The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1905-02-17
WASHINGTON.
Legislative and Gem
eral Topics from
the Capital.
February Ii, 1905.

"If it had not been for the
President there would have been
no such Legislation to be enacted
by this House. 1t is the power Of
the President, the influence of
the President, his tirmnesS and
his courage that have brought
this question to the imminece of
favorable action by the Republi
can majority. This statement
was made by Representative De
Almond of Missouri when the rail
way rate bill was under dicusSion
in the House ard soon after Mr..
De ArmOud concluded his remarks
the House passed the Townsend
ESch bill with only II dissenting
votes. six of which. unfortunately,
were cast by Democrats. The
Democrats signitied their prefer
ence for the Davey bill by first
voting for that, but when it was
defeated by party vote they al
ligned themselves on the side of
some progress in the direction of
rate control and voted for the ma
jority measure.
AS soon as the bill passed the
House it was sent to the Senate
and promptly referred to the com.
mittee on In erState Commerce
where it will doubtless remain un.
Til this Congress expires. which
will mean the death of the bill.
Two reasons will contribute to this
result. In the first place. the Sen
ate is working under pressure to
complete the Swayne impeach-
ment case, which is in full blast.
and will doubtless have to hold
numerous night sessions to accom-
pliSh the routine business before
March 4. In the second place
Senator ElkinS, chairman of the
committee on Interstate Com
merce, is at heart oppose to any
measure involving real reform of
railway rates and, while profess
ing to be most friendly, will actu
ally do all in his power to prevent
the accomplishment ofsuch enact
ment. His position renders his
opposition powerful aud while,
with ample time at the disposal of
the Setate, Mr.. Elkins opposition
might be overcome. in the rush of
the closing hours of short SEES
sion such a fight would he impoS-
sible.
The President is entirely recon
ciled to the unavoidable delay in
carrying out his recommendation
for the reason that he believes
that delay will only serve to whet
the demand of the public for such
legislation and that eventually
the country will secure from the
Senate a more comprehensive and
adequate measure than is the bill
just passed by the House. There
will be, of course, no trouble in
getting the next House to pass
bill in conformity to the public
needs and if popular demand
g Ows as rapidly during the sum
mer recess as it has during the
past few weeks the inSistence of
the people will make itself felt
even in the Senate.
To Senate has determined to
amend the arbitration treaties he
Gently submitted by the President.
despite the open letter of the
President declaring that if any
amendment We're adopted he would
withdraw them 1t is declared
on high authority that if the
treaties are ratified with an
amendment no effort will be made
to induce the foreign governments
party to the treaties to concur in
the change. This is perhaps true,
but the highest authorities have
been known to change their minds
and it's not impossible that calmer
consideration of this subject may
result in a changed attitude on
the part of the authorities in the
State Department. The one ex-
ecutive session during which the
treaties were discussed demon
strated the fact that 1t would be
absolutely impossible for the
treaties to be ratified unless they
were so amended that any subor-
dinate treaties submitting a diff
ference to the Hague Tribunal
would have to be approved by the
Senate. Senators Morgan. Teller
and Bacon all spoke in favor of
the amendment. if the treaties
were to be ratified, although Mr..
Morgan opposed the principle of
arbitration itself and declared
that in bis estimation it would be
far better if the treaties failed en-
tirely. 1t is not believed, how
ever, that Senator Morgan will
insist on this view to the extent
of flibustering. 1t is predicted
with every show of confidence
that the treaties will be ratified at
the next executive session.
The fate of the Statehood bill
has been practically sealed under