Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-10
RECIPROCITY
Bill Now in a Very Precarious
Condition.
BEET SUGAR FIGHT
EFFORT TO PREVENT PERFECTED
LEGISLATION AT THIS SESSION.
Some Conservative Leaders Hope to
Win Over the Insurgents-Future
Trouble in the House.

The Cuban reciprocity bill is in a very
rrecarious condition. The prospect of it's
passage is uncertain, but not hopeless.
The beet sugar republicans in the Senate
are making every effort to prevent perfect
ed legislation upon the subject at this ses-
sion. Their tactics are along the lines of
delay with obstruction as the objective in
the hope that embarrassments may accu-
mulate about the bill to such an extent that
as the end of the session draws near it's
friends may feel impelled to abandon it.
The rebate plan which the beet sugar men
have been keeping to the fore for the last
few weeks is now declared by the admins
tration senators to be absolutely untena-
BILE. 1t has 50 many points of disadvantage
that many senators would prefer to see the
bill lost rather than that a proposition of
doubtful utility should be carried through.
The administration senators realize that the
efforts of the beet sugar men to keep the
rebate plan alive are only for the purpose
of gaining delay. They are losing patience
with the promoters of this proposition and
are not inclired to hold further extended
conferences if the rebate scheme is the only
idea which the other side has to present.
Hope Beet Sugar Men May Be Won.
Some of the republican senators who are
taking an interest in the Cuban reciprocity
bill feel inclined to drop all negotiat tions
with the beet sugar men and to bring the
bill before the Senate to fight it out on the
floor. This element is not in the majority,
however. Some of the more conservative
senators have not abandoned hope of win
ming over a majority of the present beet
sugar faction. They think that when those
senator's find that the rebate plan is abso-
lutely Objectionable and cannot be enter
tained by majority of the republicans of
h.. SI1,- -e,,-;n
ty to the bill and rather than see the legis-
lation fail entirely will vote in support of
the administration plan.
1t is the purpose of the managers in the
Senate to bring the Cuban reciprocity bill
up for consideration after vote has been
taken on the isthmian canal bill. AS the
vote on the latter measure is still some
days away it is hoped that in the interven-
ing time more friends can be made for the
reciprocity bill so that when it comes up it
will have fair field.
But the troubles of the bill will not end
with the Senate's action, unless there should
be an overwhelming republican vote in
favor of the measure that the Senate pass
eS. II practically all the republican SEN
ators, the possible exception being two or
three men who may feel that they must
die in the last ditch, should support reci-
procity measure, it is considered doubtful
whether successful resistance could be made
to it in the House. If the vote in the SEN
ate shows a considera BILE number of repub-
ton in the House will be strengthened and
tactics may be pursued which would seri-
ously threaten the bill.
Program of House Opponents.
In the latter event the program of the op-
ponents of reciprocity in the House is this:
That the insurgent republicans to the num-
Der Of thirtynine or forty should join with
the democrats and insist that the differ
entail duty on refined sugar must come off.
1t is we'll known, of course, that it is the
democratic policy to take off the differentiai
duty. The fnsurgent republicans made it
their policy also for the time being, not that
they want the duty off, because that would
effectually crush the beet sugar industry,
but because they believed that the Senate
would never agree to a bill which struck
blow at the American sugar trust by taking
off the differential on refined sugar.
Some of the insurgent republicans in the
House think that their democratic allies
will stay with them on the differential
proposition, and that the bill can ultimately
be defeated by insisting upon retaining the
differential amendment which the House
tackled on to the bill and which the Senate
committee will strike off.
One of the insurgent republican leaders
in the House, who was conspicuous in the
fight the beet sugar men made in the lower
body, and which resulted in attaching the
dfferential amendment to the bill, with re-
publican and democratic votes, said today
to Star reporter:
One Insurgents View.
Il do not want to make any threat nor
seem to be boasting, but l make the asser-
ton, in the belief that it will prove true,
that there will be no Cuban reciprocity leg
islation at this session of Congress unless
a plan is adopted in the Senate which will
be indorsed by the beet sugar senator's
I'VE have ascertained beyond question
hot he Roht 10
in the House is approved by our constitu-
ents. We do not intend to abate our op-
position to the pending bill If straight
reciprocity bill comes back here with the
differential amendment stricken off, we will
put that amendment back again with our
thirty-nine so-called ''insurgent" republican
votes, and with the aid of the democrats
who assisted us before. straight reci-
procity bill can be defeated in this House
and will be beaten. The only hope for the
administration to do something for Cuba
lies in the possibility of the administration
senators agreeing with the beet sugar re-
publicanS upon a plan acceptable to the