The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-24
On the senate's Mutilation of the
 Wilson Bill. !

Wilson Bill. - From Letter of E. H. Church in Houston
 Post.
 Noticing a letter from Senator Butler of South Carolina, clipping irom tne Courier-Journal and an editorial in a re- cent issue of your paper concerning the part played by Senator German or Mary land in changing the Wilson pili a.oms S the House to the Senate, beg leave 10 submit the following facts, which tninN can not be controverted. I submit this | statement: as no one else seems oispOStS pO,,tS to come forward, and think the truth of history demands it: When the Wilson bill was sent from the House to the sen ate it was referred to the Senate Com. mlttee on Finance. That Committee. not satisfied with the bill as 1t came from the House referred it to subcommittee with instructions to make It more truly Democratic bill. This subcommittee was made up of Senators Jones of Arkansas, Vest of Missouri, and Mills of Texas. Mills was not a member of the Commit tee on Finance. When he went from the House to the Senate he had been at once rendered an assignment on that Commit tee by a special resolution introduced by Mir. Voorhees, of Indiana, but was com- pelled to decline the assignment owing to i'll health. When,- however. the Wilson bill came to the Senate. he was asked by Committee to act with them in remodel ing the bill along lower tariff lines, and when he agreed to do this was made member of the subcommittee. as above referred to. This committee had the bill in hand several weeks and reported it back to the full Democratic membership of the Finance Committee. Senator Cor man becoming acquainted with the pro- visions of the bill as framed by Jones, Vest and Mills, was very much displeased and was instrumental in having caucus of all Democratic Senators called to con- sider the bill. At that time the Demo crats controlled the Senate by. think, only two majority. and one of these. Hill of New York, intended to vote against income tax provisions which 1t contained. Therefore 1t was necessary to have such bill as could command the support of all or it must fail of passage. In the eau against the bill. until finally 1t was seen that the only thing that could be done was to allow himself and those who agreed with him to make such changes ceive their support. This being done 1t was turned over to German, Brice or Ohio and Smith of New Jersey, and pos sibly Murphy of New York, and one or were the principals. Under their charge the duties on more than six hundred (600) articles were increased, thus undoing the work of Jones, Vest and Mills. and mak- ing it worse than the Wilson bill had been when it came from the House This action caused MT. Cleveland to denounce it as "a measure of party perfidy and dishonor." The Congressional Record will show that when this bill was reported 10 the Senate Senator Mills rose in his place and denounced the bill and said that it was not the Wilson bill, but that 1t was the GormanBrice bill and that he would not be bound by any agreement to vote for any of the amendments made to the bill by German, Brice and others, and that he intended to vote against every one of the said amendments and to de- nounce the Republican and protective fea- lures which had been injected into the bill by these Senators who called them selves Democrats, but who wanted a pro- tective tariff bill passed.
 These are the actual facts in the case and will ps substantiated by Senators Jones of Arkansas, Vest of Missouri Villas of Wisconsin and many others if need be.