The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-05-03
ReQu|ars Yield to Demand of Insurgents and Measure
 Will Be Trimmed
GREAT DIFFERENCES
 EXIST OVER THE BILL
Final Defeat in Committee Be- cause Members Cannot Agree
 Upon the Amendments

Washington, May 2- President Tafts railroad bill will be emasculated. At the close of protracted confer ence of leading regular republican senators tonight it was apparent that the revolt of the Senate insurgents had been virtually successful and that the sections of the bill relating to traffic agreements and mergers, which Senator Cummins and other insurgents have been fighting to amend. will be aba ndoned.
 Practically nothing distinctive of the original bill will remain save the sec- tions providing for the creation of court of commerce. Even that has a perilous time in the House and mo- body tonight is prepared to guaran- tee that it will be enacted In fact, tho differences betweeen the Senate and House are so great that in view of the radical action decided upon by Senate leaders tonight it would surprise nobody if the entire bill | should fail in conference. So serious | became the situation of the bill lata 1 this afternoon that President Tafr him. self. at Pittsburg, was advised of the situation over. the long distance tele- phone by Senator Aldrich.
 Upon the insurgents" the adminis- tration will endeavor to place the re- sponsbility for the failure of the Taft
 railroad legislation. To Senator All drich, over the telephone. Mir. Taft is
 said to have expressed himself emphat- ically to this effect.
 That he had initiated the pending
 measure and had advocated it through
 out the country in the form which 1 It was reported to the Senate apd that if combination of insurgent repub-
 licans and democrats made it impos-
 sible for the republican majority to
 administration should be relieved of
 responsibility for its defeat 1 Leaders in Conference In the conference were Senators AL
 drich, Elkins, Carter, Kean. Crane.
 Root, Elkins. Flint. Brandege, Lodge and from time to time others of the
 republican leaders.
 Although admittedly stopped from
 passing the bill in the form in which
 they wished the administration sena-
 tors at once began the formulation
 of plans by which they will endeavor
 to take away from the insurgent repub- l licans the chance to claim clean-cut
 victory for themselves. They even
 wore an air of jubilation tonight over | the prospect of putting the insurgents
 to rout on the pending Cummins
 amendment to the traffic agreement
 section which will be the firs. matter
 voted on when the bill is taken up
 again, probably tomorrow.
 When the original Cummlns amendment l to this section, introduced as q substitute l for the Elkins- Crawford provision, WAS voted upon Saturday, the administration
 senators won by a margin of votes It
 was supposed that this vote constituted 1 a test of succeeding votes and that the
 Elkins-Crawford amendment. which it's
 opponents charged was bold method of | repeating the Sherman law so far as it's
 application to railroads Is concerned, would be adopted. But there were so many absentees on Saturday that the re-
 suit with the full membership present
 could not be foretold From messages
 received from some of the absentees it was evident that the regular republicans
 would meet with a reversal on the next
 vote for under the Senate rules vote | easily could be delayed until the arrival of the absentees. After the vote Satur- | day Senator Cummins immediately offer | ed an amendment to accomplith the same | purpose as that which had just been voted down.
 | No Sidetracking | As the pending Cummins amendment is | offered as a substitute for the Elkins-
 Crawford provision no motion can side | track this provision. Ii must be disposed of before any other steps can be taken, I That is where the administration says
 they believe they have the whip hand
 on their opponents. The republican lead-
 CTS discovered there were certain members | who preferred the Cummins to the Ei-
 kins- Crawford amendment but were op-
 posed to the entire traffic agreement sec- | ton.
 These senators did not hesitate to en- | ter into an agreement with the regular | republicans to vote against the Cuminins
 provision in return for an agreement to | eliminate the section altogether. If the
 administration senators are correct In the | poll they have taken the Cummins amend
 ment would be lost by the narrow mar.
 gin of one or two votes for which victory
 the administration agrees to pay the
 price, of striking out the whole section. | Throughout today efforts were made to
 effect an agreement between those who | favored the Cummins amendment and I those who supported the Elkins-Craw- | ford provision The first would require all traffic agreements and all changes 1 Of rates to be approved by the interstate 1 commerce commission in advance Of talk
 ing effect. The latter would make traf- 1 fic agreements lawful under the Sher-
 man law but would not require that | rates made by railroads should be sub
 mitted to the commission in advance. Insurgents Are Firm
 The insurgents were unyielding. They
 believed that victory was within their | grasp. After the adjournment of the | Senate Senator Cummins was called into
 the final conference. He was asked if | the insurgents could not get together on
 scme provision that would be less ob-
 noxious to the majority of the repub-
 licens than the pending Cummins amend- | ment.
 Mir. CYmmins is reported as saying that
 personally he was agreeable to the adop- ton of some provision that would in-
 
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