The Oakes times., 1910-06-02

but Mr.. Vertrees did not believe It
prudent to put him on the stand.
Mr.. Ballinger has not come forward
with any explanation Of the correspond
ence he had with George M. Perkins.
Of J. Pierpont Morgan & Co.. relative
to the purpose of the latter to Tex.
ploit Alaska" The large financial In.
terests Of the Morgan-Guggenheim
syndicate as testified to by their own
engineers make the confidential rela.
tionship between the secretary Of the
interior and the manager of that syn.
dtcate matter Of grave public con.
cern. To close the testimony without
any effort at explanation is accepted
In the capital as an admission taat no
explanation that would be plausible
can be furnished. or of fear lest
further cross-questioning would de.
velop the existence of evidence even
more damaging than that which has
been brought to light.
From the viewpoint of Mr.. Ballinser
It may have been desirable not to elu-
cidate the Perkins correspondence. or
to take any chances In again sub
jecting employees Of the interior de.
partment or the secretary himself, to
the cross-examinatiOn of Mr.. Brandeis
The committee, however, was appoint
ed for the purpose Of arriving at the
truth without references to the wishes
Of the secretary of the interior or any
one. This is theoretically the situa.
ton, and If the committee does not
upon it's own initiative place these
witnesses and Mr.. Perkins upon the
stand and question them in regard to
the developments which came from
the Kerby testimony, there Is sure to
be some hard criticism of the COM
mittee on the floors of congress, not
only for the manner in which wit
nesses were examined during the ta-
king of the testimony, but because Of
failure to pursue the inquiry along the
lines which the testimony indicated
would develop material Of vital pub.
lie interest.
Aldrich Proposal Rejected.
\ Senator Cummins' amendment to
the rate bill by which no increases
in rates are to become effective un.
til the Interstate Commerce commits.
sion determines the proposed in
creases to be reasonable, was an.
other rock upon which the Al
drich machine went to pieces for the
time being in the senate. While the
amendment was pending Senator AL.
drich made desperate effort to ar
rive at an agreement with the Dem.
ocrats in regard to fixing a time for
vote.
A written memorandum was pre-.
pared for the Democratic members to
sign. Under the agreement the Dem.
ocrats were promised that statehood
bill such as they favor would be
passed by the senate. This was
strong inducement to the Democrats.
Statehood for New Mexico and Ari-
zona in all probability means the ad-
dition of four Democrats to the United
States senate. Some of the Democrats
argued that they would be justified
in doing anything in order to get this
measure, but wiser counsels prevailed.
The agreement also included not
only the fixing of date upon the bill
but that no amendment should be &C.
cepted other than those which were
proposed by the committee and that
all the pending amendments Of other
senators should be voted down. It
was also provided that Sections 13.
IA and is. the capitalization sections
of the bill, which are particularly oh.
jectionable to the Democrats. should
be eliminated. There were some Dem.
ocratic senators who were perfectly
willing to agree to the Germs.
Progressive Tactics Succeeded.
The success of the continued at
tacks Of the Progressives is due to the
fact that they have not permitted any
part of the bill to be accepted without
full, discussion az to its effect. They
have not secured all that they want in
the bill. and they have not succeeded
in making sufficient changes thus far
so. that they can say with absolute
certainty that 1t will be in such form
as to permit Of their voting for 1t, but
they have improved 1t and they have
improved 1t in the face Of the stub
born. opposition Of Aldrich and his
friends. The tory organization of the
senate was compelled to give way up
on the merger section, upon the traffic
agreement section, and upon the long
and short haul section. They were
compelled to make Concessions upon
the question of the right of the ship
per to appearance in court in proceed.
ings reviewing the orders of the In.
terstate Commerce commission. And
it is now apparent that before the bill
is passed they, will be compelled to
make other concessions. There is q
growing feeling in the senate that
there will not be any railroad legisla.
ton. The combination of Progressive
Republicans and Democrats who are
forcing the perfection of the bill may
not be able to put the measure
through. The reason for this condi-
tion is that there are number OF
Democrats who are opposed to the
bill in any form and even If 1t is per-
fected so as to conform to the ideas
of the Progressive leadership 1t may
still fail Of passage because in that
form it may not command the votes
Of the tory organization and these,
united with the Democrats. would be
sufficient to defeat 1t.
JOHN J. HANNAH.
DANISH RADICALS LOSE.