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poses before a commencement of the consideration of this bill shall be had. I hope, therefore, that the Senator from Illinois will insist on taking up this bill and commencing the consideration of it at the earliest possible day.

Mr. SABIN. Mr. President, I am unqualifiedly in favor of pressing this bill or some other bill, having in view the objects which it is intended to cover by the measure now before the Senate. It may be that on consideration and examination I shall be unqualifiedly in favor of this bill as agreed upon by the conference committee. But I do not believe that the interests of this great country will suffer by a ten days' postponement of this bill as much as they will suffer by a hasty and ill-advised consideration of it.

I can not see why the chairman of the committee should insist upon calling the bill up on next Tuesday, when cert inly it is obvious to me, as it must be to every member of the Senate, that it is going to elicit a very warm and protracted discussion, and for myself I wish very much to be present when that discussion commences, and to be here during its continuance.

If there is any prospect of the bill being called up on Tuesday next, I desire and propose to be here, but it would be a matter of very great inconvenience to myself, and I think it would be to many other members of the Senate. I do not believe that the bill will be hastened or that the objects for which it is intended will be served by pressing the consideration of it at this time. I certainly wish that the motion of the Senator from Kansas may be adopted at this time.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair did not understand the Senator from Kansas as making any motion, but as making a suggestion. Does the Senator make a motion?

Mr. INGALLS. I submitted to the Chair the parliamentary question whether in the present state of the bill I could make that motion. The PRESIDENT pro tempore The Chair is of opinion that the Senate may proceed now to consider the bill. It is on the Calendar,

having been simply laid on the table, and is open to a motion. Mr. INGALLS. I understood the action of the Senate to be to lay the bill on the table by motion.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore.

It is laid on the table, but a motion to proceed to its present consideration the Chair thinks is in order at this time, it being between 1 and 2 o'clock.

Mr. INGALLS. I think on deliberation I will let my motion lie over until Tuesday.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Calendar is now in order.
Mr. HOAR. Before this matter passes-

Mr. PLUMB. I thought I had the floor.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Kansas has the floor on the resolution offered this morning.

Mr. HOAR. I ask what number of copies is it proposed to print? The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Five thousand extra copies; and that resolution has gone to the Committee on Printing.

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ORDER OF BUSINESS-CONFERENCE REPORTS.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The morning business is now closed,

and the Calendar is in order.

Mr. VEST. I move that the Senate proceed to the consideration of the bill (S. 2589) being Order of Business 1453.

Mr. CULLOM. I desire to call up the conference report on the bill (S. 1532).

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. That is not now in order until the question is taken on the motion of the Senator from Missouri [Mr. VEST].

Mr. EDMUNDS.

Let the title of the bill be read for information. The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The title of the bill the Senator

from Mississippi proposes to take up will be read.

The CHIEF CLERK. “A bill (S. 2589) authorizing the construction of a bridge over the Mississippi River at Saint Louis, Mo."

Mr. ALLISON. I hope the Senator from Missouri will not ask the Senate to take up that bill to-day. There is a contest respecting the manner of constructing this bridge, as the Senator knows, and many people are interested in it. I understand an examination is now being made by the engineers of the War Department respecting the proper mode of constructing a bridge at this point, having reference to the preservation of the navigation of the river. I think that report will be in after the holidays. I trust the Senator will allow the bill to go over without prejudice until after that time.

Mr. VEST. I can not agree to that. The bill has been pending here now several months. It was reported by the Committee on Commerce months ago. I know there is a contest about it; but I want that contest settled. If the bill is put off until after the holidays it delays the construction of the bridge; there is no other result.

This is a bill of the very greatest importance to the people of the West, not only to the city of Saint Louis but to the States beyond. It is a proposition to construct a free bridge across the Mississippi River at Saint Louis. I know the interest the Senator from Iowa speaks of that is opposing it. All we want is a fair discussion and an immediate decision. Therefore I insist on my motion.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on the motion of the Senator from Missouri.

Mr. GEORGE. If that motion prevails, what effect will it have on the unfinished business?

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. None at all. The question is on the motion of the Senator from Missouri.

Mr. ALLISON. I ask for the yeas and nays on the motion.

