Evening star., 1917-03-04

PRESIDENT program.
The leaders had not entirely aban-
doned hope of saving the measure, ana
some of them thought circulation OF
the manifesto for signatures had IN
creased the possibilities Of passage. 1t
was conceded. however. that the pos
sibility still was remote.
At midnight Senator Hitchcock. IN
charge of the bill, made another 1utile
effort to obtain unanimous consent for
limitation of debate, and 1or t,me t;no 70
vote. He proposed to begin nnal votlhg
"An overwhelming majority of the
Senate is ready for action now, ne
said. 1.-The bill passed the House oy
one of the most overwhelming MAORI
ties ever recorded there. / urge sena-
tors to give the Senate an opportunity
to express its opinion.
Senator Clapp said he did not believe
it possible to reach any unanimous
agreement as he knew that severai
senators opposed to the bill desired to
sne4k. He said he personally did not
desire to delay vote.
DIsclaiming any desire to flibuster, Sen
ator Works said that while senate ma
tority undoubtedly favors the Dill. ma
jority Of the American people oppose any
step which may lead to war. Declaring
the bills friends had consumed more time
than its onponents, he added: ''If it fails 1t
may Justly be said that it was killed oy
its friends. III.
reoue at and the debate was resumed.
Sixty-Eight Signatures.
Sixty-eight senators had signed the
manifesto at late hour tonight, and 9TH
ers who were absent were known to favor
It. Senators who had signed were:
Observation-Disclosures. Bankhead. Beck
ham. Broussard. Bryan, Chamberlain.
Chiffon, Culberson, Fletcher. Hardwick,
Hitchcock, Hollis. Hughes. Husting.
lanes. Johnson of Maine. Kern, Lea, Lee.
Lewis, Martin. Myers. Newlands. O'Gor-
man, Oyerman, Owen. Phelan. Pittman.
Pomerene, Ransdell; Robinson Sau.sours' ,urs
smith Of Georgia, Smith Of Maryland.
Smith of South Carolina, Swanson.
Thomas. Walsh and Williams-43.
Republicans-Borah, Brady, Brandgee,
Clark, Colt, Curtis. Dillingham. FAN,
Mclean, Nelson. Oliver. Page. Poindex-
ter. Sherman, Smith Of Michigan. Smoot,
Sterling, Sutherland, Townsend, Wads-
worth and Watson-25.
Among the Senators absent We're:
CaIIinger. Cor, Gore and Smith Of Ari-
zona.
Later Senators Underwood. Johnson
of South Dakota and Shafroth, demo-
Gratis, signed the manifesto.
Senators present who had not signed
were:
Democrats-Kirby, Lane. MARITIME.
Reed, Stone. Thompson. Tillman and
Vardaman.
Neutrality-suspicious., Cummins, Du
Pont, Gronna, Kenyon, La Toilette. Lip
pitt, Norris. Penrose, Warren, Weeks
and Works.
All Efforts Blocked.
Virtually all of the trouble came from
a small group OF progressive republi-
cans, who blocked every effort to get
consent for limiting debate
or fixing a time for a vote. Demo-
cratic leaders appealed to the republi-
cans to aid them in swinging the lit
tie group into line. pleading that in
the present crisis failure Of the bill
would mean national disgrace.
For the most part. the republican
leaders showed a willingness to CO.
operate. As the debate proceeded INTO
the night, however. without any tangi-
BILE evidence of a break in the opposi-
ton the administration senators grew
more and more dubious about the pro-
gram.
Mr.. Stone Makes Dramatic Fight.
The embarrassment of the democrats
was increased by a dramatic speech by
Senator Stone, chairman of the foreign
relations committee, opposing the bill
Is a war measure. That, however. was
he only evidence of detection in the
ranks.
Senator Simmons, on behalf of the
senators, conferred with
Senator Brandegee of the regular re-
,ublicans and Senator Kenyon. repre-
,enting the progressive republicans.
both of whom have supported the bill.
,rging them to intercede with Senators
Ia Toilette, Norris. Gronna and Cum
nins, the four progressive republicans
who refused earlier in the night to ac-
,ept any proposition to expedite
While the negotiations were proceed
ny. several Senators sought to induce
riends of the bill to refrain from dis
ussing 1t In order to force the four pro-
,ressive republicans to take the floor. |
1one Of them had yet spoken At length.
They would not admit that they in |
ended filibuster, but they had given 4
lotice Of an intention to discuss the |
Measure fully, and that was interpreted |
o mean they were reserv1ng themselves
or flna1 effort to talk tho bill to death. |
When Senator Stone concluded q four |
attack on the bill |
Senator Hitchcock asked unanimous |
:onsent to limit speeches 70 f8teen |
and also tor an agreement . !