Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-02-08
House Passes Rate Meas
ure With a
Rush.
In SENATE'S HANDS
TilIman Urges Senate to Take
Up Railway Merger In
vestigati0n.

Washington, Feb. 8.-The house t
day passed the Hepburn railroad rat
bill by vote of 346 to 7. Those Votin
against the bill were: Littlefield, Mt
Call, Perkins, SibIey, Southwick, Vre'
land, and Weeks.
RECEIVED WITH APPLAUSE.
The passage of the bill was receive
with ripple of applause. Then per
sion appropriation bill was taken up il
committee of the whole. General de
bate on the bill was limited to thre
hours. Gardner (Mich.) in charge o
the bill, took the floor.
TIIImnn Makes Speech.
Washington, Feb. S.-Tillman open
ed the senate proceedings by a speech
in which he advocated an official in
vestigation as to whether the Pennsyl
yan.a railroad controlled the Balti
more * Ohio, Norfolk & Western, anC
Chesapeake & Ohio roads.
Increases Appropriation.
Hale from the committee on appro
priations reported the urgent defici
ency appropriation bill. 1t was amend
ed SD it now carries s17,5S5,9 al
increase of S1.1S1.612 over the amount
appropriated by the house. The rail
road bill was received from the housf
and referred TO the committee on in
terstate commerce.
The bill placing telegraph operators
of the civil war on a pensionable sta
tus was passed.
LaFOIIette Heard From.
Washington. Feb. S.-SenatOr La
Toilette today introduced a bill prohi-
biting federal officials from asking or
accepting railroad or other passes and
prohibiting railroads from granting
them. II imposes n penn''-- - lola
tions of the law
In Session TIL ID. IN.
Washington. ID. c., Feb. S.-By con
tinuing its session practically TO
O'Clock. the house concluded all the
preliminary steps TO the passage OF
the railroad rate bill. ordered roll call
on the measure. and put off the final
action until today.
The time for the amendments came
at o'clock and for the three hours fol
lowing, one amendment after another
came up and was read. debated in some
instances, and went down 20 defeat.
So fierce was the struggle to amend
that often when a paragraph OF the
bill was concluded in the reading. n
dozen members waivsd their amend
lnents and shouted for recognition.
No Amendment Adopted.
Not one of these was adopted. They
contained all manner of propositions
such as regulating prefereutials, long
and short hauls, free passes, court pro-
cedure. whole rate bills, and parts of
bills. All went "by the board"
Previous TO this were exciting pro-
ceedings and the house had been en-
tertained for five hours by the oratory
of its best speaker. Bourke Cochran
of New York. He gave his approval
to the measures in an elaborate speech.
Mann of Illinois. followed, when the
minority leader, John Sharp Williams.
expounded the measure and congratu-
lated everybody on its success. Hep
burn closed the debate in a compre-
hensive speech. dealing with the argu-
ments of it's opponents and the terms
of the bill.
Throughout the day the attendance
of members was large and the galleries
were crowded.
DiscipIines Patterson.
Washington. Feb. S.-Yesterday for
the first time in many years, the SEN
ate chamber was made the scene of an
effort to administer party discipline 10
a member of that body. and the occur
renee was one OF so many dramatic
details that the many witnesses will
not soon forget it.
Senator Patterson was the subject
of the effort and Senator Bailey, to
whom. in the absence OF German, the
democratic leadership is conceded. was
the instrument of his party in the Incl
dent. The proceeding arose in connec
tion with the consideration of Patter
sons resolution of remonstrance
against the caucus action on the treat
les with foreign nations.
Hnd Agreed on TwO-Thirds Rule.
Bailey charged the senator rom Colo
rado with having been party to the
adoption in a previous caeS OF q
rule binding the democratic sRhxprs
to the two-thirds rule. This Charge
and Patterson's response to it consti
tuted a most dramatic incident. and
the feeling throughout the senate cham