New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-04-08
DECIDED TO TAX CLUBS.
ACTION OF THE REPUBLICAN CAUCUS
ON RAINES LAW AMENDMENTS.
VOTE TAKEN AFTER -FOUR HOURS DEBATE
FOUR SENATOR'S REFUSED TO BE BOUND
BY THE DECISION.
tpY TELEGRAPH TO THE rRrBUNEI

rBY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE.1
Albany. April THE Republican Senators
held caucus at the Capitol tonight on the
Ranes law amendments. AS soon as 1t was an
Eounced that the meeting would be caucus
and not a conference, Senators Davis Lamy and
Seibert, Of Buffalo. and Senator Wieman, OF
Brooklyn, stated that they would not take part
In any caucus the bill. since they did not
intend to vote for 1t. This declaration was not
unexpected These Senators had made the same
statement to Senator Ellsworth, the Republican
leader earlier In the day.
Mr.. Seibert asked that Messrs Davis, Lamy,
Wieman and himself be excused from the caucus
obligation Objection made by Mr.. Els
worth and Mr. Higgins, and a half-hours de-
bate followed. Messrs. Davis. Lamy and VILE
man thought that they would prefer not to re-
main, even If excused from abiding by decisions
OF the caucus and accordingly left the room.
Mr. Seibert remained and listened to the dis
cusson, declaring. however. that he was mere
spectator
Senators Ellsworth and Higgins argued that
men who refused TO recognize a caucus decision
on such an important measure the Liquor Tax
bill ought to be read out Of the Republican party.
Senators Wray. Pavey and Lexow demurred to
this cracking of the party whip. They thought
tnat no Sucn pressure should be put upon tne
four Senator's, upon any Republican Senator.
The motion to make the conference a caucus
which had been made by Mr. Ellsworth, was
adopted.
well. now let us get down to business" said
Hobart Krum when at last the conference had
been converted into caucus. The considera-
tion OF the bill then began. The debate was
chiefly over the taxation OF clubs To every
.nrt, T cd tha
opponent of such taxation. He made speech
OF nearly an hours length, In which he criticised
this part of the bill The fake" clubs. he
argued. might he crushed In some other way than
by taxing the genuine social clubs. Senator
Ford then offered his well-known amendments to
the bill providing that no tax should be imposed
on clubs which did not have their rooms in build
ings used for saloons or in buildings adjacent to
saloons
Mr. Sebert at this point said that the Elllcott
Club Of Buffalo. would not be freed from taxa
tion II such an amendment was adopted since
there was liquor store on the ground floor OF the
building it occupied. Moreover, the bill In its
present shape would deprive the Ellcott Square
Club Of the right to keep open after o'clock and
thus no public dinners at which liquors were dis
pensed could he held in its rooms.
DR.. Brush, Of Brooklyn. warmly supported Mr
Fords amendments Mr.. Ellsworth acknowl-
edged that he would like to exempt genuine social
clubs from taxation. but declared that he had
thus f1r been unable 10 frame a satisfactory Sec
tion of the law which would clearly differentiate
fake" clubs from genuine clubs.
After a four hours debate the caucus reached
a vote finally at ! a. m, on the proposition TO
tax clubs, and adopted 1t by vote to II to IL.
The vote as follows:
Ayes-Rrown, Brush. Chahoon. Daley. c.
Davis. Ellsworth. Higbie. Higgins, Humphrey,
Johnson, Krum, Nussbaum, PavAy, Raines,
r1 ba and TihhetS--1I
Nays-Frackett. Burns, Coggeshall Ford,
Grant Harrison. LeXOw Malby, Parsons,
Stewart White. Wilcox and Wray-l3
One Of the Senators came out Of the caucus at
20 a. m. and stated that the vote In favor OF
taxing the clubs indicated Enthusiastically that the
bill would be made n party measure. since the
proposition to tax clubs was practically the only
one over which there a struggle He also
said that If Messrs. Lamy. Davis, Seibert and
Wieman had not bolted the caucus the PROPOSE
ton to tax the clubs could have been defeated.