Norwich bulletin., 1914-03-28
Repeal Forces
 Have Majority
FIRST TEST A VICTORY FOR THE
 PRESIDENT,
FINAL VOTE TUESDAY
Debate Limited to Twenty Hours-An Exciting Day in Reconsideration Warmly Debated in the Senate.

W ashlngton, March 27-President
 wilson today won the opening sktr
 mlsh Of the greatest legislative ba++la
 oA HIS aomin1stration, when the house
 ofer outer protests from the recos-
 nlzeQ democratic leaders and almost
 solid minority opposition adopted
 Specla1 rule for the consideration of tfa
 DlIl repeating the free tolls provision oL the Panama Canal act Speaker, Clark. Democratic Leader JTnderuood
 hepupIlcan Leader Mann and progres- Slve leader Murdock were at the head
 ol those lined up against the admin
 ISlratlon, but the house responded to
 tne presidents personal appeal for
 prompt conaderation of the repeal bill
 as means of supporting his admin lstrat1on's foreign policy.
 TWO votes demonstrated the pres
 1oents commanding influence with his
 party in congress. On the first test a motion to end debate and precII1da amendment on the rule carried bv a vote or 2o7 to 176; the rule itself was
 adopted 200 to 172
 Repeal Confidently Predicted. Nothing to compare with the scene today had occurred in the house since
 the famous Cannon rules fight four years ago. In vain Representative Un-- derwood took the floor of the house
 and urged his colleagues to vote against the rule. The rank and file democrats, after listening to three hours of passionate argument, swung. into the presidents column, 19e of them voting to prevent the amendment Of the special rule, while only 55 fol- lowed the leaders in Joining with the minority in opposition.
 Tonight administration supporters
 considered the crucial point passed and jubnantly predicted the passage of
 the repeal bill itself Tuesday Or We'd nesday by a majority of more than 100 Several of the twenty hours allowed for debate under the rule had been consumed when the house adjourned 1 and with the speech-making contin- uing without interruption, it was thought the final vote could be reach | ed late Tuesday afternoon.
 Eight Republicans with Majority. Only eight republicans joined ths majority in support of the administra- l tion's programme, but it was conceded | tonight by leaders on both sides that | many republicans who voted against | the preliminary administration plan | would vote eventually for the repeal | The solid progressive delegation of tn hs | house led by Representative Murdock 1 of Kansas, was aligned against the
 majority.
 | President Wilson's triumph was con | sidered most notable by the rank and | file of all parties because of the un- | usual alignment of forces with the democratic ranks Two men who had
 sought with him the presidential nonn- | ination at the hands of the party | one the speaker of the house and the i other the floor leader Of the dominant
 party-were openly and actively array l ed against him. Speaker Clark, though
 he did not take the floor today, had issued his eleventh hour attack upon | the plans of the presidents friends to | limit debate and announced that he
 would speak against the repeal bill 1 Tuesday. Representative Underwood, | who has been in the open against the | president on the issue, pleaded urgent | ly against the rule, and later delivered l an attack on President Wilson's pol ] icy denouncing the repeal of the toll | exemption as an economic mistake and | declaring the president to be wrong | In his conclusion that exemption Is in l violation of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty. Mahan Votes with Minority.
 Other democratic chieftains, among | them Representatives Kftchin of North Carolina, broke with the president. | Yet in the face of this opposition from
 men who heretofore had but to raise | their voices to have the democrats of | the house follow them, the president l won within the party membership by ! nearly four to one. Mahan was re- | corded against the president.
 While the house was engaged in the
 initial and decisives struggle of the con- | f1ict the controversy was the medium | of enlivening discussion in the senate | Senator Owens Tn a speech Vo1cfnG the | presidents position. declared that toll | exemption never had ben supported
 by a majority of the democrats in con gress and pleaded dramatically for his l colleagues to uphold the honor of the | nation Senator James and Senator l O'Gorman, the latter leading the re-
 volt against the president in the upper l houses, engaged in a stirring colloquy, while Senator Gallinger introduced g resolution as a substitute for one i'm | y1~v r fe ! which would declare 1t the sense of
 the American congress that 1t had t11e right to exempt American coastwtss | ships from canal tolls