The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-31
Interest Shown in the
 Debate,
MR. ADAMsoN MAKES SPEECH
Sharp in His Criticism of the
 Republicans.
He Declares That in the Pending Meas ure the Majority Party Has Adopt
 ed the Ideas of the Demo- : cfats.

Washington, Jan. 30.--Members of the House evinced a more general in- terest in the discussion of the rate bill throughout today than on any topic of Legislation for some time. The debate throughout. was listened to at tentively and many questions were asked of! the, different speakers to bring out either obscure points in the meas ure. -or evils complained of. which no attempt had been made to include in the bill. The debate was opened by Mir. Townsend. fo Michigan. in an exhaust i've argument on the general subject. and sharp criticism directed to those who had opposed rate legislation.
 Mr Adamson, of Georgia. represent ing the minority followed in comenda- tion of the measure. and in praise Of President Roosevelts position on the question. which he said the minority were availing themselves of in the present instance. Mr. Hinshaw, of Me- braska. desicted the ben eft the Iegis. lation would do the great trans Missouri country, Sand Richardson, (AIs.,) dis cnssed as a Democrat. the things done apd left undone on the measure.
 MT. Townsend asserted that railroads had consistently and persistentiy op. posed every device for the safety of the public and its ernployes, and also that they had maintained rich and powerful Hobbies opposing rate leglslation. He was freduent1y applauded and warmly congratulated.
 Mfr. Adamson Rfa.1. who is in control of the time of the debate on the Deru- orratie side. followed Mir Townsend Ho said he had never seen any reason to maker commerce a subject of par tisanship, yet such had been the case throughout the history of the govern ment The present bill he cited, as an fTsN However. Democrats had Iahored since the courts revealed the weakness of the Interstate Commerce law to amend It's defects. Pursuing the Democratic rec ord further he quoted it's declaration In its platform of 1900--''when' the Re- puhlirar nlatform was silent" he siis- gssted--"In favor of enlarged powers for the Interstate Commerce confnis- 4 sion.@ This wssx fepeafed ln f904'
 HrnRgadocio ppd Hyuoertsy.
 The Republlcan declaration at thfs tirie.". he said. fpersisted in it's tradj. tional character for baseless bragga- docio and hypocritieal deception of the people. while trucking to their corpor- ate campaign. contributors by eatoling them with the comforting declaration that laws enacted by Republicans which Democrats failed to enforce, have been fearlessly enforced by the Repub- iican party and new laws enacted in. surfing publicity and additional reme- dies for discrimination in freight rates.'"
 If that meant anything" continued Mir Adanson, 'it was unquestionably Intended to assure the operations that the work of, regulating them had been complete and they need not ap- prehend any further Legislation and It was no doubt so understood by the aornorations."
 Explaining the result of the election on that platform, MT. Adamson said:
 "Between the millions who stayed away from the polls because Cleveland's crowd procured the nomination of Par ker and the hundreds of .housands who remained at home because Bryan sup ported the ticket after the nomination, 400O.000 people made the mistake of failing to vote on election day, thereby falling to ratify our platform declara- tions and elect our candidate.
 But" continued MT Adamson, If the result was claimed by anybody as a victory against railroad regulation. the President elect undoubtedly the abIest as well as the most honest and fearless Republican President we ever had. nromptly disahused their minds by taking a position perhaps as ad- vanced in favor of our platform dec- laration on the subject as our own candidate could have done had he been  demanding substantially the very leg islation asked for In our two platforms and emphatically denying the hypocrit- ical declaration that enough had been done,
 some Good Republicans.
 we would have been idiots and traitors had we declined his powerful aid," then declared MT. Adamson. Hr said he wished to acknowledge that there were some really good Republi cans despite the vicious doctrines of their abominable party"
 This opinion, he added. was created because of the Republican support of the Presidents rate ideas.
 "As for the Democrats" continued MT. Adamson, they began to feel hap
 Chairman Hepburn" he said. took such advanced ground and introduced such a splendid bill that it was hail sd hy us with delight We offerei the Davey bill, suggesting few more good things. most of which the majority promptly accepted and gracefully ap- proved
 hill was a conservative one and not in- tended to injure the railroads. He hoped the bill would pass just as is had oome from the committee.
 MT Gaines CTenn.) suggested that 1T a carrier simply reduced by fraction . rate fixed by the Commission, the language of the bill was such that no matter how conditions might change tbe Commission would not have power to change that rate. Many friends of the bill were anxious 10 disabuse the mind of MT. Gaines,
 As n minority member of the inter- atate and foreign commerce comms aion. Mir Richardson, (Ala.) said that while there was distinct difference between the position of the majority and minority of the commission, the unanimous report on the bill was a distinct demonstrations of patriotism. Je considered the rate making author ity given the commission by section four of the bill the important portion oS inc question and the language used S~r te.
 lmar (Fla,), a member of the
 ,e in the last congress, asked
 ucstlons indicating criticism
 ity members for not bringing
 nority report which would
 some of the hard problems.