The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-06-03

their bill in the House of ReprS~en>4'
tives. 1t has been three nS7Iths
since the measure was passed by the
senate, but the speaker shows no dis
position to put it through the house
where 1t was thought that no difficulty
whatever would be encountered by 1t.
After being acted on by the senate,
the bill hung fire for a few weeks in
the house committee, but was report
ed to the floor more than two months
ago 1t became apparent at once that
for some reason the speaker was not
friendly to the measure. Under the
methods Of doing business in the
house the bill could have been put
through in fifteen minutes, had the
speaker felt inclined to nod approval.
But he didn't nod.
As a sop to the thousands of per-
sons who kept sending petitions for
the prompt adoption of the bill, the
speaker put 1t on footing with the
appropriation bills, so that it is no'I
in preferred position on the calen-
dar. But there he stopped, and the
most persistent urging by the friends
of pure food have been unable to
move Cannon TO let the bill be acted
on.
The delay, of course, is due to the
efforts of the whiskey interests, the
patent medicine concerns and the
producers of certain food commodities
that will be put out Of business when
a pure food law is enacted. There
will be an eruption on the floor one
Of fhnro hn hill t.
given a chance to be voted down or
passed.
There has been a lot of talk in the
Senate about the remarkable success
of Senator Robert ]. Gamble of South
Dakota in winning his fight for re-
election. If ever the surface indfca-
tons pointed to the overwhelming de-
feat of a candidate for Office it was
in the case of Mr.. Gamble. But by
appealing to the people he won
striking victory over the hostile trust
and corporation interests.
Gamble was marked for defeat b.
the machine" of his state, which is
pretty completely in the hands of the
railroads. His course on the rate
bill did not please the corporations.
But it did please the people of the
state, and in one of the most remark
able campaigns of recent years Gam
BILE routed the trusts and won. 1t
was a plain case of the masses
against the corporations ana the ma
chine. The result has so shocked
Senator Kittredge, the other senator
from South Dakota, who opposed
Gamble, that he has hurried back
home to mend his own fences despite
the fact that he does not come up for
reelection until 1909.
Some persons are SO unkind as to
ridiCule the anti-pass amendment to
the railroad rate bill passed by the
senate. One of these is a man on the
House conference committee to ad-
just the differences with the Senate.
THE anti-pass amendment adopted
by the Senate is fare" said he "a
lot of remarkable exceptions we're
made, covering something like TO-
100000 persons, including large
part of the United States Senate. To
my mind the Senate purposely made
this amendment ridiculous in the
hope that it would fall of its own
weight"
He declared that the anti-pass pro-
vision would be thoroughly overhaul
ed by the conference committee, and
all the jokers and pit falls taken out,
so that the amendment as fully
agreed to would mean something
definite.
The statement that a large part of
the Senate will be exempt from the
prohibition against receiving passes
is correct. The bill says that the no
pass prohibition shall not apply toI
"ex-UnOn soldiers and sailors and ex-
Confederate soldiers" Twenty-Five
Senators, or practically 25 per cent
of the entire Senate. served in the
Civil War. on one side or the other,
and as veterans would not be subject
to the restriction.