Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1906-02-14
mo Maklnr of a Rate nnl.

The Making Of a Rate Bill.
If members Of the House of Rcprosen-
tatives are ordinary human beings, they
must feel immensely disguised over the
situation in which they deliberately placed
themselves by their absurd subservience
to the demands of the administration in
forcing the Hepburn Railroad Rates bill
through the House without even an exami-
nation to determine whether it had been
prepared in a capable and satisfactory
manner Now that the bill is in the SEN
ate, its glaring insufhciencies and inaccu-
raoies are so apparent that even Presi-
dent Roosevelt, it is said, admits its un-
satisfactory character and is willing that
the Senate shall amend il into decent
shape. As a result, those members of the
House Of Representatives who voted for
the bin so inconsiderately, and solely on
the ground that the President insisted on
its enactment as it came before the House,
without the dotting OF an e. or the cross
ing Of e." now learn that they only
made themselves ridiculous in the eyes
Of the country.
Il is now conceded that the bill in its
present shape is practically meaningless.
Even with the most consistent constric-
ton that could be placed upon it, it is
open to the danger of being declared un-
constitutional upon the FIRST appeal In
this respect, therefore, Il is bound to be
amended and viii be further changed by
reason Of the Presidents abandonment
Of his original insistence upon the measure
as il was introduced in the House Of Rep
resentatives and his consent to its proper
amendment, in accordance with the views
of the anti-administration Republicans
of the Senate
In addition to a disinclination 10 accept
a measure which was forced. upon Con-
gress by the administration, even those
Senators who are not opposed to the
policies of the President are opposed to a
Republican Congress becoming respon-
sible for the making Of a law in accord
ance with expressed Democratic policy
For this would be the result Of the
Senate accepting the Hepburn bill as it
came from the House, even with the addi-
tion of amendments designed to clear
II Of doubts as to its constitution
atty. The Democratic national plat
form Of 1904, at the dictation Of Mr.
Bryan, demanded "an enlargement Of the
powers Of the Interstate Commerce Com
mission, 10 the end that the travelling
public and shippers Of this government
may have prompt and adequate relief
from the abuses to which they are sub
iected in the matter of transportation. "
The Republican national platform made
no such demand, and the Democratic
platform was repudiated by the people
by the popular plurality Of 2,545,515 for
Mr.. Roosevelt And yet all but seven
members OF the House Of Representa-
tives, a Republican body, joined in the
blind support Of a measure which en-
bodies to the fullest extent this declara-
tion of the Democratic national platform,
placed there at the instigation Of William
]. Bryan.
Silly enough would have been the posi-
ton of the Republican members Of the
House Of Representatives in thus voting
10 make law Of a Democratic-Po -Populist
campaign declaration, but they made It
even more so by the character of the
measure which they evolved. For it is
hard to find two members among those
who voted for the Hepburn bill who will
agree as TO what il really provides for.
And now, after the defiant declarations
made in the House TO the effect that not
the slightest change will be permitted at
the hands of the Senate, those responsible
for the passage of the bill through the
House arc looking 70 the Senate to correct
the manifest absurdities of the measure
and mold il into proper shape. Even
the President, at first as insistent as any Of
his followers in the House that the bill
should be enacted without the slightest
change is now willing that the Senate
shall make Of the Hepburn bill measure
that may meet the railroad situation il
a practical and businesslixe manner
What spectacles the administration anC
its subservicnt House followers hav,
made Of themselves over this matter
Their achievement is comparable only t
that of the famous King of France who
"with forty thousand men, marched NJ
the hill and then marched down again.