The National tribune., 1908-05-21

rifle rush of eyents-or upon the War
ner BILL which was much milder, and
permitted the President to restore the
soldiers If he were satisfied of their IN
nocence. The debate in the Senate over
this had reached boiling point. Senator
Foraker, the champion of the negros,
was in the saddle. He was going to
force the Senate to vote, at least to vote
on taking up his bill. That could be
done without debate. =.
That made the brave Senator's finch.
especially those who have negro voters
galore among their Constituents. II
they voted TO take up the Foraker bill,
tration Political opponents would say
that they were against the President.
Fine thing, that, to say. about a Re-
publican Senator or a Republican Rep
resentative, for that matter, in almost
any part of the country with the Presi-
dents current popularity. But If they
voted against taking the Foraker bill
up folks would say they were against
the negro That would be sorry plight
for a Republican Congress IAN in Kan
sas or Ohio or even in New York or
PENNSYLVANIA this year. Many of 'em
were sweating blood. What could they
do?
The Administration Senators were
sitting tight They would not bulge a
loop. The Senate Democrats We're in
high feather, They would vote to cause
the Republicans of the Senate as a
whole the greatest possible embarrass-
ment, and the situation was full of just
that class of possibilities. The old lead
ers got around Senator Foraker. You
can't get your bill thru this session. y
said they. "You know that yourself.
If it gets thru the Senate, which is i'm
possible, it could not get thru the
House. Even if it gets thru Senate and
House the President will write L veto
across the face of it. Now. to what pur-
pose are you operating? Better have
the thing postponed till after the elecI
tions Then we can vote more intelli-
gently upon it. You will have chance
then for a vote. You have none now.
If you persist it puts you outside the
pale of the party--you, always loyal
party man."
Early one afternoon something
snapped in the Senate. The lines of the
fight over the Foraker bill had broken
The Senate agreed after a few vitupera-
tive words to postpone consideration Of
that bill till December next. There Will
be a vote upon it Dec. 16. Perhaps it
will be beaten; probably it will. But
the Republican Senators claim they did
the best possible thing and that trouble
is out of the way for awhile. The
President, of course. is well satisfied.
Some people yelled forthwith that
Senator Foraker had Laid down." Not
so. That fine old fighting Ohioan never
"lies down. in a fight Others said he
had made terms with the Taft forces,
and would soon be under the Taft BAN
ner. Perhaps, 1t is almost inconceiv-
able that with Taft nominated Senator
Foraker would refuse to support him,
and it is taken for granted now in
Washington that Taft Is going to be
nominated Senator Foraker has con-
ceded a little something to the Taft
cause, in letting the Brownsville cause
alone for few months. That will
make it easier for the Taft workers to
extend the olive branch, and it will
make it easier for Senator, Foraker to
accept the olive branch. But. as he him
self remarked to a friend, there will be
nothing in any such striking of hands
to prevent him from continuing his
fight for the negro soldiers next Decem-
ber and from getting as, mu@h for them
as he could get now. -, p
Minor Matters of LegisIatiou.
But all that happened half dozen
days ago, and in the rush and whirl of
present things it is now quite forgotten.
Washington--Congres and the Presi-
dent-are doing things with a VEN
geance. And when they do one thing
they absorb themselves in the thing
next at hand. Everybody seems for the
moment to have forgotten, That there
ever was such a proposition as an anti
Injunction bill or amendments to the
Sherman antitrust law. The President
wanted those, but he saw he could not
get them So he seemed to become
oblivious Congress knew that it would
go about SO far and no farther, and
when the President was willing to for
get Congress was willing to forget.
But how they have been driving away
at half a dozen other somewhat minor
matters that the President felt an inter-
est in. He wanted postal savings banks.
NO" said Congress. But the bill was
up in the Seffate A nice speech for it
had been made, chiefly for the purpose
of helping out in the campaign. Unani-
nous report from the committee! Many
good men for 1t. NO" said Congress,
But one afternoon the Sem
ate in jiffy made special order that
the postal savings bank bill should be
taken up on a specific day next Decem-