cy appropriation bill. Most of the time
 was spent in the discussion of questions of | minor importance relating to extra com
 pensation for employees of the house of
 representatives, and no amendments were
 adopted. Just before adjournment the
 senate resolution to postpone the time | when the new regulations to prevent col
 lisions at sea should go into force was | passed.