The weekly soliphone., 1915-02-19
FAIR PLAY URGED
FOR THE RAILROADS
Moves to Kill Wagner Bill Meet with
Defeat in Senate-lnfoTmatiOn
Is Sought.

the railroads, ana giving them an Op-
portunity to be heard, had their
hands full in the senate yesterday
evening fighting off efforts to send
the Wagner bill, providing that the
Arkansas railroad commission be Civ
en- the power to fix the passenger
rates on railroads of l ) miles or less
at five cents per mile and over that
length at a maximum of three cents
per mile, from sudden demise. OBJ
lection was made to the second read
down. Then a motion was made by
Senator Smith of Columbia, to table,
and this was defeated 19 to 8. Sena-
tor Bush then moved indefinite post
ponement and this lost II to 20 SEN
ator Smith of Columbia then moved
that the bill be made special order
for Thursday morning, with the in
tent of forcing vote on the merits
of the bill at that time, and killing
it before it had been heard by a
committee This lost 10 to IA, it re-
quiring two-thirds vote to suspend
the rules for this purpose. All this
time Senator Wagner had been max
ing motions to refer to the judiciary
committee and after the last Smith
motion the bill was forced to the
calendar without reference by ad-
journment.
Some of the most fiery debate
heard on the floor during the session
was uncorked on this measure. SEN
ator Futrell opened it on the motion
to indefinitely postpone, which was
the first chance for debate, as the
motion to table was not debatable.
He ridiculed the idea of going into
the rate matter on it's merits, saying
that it could not be done in less than
four years time, calling attention to
the time consumed in preparing the
rate cases. He further declared that
for the legislature to recede from it's
stand when it passed the rate bill,
would be an admission to the su-
preme court of the United States that
the legislature was wrong in its con-
tention. Senator Futrell stated such
action would place Arkansas in ridi-
culous position, and that this year,
an off one for all business, should
not be considered as an example by
the railroads or any other line of
business.
Senator Smith of Columbia fol-
lowed and asserted that he did not
desire to throttle an effort by the
railroads to gain a fair hearing if
it had a chance, but that every sena
tor knew at that time how he would
vote after the matter had been thor
oughly threshed out, consequently
there was no reason for taking up so
much time of the legislature.
Senator Lundy devoted considera-
BILE time to ridiculing the efforts of
the railroads to sway the legislature
through circulating petitions and
stated that it would be possible to
secure the names of hundreds of
good citizens to a petition to force
the chief executive to wear earrings.
He advocated the immediate death of
the bill, urging that 1--WE bury it in
the potter's field and let these paid
mourners go home" He stated that
| if he received a petition from every
man, woman and child in his dis
trict that he would not support the
bill.
Senator Bush spoke at length, Sc
verely arraigning the railroads, al
leging that they represent the
wealth of the world and that it has
all been accumulated in the past 80
years. He classed the railroads as
the biggest robbers in the world.
Senator Garrett also spoke against
the bill
Senator Burgess and Senator
Greathouse urged that the railroads
be given an opportunity to secure re
lief, and that every business in the
state had been injured by the great
loss Of revenue to the railroads SEN
ator Wagner closed the debate in ia
yor of the bill, in which he stated
that he would never do anything that
would injure any of his constituents,
but he did strenuously protest against
the efforts that have been made to
drive great institutions outside the
state.
All of those who defended the bill
nIaaded for a chance to hear the