The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-02-14
DEBATE
The Negative Vote Was Cast by Eleven
Republicans and Six Democrats
Last Hours of the Debate Occupied
by Minority Leader Williams anu
Chairman Hepburn, of the Com
mittee that Reported the Bill-Sub-
stitute Bill OF the Minority Lost by
the Vote of ISL to 1856.

the Vote OF Isl to 1876. |
Washington, February 9.-After near>l
ly four days of discussion the Housed
today by a vote of 326 to II passed thel
Esoh-Townsend bill providing for theI
regulation of freight rates. The nega-|
tive vote was made up of eleven Rel
publicans and six Democrats.
The closing hours of the debate werel
occupied by Messrs. Williams, of Mis-
sissippi, the minority leader, n Hep-i
burn, of Iowa, chairman of the conf
mittee which reported the bill. Mr..
Williams, while supporting the minor
ity measure, even though he said he
knew it could not pass, complimentedl
the Republicans for bringing in a bill
pected would come from them.
The speech Of Mr.. Hepburn was rath-
er in defense of himself. He said hat
his deeds and acts were a sufficient
answer to the lies and ISLANDERS" which
had been heaped upon him. The bill
known as the Hepburn bill, he said,
had beer prepared by the attorney
general and he only yielded to his COL
leagues on the committee on the Esch-|
Townsend bill because he did not want
the committee to be target for scrib-I
- L--I
lines.
Less han % members were in their
seats when the debate was opened by
Mr.. Pierce (Tenn.) who after an
nouncing that the President on the sub
ject of rate legislation, was the great
est leader that has i've in the Re-
publican ank since the civil war,
said he would support the Esch-Town-
sen bill. He however, based his sup
port upon the fact that William j.
Bryan and the Democratic party had
declared for just such legislation.
Mr.. Williams, CMiss.) at the outset
congratulated the House pom the fact
that not only in the matter Of rate
legislation but in several other par
ticulars the president nominated by
the Republican party and elected by the
people" was beginning to assume a dis
tinctly Democratic attitude. He said
he had begun to hope hat the Presi-
dent would recommend revision for 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, Mr.. Williams said they needed
nothing more thar a marking out Of
the pathway to follow the President,
not because he is President, or a Re-
publican, but because re was outlining
the proper policy for the American
people. oh" he said amid Democratic
laughter, Il know how non-partisan
you are "A Republican Daniel" is
calling you "he exclaimed" and he is
at the other end of the enu and
he is calling you to do the same thing
that you refused to do because it came
out Of a Democratic Nazareth"
Mr.. Williams said the country bad
waited and waited for the railroads
themselves to do justice. He agreed in
part with Mr.. Mccall (Mass.) who had
said the right to fix rates was adding
power to confer on seven men, but
he argued it was a choice between evils
as only about seven great railroad
magnates acting in conjunction with
one another were directing the stream
of American IN the channels
they wished and discriminating where.
ever they saw fit.
Declaring that he spoke as a conser-
vative, as he was not a radical, Mr..
Williams said the time might come
when all the country, except the SOUTH.
would be advocating government own
ership of the railroads. The south
would never support that proposition
because they had the old fashioned dea
that the government should not become
too strongly centralized. They were fur
because they knew the government
would not operate separate coaches for
the whites n blacks.
Mr.. Hepburn said it had been the
Democratic boast that they held to the
principle of exact justice to all the peo-I
pie, but he continued, Mr.. Williams
hearing a clamor, trying to ride a wave
tina he though led to popular promo-I
ton. was willing to deny equality to the
man that invests his property in some
other way, than that that meets the
preference of the gentleman from Mis-
sissippi."
After commencing the court of trans
p~ortation feature of the bin, Mr.. Hep
burn in concluding, urged the railroads.
to a strict obediance of the law. They,
u learn, he said, that there was al
power greater than they; that the tn
terests of the multitude were greater
than any interests that could be sub
served by money and wrong and DISC
bedience. They must learn, too, hat
the people are alert now, lest the me-
mace of n concentrate n of immense
wealth does not become a terror in the
future If not restrained. He was loud!
ly applauded as he took his seat.
In accordance with the special rule
the vote then was taken on the substi-
tute bill of the minority, the yeas and
nays being ordered. The substitute was
defeated Isl to 1S6, Messrs. Gaines,