Connecticut western news., 1906-02-01
RATE BILL DISCUSSED
Congressman Townsend Opens Debate on Measure Affect
 ing Railroad Charges.
MIDNIGHT RATE" DESCRIBED

Representative Talks on Evils Result
 ing From Special Services-Interstate
 Commerce Commission Considering
 House Resolution Probing PennsyI-
 vania Railroad.
 Washington, Jan. 31.-Opening what promises to be a weeks discussion on the railroad rate bill, MT. Townsend of Michigan addressed the house, touching on and elucidating practically every phase of the railroad rate making prob lem and describing in detail the terms of the Hepburn bill.
 Like the bill of last year which bore MT. Townsend's nanfe, he said the pres ent one was the very least the people would accept, yet the present bill con- fers wider powers and extends over every form of. transportation. How ever, the present bill, he believed, not only came fully within the constitu- tional powers of congress, but was sim ply an expression of the plain duty of congress to the American people.
 In brief, the bill attempts, he said, to place under the supervision of the interstate commerce commission every form of interstate and foreign com merce and all instrumentalities of commerce and transportation.
 The most serious complaints on the part of shippers, he said, have been di- rected against special services, such as private cars, icing, elevator and terminal charges and the like. Mir. Townsend believes the bill affords a complete remedy for all of these evils, as hereafter every such charge must be just and reasonable, and in case it is not the commission has power to make it so. ..r
 The Midnight Rate" Evil
 Tbe evil of the midnight rate" was described and the remedy set forth, re- quiring thirty days notice of change of rate Briefly ''the midnight rate" is d device whereby a large shipper noti- fies road that on certain date large shipment will be made. On that day the published tariff is changed for d day, the shipment made at the lower rate and the tariff immediately raised.
 The main feature of the bill, bearing on the point about which the greatest controversy has ragged and the one which Mr. Townsend believes lies at the foundation of the whole question, is that which gives the commission power upon complaint and after full hearing to substitute a reasonable maximum rate in place of one found to 0e unjust or unreasonable. MT. Town send declared that to require the rail roads to be just and reasonable could not harm any one, while it would bcne- fit all
 The wide publicity of railroad affairs required ill the bill was, in his opinion, d potent factor for good.
 Commission Has Resolution.
 President Roosevelt promptly turned the Gillespie resolution from the house calling for the facts in the case of the alleged Pennsylvania combine over to the interstate commerce commission An early report on the subject Is ex- pected from the commission.
 The resolution, as amended in the house. provided that the information should be furnished only in case it should not be deemed incompatible with the public interests to do so. The fact that the president sent the resolu- ton to the commission immediately upon it's receipt is indicative that he does not so regard it.
 It is understood that the Pennsylvania Railroad company will prepare state ment for the information of the house, showing just what interest it has in the Baltimore and Ohio, the Chesa- peake and Ohio the Norfolk and West ern, the Northern Central and the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washing ton.
 The senate passed about forty bills, many of them of considerable impor- tance. The list included a number of measures for lighthouses, fog signals, revenue cutter vessels and public build ings and also the bill providing for the reorganization of the consular service.
 Senator Beveridge, chairman of the committee on territories, reported fla vorably the joint statehood bill. At the earliest opportunity he will ask for its consideration, and he hopes to have it made the regular order of business as soon as the ship subsidy bill is disposed of. The bill, which has been passed by the house, admits Arizona and New Mexico as one state and Oklahoma and Indian Territory as another
 No Third Term, Says Lodge.
 MT. Roosevelt, according to Senator Lodge has entirely removed himself from the field of candidates for the presidency in 1908 by declaring not only that he is not a candidate, but that under no circumstances will he accept nomination if one is rendered him.
 Mir. Lodge made this assertion in a speech defending the foreign policy of the president as applied to Morocco and Santo Domingo.
 Mir. Lodge defended the course of the president in both instances.
 The treaty under which the United States relinquishes to Cuba all claim or title to the Isle of Pines. which has been pending since Nov. II, 1903, was ordered reported by majority of the senate committee on foreign relations.
 The examination of Poultney Bige- low, who attacked the administration of the Panama canal zone, by the sen- ate committee on the canal, was post poned. It is not thought that he will be punished for his refusal to testify.