The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-01-09
NO HOPE NOW FUR
 RATE LEGISLATION
Leaders Declare Congress Will
 Not Heed Presidents Urging
GREAT LACK OF HARMONY
Administration and Legislators Una ble to Get Together and the Railroad Influence Is Pow
 erful In the Senate.

New York, January s.-Railroad rates legislation is dead, so far as the present session of Congress is concerned, says a Washington special to the New York Herald It is said by leaders in both branches today than nothing can be done, no matter how much President Roosevelt may desire 1t. or how much he may urge it.
 The collapse of the campaign for gov ernment supervision of railroad rates takes away from the present session the only real live question which promised at one time to keep Congress agitated. When tho President gave up all hope of having something done in the line of tariff revision he had reason to believe something might be accomplished In rail- road legislation. But this has now gons the way of tariff revision.
 The present situation has been brought about by an utter failure to come to an agreement on the form of legislation. The belief was expressed both in admlnistra- tion circles and in Congress that some thing should be done at once to remedy
 
 message, but only on this one point was there any agreement. When 1t came to methods, not to say the phraseology of a bill to be presented, there were almost as many different views as members of the cabinet and leaders in Congress.
 Complete Lack of Harmony.
 No progress was made during the hol- day recess. and Congress reassembled with the question high In the air. Thus there Is a complete lack of harmony and united purpose among te President leaders in both branches of Congress and between Congress and the admin istration. There has never been any great CT chaos when any great legislative meas ure was in contemplation.
 Such men as Senators Allison, Elxins and Deliver, who have taken an interest in this question and expressed a hope that something might be done, have given uL in the Senate while in the House Representative Hepbufn, a leader in mat ters of this character, believes the ques- tion is too large to make even a beginning al the present session.
 Over all has been the pail of railroad influence in the Senate. This influence has not been assertive nor has 1t been exerted on the surface It has quietly
 
 mental to rate legislation and every ap- parent failure to come to agreement. It has lost no opportunity to create an att mosphere of postponement, and in this manner has added to the mixup of the sit- uation.
 Secretary Mortons efforts to have prominent railroad men join with the administration in agreeing on the char acter of the legislation have not met with success. On the contrary MT. Nor ton has found some of his old railroad friends turning against him, and when the President through over his plan for having legalized pooling go hand in hand with increased powers for the interstate commerce commission, all hope of getting any assistance from the great traffic managers ended.
 Mr. Moody Gives Up.
 Attorney General Moody, who was at one time engaged in making the prelimin- ary draft of an administration bill, has found the question so complex and full of difficulty that even he has express ed the opinion that little or nothing can be done in a year.
 Meanwhile all sorts of measures are be- ing introduced. They are all independent and have neither the united strength of the administration nor of leaders behind them
 rolloWlns Ine Ne"ldiuS IesoiutiOli anu Hepburn bill of yesterday Representative Haugon of Iowa, introduced a bill today to increase the powers of the Interstate 1 Commerce commission. It provides that when the commission shall find that rates charged by any common carrier are un- reasonable it shall have power to cancel such rates and establish reasonable rates, which shall not be stayed, suspended, modified or annulled otherwise than by the commission in the establishment or | & new rate or rates or by final de- cree of a United States court of com potent jurisdiction for manifest violation or error of law.
 Senator Elkins had another conference with the President today, but on coming from the White House he would not say that there was any hope of action on a railroad bill in the near future.