Mr. MCMILLAN. I desire to say that I think this matter will lead to a prolonged discussion. There is a report of the committee in favor of this bill, but it is not a unanimous report. There was a decided conflict and difference of opinion in regard to the matter in committee, so that it will lead to a long discussion, and on the eve of an adjournment for the holiday recess I think it had better not be taken up. Mr. HARRIS. I rise to a parliamentary inquiry.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair will hear the Senator. Mr. HARRIS. The question that I want to propound is, is not the motion of the Senator from Illinois [Mr. CULLOM] a privileged question, and does it not take precedence of the motion of the Senator from Missouri [Mr. VEST]?

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair is of the opinion that under the rules the motion to take up bills must be taken in their order without debate. Debate is out of order.

Mr. HARRIS.

The motion of the Senator from Illinois was to take up the report of the conference committee on the interstate-commerce

bill. My opinion is that it is a privileged question, that he has a right to call it up at any moment he chooses to do so.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair will examine the rules. [A pause.] The Chair will have Rule IX read.

The Chief Clerk read as follows:

RULE IX.

ORDER OF BUSINESS.

Immediately after the consideration of cases not objected to upon the Calendar is completed, and not later than 2 o'clock, if there shall be no special orders for that time, the Calendar of General Orders shall be taken up and proceeded with in its order, beginning with the first subject on the Calendar next after the last subject disposed of in proceeding with the Calendar; and in such case the following motions shall be in order at any time as privileged motions, save as against a motion to adjourn, or to proceed to the consideration of executive business, or questions of privilege, to wit:

First. A motion to proceed to the consideration of an appropriation or revenue bill.

Second. A motion to proceed to the consideration of any other bill on the Calendar, which motion shall not be open to amendment.

Third. A motion to pass over the pending subject, which, if carried, shall have the effect to leave such subject without prejudice in its place on the Calendar.

Fourth. A motion to place such subject at the foot of the Calendar.

Each of the foregoing motions shall be decided without debate, and shall have precedence in the order above named, and may be submitted as in the nature and with all the rights of questions of order.

Mr. HARRIS. I ask the Chief Clerk to read the rule on the subject of conference reports. That is the rule to which I referred.

Mr. FRYE. Rule XXVII.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore.
The Chief Clerk read as follows:

Rule XXVII will be read.

RULE XXVIL

REPORTS OF CONFERENCE COMMITTEES,

The presentation of reports of committees of conference shall always be in order, except when the Journal is being read or a question of order or a riotion to adjourn is pending, or while the Senate is dividing; and when received, the question of proceeding to the consideration of the report, if raised, shall be immediately put, and shall be determined without debate.

Mr. CULLOM. That indicates, I think, that I have a right to make the motion whenever I can get the floor to do so; but it is in the power of the Senate to determine whether it will consider the subject or not. If I may be allowed to make a statement in reference to this subject at this time, I will do so.

The PRESIDENT protempore. The Chair will determine the point of order in the first place. The Chair is of opinion that pending a motion to proceed to the consideration of a bill, under the last clause of the eighth rule, it would be in order to move to proceed to the consideration of a conference report. The two rules when construed together give to a conference report the privilege of being taken up at the pleasure of the Senate as against every other question except a motion to adjourn or when the Senate is dividing. So when the Senator from Illinois shall make such a motion-the Chair does not understand that the Senator has yet made the motion-the Chair will put it.

Mr. CULLOM. I rose to make the motion, and I only want to say, if I may be allowed, that I desire to call up the report of the conference committee on the bill (S. 1532) for consideration to-day for the purpose of giving the Senator from Iowa [Mr. WILSON] an opportunity to make some remarks upon the bill, after which, in accordance with the suggestion of very many Senators on both sides of the Chamber that it would be impracticable to consider and vote upon the conference re

port before the holidays, I have determined that, so far as I am conconcerned, I shall consent, after the remarks of the Senator from Iowa, to let the bill go over until after the holidays, with the anno"ncement now that whenever the Senate shall resume its sessions I shall call up the report again for consideration, and shall insist upon its consideration from day to day until it is disposed of.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator submit a motion now to proceed to the consideration of the conference report?

Mr. CULLOM. I make the motion now to proceed to the consideration of the conference report.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair is of opinion that the motion is in order. The question is on the motion of the Senator from Illinois to proceed to the consideration of the report of the committee of conference on the bill (S. 1532) to regulate commerce.

The motion was agreed to.
The PRESIDENT pro tempore.

Senate.

