The semi-weekly messenger., 1908-02-07

ASt OA t4Ic N1afitS Oh the I1OuSe LII
Debate, Which Was Listened to
by Crowded Galleries and Nearly
Ali the 3iemDers-GOwnsen anu
Cochran 5Iake Great Claims For
Their Respective Parties-hep-
Ducn Defended the President ;
jiessage.
Washington. February 3.-Senator
Piles or Washington today delivered
All eloquent appeal in the senate in
favor of an appropriation by congress
of $7Oe, ,000 for a government exhibit
at the Yukon Pacific exposi-
ton, to be held in Seattle next year.
The day was chiefly devoted to a
consideration of bills On the calendar
several of which we're passed.
At 1857 o'clock p. M, the senate
adjourned. N G.z
THR HOUSE.
Three of the giants OF the house OF
representatives had their innings to-
day. Technically the Indian Appro-
priation bill was under discussion, but
legislation was relegated to the back
ground while national politics o4su-
pied the stage
Before the present question cropped
out, the house, with next to the larg-
est attendance of the session present,
with but one dissenting vote, passed a
general widows pension bill granting
a fiat pension of $12 month to the
widows of all honorably discharged
soldiers Of the United States have
not heretofore received the benefits of
the pension law and an increase of
81 a month for those wno have under
the act of June II, 1890. The law ex-
pressly waivers the limita ion IF pro-
perty holdings. The bills involves the
expenditure of more than $12,000,000
annually.
The political debate was opened by
Mr.. Townsend of Michigan. who in a
prepared speech, claimed for the re-
publican party credit for all national
legislation in the last fifty years of
vital interest to the public. In this
he vigorously disputed MT Cochran
of New York who afterward launched
into a discussion of the presidents
message of a few days ago, his re-
marks frequently invoking applause On
both sides of the house. The presi-
dents utterances, in that document, he
declared were such that nei her party
could ignore, for he had named the
conditions for which both must con-
tend. He characterized President
Roosevelt as the only CRUSADER" in the
republican party, and said that he
could not In view of his statements,
with honor again accept the nomina-
ton for the presidency. Mr.. Bryan
also was a crusader, and he believed
that with the presidents message as
bis guide, Mr.. Bryan would became
the foreordained champion of law and
order
Mr.. Hepburn also defended the pres
ident's message and said that condem-
nation Of 1t had only come from the
provision In it imposed anything which
the very charters of the roads did not
contemplate. He said that, he who
claims that rate legislation caused the
panic Or to any considerable extent
contributed to 1t, begs the question
in his desire to justify his opposition
to the measure and to dfscredit an ad-
hostile to special inter
ests and favorably to government by
law.
He spoke of the raid on the banks
of the country in October and Novem-
Der last and Of the millions of dollars
withdrawn from business for boarding
purposes. If, he said, gentlemen who
mean that because some men who saw
that the rate law itself could not dis
turb business, but rather would make
it more stable and therefore more de-
sirable were still intent on discredit-
ing it and the administration which
fathered it; if they meant that these
great malefactors of the age land the
gentleman from Ohio, meaning Sena-
tor Foraker
While the debate was on almost
every seat Oh the floor and in the gal
ler1eS were occupied.
During the consideration of the In
dian Appropriation bill in the house
today Mr.. Townsend of Michigan, de-
livered speech in which he rehearsed
the history of the transportation legis-
lation which he said, he did for the
purpose OF disputing the unwarranted
claims of our democratic brethren.
Mr. Townsend defended the railroad
rate law and declared that no single
men. a few OF them became worse than
the yiIeSt burglar uh0 ever hIov a
safe or used a Jimmy, worse than the
who in the pistols fare
out life and steals the purse, and tap
ped the arteries of the financial sys-
tenn and drew out sufficient Of the cir
medium to threaten CONNER
cial life with stagnation and death,
then can see some logic I'm their con-
tentioa.
These logicians he declared, said
that these fnanciers would zol raiA