The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-24
THE RATE BILL
LEFT BITTERNESS AND RANTGLING
 IN THE SENATE.
Best of Friends Scarcely Speak as They Go by---Bailey and Tfilman Bore on the Honors--RepubIicans splif--DemOcrats Di-
 vided.

Washington Special to New York The passage of the rate bill in the Senate on Friday ended what Is agreed to have been the greatest debate Known greater display of skill, learning and ability is recalled by the habitual stu dents of legislation who in the capital
 Neither has any legislation called for greater exercise of political prow- ess. The bill has been as ably com tested by the wire-pullers as 1t has been by the dabters.
 In no debate in recent years has the personal feature figured so largely.
 The intensity of the struggle person fled the various issues In various sonalities have been steadily growing larger, till all other personalities in the Senate have been pale and mean
 ingless beside them. The most nota- man, Spooner, Aldrich, Knox Foraker. Allison. LaFoilette. Long. Dolliver, and. of course. the President himself.
 In focusing the eyes of the coun- try on the intellectually of the Sen ate and putting an end. at least for
 the time, to the senile talk about that body's decay" since the days Of Sum
 ner, the rate bill, in the opinion of observers here, has accomplished some thing not set down on the cards. some thing possibly of permanent value to
 
 is gone the general verdict is that nearly everybody in the front of the fight has paid heavy price for 1t In the decrease of his own reputation, that only two men have come out of wouldn't wear a swallowtail coat. An other misconception is gone forever. Growth of TiIiman and Bailey., Before the rate bill came up Ttll-
 man. to the cyuntry, was a swash- buckling demagogue. He was not that
 to Washington: here hls great abliity
 were as we'll known as his definite purpose to serve his country well
 Now the old Tillman. the imaginary
 Tillman, is gone forever. and the real Tillman has taken his place.
 For years the newspaper correspon-
 dents had been vainly trying to ham, mer home the real Bsiley-Bailey the ] statesman-and had found 1t next to conception of the freak Bailey who wouldn't wear swallowtail Another
 misconception is gone forever: V.,,.v of Aldrich loomed up in this contro- versy that 1t is difficult now to realize
 that short time ago he was only 2 Six months ago it is safe to say that hls face, now so well known through portraits and cartoons, was hardly
 known to such readers A year ago ago ate galleries, Washingtonians were
 exasperated to have their explanations met with, What IS ms name, dld you
 sayP Aldrich? Where is he from? Oh is Senator Depew here?"
 Aldrich may be regarded as an ex- ception to the statement that only Bailey and Tillman have come through the ordeal with increased reputation but the kind of reputation Aldrich has won is kind that man pays dearly for Whether 1t Is just or unjust, Ald' rich is now fixed indelibly in the minds of a majority of his countrymen as the representative of certain interests that that majority would like to sec curbed. That is one picture which this
 debate has added to the portrait gal lery of the nation; and 1t is question able whether Aldrich regards the uni versal admiration for his genius as q
 politician, a snatcher of victory out of defeat, as balancing the account.
 spOoner Found to be Vulnerable.
 The great speeches of Knox, Spooner and Foraker won instant admiration and high tribute; yet nothing fol which any of. them contended has been enacted into law: their recommenda- tions were disregarded
 1t has been a bad winter for Spooner
 His fame as a lawyer and statesman was already so great that he. did not need the admiration for his speech tc complete 1t; and to pay fol that, bott he and Knox had to suffer their com
 plete rout and total eclipse in tho
 speech of Bailey. That is something that never happened Ito them before. spooner went so long unchallenged and