Omaha daily bee., 1905-02-16
SENATE KILLS THE sHRECK BIZ
warmest Debate of the Session IL
PrecipitRted.
(From a stafr Correspondent

(From a Staff Correspondent)
LINCOLN, Feb. 10. - Especially With
! friends and opponents of the Shrek fra
! ternal insurance bill. s. +. 40. constituting
one of the most powerful insurance lob
bles ever assembled in Lincoln. hanging
over the railing which separates the lobby
! from the senate chamber, the senate In the
committee of the whole killed the bill this
afternoon. The debate was the most SEN
sational in which the members OF the
upper house have indulged and 1t began
when shreck in his opening remarks spoke
of the powerful lobby that had tried to
kill his bill and 1t reached its climax when
Bresee of Sheridan, in an impassioned de-
I fense of the measure, pointing toward the
lobby, exclaimed:
"This senate has been beset by the mean
est, most persistent, the most industrious
and the most damnable lobby that ever
tried to influence legislation. In their ef-
forts to defeat this bill they are spending
our own money; money that we have paid
into the orders for our insurance. There
they are; look at them, lined up against
the railing"
Other debaters took their cue from the
Bresee statement and the remainder Of the
morning was illuminated with a most brill
liant display OF conversational fireworks.
The committee had before it three mo-
tions: One by Thomas of Douglas, to In
definitely postpone the bill; Shreck's mo-
tion to engross 1t for third reading, and
one by Good of Nemaha, to make this bill
and the fraternal congress bill special
order for tomorrow. No vote was taken
at the morning session, however, at 1880
the senate taking a recess until 2:3o.
When the committee reached the Shreck
measure Gibson, as chairman of the in
surance committee, announced that the
committee was in favor of indefinitely post
poning the bill but as so much had been
said about It and so much literature had
been sent over the state against and for
the bill, the committee finally decided to
report it for general fle At the
conclusion of this statement from Gibson,
Thomas moved the bill be indefinitely
postponed.
In defense of his measure Shreck ex-
planned the object of his bill. 1t seeks, he
said, to make the governing body Of fra
ternal orders consist of 95 per cent elected
delegates and 8 per cent of the officers
of the order who shall be members of the
governing body by virtue Of their offices.
There is nothing in the bill, heotsaid, to
prevent grand officers from being elected
delegates from local lodges and thhs being
a part of the 95 per cent of elected dele
gates.
There is opposition to this bill," he said,
I'VE see it everywhere. But where does IT
come from? We have received numerous
resolutions signed by lodge officers protest
ing against this bill. Where did these reso-
lutions come from? They were prepared
and sent out by the officers of grand lodges
by members of the fraternal congress. That
is where the opposition comes from" The
senator exhibited a number of resolu-
tions which had been sent him from his
home county. A number of lodges, he
said, that had previously resolved against
the bill had changed their resolutions when
they understood the matter and had since
voted to favor the measure
At the conclusion of his talk Senator
shreck was subjected to running fire of
questions from Gibson and Meserve, wind
ing up with Meserve asking If the present
insurance laws protected the members of
fraternal organizations.
YES" answered Shreck
"Then." asked Meserve, why change the
law? Is there any crying demand for
revision of the fraternal laws?"
Shreck's answer was that he wanted to
help the members. .t
Gibson in speaking against the bill told
that he belonged to four orders and that
for a year or more he had the finance Off
Ger of one of these lodges in his office, II
found out" he said that these officers
must be men OF brains and that they are
honorable men. They are not usurping any
of the powers of the members"
Epperson OF Clay in stating his reason for
being in favor of the bill said he had been
trying for long time to find out who
constituted the fraternal congress and at
l., H. h,a 10 fhn oil inWA hot
was a lot of officers Of grand lodges who
wanted to keep their offices and vote them
selves salaries. He denounced the methods
of the lobby, which, he said, had sent out
stereotyped resolutions, which lodges with
out investigation had adopted, denouncing
the Shreck bill.
IF the grand lodge officer is a man of
brains as stated by Gibson" said Epper-
son, "he need not fight this bill. He does
not need an appointive ONCE; he can be
elected IL he is the right kind of man."
1t was after Epperson's talk that Bresee
made his sensational statement regarding
the "damnable" lobby He made a telling
speech for the biik
Jackson of Gage. the introducer of the
fraternal congress BILL in speaking against
the Shreck measure, was just as animated
as was Bresee. He denied emphatically
bAoh hhS AtalSAiAal NOhbiSoo was SpclluiiB
money belonging to the members or that
had been paid in by the members in Tight
ing the Shreck bill.
II want to say something regarding the
lobby that has been working against my
bill and for the shreck bill. 1 want to call
names and point out the men to you.
There stands one OF them now, leaning over
the railing; that man Whyman. He is
fighting the fraternal congress bill. He APP
preached me and wanted me to introduce
the Shrek bill. He represented to me that
he wanted to kick up a fght between the
fraternal companies"
who does he work for3" interrupted
Gibson.
II heard he worked for an old line in
surance company" replied Jackson.
You have heard much on this floor
about the use OF money and underhanded
methods Who are the men who are work.
ing in the interest OF this fraternal con-
gress bill? All honorable gentlemen. Com
pare them with some who are working for
the shreck bill Look at E. ]. IIainer.
Does any man dare say he is not an honest
gentleman? / would be proud TO vote for
him for United States senator. / am proud
he lives In my state. There are A. L. Tai
bot and ]. C, Root OF omaha-they are
| both here, Both Of them are above re-
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