The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1902-02-28

The Senate was placid until January
81, when it was aroused by a case of
spontaneous combustion. Fred Dubois,
the recuperated Senator from Idaho,
burst into flame. He brandished a
copy OF an Associated Press dispatch
from Manila. 1t said that Gen.
Wheaton had denounced . speech made
by Prof Shurman in Boston and had
criticised the minority report of the
Senate on the proposed Philippine
tariff. Assuming that the dispatch
was authentic, because the military
authorities there censor all such dis
patches, the Senator declared. that
Wheaton ought to be censured by the
President. Denying that Associated
Press dispatches were censored, Sena-
tor Lodge questioned it's correctness
The minority flew to arms. Teller,
Rawlins and Carmack locked shields
with Dubois and advanced on the
enemy. Senator Tillman recalled the
censure of Gen. Miles, and insisted
that there should be no distinction of
persons. Foraker, McComas, and
Spooner rushed to the aid OF Lodge. and
tie fire was spreading far and wide
when the venerable and sagacious
Senator Hoar seized a chemical ex-
and smothered it. He said
that newspaper gossip was not sufficient
foundation for debate in such an august
body. If Gen. Wheaton. however. did
make such statement. it was I'M
the duty of tho President to
reprimand him.
The blaze was smothered, but the
embers were still smoldering. The dis
cussion was resumed an hour or two
afterward, when the bill came up in
it's regular order. Toward the
close of the day it was diversi-
led by passage at arms he
tween Senators Spooner and Tillman.
1t was particularly exquisite because
zach tried to Guido the other in cour-
;esy; but it lacked neither snap nor
ire. Then Senator Money, of Missis-
ippi, pranced to the front He put all
he newspaper reports aside, and dis
the bill-but the whole
Philippine question. He handled it as
hough it was ripe watermelon.
after an exceedingly amiable confab
With Senators Hale and Beveridge he
made an argument so statesmanlike
MI instructive that it fell ON the
enate like a shower on parched soil.
When he closed, Senator Platt, of Con-
ecticut, began to rake the embers of
he old fire, and Dubois was tanning :
hem into flame when Cullom, of
illinois, sedately wheedled the dispu-
ants into an executive session, and the 5
avs work was ended
On the next day Senator Bacon
ssayed flank movement by proposing ;,
, enact part of the bill into joint Z
solution, but Lodge checked him by =
n objection Here everybody swung :
ON their moorings. An hour or e
lore was consumed in discussing an ;,
legged charge made by Senator Bacon, +
hich the Senator said he never made, !;
an alleged order issued by :,
lie Secretary of War which the Secre- h
Try had never made. The whole day a.
as spent in wranging over newspaper r.
ports and Misunderstanding Sena- a,
T Sp)oner aptly summed up the situa ii
on when he said that it was not q,
II to determine the ultimate policy of f.
@ United States concerning the r.
nor was it bill to estab- =,
III government In those islands. 1t ~
as not bill permanent in its nature "
was simply a bill temporarily to y;
divide revenue for the islands. View n
g it in this light. Lodge was the only o.
nator who had confined his remarks ..
the bill. Debate thus far was y,
neral in its nature and had nothing a.
hatever to do with the bill No one 10
eded this rebuke Even Spooner ~
mself disregarded it. Within three ~
N ates he was INDUCING in an in 70
lectual rouph and tumble with Till a.,
IN in regard to lychings in the South -
d outrages in the Philippines. II,
nally each accused the other of hav- bo
! his head tangled, and in the double no
lfusion Senator Teller got the floor. cn
went to the marrow of the Philip an
lie question in short order. but had IT.
hing whatever to say concerning the TO,
before the Senate. This drew him ~,
0 free fight, in which Senators Iva
lge, Foraker, Beveridge, and even an
venerable senior salesman from
ssachusetts were involved. When
fight was over the Senator from
orado disgorged himself of lot of
vspaper extracts from the pen of ms
phen Bonsal, and the Senate finally orr
ght refuge in executive session. I'm,