The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-15
HOUSE GIVES REBATE
PASSED THE COAL BILL ALMOST
UNANIMOUSLY.
MEMBERS MADE PARTY SLABS
IN DERATE THEY EXCHANGED
QUESTIONABLE COMPLIMENTS.

Only Five Voted Against Granting N
Rebate ON Coal Introduced Into
the United Statcs-OppOsitIOn from
Coal states RepreSentatives-RI
ardsOn Said the Country Hal 10
Turn to Democratic Doctrine when
In Distress-"HypOcrisy Snid DAT
zelI In Reply.
Washington, Jan. lathe bill re-
ported from the Ways and Means Com
mittee yesterday to provide for a re-
bate of the duties of foreign coal for
period of one year was passed in
short order by the House to-day by
practically a unanimous vote, 25S to 5,
those voting against it being Cushman
and Jones of Washington, Gaines of
West Virginia, Mondell of Wyoming
and Patterson of Pennsylvania, all Re-
publicans.
The bill was considered under the
operation of a rule which cut off OPP
portunity to amend. The only opposi-
ton to the measure came from some
of the members representing coal states,
NAiO NAJA Tic lGdI lildl tie 6u-
mission of Chinese mined coal from
Canada would injure the coal industry
of their states.
Both Mr.. Dalzell of Pennsylvania and
Mr.. Payne of New York, the Repub-
lican leaders, expressed the opinion on
the floor that the bill would not re-
lieve the existing distress. They said
1T would satisfy, however, public de-
mand for action and show the disposi-
ton of Congress to do what it could.
Democrats Not Satisfied.
The Democrats, although they all
supported the bill. said it did not go
far enough, and that coal should go
on the free list, and when the bill came
from the Senate with a provision
which virtually placed anthracite coal
on the free list, they applauded vigor-
ously.
MIR. Dalzell. in the course of his re-
marks, said that there was practically
no anthracite coal in the world except
that in the United States and little
in China.
The Senate amendment was adopted
without division.
During the debate Mr.. Richardson
Sdlu Jnat Wnen the stress OF emergency
came there was perforce recourse to
| Democratic doctrine.
| MIR. Williams of Mississippi, who fol-
| lowed Mr.. Richardson, said the re-
moval of the duties must result in re-
ducing the price of coal.
MIR. Dalze1l declared that the "hy-
pocrisy of the other side" was appar-
ent from the remarks of Mr.. Richard
son. The opposition, he asserted, was
simply playing politics. The Demo-
cratic "perfldy and dishonor" bill had
contained a duty on COAL
Maddox Called 1T HumbuE.
Mr.. Maddox of Georgia denounced the
whole proceeding as a piece of hum
bug.
Mr.. Cochran of Missouri declared
that this was late day repentance on
the other side. If the President and
Department of Justice had done their
duty months ago, when they were
gallavanting around denouncing trusts,
the situation would be different now.
Rapid progress was made with the
army appropriation bill after the coal
bill had been passed. The most i'm
portant amendments adopted were to
increase the number of officers in the
signal corps by twenty-three, namely,
one colonel, two lieutenant colonels,
four majors, eight captains and eight
first lieutenants, and another offered
by Mr.. Hay of Virginia to prevent
the discontinuance of the army trans
port service without action by Con-
gress.