Omaha daily bee., 1910-06-22
FIRST OPEN FIGHT
WITH THE SENATE
President Taft Makes Clear Issue Of
Postal Savings Bank
Measure.
CANCELS, HIS TRIP TO YALE
Announces He Will Stay All Summer
if Necessary.
ULTIMATUM FROM PRESIDENT
Senators Opposing Bill Will Be Re-
garded as Repudiating Platform.
TAFT HOLDS THE WHIP HAND
River and HarbOrs Bill and other
Measures in which Senators
Are Interested Are Yet
Unsigned.
Announces He Will Stay All Summer
if Necessary.
-LTIMATUM FROM PRESIDENT
Senators Opposing Bill Will Be Re-
garded as Repudiating Platform.
TAFT HOLDS THE WHIP HAND

| WASHINGTON, June 2i.-Abandoning a
/ trip to New Haven to see his son graduate
| from Yale and announcing that he would
! stay In Washington 'all summer" IL need
! be, President Taft today began his first
open fight with the United States senate.
The postal savings bank bill is the issue
between the White House and the north
wing of the capitol. The president has an
nounced that the senate must adopt the
house bill Several insurgents and some
OF the regulars are strongly opposed to
the house bill and rumors Of a fillbuster
against the measure filled the air today.
The fight over the postal savings bank
bill has many angles The most interesting,
perhaps, is the fact that the measure which
the insurgents helped to frame and fully
approved in the house is roundly denounced
in the senate.
Taft for House Bill.
President Taft has promised to stand by
the house measure and he believed it TO
be a tacit agreement, it is said, that in
return for the acceptance by the house of
the senate statehood bill that the senate
would accept the house postal bank bill.
Be that as it may, the president and all
OF his advisers are agreed that the house
bill is by far the better Of the two. 1t was
put through the house and it is not be-
lieved there would be one chance in
hundred of getting an amended measure
favorably acted on.
1t is pretty generally admitted at the
capitol that the president holds the whip
hand in the fight and that as soon as a
vote can be reached the senate will accept
the house bill The river and harbor bill,
containing some hundreds of items in which
representatives and senator's are generally
interested is still unsigned in the presi-
dents desk and subject to veto. The fact
that some of the regulars in the senate
are vorking quietly against the measure
has particularly aroused the president and
he is anxious that they shall be put on
record as early as possible "@e
Mr. Taft flatly announced today that
senators voting against the house bill
would be understood as opposing any
system of postal banks and therefore re-
pudiating the party's platform in this re-
spect.
Objection to Senate Bill.
1t Is the administration attitude that
the bill gives special privileges to the
banks. privileges to which the banks are
not entitled.
A patriotic view of the question, the
WhibO DSilSNeSt Calls tie IN
vestment of as much of the money col
lected in the banks as possible in Cow
ernment securities.
Opposition to the postal bank bill comes
from the country bankers of lne middle
west and the surety bond group or guar
anty companies.
The general deficiency appropriation
bill was taken UP in the senate today
with the understanding that as soon as
1t was disposed of the postal bank bill
would receive consideration.
Several OF the so-called regular republic
ans in the senate, 1t was said today had
been discovered off the reservation in the
final roundup on the postal savings bank
bill This phase of the situation has par
ucularly annoyed the president
Rumors which reached the White House
this morning were that while the president
was at New Haven tomorrow 1t was the
intention of the senators to so amend the
postal savings bank bill as to kill any
chance of its passage by congress at this
session. AS soon as the president learned
OF this plan, he directed Secretary Norton
to cancel his trip to the Yale commence
ment and also to send for the senate
leaders.