Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-09
DIVISION TO BE MADE FIRST ON
THE DAVEY BILL.
Less Than Twenty-Five Representa-
tives in Their Seats When Mr.. Pierce
Opened This Morning.

and will be referred to the committee on
interstate commerce. Senator kean.
member of that committee. who will of
fer resolution to postpone action until
next session, with the committee to sit
during the recess, is Withholding his
resolution until the committee has re-
ceived the bill from the House.
1t still is uncertain what action the Sen
ate will take on the bill, but there is strong
sentiment In that body against action at
this session. Senators are very much inter-
ested in the attitude of President Roosevelt,
and conflicting accounts are related, as
usual. of his position.
The best opinion seems to be that the
President holds to his view that the
Townsend Esch bill of the House is wise
and advisable, but that If the majority OF
the Senate wants to postpone action until
the extra session he will not interpose his
own judgment.
The House of Representatives today en-
tered upon the last day of discussion of the
bills to regulate freight rates The rule
adopted Monday provided that the vote
should be taken at O'Clock today, first on
the minority substitute, known as the
Davey bill. and should 1t fail of passage,
then on the bill of the majority Of the COM
mittee on interstate and foreign commerce.
otherwise termed the Esch-Townsend bill.
Less than twenty-five members were in
their seats when the debate was opened by
Mr.. Pierce (Tenn.), 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 support
upon the fact that William ]. Bryan and
the democratic party had declared for just
such legislation
Mr.. De Almond (Mo), while admitting
the necessity for Q off
Esch-Townsend bill as being an inadequate
treatment Of the question. The bill, he
said, was singularly lacking in it's compli-
ance 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 search ae in
the endeavor to find in it something on
that subject. which it's authors themselves
could not find.
Closing for the Minority.
Mr.. Crumpacker Qnd) said he would I'M
grudgingly support the majority measure.
because the power to regulate railroad COM
panies always had been recognized, the
question now being simply one of policy.
While Mr. Crumpacker was speaking the
statehood bill came over from the Senate
and was laid on the Speakers table for
reference to committee.
The closing remarks for the minority
were made by Mr.. Williams (MissD 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
republican party and elected by the people"
was beginning to assume a distinctly dem
ocratc 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 2o,ooo more soldiers than were needed.
Addressing himself to the republicans,
Mr.. Williams said they needed nothing
more than marking out of the pathway to
follow the President, not because he is
President or republican, 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" He
took no stock, he said, In the talk on the
floor and elsewhere about not standing I'D
to the President because he has gone over
TO certain extent to the democracy"
Mr.. Williams said it might be true in
some things. as Mr.. Grosvenor stated yes
terday, that the democrats "camped to-
night where We camped last night" but he
loudly proclaimed, facing the republican
side that on this question 1t is you who
camping this year where the democracy
camped last year"
If. he said, the majority in the House did
not follow the Presidents recommendation
1t proved the necessity for an automatic
coupler between the White House and the
House of Representatives. "A republican
Daniel is calling you,' he exclaimed. and
he is at the other end Of the avenue. and
he is calling you to do identically the same
thing that you refused to do because it
came out of a democratic Nazareth
A Choice Between Evils.
Discussing the merits of the BILL Mr.
Williams said the country had waited and
waited for the railroads themselves to do
1t justice He agreed in part with Mr. Nc
Call (Mass.). who had said the right to fix
rates was dangerous 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 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 1t to be government tribunal
weak and ineffective such tribunals
are"
Declaring that he spoke as a conserva-
tive. he was not radical, Mr.. Williams
said the time may come when all the coun-
try, except the south, would be advocating
government ownership of railroads The
south would never support that proposition
because they had the old-fash ioned idea
that the government should not become too
strongly centralized. They were further
opposed to government ownership because
they knew the government would not oper-
ate separate coaches for the whites and
blacks.
The Townsend bill. he said, in closing was
a much better bill than he ever thought
would come from the republican side of the
chamber
Mr.. Hepburn Closes.
Mr.. Hepburn Qowa), chairman of the
committee Interstate and foreign COM
merce, closed for the republicans He ex-
planned the difficulties of preparing such a
measure as the bill reported, because no
two men entertained the same opinion,
either to what was in the bill or what
ought to be in it. Mr.. Hepburn said 1t had
been the democratic boast that they held
to the principle of exact justice to all the
people, but, he continued. Mr.. Williams.
hearing clamor, trying to ride wave
that he thought led to popular promo
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 Mississippi"
Mr. Hepburn depressed for a moment and
received sympathetic applause from both
democrats and republicans when he asked
to be excused for intyudfng a matter of per-
sonal interest into the proceedings. which
was the first time he had done SO In eigh-
teen years service.
IF have been criticised" he said with