The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-06-12
Richardson of Alabama Leads
 the Opposition
CONGRATULATED ON VICTORY
Hepburn and Sherman Were Absent, and Floor Leadership of House Fell to Alabamian, Who Won
 a Signal Victory.
BY PATTERSON sTEALEY.

Washington June 1.-(SpeciaD-Repre- Sentative Richardson of Alabama is re- ceiving congratulations tonight for the splendid fight he made in the house against the Corliss hi'!. providing for government construction of the Pacific cable. The Corliss bill was killed by handsome majority and there will not be another attempt to authorize the laying of a cable in the Pacific by the gov ernment.
 Representatives Hepburn and Sherman, the Republican members of the inter- state and foreign commerce committee, who opposed the Corliss bill, were both absent from the house, and the leader ship in the fight against the bill fell to Judge Richardson. He made a telling speech for an hour. He regards his vic tory as the most important he has gained since he has been In Congress.
 The Debate.
 In opening his speech in opposition to the bill he called attention to the speech of Mir Cannon yesterday in which the latter showed that the appropriation for the next fiscal year already exceeded the estimated revenues by s51, GOO. GOO and urged this as the first reason why the govern ment should not enter upon the expensive work of building a cable to the Philip pines. He referred at some length to the possibilities in the development of wireless teegraphy and urged that 1t would be unwise on the threshold of the new system for the department to expend $15, ,0OO. 900 or $20 900, 900 for a submarine ca ble which might be valueless In a few years. In his arguments submitted yes terday MT. Corliss asked if the attorney general had not refused to consider the contract which the Commercial Cable Company had offered to makes
 MT. Richardson replied that the attorney general and other government officials had declined to interfere in the matter and that the company was proceeding to lay the cable under the post roads act The objection to the project of the Com mercial Cable Company bee" use the cable was not built by American labor he said would not stand investigation. He pro- duced figures to show that only 12 per cent of the cost of cable was expended in wages.
 He read a letter from John Mackay of the Commercial Cable Co.npany ad- dressed to MT. Hepburn. guaranteeing that the company would build an all- American cable and would not touch upon foreign soil. the cable to be com. pleted during 1904,
 Government Cable Necessary.
 MT. Shackelford of Missouri argued that ;t government cable was necessary to protect the public from private mo- nopoly.
 MT. Newlands of Nevada defended John Mackay, president Nf the Commercial Ca ble Company, from the aspersions cast on him yesterday. He said the cable tc be built to the Philippines would be at the service of the government m time of emergency.
 MT. Loud of California opposed the bill on the ground that government opera tion of telegraph systems In Europe was not a success.
 Mir Morrell of Pennsylvania spoke against the bin, and MT. Mann of Illinois closed the debate with a speech in favor of the measure.
 Mir. Adamson of Georgia moved to strike out the enacting clause of the bill To prove that the Commercial Cable Company was proceeding with the work of constructing the cable 1t proposed to lay he read cablegram from London dated today and signed by G. F. Ward vice president, certifying that 1065 nauti- cal miles of the cable to be laid between San Francisco and Honolulu had been compl eted and that the work was pro- ceeding at the rate of twenty-six miles a day The cablegram said that steam CT would leave with the cable for San Francisco before August 1.
 MT. Adamsons motion to strike out the enacting clause on a yea and nay vote was carried-116 to IT.
 Senate bill was passed to authorize the town of Lawton Okla, to use $50, Oo0 from the sale of town lots for municipal improvements Anadarko Okla, $6O, 900. and Hobart, Okla. s50000.
 At 515 D. m. the House adjourned.