The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-20

exceedingly fflenuy TO the PRESIDENT,
exuberantly proclaimed it as an ahject
surrender. It was hardly a correct
Characterization. The fact that a bill
has been submitted TO a House con-
ference by no means assures that it viii
be enacted into law. The fact is quite
as likely to signify that the Speaker
has set a trap, into which the Presi-
dent and his Republican friends of the
House are cheerfuIIy walking. In the
first place the compromise currency
bill is favored quite as much by the
Speaker and his lieutenaRts as it is
by the President and there is no sur
render whatever in placing that be-
fore the conference. The leaders have
been working for weeks with members.
educating them TO the significance of
the currency leislation-a subject on
which most members are woefully
ignOrant-and just as certainly as these
leaders can feel certain of a Republican
majority for that bill it will be brought
in and passed. The effort in the con-
ference will be toward getting such a
majority. The Presidents friends and
the Speakers friends will be working
to the same end.
But when the second conference is
held-upon the Sherman law amend
ments and the anti-injunction bills-it
viii be quite different. The Speakers
friends will work to prevent the con-
sideration of those bills by the House.
There is a large contingent of House
Republicans who do not want under
any considerations to have to vote for
either measure. They are clamoring in
the Speakers room that he prevent
any of those measures from coming be-
fore them, as they will be condemned
which ever way they vote. Both those
measures are of interest to both capital
and labor, but capital does not want
what labor wants and vice versa.
Probably a majority of the Republican
members of the House prefer that all
Sherman law amendments and all anti
injunction bills should be kept in the
judiciary committee for the remainder
of this session.
If the speaker succeeds in getting
of the Republican conference
to voice such a preference it will be a
blow to the President. He can not
gracefully set himself up against the
majority view of his party in the
House. Furthermore such well dis
cip1ined men, as the House Republic
cans are, can not with good grace fight
against the majority view as formally
expressed. So, while the President has
a chance of winning out on those two
the chances are against
him. If either or both those legisla-
tive propositions are considered at this
session, adjournment will be long de-
ferred and it would be a scramble to
get out of Washington in time for the
National convention at Chicago.
Then there is the Senate to reckon
with It does not want a further wran-
gle with the President and its leaders
know that no bill to curb injunctions
could get through there without long
md rancorous debate. AS much would
De true of the Sherman amendments,
that propose to centralize power
tremendously in the Bureau of Cor
whose chief would be allow
I'd to determine whether combination
or trade purposes was reasonable, anu
n the Interstate Commerce Commits |
sion, which would be given greater
power than ever over the railroads.
There is a strong conviction that the
President will be content if the meas |
Tres he wants, excepting those two, |
are enacted at this session. He has |
included a number of things in his leg
slative program, which Congress
Ill along has intended to enact and |
which it has been busy preparing to
enact. The leaders in Senate and
House know that the President is al
ways speedy in accepting comprom-
ses. The country does not understand
the fine points of such maneuvers but
the Congressional leaders do and they
know that time and again the Presi-
dent has accepted with alacrity what
he could get and made the most of it,
although it was much less than he had
asked for.
CONGRESS is especially anxious for the
Presidents "weIl done" when the adj
journment comes. The big men of the
Senate and House are convinced that
the well done,' so essential for cam
paign purposes and for the reelection
Of Republican Senators and members
will be forthcoming if they eschew
Shernra7 law amendments and anti
Injunction bills and pass the other laws
ne has asked for Then the things he
would be getting would be compare
lively of minor Importance, but would
help make up a record for presentation
to the National Convention and to the
Possibly some half way work
.ant matters by the House, but in the
meantime the appropriation bills will
have been passed and after that it is
to keep Congress in session.
At any rate it would relieve the Senate
IF immediate embarrassment.
ERNEST G.. WALKER.