The San Francisco call., 1905-02-08
R RAILROADS FIND
TWO DEFENDERS
Mccall of Massachusetts, and
Sibley of Pennsylvania
Oppose the Rate Bill
PRAISE FOR MR.. BRYAN
Democrats Declare President
Roosevelt Is Following
the Nebraskan's Lead

WASHINGTON, Feb. THE feature
of the debate in the House to-day on
the freight rate bill was the, speech
of Mccall, who declared that it was
not to be imagined that the Supreme
Court would stand between the Gov
ernment and its victim. following up
that utterance with the statement that
the courts usually reflected the policy
of the party in power. The views of
the speakers as to legislation needed
were many and varied, but with the
exception of Mccall and Sibley of
Pennsylvania, all were agreed that the
time had arrived for the granting. of
relief. The names of w. j. Bryan and
President Roosevelt figured prom1-
nently in the discussion, the allegation
being made from the Democratic side
of the chamber that the Presidents S
recent message to Congress on the sub
ject Of rate legislation only reiterated
the views of Bryan. and the declara-
tions of the Democratic party in three
national platforms
Shackleford of Missouri referred to
the recent remark of Williams of Miss
issippi, the minority leader, that the
Democrats would toe the mark" with
the President on this question. 1t was
not, he said with some emphasis, "a
question of marching shoulder to
shoulder with the President, so long as
he was toe-marking the declarations
of the last three Democratic platforms.
1t was a question with the Democrats
of President Roosevelt marching
shoulder to shoulder with the great
Nebraskan, who has taken the lead in
this great question.
The first voice raised against the
legislation was that of Mccall of
Massachusetts, who maintained that 1t
was incompatible with the funda-
mental principles of private property.
The granting of authority to the
Interstate Commerce Commission to
fix rates, he said was crossing the line
between regulation and confiscation in
a manner that outraged the most
patent principles of justice, and he in
quired if any one could imagine any
more ideal method for the destruction
of private property and one more likely
to corrupt the American people. The
powers vested by the BILL he said, were
too vast and dangerous to be welded
by any political government and were
likely to lead to the destruction of
cities and to Government ownership
of railways The very air, he said,
vibrated with the demands of an
aroused public appetite.
Despairing that the railroads would
get the protection to which they were
entitled Mccall said that If the lid
of this Pandora's box should be re-
moved everything would escape from it
but hope He declared 1t would be
better to let the struggle between the
cities and the railroads go on than to
set UP little machine or a deity, such
as the enlarged commission proposed
would be.
Further opposition to rate legislation
at this time came from Sibley of
Pennsylvania, who called on his coll
leagues to pause and ponder before
they acted.
Lamar of Florida charged that Nc
Calls views were those of the most
complete reactionaries of the Govern
ment against regulating the railroads.
Lamar claimed for w. J. Bryan and
the Democratic party the credit for
first stirring the people to action. Had
not President Roosevelt thrown the
question of regulating freight rates
into Congress by a bombshell, he
asserted, the House would have sat for
twenty years to come without action
upon it.