The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-08
SHARP SPLIT
 IS APPARENT New Feature of Rate ? Bill Fight. VIEWS OF BAILEY AND CLAPP Differ as to Suspension of Orders
 of Commission. Tiiiman Declares That It May Be Ne- cessary To Re-orBanize Courts
 In order To Carry Out
 The Measure.
OF BAILEY AND cLAPP

Washington, March 7.--That there ia
 a still sharp. difference of opinion be-
 tween the supposed friends of the Dol- | liver-Hepburn railroad rate bill was
 made decidedly manifest today in the | Senate chamber. The division is over | the question whether 8 rate made by | the interstate commerce commission
 shall be suspended by the courts pend- | ing final adjudication and was brought
 to the surface in a brief debate which
 followed set speech by Mir. Clanp In | support of the biIl. I'm reply to a ques-
 tion by Mir. Tlllman. MT. Clapp ex~ pressed uoubt as to tho power to legtB~
 late so as to enforce penalties pro- posed by the bill pending review of
 any given finding by the courts. MT. Tillman and Mir. Bailey took sharp issue with this statement. Tho 1 former expressed the opinion that the
 issue is 8 vital one and declared that | if an order is not to be maintained
 until a final judicial settlement in a
 case Is reached, 1t will be necessary
 to reform the courts. Mir. Bailey also contended that Congress can so legis- late as to maintain t.ie commfasiuu'M ] rate until the final order of the court 1 Is issued and to prevent interlocutory | orders suspending such rates. Two Speeches on BAH. During the day there were two seepches on the rate bill tho one by Mir. Clapp in support of 1t and another by Mir. Scott practically in opposition.
 The remainder of the day was devoted to the statehood bill and Messrs. Per- kins and Spooner spoke in opposition to that bill as 1t stands.
 The issue involved in the controver- sies over the pending railroad rate hiil were squarely presented to ths Senate in the speech of Senator Clapp. one of
 the Republicans supporting the neas@
 ure without amendment, and by result-
 ant remarks from Senators Bailey and Tiilman. who are supposed to repre- sent the views Of the Democrats. The discussion of the speeches later by Senators on both sides of the cham~ Der developed q new phase of the stt-
 uation. Senators Aldrich, Forelzers Crane and other Republicans who s.e seeking to amend this bill so as % provide for judicial review of orders
 of the interstate commerce commis- l sion took the position fthat the discuss 1 sion of the subject demon 4trated that
 the friends of the measure are divided and that the bill should not be accept- 1 ed in the present form.
 They said they were encouraged in | the position they had taken from tho first and declared that when the bill is brought to vote they will have supporters enough to adopt a court re- view feature.
 After the termination of the debate, both Senators Bailey and Tillmman an- nounced their decision 70 hold out for
 an amendment intended not to inter- fere with the operation Of the rate mak- ing powers which the bill purposes to
 confer on the commission which would save to railroads all the rights to their
 day in court. which they possess under
 existing statutes.
 Bailey Has Amendment. It Is known that Senator Bailey has
 prepared an amendment which will be
 offered by some member of the Com-
 mittee on Interstate Commerce. This
 is taken to mean that he will submit his ideas to some of hls party col- mittee. and that some of them will of
 fer 1t in an effort to have 1t made a
 committee amendment.
 Friends of the court review feature
 have again determined to await the
 decision of the Democrats before of-
 fering an amendment themselves.
 Those Republicans, including all of
 the members of the Interstate Com
 merce Committee. who voted against
 reporting the Hepburn bill, declare that their position has been entirely con- sistent in that they do not care any l thing for the phraseology so long as their purpose Is accomplished. Opponents of the court review fea- ture have had prepared an amendment which has not yet been submitted and possibly may never be. It provides for a limited review and It's supporters declare it represents the extreme limits of any concessions the President would
 make to the faction seeking to amend the bill.
 In any event, 1t is believed that an agreement or decision to disagree Is
 nearer than 1t has been at Iny time since the bill was reported.