The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-22
AMENDMENT
 TO RATE BILL Announcement Is Made from White House. CLAIMS OF CONSERVATIVES Say That They Have Majority of
 Committee. President Roosevelt wm Not Exert His Influence to Prevent
 Change in Measure as
 Passed By House.
CLAIMS OF CONSERVATIVES

Washington, Feb. 2I.--When the Senate committee on interstate com merce meets Friday to vote on rate bill. the announcement Will pc au- thoratively made that President Roose- welt will not attempt to prevent amend ments to the Hepburn bill. that he VIII leave the committee free to exercise It's best judg ment and if possible com promise It's differences: that tf p1h is reported which does not meet his approval and in that form IS passed by Congress. he will content htmseif to exercise his veto power.
 This announcement will be made aS the result of a conference held at the White House today between the most active persons supporting the house bill without amendment. hut will DO delivered to the committee by seK1a- tor who has supported an amendment providing for judicial review of an or- der of the interstate commerce. coI1- mission.
 The conference at the Write House is one of many taat have been held there for the last week for the dts~ cussion of the railroad rate question. It was attended by Senators Dolli- yer and CIapp, Speaker Cannon. Repre- sentative Hepburn and Attorney Gen. eral Moody.
 They had under consideration an amendment said to have been drafted by Senator Knox and revised by the attorney general The draft in its fe~ vised form. however, is said not to ba satisfactory to It's author. It was of- fered In a spirit Of compromise and the president and attorney general wanted to know whether 1t would be acceptable to the members of Con- gress who are making q fight to pre- vent the adoption of any amendment which they believe would interfere nf they purpose to enact into law
 Briefly stated the amendment aiuna to give to any complainant authority t0 file a petition in a circuit court assert- ing that rate fixed by the commfs- sion was in fact illegal or that an orr der of the commission was in reality unlawful and authorizes the court to hear the suit to decide whether the commission acted within it's authority and whether the constitutional right or the plaintiff had been violated. As they had previously announced they would do. all those called into the | conference made firm stand for the Hepburn bill In its present form. and sad that none of the amendments sug- ! gested seemed to be an Improvement. l They said that if the bill specified the conditions under which complaints could be taken into court the court might re- fuse to take cognizance of matters not specified in the bill.
 They said they preferred to leave open every feature on which an ag- grIeved person might desire to go into court. Attorney General Moody. it ls said. contended that the Hepburn bill Is constitutional and that there is no danger of its being overturned by the | United States Supreme Court. He would not pass upon the wisdom of amending the bill. taking the position that 1t ia 1 a function outside of his official prov- 1 ince.
 After Senators Deliver and Clapp returned to the capitol they told cor. | tain colleagues that they would go in- to the committee on Friday and make 1 firm stand to have the bill reported without amendment. When asked con- corning the attitude of the President | they said they believed he Is satis- fled with the bill as IL stands but that
 1t is too much to say that he is opposed | to any amendment whatever They | said that if anything should be brought | forward which in the opinion of friends
 of the bill would better 1t and not ob- | struct it's operation, the President
 would give it careful study.
 Conservative members assert that l they have the necessary votes to 1 amend the Hepburn bill if they are left free to exercise their individual iudg-
 ment so that they will not be put In position of opposing the PreEident's policy. Under these conditions 1t is
 said that Senators Elkins. Foraker, Crane. Kean. Aldrich. Carmack. Foster and McLaurin will vote for an amend | ment providing for judicial review.
 Seven votes is a mojority of the com- | mittee. Senators Cullom and Carmacls will not be present when the committees | meets Friday but as Senator Cullom is
 opposed to amendment this will not l affect the result
 An informal meeting of the commit
 tee will be held tomorrow, but it ia
 agreed that no important amendments
 will be considered until Friday.