The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1906-05-18
HEPBURN BILL BASIS
FOR RATE MEASURE
PRESIDENTS LETTER TO SENA-
TOR ALLISON INDICATES TILL
MAN misunderstood.
HIS POSITION is UNCHANGED
Executive Still Maintains Amend
ments Should Conform to Principle
Advocated by Representative from
the State of Iowa.

L
cident in the senate Saturday was is
sued by the White House Monday eve
ming.
| Following is the correspondence in
part. The presidents letter:
my Dear Senator Allison: AS Sen
ator Tillman brought in your name in
connection with mine in the statement
he made concerning our relations to
the rate bill last Saturday, it is per-
haps due to you that / should write
you on the matter. After the rate bill
was reported from the committee, and
| after by a vote of the committee Mr..
Tillman had been put in charge OF it,
many senators and many outsiders
| came to see me with reference to it.
Among others | was asked to see ex-
| Senator Chandler as representing Mr..
| Tillman, who was in charge of the bill.
| / stated in response that | was, OF
course, entirely willing to see Mr.. Till
man personally or to see Mr.. Chand-
| Ter, or anyone else who could speak
for him, and | accordingly directed my
secretary to make an appointment for
Mr.. Chandler to see me. My under
| standing was that he was the repre-
sentative of Mr.. Tillman. In this first
interview he stated to me the views of
Mr.. Tillman, with seeming authority.
| He called on me several times Dur
| ing the same period | saw other gen.
| tlemen, who protested to give the
views of other senators. In addition l
saw numerous senators, both Republi-
cans and Democrats, some of them
| once or twice, some of them many
times. l also saw numerous outsiders,
| railroad men, shippers, newspaper men
| and students of traffic regulation, in
Guiding especially the attorney general
and the members of the interstate COM
| merce commission, and on two Occas-
| ions | saw groups of newspaper men
in a mass. To all of these, senators,
representatives of senator's, and out
siders alike, / made the same state
ments; those that / made to Mr..
Chandler being the same in substance
that l made to you and to those of
your colleagues of both political par
ties with whom l had any extended
conferences on the subject. The letter
| of the attorney general, which l en-
close, shows fully the facts as to the
conferences which, at my instance, he
held with Senators Tillman and Bail
ley. Those conferences were precisely
such as, at my instance, he held with
many other senators to determine the
phraseology and discuss the effect Of
amendments proposed by them.
Hepburn Bill Covers All.
Hepburn bill was in it's essence entire
| ly satisfactory to me. The Hepburn
bill as it passed the house simply rec
| ognized the right of review by the
courts-that is, the jurisdiction of the
courts-but did not attempt to define
the limits of their own jurisdiction.
| This was in accordance with the ideas
of the attorney general, his belief be-
| ing that thereby we avoided all danger
of the bill being declared unconstitu-
| tional because of the attempt to con-
| lCl CllHCl iOo vi wv ilIIlC Jul
diction on the courts.
81 also repeatedly stated that while
it was entirely satisfactory to me SIM
| ply to leave the Hepburn bill in sub
stance as it was, that is with the rec
| ognition of the jurisdiction of the
courts, but without any attempt to de-
fine that jurisdiction, yet that l was
entirely willing that there should be 4
| definition, provided that this definition
did not seek to grant broad review.
| but explicitly narrowed it to the two
| subjects which, as matter OF fact,
believed that the courts would alone
consider in case there was no attempt
| to define the limits of their review
| that is, would limit it to the question
| as to whether the commission had act
ed ultar wires and as to whether any
| mans constitutional rights had been
impaired. l stated that if the question
of defining or limiting the review was
brought up at all personally felt that
this was the way in which it should
| be limited or defined.
Not Pledged to Amendments.
"At different times at least a score
of tentative amendments were either
prepared by the attorney general at
the request of senators or submitted to
me by senators. AS to many of those
amendments (including among others
the substance of the so-called Long,
Overman, Bacon and Spooner amend
ments) l stated that l should be en-
tirely satisfied to have them in the
bill; as to others, I suggested modifi-
cations which would make them salts
factory; as to none did | ever say
either to Mr. Chandler or to anyone
else, that l should insist upon having
them in the bill as condition of my
approving it. On the contrary, l was
always most careful to state that j
was not trying to dictate any partic-
ular programme of action. In no case
either in the case of Mr.. Chandler or
in the case of anyone else, was there
the slightest opportunity for any hon
est misconception of my attitude or
any belief that l had pledged myself
specifically to one and only one amend