Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-05-22
R0 W IN THE SENATE.
TRIANGULAR QUESTION OF We
RAclTY STlRS BODY.
Senator's TilIman and Bailey AsSail
Executive and Criticiso Rate Bill
PoIicy-President Telephones De-

1 hAAl-tAtcENtHFu issues statement
Washington correspondence:
Documentary charges by Senator
Tillman that President Roosevelt had
betrayed the Democratic friends of eff
fective rate legislation by surrender tc
railroad influence and statement
from President Roosevelt branding as a
deliberate falsehood a portion of these
charges-a statement telephoned from
the White House TO b. read on the floor
of the Senate before adjournment
brought the sensations of the present
session of Congress to a climax Satur-
day afternoon.
Previous to this the Senate had been
deeply stirred by speech by Senator
| Bailey in which the President was de
clared TO have changed front on rail
road and tariff legislation and bowed
10 the leaders of the Republican party
and the railroads. a man of clay
Senator Bailey exclaimed.
Mr.. Tillman asserted that the Presi-
dent had entered into an agreement
with the Democrats on the terms of
the rate bill, through which their TWEEN
ty-six votes were to be added to the
twenty-five votes the Republican
friends of the measure could muster,
thus insuring its passage. Then he in
timated that the Republicans. seeing
the political effect of such combina-
ton, had hurriedly settled their differ
ences and, with the Presidents con-
sent, agreed to the Allison compromise,
making the railroad issue strictly Re-
publican.
As result of the days developments
President Roosevelt, Senator Tillman,
who is in charge of the Hepburn bill
in the upper branch of Congress, and
former Senator William E. Chandler Of
New Hampshire, now chairman of the
Spanish claims commission, became in
volved in a triangular question of yer
acity arising under unprecedented cir
cumstances. Senator Lodge, as the
friend of the President. brought the sit
uation to a head by getting into tele-
phonic communication with the execu-
tive, who passed the lie back in time
to catch the Senate still embroiled in
one of the bitterest political and fac
tional controversies of years. Senator
Bailey and Attorney General Moody
were only a little less Spectacularly
concerned in the affair, which promises
to echo through the coming congress
sional and national campaigns.
President Issues Statement.
In letter addressed to Senator Al
lison and made public at the White
House Monday President Roosevelt re-
lates in detail his version of the rate
bill fight to date. lie asserts that in
his negotiations with the Democratic
leaders he did not commit himself to
any amendment, but kept himself free
to take up the best plan offered. The
statement ignores absolutely the ques-
ton of veracity raised in connection
with former Senaor, Chambers recital
of an interview with the President, III
which it was declared that the latter
had referred to Senators Knox, Spooner
and Foraker as persons who We're seek
ing to injure or defeat rate legislation
by ingeniJ us arguments.
In spite of the statement of Mr.
Chandler given out reiterating the dec
laration presented to the Senate by Mr..
Tillman last Saturday, the President
seems satisfied, for the present at least,
to rest his case before the country on
his original emphatic denial.
Accompanying the communication to
NJ. Allison is a copy of a letter from
Attorney General Moody to the Presi-
dent containing the formers report to
his chief on the conferences with Sena-
tors Bailey and Tillman regarding
court review. The Attorney General,
who it is understood was summoned
hurriedly back to Washington from a
pleasure trip on account of the recent
sensations, declares there was nothing
in the conversations between the Sena-
tors and himself which bound the
President to any particular amend
ment, or in the slightest degree impair
ed his liberty at any time to acquiesce
in any amendment which he should
deem expedient and in the public in
terest.
The whole of the Presidents state
ment was devoted to a simple outline
of his position throughout the struggle
to secure an effective rate regulation
measure, with a reiteration of his rea-
sons for finally accepting the Allison
compromise.
Great crowds thrOnged the Senate
galleries when the session began and
waited in sweltering atmosphere until
adjournment in anticipation of re-
newal of Saturdays exciting scenes. it |
was plain from the actions Of the Sen
ators on both sides of the chamber |
that interest in the matter that has
stirred Washington to its depths was |
intense on the floor, but there wasn't |
a single note of the kind looked for |
rising above the discussion of amend |
ments as the Hepburn ~ was con- |
sidered by sections.