New-York tribune., 1906-05-20
TIE RATE ELL PASSES.

I'M RAJ II BILL doSoASo'
The vote in the Senate on the Railroad Rate
bill-7I to Sis grotesQue commentary on the
dust-raising controversies which have been rag
ing in that body for the last three months. If
unanirnity was so completely attainable. what
was the tumut and the thunder of the captains
all about? 1t may be true as Senator Foraker
said that his negative vote voiced the real oplh
ions Of a certain number of Senators who voted
aye Yet, on the face of the record it is diff
cult to account for the circumlocutlons ana
clashes which so long delayed an agreement.
The Hepburn bill was stranded for weeks III
desdlocsed Senate committee. The RESPONSIBLE
majority in that committee declined to assume
responsibility fos the Horse measure when it
was finally reported without alteration or rec
omlnendation. The responsible majority in the
Senate allowed itself TO he put in the position
of regulating the House draft too radical.
Yet after a wearisOme and confusing three
months debate the Hepburn bill is passed al
most unanimously. not only not weakened in
any particular, but fortified with numerous pro-
visions which the House hesitated TO adopt in
the first instance. on the theory that 1t was not
well to put too many eggs in one basket.
1t may. therefore, be truly said of the Sen
ate's bill that it is broader and more satisfac-
tory piece Of legislation 1t subjects sleeping
car companies and express companies to federal
regulation. 1t makes oil pipe lines common car
rers and puts them under the control of the
Interstate Commerce Commission. II fOrbids
railroads engaged in interstate commerce to ship
products mined or manufactured by them, except
lumber. in competition with other producers. 1t
restores the imprisonment penalty for granting
or accepting rebates and greatly extends the
other penalties against rebating. 1t puts i'm
portant limitations on the court review process,
intended to lessen delays in the decision Of suits
merce Commissions judgments. But it is note
worthy that nearly all these radical changes
were effected incidentally and without much
formal debate. Amendments vastly extending
the scope of the Hepburn bill were quickly
adopted under the fifteen-minute rule, after
general debate had run for weeks on the tech
nicaI and barren issue raised between the broad
reviewers and narrow reviewers
This discussion revealed nothing more clearly
than that the differences involved were largely
academic and immaterial. But it distinctly low
cred the credit of the Senate as a body capable
of discovering the grain Of actuality hid under
the bushel OF legal and constitutional mystii-
cations AS one distinguished constitutional
lawyer, who has not yet recovered from the
shock Of finding his pet constitutional refine
ments challenged by other lawyers, put 1t last
Friday, he had listened to so much bad law in
the last ten weeks that he had almost lost faith
in the efficacy of reason and language. The
Senate generally has suffered not a little from
this decay of self-cOnfdence, and toward the end
of the debate it showed a tendency to bolt at
almost any legal or constitutional shadow.
Senator Tillnan, who was Unexpectedly called
on to assume parliamentary direction of the
Rate BILL discharged successfully a novel and
trying duty. He is entitled to recognition for his
consistent efforts to get las good bill as posi-
ble' In view of the strained personal relations
between the President and himself he is also
entitled to credit for frankly acknowledging the
Presidents dominating share in the effort which
has now practically written a rate law on the
statute book. Said Mr.. Tilmap:
The success of the bill is due to Theodore
Roosevelt. Had il not been for. the Presidents
earnest advocacy Of the bill it would never have
become a law.
This is judgment which no one can dispute.
The Senates vote of Friday was a tribute to
President ROOsevelts political leadership, whose
impressiveness it would be difficult to exagger
ate