The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1911-08-23
4 MARCH
Regular Republicans Leave Senate
Chamber Putting lhe Democrats
IN COMPLETE CONTROL
Democrats Pass the Cotton Bul De.
spite Rage Of the Insurgents, who
Charge Treason on the Part Of the
Democrats and Denounce Action of
Regular Wing of Their Party. -.

Regular Wing of Their Party. -.
A shrewd move by the regular Re-
publicans, as unexpected as 1t was
effected, Thursday suddenly threw
the Democrats into complete control
of the Senate in their own right and
forced them absolutely to abandon
their coalition with the progressive
Republicans. Out Of the chaos and
the uproar, came a bill to revise the
cotton schedule Of the Payne-Aldrich
tariff law.
It was the bill as passed by the
House, but saddled with amendments
to revise the iron and steel, the cot
ton machinery and chemical sched-
ules of the tariff law, coupled with
a provision for reciprocal free trade
in bituminous coal across the Cana
dian border Democratic votes alone
were cast in favor Of the bill. The
regular Republicans absented them
selves, deliberately, from the Cham
ber.
The insurgents, taken. completely
by surprise, were thrown into rage.
Alternately they denounced what
they termed the treason Of the Dem
ocrats and inveigled against the Reg
ular Republicans for the part they
had played in the new combination,
which had brought about a revolu-
ton in the Senate as startling and
sensational as the coalition which
earlier had robbed the regular Re-
pubhcans of their supremacy in the
Senate.
The insurgents invoked all-but-
forgotten rules in an effort to stop
votes The insurgents charged that
the Democrats had broken faith, al
though in caucus Wednesday night
the latter had determined to carry
through an insurgent-DemocEat1c
programme on the cotton bill, which
would have included the adoption Of
a LaFollette substitute for the House
measure. They insisted the Demo-
Gratis had entered into an agree
ment or understanding with the reg
uiars to leave the progressives in the
lurch.
Whatever the agreement, whatey-
er the understanding the results ac-
complished were both definite and de-
cisive. The Democrats found them
selves in a position where for the
sake of party consistency they had to
disregard completely their previous
arrangements with the insurgents.
This arrangement was based upon
the belief that the House bill would
be defeated and then the Democrats
and insurgents would combine to
pass a LaFol1ette measure, just what
was done with the wool schedule
The regular Republicans made no
attempt to conceal their delight at
having put the insurgents in a posi-
ton where they were compelled to
vote against cotton revision at this
time. Senator Cummins rallied his
insurgent comrades to vote against
his own amendment for. an iron and
steel revision, when the amendment
was offered by Senator Bacon. Sena-
tor Bristow helped to defeat his own
amendment for revision Of the su9
ar schedule, when it was offered in
his absence by Senator Jones, Of
Washington.
Progressive Republican Leader La
Toilette declared it was impossible
for the insurgents to vote for the
democratic bill, while the Democrats
had agreed that if their bill was de-
feated they would be willing to sup
port the LaF'ollette measure. AS the
progress of votes showed that the
Democrats had been given clear
majority by the absence of the regu-
lar Republicans, the insurgents set
out to get vote on the LaFollette
compromise bill, which, it had been
expected, would be adopted in place
or the House Dill.
Senator LaFollette finally offered
his bill as a substitute for the House
bill and the amendments that had
been added to it, The LaFollette
substitute secured no votes, howev-
er, but those of insurgents. Then
came the final vote on the House
cotton bill. Only the Democrats yot-
ed for it, but as the roll call pro-
'sressed it bcame apparent that many
were absent or not voting, Slipping
back into the cloak rooms before
their names were reached. Those
who kept track of the vote realized
that the cotton bill had received a
favorable vote-29 to 19.