The San Francisco call., 1905-02-10

" 4OANg SDs J.-<AlLCl nCd1
ly four days of discussion the House
to-day, by a vote of 326 to II, passed the
Esch-Townsend bill providing for the
regulation of freight rates. The mega
tive vote was made UP of eleven Re-
publicans and six Democrats. The clos
Ing hours of the debate were occupied
by Williams of Mississippi, the minor
ity leader, and Hepburn of Iowa, chair
man Of the committee which reported
the bill. Williams, while supporting
the minority measure even though, he
said, he knew 1t could not pass, COM
plimented the Republicans for bringing
in a bill which was much better than
he expected would come from them.
The speech of Hepburn was rather In
defense of himself. He said his deeds
and acts We're a sufficient answer to
the lies and ISLANDERS" which had been
heaped upon him. The Hepburn bill,
he said, had been prepared by the At
torney General, and he yielded to his
colleagues on the Esch-Townsend bill
only because he did not want 'sensa-
tional headlines to appear.
PIERCE OPENS THE DEBATE.
To-day's debate was opened by Pierce
Of Tennessee, who after announcing
that the President on the subject Of
rate legislation was the greatest leader
that has lived in the Republican ranks
since the Civil War. said he would sup
port the Esch-Townsend bill. He, how
ever, based his support upon the fact
that William ]. Bryan and the Demo-
cratic party had declared for just such
legislation.
De Almond of Missouri, while admit
ting the necessity for legislation, at
tackled the Esch-Townsend bill as be.
ing an inadequate treatment of the
question. The bill, he said, was sin
gularly lacking in its compliance with
the recommendations of the President.
1t did not reach private car lines, and
it was not to be supposed that the
courts would be eager and searching in
the endeavor to find in 1t something
on that subject which its authors
themselves could not find.
The closing remarks for the minor
ity were made by Williams of Missis-
sippi, who at the outset congratulated
the House upon the fact that not only
in the matter of rate legislation, but
in several other particulars. President
Roosevelt, nominated by the Repub-
lican party and elected by the people"
was beginning to assume a distinctly
/ Democratic attitude. He said he had
begun to hope that the President would
recommend revision of the tariff and
/ that the President would see that it
was altogether absurd to keep &c, 900
more soldiers than were needed.
Addressing himself to the Republi-
cans, Williams said they needed moth
/ ing more than a marking out of the
pathway TO follow the President, not
because he was President or a Repub-
/ lican, but because he was outlining the
| proper policy for the American people.
''Oh," he said, amid Democratic
! laughter, "I know how non-partisan
! you are
PRAISE FOR THE PRESIDENT.
williams said it might be true in
some things. as Grosvenor said yester-
day, that the Democrats "camped to-
night where we camped last night,
but he loudly proclaimed, facing the
Republican side, that on this question
'It is you who are camping this year
where the Democracy camped last
year."
| If, he said, the majority in the House
did not follow the Presidents recon-
mendations, it proved the necessity for
ar automatic coupler between the
! White House and the House of Repre-
sentatives.
"A Republican Daniel is calling you, -
! he exclaimed, land he is at the other
| end of the avenue and he is calling you
| to do identically the same things that
/ you refused to do because it came out
of a Democratic Nazareth
Discussing the merits of the bill, Will
/ liams said the country had waited and
waited for the railroads themselves to
/ do it Justice. He agreed in part with
] Mccall of Massachusetts,, who had said
the right to fix rates was a dangerous
power to confer on several men, but he