Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1905-02-13
PASSED RATE BILL
final VOTE IN HOUSE WAS over.
WHELMING.
Only Eleven Republicans and Six
Democrats Voted AgainS 1t on
Final PaSSage-WilliamS Saws
Roosevelt Is Becoming Quite
Democratic.

Wagshiington, Feb. 10-After near
ly four days of discussion the house,
by vote of 1926 to II, passed the Esch
Townsend bill providing for the regu-
lation of freight rates The negative
vote was made up of eleven Repubi-
cans and six Democrats.
The closing hours of the debate were
occupiedaby Messrs. Williams, of Miss
issippi, the minority leader, and Hep.
burn, of Iowa, chairman of the COM
mittee which reported the bill. Mr..
Williams. while supporting the minor
ity IN oasure, even though he said it
could rot pass, complimented the Re,
publ!cans for bringing in bill which
was much better than he expected
would come from them. The speech
of Mr.. Hepburn was rather in defense
of himself. He said HIS deeds and acts
were sufficient answer to tie "lies
and SANDERS which had been heaped
upon him. The Hepburn bill, he said,
had been prepared by the attorney
general, and he only yielded to his col
leagues on the Esch- Townsend bill be-
cause he did not want sensational head
lines.
~ "Great Leader"
Fewer than 20 mem bers were in their
seats when the debate was opened by
Mr.. 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 support the Esch- Town
send bill. He, however, based his sup
port on the fact that william j. Bryan
and the Democratic party had declared
for just such legislation.
Mr.. De Almond, of Missouri, while
admitting the necessity of legislation,
attacked the Esch- Townsend bill as
being an inadequate treatment of the
question. The bill, he said, did not
reach private car lines, and it was not
to be supposed that the courts would
be eager and searching in the endeavcl
to find in it something on that subject
which its authors themselves could not
find.
Mr.. Crumpacker, of Indiana, said he
would ungrudgingly support the ma
jor.ty measure, because the power to
regulate railway companies always had
been recognized, the question now be.
ing simply one of policy.
While Mr.. Crumpacker was speaking
the statehood bill came over from the
senate and was laid on the speaker &
table for reference to the committee.
Calls Roosevelt a Democrat.
The closing remarks for the minor.
ity were made by Mr.. Williams, OF
Mississippi, who at the outset congrat.
ulated the house upon the fact that net
only in the matter of freight legislia
ton, but in several other particulars
President Roosevelt, nominated by
the Republican 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 30, 900 more soldiers than were
needed.
Addressing himself to the Republi-
cans, Mr.. Williams said it might be
true in some things, as Mr.. Grosvenor
stated the previous day, that the Dem
ocrats "camped tonight where we
camped LAST night" but he loudly pro-
claimed, facing the Republican side,
that on this question cit is understood
who are camping this year where the
Democracy camped last year.
Prefers Government Tribunal.
Discussing the merits of the bill,
Mr.. Williams said the country had
waited and waited for the railroads
themselves to do it justice. He agreed
in part with Mr.. Mccall, of Massachu-
sets, who had said the right to fix
rates was a dangerous power to confer
on several men, but he argued that it
was choice between evils, as only
about seven great railroad magnates,
acting in conjunction with one anoth-
or, were directing the stream of Amer
lean commerce in the channels they
wished and discriminating wherever
they saw fit. If the fixing of rates
was to be lodged in some hands, Mr..
Williams said, he preferred it to be a
government tribunal, "weak aud in
effective as such tribunals are"
Declaring that he spoke as a conser-
vative, as he was not "a radical, Mr.
Williams said the time may come when
all the country except the South would
be advocating government ownership
of railroads. The South never would
support that proposition, because they
had the old.fashioned idea that the
government should not be too strongly
centralized. They were further op-
posed to government ownership because
they knew the government would not
operate coaches for whites and blacks
No New University Buildings.
Olympia, Feb. S.-Senator Tucker 8
bill carving attn aDDrOnriatiOn IF