Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1906-02-09
BY Associated Press.

Z ioy ASSOC1dteO fTe5S. f. .
WASHINGTON, Feb. S.-Just enough
morning business was allowed, in the
house preceding the vote on the Hep
burn railroad rate bill today to per-
nit delayed members to reach their
seats before the roll call ordered the
night before began.
Three hundred and forty-six mem
bers voted for the bill. Seven, all Re-
publicans, voted against it. Applause
greeted the announcement of the re-
suit by the speaker of the house, which
had given it's undivided attention to
the question of government rate MAX
ing for seven days.
The pension appropriation bill, car
rying 39,000,000 for pensions and ST.
245,000 for pension administration, was
taken up, debated and passed without
amendment. The feature of the BILL
aside from the appropriation made, is
a provision making statute law of the
famous order of the president declar-
ing age conclusive evidence of disabil-
ity.
A number of bills were passed at the
close of the day, including one pro-
viding a penalty of $4,000 and ten years
Imprisonment for the premature rev.
eldIlOIl VI government
which might have bearing on the
market price of commodities, the same
penalty being provided against gov
eminent employees who speculate in
commodities regarding which the gov
ernment furnishes statistics.
Before voting on the railroad rate
bill. the army regulation bill was re"
ported to the house by Mr.. Hull of
Iowa.
Anticipating the roll call upon the
rate bill, there was a large attendance
of members and the galleries were
crowded. Those voting against the bill
were Littlefield, Maine; Mccall ana
Weeks. Massachusetts; Perkins, South
wick and Vreeland, New York, and
Sibley of Pennsylvania.
Mr.. Sullivan of Massachusetts, voted
present" and was not paired. There
were twenty-eight members paired. but
these pairs were generally political
ones. None of them was made on the
bill, and consequently did not indicate
opposition.
Mr.. GARDENERS Remarks
The pension bill was taken up in
committee of the whole, with Mr. Mad
den of Illinois in the chair. General
debate on the bill was limited TO three
hours, and Mr.. Gardiner of Michigan,
in charge of the bill, took the floor.
In presenting the pension appropria-
ton bill to the house today Mr.. Gardi-
ner of Michigan, in charge of the
measure, detailed an interesting array
of information concerning pensions.
Forty years after the civil war; he
said, the pension appropriation is at
its maximum. There are one million
pensioners, all but 53,424 of them from
that war, with an annual roll of $780,
100000. In the 53,424 are represented
veterans OF all other wars he coun-
try ever had.
The civil war cost six billion dollars.
Up to the present time half as much
again has been paid out for pensions
and Mr.. Gardiner predicts that before
the end Of its pension rolls comes the
first cost Of the war will have been
equaled Twenty years from now, he
predicted. the pension rolls Will contain
half a million Names of which 1872, Ala
will be chargeable to the Spanish
American war. AT the present time,
he said, the pension roll costs the gov
ernment just one~fourth of all other
expenses. In 1867, one year after the
civil war; the interest on the public
debt was $143 ,591, and the pension
roll $40 1888 ,551. Now those two items
are practically reversed as to the
amount.
MIR. Gardiner compared this pension
roll OF $139.OOO.OOO to that of France,
(oOntlnued on Page TwoJ