Birmingham state herald., 1897-06-12
SENATE'S FIRST TEST VOTE
Resulted in a Victory for the '. ,sI. < Committee
BY A MARGIN OF TWO VOTES
The Subject Voted on Was the Senate Commit tees Amendment to the House Rate on
 Sugar-More Talk than Work.

4Hll Sugar-More ak than Mork. .al Washington, June 1.-The first test fH vote of the sugar schedule was taken in the senate lata today resulting in the : adoption of the republican caucus amend merit changing the house rate to 195 per pound, by the close vote of yeas B. nays 30. The affirmative vote was made up or tweuty-nine republicans and one deIlo- crat, McEnery, of Louisiana, one siVer .af republican, Jones, of Nevada, and one .s populfst. Stewart, of Nevada. The nesa- 3 tive vote was made up 1f twenty-five democrats. three populists and two sil- yer republicans. It was the clos st vote g thus far taken on an issue of importance and was accepted as showing that any having the sanction or the I,ll caucus was assured of adoption. The ie vote was taken after day spent Ill speeches upon the effect of the sugar .sssehedule. The main speech of the day si camer from MT. Allison, in charge ot the bill. and was in the nature of an answer to the charges made against the sugar schedule as a whole and defense or pt .pl Mir. German, of Maryland, spoke n against the schedule and the entire bill, ,. pointing out that it's effect was to burden l. the people without opening to the United ! States the forsign markets. Senator White reviewed the records of repupilcaii sella- f tors on the sugar schedule during the de- bate on the Wilson bill, arta!gning fhsfn ;3sfor inconsistency.
 se MT. Caffery. of Louisiana, and MT. Stewart eff Nevada, also spoke, the former against and the latter for the fpending schedule, after which the vote twas taken. The finst paragraph or the sugar schedule was not finally disposed < of up to the time of adjournment. Before ethe tariff bill was taken up Mir. Harris, cf fatp a resolution tha status of affairs relating to the Union Pacific railway and eXpre sslng thes ! the sena te that the secretary Of the treas ury should take steps to pay off the liens prior to those of the government ana then to operate the road, or if that was, deemed inexpedient to aidcpt forecosure, proceedings in the courts. The resoiu- tion went over.
 The tariff bil was taken up at 12:15 and the consideration of the sugar schedule resumed. The parliamentary status of the sugar discussion was as follows:
 The house paragraph (206) being under consideration Mr. Allison had moved to substitute cent and 95-100 of cent per pound for cent and S75-1000 as the rate on sugars above number sixteen. Dutch standard.
 Mir. Tu-pie, of Indiana, in behalf of the minority of the finance committee, gave notice of new amendment to be offered as an additional para graph to the internal revenue provision placing tax of per cent on estates of residents when the in heritance amourts to 2000 or more and fsnot for the benefit of a religious, char itable, educational or like institution. The tax Is to be in force five years from Ja m. l, 1S98 The amendment also provid for ; the details of collecting the inheritance
 The question then reverted to the com- mittee amendment striking out S75-100O and substituting 95-100
 eMr Frye of Maine. who was in the -l1t +a1 f1ar of1d n c about to be taken, Mr Jones asking for the ayes and nays. As the roll call was about to begin MT. Caffery. of Louisiana, took-th floor and read a newspaper ac- count of the growth and development of the sugar trust. The extracts read by MT. Caffery were very long, covering an entire newspaper page It gave in de- tails the profits of the trust by the year its absorption of lesser sugar establish ments and the internal business affairs of the trust.
 MT. Caffery then made an argument against the schedule which, he said, pro- posed to give more to the sugar trust than the Wilson bill and that gave too much.
 .eThe trust overshadows the earth with power" he said; Hawaii, the West In dies. Egypt, Java and everywhere else where the ships touches it commands tha price Are we going to accord this institution a further lease of power to raise and control the price at its own sweet will and caprice?"
 A running debate occurred between MT White. Mr. Platt MT. German and MT.
 MT. Stewart asked Mr Allison to state before the vote was taken whether the bill gave the refiners greater advantages than the present law.
 .sI have no doubt" he answered, that excluding the countervailing duty this bill does not give greater advantage to the sugar industry than the Wilson bill
 MT Allison proceeded to make gen erali statement He said that thus far senators had been discussing decimal figures and statistics without consider ing what lies at the base of this and all schedules.
 ty Of 1890" said he, 'and we hear sena- tors on the other side say they will sup port sugar duty on the theory ina. II is a tax or revenue only. wdsh to dis- claim any responsibility for this duty as revenue duty If that were it's only object it should not have my vete l do .not believe that If we were establishing n revenue system on imports alone that sugar should bear such "a prop9r11o,n pro h,I1, or
 MT. Allison proceeded to point out the change in conditions since 1856 wh:n su- gar earned a du.y of 30 per cent Tn those days, in the days of his boyhood, very little white sugar was seen. Now no sugar came on the table of rich or poor that had not gone through soms process . of refining. The refining industry of this counsry was entitled to some protection He then explained the house and senate sugar schedules
 aDo YOU believe ial protection to labor or capital?" interposed Mir. Tillman. of South Carolina.
 That is a generality" replied MT. AL Hsor ,aiffo which the senator well knew my answer I believe in protection to American labor. but I believe In protect ing American capital als, from foreign capital-1
 s'Mry Havemeyer, in his testimony" said MT Tillman. ''sadd that only 25,0o0 men were engaged in the sugar refinery industry. Yet you propose to give the renners differential which amounts to. between ten millions and twenty mil lions for the protection of 25.000 mem"
 'It was. the policy of this hill to do what Europe had done. establish the pro- auction of sugar in this country and keep n, sffn a0n 0nl A aliIaIlx maid for slIanar I1x