The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-16
BIZ Ernest G.. Walker.


| WASHINGTON, May 31.-Congress
at last has gone. Some irreverent souls
feel like saying: "Thank the Lord! -
1t fingered long when many good judges
| thought Senators and Representatives
might have been better away at their
homes. just when all the pins had
been set up for an adjournment, there
came great parliamentary outburst.
Senator La Toilette, of Wisconsin,
Fighting Bob of all Congress, went
into action. He held all Congress at
| bay. almost single-handed, for close to
forty-eight hours.
The Senate has never before witness
ed such redoubtable opposition. The
Aldrich-Vreeland Currency Bill, in the
shape of conference report, had come
over from the House. 1t had passed
there in spite of the solid Democratic
opposition, and the opposition of a
handful of Republican members. What
would the Senate do7 Everyone was
asking that question. Perhaps the bill
would 90 through there easily. Perhaps
there would be no long speeches.
The Republican leaders hoped so,
Senator Aldrich began to maneuver. He
talked persuasively with Democrats. 1t
looked as though he had hypnotized
them. They held a conference, and ulti-
mateIy decided upon go-it-alone pol
icy. Every Democrat was to do as he
pleased about fighting the bill, which
most of them regarded as iniquitous.
As a party the Democratic Senators did
not care to assume the responsibility
for defeating the legislation. Should a
panic come, they reasoned, the country
would hold them responsible for talking
any kind of currency relief to death.
At that point Senator La Toilette
dragged himself off his sick bed to the
Capitol. He began to take careful no
tice. 81 am against that bill, - said
the plucky Wisconsin fighter. Yes, l
am going to fight it. - He did not say
that he was going to make an endur-
ance speech against it, but when on
Friday the Senate proceeded to con-
slider the conference report, there re-
manned no doubt that Senator La Fol
lette was in for a big one-man flibus-
ter against the leaders of his own party.
There was no mincing of words. Sen
ators Aldrich and La Toilette grappled
for fight to the finish. Senator La
Toilette said the bill had been craftily
drawn so as to enhance the value of
railroad stocks and bonds and to make
for the advantage of the big and infiu-
entail National Reserve banks. Under
the provisions of the pending measure,
it might be possible to put in "chattel
mortgages on chickens" as basis for an
issue of emergency currency.
How the Republican Senators did
fight their Wisconsin colleague. At first
they threw verbal missiles at him. He
came back at them in kind Then they
hauled out from their desks copies of
the Senate manual and began to consult
the rules. Perhaps they could find
something there with which to embar-
rass him. For a while he forced them
to maintain a quorum, till some item of
business had interviewed. That relieved
them all of the necessity of staying in
the Capitol the night long. They forced
him to speak from his seat, so that he
could not walk over the central aisle
and shake his fist under their very
noses. They tried to rule his clerks off
the floor Two of them remained there
constantly to attend him, not only to
count a quorum and inform him when
there was less than a quorum, but to
bring him milk punches and glasses of
water and to furnish him with mate
rial for his long drawn-out speech.
The little Senator came to the Can
itol sick man. He has been out but
little all winter. He was so weak that
he felt unable to stand all the time
and addressed the Senate in a half
sitting posture. resting upon the arm
of his chair. But he seemed to grow
stronger as he proceeded. He got At
it about 1880 p. IN. Thursday and was
going all that afternoon and all that
night till o'clock the following morn
ing He made all the trouble the Re-
publican Senators wanted.
Two Democrats came to his aid. One
was "Gumshoe Bill'' Stone of Missouri,
and the other Senator Gore, the blind