Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-02-12
VICE PRESIDENT
BREAKS TIE; SHIP
BILL DISPLACED
His Vote Ends Sharp Par
liamentary Battle in SEN
Closure Now the Is
sue.
sue.

WASHINGTON, Feb. t2.--After sharp
parliamentary strugRle this afternoon and
a desperate attempt. led by Senator Reed,
| to force a closure rule which would COM
4 pei a vote on the ship purchase bill,
| the Senate displaced the ship purchase
measure as the unfinished business. ana
| proceeded to the question of adopting a
| closure rule.
As n result the Senate is confronted
with a protracted debate and hlibuster
over whether It shall adopt closure.
The ship purchase bill being displaced as
the unfinished business, IL is a question
whether II can be replaced this session.
The specific question now before the
Senate, in effect, is whether to adopt the
plan of Senator Reed fixing February 10
as the date for voting on the ship pur-
chase bill. Senator Norris has offered
an amendment which raises the question
of adopting general rule on the sub
ject of closure for Limitation of debate
The battle over the adoption of the
Reed motion to fix the date for voting
on ship purchase broke out suddenly and
unexpectedly little before o'clock. 1t
went on amid tense excitement.
The Republicans were all but caught
mapping at 2 o'clock when the. unfinished
business, which was the ship-purchase
bill, was In order. Senator Reed, how
ton OF rules. He did not at first per-
celve that the effect of this would be to
dlsplace the unfinished business. After
consultation in hurried fashion with
some OF the leaders on the Democratic
side he pressed his motion to take up
the rules question and 1t was carried, AZ
to AZ plus the affirmative vote of the Vice
President whose ballot settled the tie. .,
REED STARTS SHARP FIGHT.
The struggle precipitated by Senator
Reed was one of the hottest parliament
airy fights the Senate has seen for many
months. He moved shortly before 2
o'clock to adopt his resolution fixing Feb.
ruary 10 to vote on ship purchase before
the Republican leaders had fairly
awakened. Senator Gallinger quickly
moved to refer the Reed proposition. to
the Rules Committee. Reed moved to
table. The Reed motion was lost, As to 49,
Senator Kenyon voted with the Repub-
licans and Senators Norris and La Fol-
lette with the Democrats.
Reed then moved to amend the CALM
ger motion to refer to the Rules Com
mittee so as to provide for reference to
the Finance Committee. He said the
Rules Committee was opposed to any
change in the rules limiting debate. Gal
linger moved to lay the amendment on
the table Bryan, OF Florida, raised the
point that 1t was not in order to offer
an amendment to the motion to refer
to the Rules Committee. The Vice, Presi-
dent sustained the point.
Reed then moved TO instruct the Rules
Committee to report back his proposition
forthwith and without amendment. Gal
linger moved to table. This was carried
apparently by AZ to 49,.
The Galllnger motion to refer to the
Rules Committee was then voted on, but
in the midst of 1t Senator Reed .chal-
lenged the proceedings on the ground
that there had been an error in the an
nouncement of the result on the CALM
ger motion to table. ,., q. ~.Nfa...N-' .
After a short wrangle Senator Reed
gained his point. and 1t was found that
the motion to table had resulted in
vote of 46 to i6. 1t had been announced
AZ to IS through an error.
The Vice President announced that the
Gallinger motion to table was lost. Sem
ator Reed then asked that the subse-
quent proceedings be eXpunged, and this
was agreed to.
BY this time . o'clock had arrived, and
Fletcher asked to lay aside temporarily
the unfinished business. This was OBJ
jected to. Reed then wanted to extend
the morning hour so as to make up for
the time lost through the error in the
wrong announcement Of the rollcan. Gal
linger objected.
Senator Reed was undecided for a few
minutes but finally moved to take up
the question relating to the rules and
ordering vote on February 10. His mo-
ton finally prevailed, n to AZ, which was
broken by the affirmative vote of Vice
President Marshall.
This brought before the Senate once
more the question of adopting the Reed
amendment 10 the Gallinger motion to
instruct the Rules Committee to report
forthwith the Reed resolution fixing Feb
ruary 10 as the date to vote on the ship
purchase. Lodge raised the point that
the question was debatable and gained his
point,
Thus the whole question raised by Reed
was thrown open to debate. and Norris
offered an amendment to the Reed amend
ment for general rule on closure. Sem
ator Stone protested against this, but
Senator Norris said he was convinced
ship purchase could not pass, and believed
the adoption of a general closure more
important.
La Toilette took the floor to make a
speech on his peace resolution.