Omaha daily bee., 1906-05-15


The letter OF the attorney general. which
| enclose. shows fully the facts as to the
conferences, which at my instance he held
with Senators Tillman and Bailey. Those
conferences were precisely such as at my
instance he held with many other senators
TO determine the phraseoogy and discuss
the effect Of amendments proposed by
them. To all whom saw | stated that the
Hepburn bill was in It's essence entirely
satisfactory 20 me. The Hepburn bill as II
passed the house, simply recognized the
right OF review by the courts-that Is, the
jurisdiction Of the courts-but did not at
tempt TO define It, thus leaving the courts
TO prescribe the limits of their own juris-
dlctlon. This was in accordance with the
IDEAS Of the attorney general, his belief
Of the bill being declared unconstitutional
because Of an attempt to confer too much
| also repeatedly stated that, while 1t was
entirely satisfactory to me simply to leave
the Hepburn bill in substance as It was
that is with the recognition of the juris-
diction Of the courts. but without any at
tempt TO define that jurisdiction-yet that
] was entirely willing that there should be
did not seek to grant broad review but
explicitly narrowed II to the two subjects,
which as a matter of fact | believed that
the courts alone would consider in case
there was no attempt to define the limits
OF their review, that is. would limit it to
tho question as to whether the commits
sion hdd acted ultra wires and as to
whether any mans right had been i'm
paired. / stated that ~ the question of
UP at all l personally fen that this was
H.e wa IN which 1t! should be limited OF
Tentative Amendments Discussed.
At. different times, at-lsast a score of
= tentative amendments were either pre-
pared by the attorney general az the re-
guest or senator's or submitted to me by
senator's As TO many OF those amerd
nents tincluding among others the sub
stance Of the .so-called Long, Overman,
BACON and Spooner amendments), 1 stated
that should he pufirnlV SafigHad n
them in the bill; TO others, 1 sug-
Eested notifications which would make
them satisfactory; to nose did / ever say,
either 20 Mr.. Chadler or any one else, that
| should insist upon having them in tho
blu as condition of my approving IL.
On the contrary | was always most care
full to state that l was not trying TO
dictate any particular program OF action.
Il. no, case, either in the case of Mr..
was there the slightest opportunity Cor
any honest mlsconoeptioq of my attitude
self specifically to one and only one
amendment or set Of amendments, or that
l would not be satisfied with any amend
rissre Of the Hepburn bill as It came from
Z the house You will doubtless recall
that in the course OF the several visits
cussed number Of these proposed amend
ments, trying to hnd out for which ono
OF assent to secure Its passage and the
passage of the rate bill.
Allison Asked TO Negotiate.
To almost every amendment proposed by
anyone found that there were other eX-
cellent men who objected, or who at least
wished to change it, and FINELY became
convinced that 1t waa impossible for sen
ators with advantage, 10 use me the
Intermediary In coming to an agreement
with their colleagues, especially when they
only communicated with me through an
other intermediary, and | earnestly sug-
gested to all TO whom i spoke that they
should communicate with you, whose pur-
poses ard mine were Identical. About this
time ! was informed by various demo
cratic senator's that they COULD not come
to an agreement on any amendment and
that The best chance for success lay in
passing the Hepburn bill substantially un,
changed l was informed, and believed