Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1910-05-06

Elted Over Changes in Rail.
road Measure
FIVE SECTIONS CUT OUT

tors, One Of the Objectionable Pre-
visions Being the LeoaIizing Of TRAIT
fc Agreements-Action Taken May
ProIong Session of Congress.
Washington, May t. Radical
changes to be made in the admins
tration railway bill as a result OF. con-
ferences will, in the opinion of many
Republicans, prolong the session Of
congress. While ~progressives are
elated yer the victory attained in
forcing the Aldrich organization to
eliminate from the measure certain
provisions that it was contended
would have broken down the Sherman
antitrust law and weakened the force
OF the present rate act it is their pur.
pose to stand by and perfect the pend
ing measure as far as possible. As q
result of a canvass of the senate, dis
closing that the bill could not be
passed in it's present form, it was de-
cided to throw sections Z, IL, 10, II
and Is overheard. Section Z proposed
to legalize traffic agreements; section
IL legalized railroad mergers in cases .
whore n road owned at least 50 per
cont Of the stock of another: sections
13, IA and IS of the bill provide a plan
for the regulation of the capitalize
ton of railroad corporations.
The hope of the leaders now is to
prevent the. adoption of progressive
substitutes for the sections eliminated.
Little Of Measure Remains.
With these sections gone all that re-
mains of the bill of substantial char
acter Is the provision creating an in.
terstate commerce court, the section
requiring railroads to quote rates cor.
rectly to shippers, the section giving
the interstate commerce commission
power to initiate Investigations on its !
own complaints and the section pro- !
viding for a sixty-day suspension Of
rates pending al investigation by tho
commission into their reasonableness.
Sections Z and IL were bitterly a.
sailed by the progressives. Senator
Knute Nelson Of Minnesota. who has
steered clear of both factions in the
senate. declared in a speech that sec-
ton Z va nothing 0 or less than
IN effort to exempt railroads from the
application of the antitrust law. SEN
ator Nelson announced that no would
not vote for the bill in it, prellnt
form. The lines were g 80 tightly
drawn In the senate that the regular
G>aAtrs found they could not adopt
either section Z or 10 without the sup
port of the Minnesota senators. Ac-
oofdingly these sections have been
thrown in the discard. As ,sectionA
II, II and IL. relating to capitalize
ton, are in%terrelated with sections Z.
61A IL, they will also be abandoned.
, Allies Control Both Houses.
Both ends Of the Capitol are now n
tho control of a combination of Demo
Gratis and progressive Republicans.
Realizing this the one time Repub-
lican leaders are talking bitterly Of
e%djourning congress and throwing on
the ~progressives the blame of wreck
ing the Taft legislative programme.
The president, however, has given or.
dsrs that the regulars shall stay and.
do the best they can.
The situation is remarkable. From
twenty to forty Republicans are work
ing with the Democrats in the house.
They have practically taken the bill
out Of the hands of Chairman Mann
and are lacking on to it all sorts Of
amendments. In the senate from ten
to twenty Republicans are co-operat-
ing with the Democrats. They have
gained the whip hand and %undoubted-
~ intended to destroy the Crawford.
Blkins traffic agreement amendment.
61hator Aldrich admitted what the
wise ones have foreseen for some
days: Rather than be routed on the
door Mr.. Aldrich decided to surrender
and he agreed to withdraw two of the
$1,000 49,