Arizona republican., 1910-05-03
THE REGULARS HAVE FAILED
Their Supposed Majority of Six Votes Has Vanished Into Air and They Have Hope Only of Defeating Cummins' Amendment

1 Washington. May ,. - President 1 Taft's railroad legislation will be emasculated.
 At the close of protracted confer
 ence of leading regular" republican
 senators tonight. it was apparent that i the revolt of the senate insurgents had been virtually successful and those l sections of the bill relative to traffic
 agreements and mergers which Mir ! CumnTins and other insurgents had abandoned.
 Practically nothing distinctive of the original bill will remain, save the sec tions providing for the creation of court of commerce. Even that has had perilous time in the house. and mo- body tonight is prepared to guarantee | that it will be enacted
 In fact the differences between the senate and the house are so great that ] it would surprise nobody if the bin 1 fails in conference So serious became . the situation of the bill late today that ! MT. Taft himself at Pittsburg was ad- vised over the telephone by Mir. Ald- ! rich that he was despairing ef putting the bill through the senate as report ed from the senate committee on in- terstate commerce.
 The leaders in conference tonight de- cided To eliminate section : which the 1 insurgents claim practically would re- peal the sherman antitrust law by permitting traffic agreements. and sec ton r.. which would have legalized mergers in cases where one railroad all ready owning 30 per cent of another desired to control it outright Upon the insurgents the administra- ton will endeavor to place the respon- sibility for the failure of the Taft rail- road legislation. To Aldrich. over the telephone. MT. Taft is said to have eX- pressed himself emphatically to this effect He said he had initiated the pending measure and advocated it throughout the country in the form in which it was reported to the senate. and if a combination of insurgent re- publicans. and democrats had rendered 1t impossible for the republican ma jority to enact the bill he felt that the administration should be delivered of the responsibility for defeat. He rest ed the entire matter in the hands of
 
 ciates who then went into conference.
 At the conference were Messrs. AL dricb. EIkins. Carter. Kean. Crane. Root Curtis. Flint. Brandegee. Lodge and other republican leaders. Although admittedly stopped from passing the bill in the form in which they wished. the administration senators at once began the formulation of plans to take away from the insurgents the chance to claim a clean -cut victory. They even wore an air of jubilation tonight over the prospect of putting the insurgents to rout on the pending Cumniins amendment to the traffic agreement. which will be the first matter voted upon when the bill is again taken up. perhaps tomorrow.
 When the original Cummins amend mont. introduced as a substitute for the Elkins- Crawford provision was voted upon on Saturday. the admiuis traion won by margin of six. It was generally supposed that this vote con stituted q test of succeeding votes and that the EilSins- Crawford amendment. which the opponents charged was a bold method of repeating the sherman antitrust law. so far as it's application to railroads. was concerned, would be adopted.
 But there were so many absentecs on Saturday that the result with the full membership cannot be foretold. From messages from some of the ab- sentees it is evident that the regulars would be met with reversal on the next vote. for under the senate rules a vote easily could be delayed until the arrival of the absentees. After the vote on Saturday MT. Cummins immediately offered another amendment to accomp- fish the same purpose as that which had just been voted down.
 As the pending Cummins amendment was offered as substitute for the El- kins- Crawford provision. no motion can <idetrack this provision and it must be disposed of before any other step can be taken. That is where the adminis- tration senators believe they have the whip hand of their opponents.
 If the administration senators are correct in the poll they took. the Cum mins amendment will be lost by the narrow margin of one or two votes, and for that victory the administration agrees to pay the price of striking out the whole section
 The chamber of the senate and the several adjacent committee rooms oe- cupied by leaders have not been the scenes of so much believing over legislation since the making of the