Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-17
RATE BILL IN SENATE |
Members Likely to Take Plenty
of Time in Discussion.
SPEECHES FOR EFFECT
Compilation of Bills Relating to Rail-
road Regulation.
MANY NEVER SAW THE LIGHT
Subject of Suffrage for the District Of
Columbia-Citizens Prefer to
EBear the Ills We Have" Etc.
dANY NEVER SAW THE LIGHT


The debate in the House of Representa-
tives on the railroad rate BILL onesded as
1t was. presages an earnest and interesting
discussion IN the Senate. In the House
the result was a foregone conclusion and
to some extent 1t seems that there will be
a similar result in the Senate. but it will
not be reached without opposition and un-
til every feature of the bill and it's effect
upon the country is thoroughly discussed.
Although there was no stinting of time
and debate was closed by unanimous con-
sent of the members of the House, as II
will finally be in the Senate, yet the time
III the House was controlled and parceled
out in hours, half and quarter hours by
the men in charge of the bin. In the Senate
men will speak when they are ready. They
will take such time as they desire, and the
discussion will become general at any time
that senators for or against any proposition
desire to enter the debate. For instance,
the constitutional questions involved will
be literally ''threshed out" Every phase of
the smallest point will be considered, not
In long set speeches out in query and
answer, in quotation from authorities and
In running debate" in which the best
legal talent of the Senate will participate.
Besides these constitutional questions
be brought forward the pros and cons of
the main contention, the granting of power
10 the commission to fix rate, maximum,
reasonable or any other kind In the dis
Cussion no doubt much of the interesting
testimony taken by the Senate committee
on interstate commerce will be brought
forward, and in this way the whole railroad
problem will come into view. That is the
outlook now. And yet many predictions
fail. Sometimes the Senate is very I'M
mindful of shrewd guesses as to what II
VIII do, and the unexpected might happen
and a rate bill be speedily rushed through.
But the outlook is for "long talk"
For Political Effect.
Two speeches made in the House of Rep
resentat ives during the debate on the rail-
road rate bill, 1t is n fair inferencesto say,
were intended to make United States sena-
tors. They were made by men who are
candidates for the Senate, and as the
speeches are to be circulated largely in the
states where the members live, no doubt
they will go a long way toward helping
along the campaigns of the men who made
them. Philip Pitt Campbell of Kansas
made a very strong argument against
trusts, and more especially did he lam
basic" the Standard Oil Company, which
is far from popular in Kansas. Campbell,
with four other members OF the House from
Kansas, is seeking the seat to be vacated
by Senator Burton. Campbell is one of the
younger members OF the delegation and is
serving his second term in Congress He is
ambitious and full of confidence and evil
IDENTIFY is going in to win a. senatorial toga
II possible. Eben Viewer Martin of South
Dakota is the other man who is suspected
Of having made a speech for a senatorial
campaign in his attack upon the trusts
Martin hopes 10 defeat Senator Gamble, who
is no slow man when it comes to making
a political campaign. Martin S pet theme
Is the beef trust. and he is as well informed
regarding the ''iniqult of that monster as
a m IN GfaF 4 arl Nov
tin made speech on the beef trust in the
last Congress which created a great deal of
talk at the time. Whether or not these
men shall go TO the Senate they have GER
tainly established themselves as trust
busters Of the first magnitude.
Bills on Rate Regulation.
The Senate committee on interstate COM
merce has made an interesting compilation
of all the bills that have ever been intro
duced in Congress affecting the control and
regulation of railroads. Enough measures
have been proposed to have swamped all
the railroads in the world IL they had been
enacted into laws. Some rather interesting
facts are found in this record, which Is
more of a graveyard than anything else,
for not more than one in a hundred of these
various cure air measures ever saw the
light of day. Some never got any further
than reference to q committee. A few were
reported back and discussed. Some passed
Il
number became laws.
In January, 1862, Ben Wade, senator from
Ohio introduced a bill, which passed au-
thoriziug the President to take possession
of railroads and telegraph lines in certain
cases. This was a war measure. A reso-
luton, introduced by w. S. Holman of In
diana, a month later. which explained and
modified the first act also passed.
The first bill ever introduced "to regu-
late commerce between the states"
presented by Charles Sumner In December,
1868 1t was referred to the committee on
commerce, and that was the end OF It.
bill introduced by James A. Garfield In the
House in December 1865, became a law. 1t
provided only ITO facilitate commercial,
postal and military communications among
the several states"
David Davis, then q senator from Illinois,
opened the campaign in January, 1863, with
a resolution requiring the committee on
commerce to inquire into and report on
the expediency of regulating interstate
commerce railways to secure just rates Tor
passengers and freight" This resolution
was agreed to. In the House q similar
move was mad7 two months later, when
William Loughbridge of Iowa had passed
resolution desiring the committee on
judiciary to inquire into the power of Con-
gress to regulate rates charged by railroads
engaged in commerce between the states.
In April, the same year, Godlove 5. Ortiz OF
Indiana introduced and secured the adop-
ton of a resolution directing the commit
tee on railroads and canals to inquire into
every phase of the subject Of regulation and
control Of interstate commerce railroads
including safety of passengers. uniform and
equitable rates and proper connections with
each other The committee made report
In June of that year.
Similar Bills Introduced Each Year.
Bills of this and similar character seem
to have been introduced every year there
after. We find among those presenting
bills of this character John Sherman, Ben
Butler, Roscoe Conkling, William NJ. Stew
art and William Window. Window headed
a select committee on transportation routes
to the seaboard which was composed or
sherman, Conkling, Ames, Lewis, Casserly
and Norwood, which made an exhaustive
report on the subject. In December, 1876
J. c. Cannon of Illinois introduced bill
.sto promote commerce between the states
a tinr, llety.ccrl the