The conference report is before the

Mr. WILSON, of Iowa. Mr. President, it is more than a decade since the agitation which finds a result in the report now commanding our attention became active in Congress. It had moved upon the minds of the people and made its presence felt by the instrumentalities of State governments before it appeared here. At its inception it manifested staying powers which portended ultimate success. It was an assertion, by disturbed conditions and interests, of sections, localities, business, of the forceful doctrine of equality on which our system of government is founded. It was a cumulative declaration that that doctrine is not confined in its application to the individual and his distinctive personal relations, but extends to all of the affairs, interests, and relations that are evolved and established by organized communities and movements of government. It was an assertion that the equality which has been our boast and pride from the beginning is a principle of society applicable to all things upon which government can act. Hence, the agitation, in the very nature of things, had staying powers equal to all of the exactions which the struggle precedent to success might impose.

A comparatively new system of transportation had, in effect and substantially, reversed all of our methods of domestic trade and commerce. It had assaulted all of the doctrines of our long established law relative to the duties and responsibilities of common carriers. It had asserted a masterful control of the doctrine of equal rights, and established in its stead a practice of discrimination that at last shocked the people's sense of justice and fair play. It laid its usurping hand upon sections, localities, associations, and individuals, and all of their interests of trade, commerce, and business of whatsoever kind. It has steadily and unreasonably refused to recognize the simplest business principles, and marked out lines of action for itself, which have excited the resentment of almost every interest it was created to serve. It has made itself an intermeddler in almost every department of business and in almost every detail thereof. It has refused to admit that it was created to serve the proper purposes and interests of society, and has assumed to direct and control them. Not the public interests, but its own have been its study, forgetting that the true method of conserving the best conditions of both is to recognize the equal rights of each.

The managers of this system, while admitting great defects in it in respect of its own affairs, have resolutely opposed all efforts of the State and National Governments to project and establish reforms which would

tend to assure justice and promote the common interest, and this explains why some conservative and proper legislation for the regulation of the unsatisfactory conditions existing in the interstate commerce of the country was not years ago enacted by Congress. There has been no disposition on the part of the managers of our transportation system to aid in the formulation of legislation which would tend to correct the abuses that they, in common with afflicted individuals and communities, admit to exist. They have tried among themselves to find remedies for some of these things in so far as they affect themselves and the immediate interests committed to their charge, and have uniformly failed. They will neither keep faith with each other or allow the public to aid them; and in all this they have done violence to their own interests and have intensified the demand of the people for some legislative remedy. It will not be wise to longer delay some affirma tive response to this demand.

Mr. President, the contest which has attended this subject has been long and tedious. We have now reached a point in the movement when something may be done. The adoption of the report of the conference committee which we are now considering, by both Houses of Congress, while it will not accomplish all that I should like to have done, will afford the country an opportunity to test a regulative remedy, unless objections by the President be interposed by a veto of the bill. That differences of opinion prevail relative to the various propositions embodied in the report, we all know. But this is not a new phase of the movement. From the very commencement of the agitation which has culminated in the bill now before us, these differences have existed. The most earnest friends of legislative regulation of interstate commerce have never wholly agreed. But they have toilsomely pursued the subject. Study, investigation, earnest effort they have pursued for years. Both Houses of Congress have had their proper committees at work on the subject for more than a decade. The public press has given it prolonged attention and forceful discussion. All of these agencies of information and effort, in so far as they have tended to affirmative action, have been confronted by the opposition of the forces of the transportation system of the country. These forces are active now, pleading for further delay and more investigation. In the New York Tribune of the 19th instant I read a reported interview with the president of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad, and from it I make the following extract. The question having been put to him, "What do you suggest?" he answered:

That Congress at once pass a bill something like this, appointing five boards of commissioners of three members each, to examine all questions involved and clothed with all powers necessary to obtain thorough, accurate information, including the examination of the books and accounts of the railroad companies, one of these boards to act in the territory of the Pacific roads, one for the roads northwest of Chicago, one for the States between the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, one for the Southern States, and one for the trunk lines; these commissioners to assume their duties immediately upon their appointment by the President and confirmation by the Senate, and be required to have their reports ready by October 1, 1887. Then these fifteen commissioners, as a board, should recommend to Congress when it reassembles next December suitable legislation to meet the requirements of the case and to settle this difficult problem.

No one need have any difficulty in arriving at the true meaning of this statement. It simply means delay. For more than ten years this has been the policy of the managers of the transporting companies of the country. Their constant and ever repeated declaration has been that Congress is not sufficiently informed in respect of the intricacies of the transportation problem to act with due caution and wisdom

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