Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1900-06-14
HOUSES DEADLOCKED
The Armor Plate Question Upsets
Congress- Calculations.
A DAY OF TURMOIL IN The SENATE.
The Two Chambers Struggled Desperately
Over the itsm Relating to Ocean BUR.
vsys-A Hitter Debaie-A Recess
Taken Until This Morning.

Taken Until This Morntng.
Washington, June 7.-Inability t,
reach an agreement on the naval ap
preparation bill forced the senate t,
abandon the adoption Of the hous'
resolution for final adjournment yes
terday. The armor plate question
which for five years has been ,
thorn in the side of congress, upse'
the calculations of the senate lead
ers and their well-laid plans wen
awry. 1t was day of strife and tur
MOL in the senate. Early the con
ferees on the naval bill reported a dis
agreement and the senate was tolt
plainly that the house would not con
sent to the amendment providing fol
an armor plate factory to be operated
by the government. A compromise
proposition was presented by Sena'
tor Penrose, Of Pennsylvania, and
after hours of debate, it was finally
adopted by a vote Of 80 to IS. The
discussion of the proposition devel.
oped an unusual bitterness of feeling
and charges of robbery and political
corruption were hurled about the
chamber with an abandon which, il
they had not fallen from the lips of
grave senators, would have been re-
garded as reckless. Little worse ever
was heard in the heat of political
campaign.
Three o'clock, the hour agreed upon
for final ad journment, was passed and
still the senate wrestled with the ar
NOR question. When the Penrose
proposition finally was agreed to it
was supposed the way was clear, but
late at night another disagreement
was reached on the naval bill and the
senate took an adjournment until II
o'clock to-day.
The evening session presented a
brilliant scene, the galleries being
thronged with gay and fashionable
assemblage. All were immensely en-
tertained, as Senator Carter, Of Mon
tana, Mason, of Illinois, Turner, Of
Washington, and Money, of Missis-
sippi, kept the senate on edge with
rafting political speeches.
Struggle Over Ocean Surveys.
Washington, June 7.-When the
house last night at 1920 took re-
cess until ten o'clock this morning
the two chambers of the national
legislature, with heads down and
horns locked, were in q desperate
struggle over the item in the naval
appropriation bill relating to ocean
surveys. The final adjournment of
congress is postponed until it is over
The proceedings in the house dur
ing the day were tame and without
dramatic incident. This was partly
due to the fact that the firm posi-
ton taken by the house on the ar
NOR plate provision transferred the
fight to the floor of the senate and to
the obstinate refusal of Mr.. Lentz, an
Ohio democrat, to permit any unan-
imous consent legislation until the
republican leaders agreed to allow
the testimony in the Occur d'Alene
investigation to be printed. Mr..
Lentz held the house by the throat
all day and except for privileged
matters things Legislative were prac-
tically at a standstll
But at night there was enough ex-
citement to compensate for the dull
ness of the day session. The house
got its dander up over the failure of
its conferees to abide by their in
structions on the ocean survey item
and, after an exceedingly sensation
al debate in which Mr.. Cannon, the
chairman of the appropriation COM
mittee, made some startling disclos-
ures as to the manner in which Com
mander Todd, the photographer OF
the navy, had waged his campaign
against the stand taken by the house
in favor of the coast and geodetic
survey doing ocean survey work, the
house rejected the conference re-
port by an overwhelming majority
and the speaker took the almost I'M
precedented course of appointing
new conferees on the part of the
house who are not members OF the
naval committee.
The debate was one of the bitterest
and most heated of the session. Mr..
Cannon, in the excitement of the mo-
ment, took off his collar and necktie
and with sleeves rolled up aroused the
house to a tremendous pitch of en-
thusiasm as he dealt the conferees
sledge hammer blows. The galleries,
to the doors, cheered the
fight of the grizzled old
veteran until the ceiling rang. The
conferees defended their course as
best they could and Mr.. Foss, acting
chairman of the committee, resented
with bitter language the charge that
he had betrayed the house. Hot
words were banded back and forth,
,ut the house was in an angry mood
ind was resolved to fight the senate
o finish. The appointment as con.
erees of Mr.. Cannon, Mr.. Moody and
Mr.. Shafroth, all of whom are in SYM