| Show THE SILVER FIGHT the following is a washington special to the herald speaker reed has proved himself a true prophet he has been repeatedly peat edly quoted in these dispatches as saying during the past ten days that the republicans who would vote for the senate amendments to the house silver bill would be fairly balanced by the democrats who would oppose them the result today showed Speakers the estimate to be almost mathematically correct since nineteen republicans supported the free coinage proposition while twenty three democrat arrayed themselves in opposition to it it waa three when the house bill as amended by the senate was taken up for consideration A test of the relative strength of the two parties was war made on the first se section tion which provi provided jed for free coinage by a vote of nays to yeas which was taken amid a good deal of suppressed excite excitement m n the house refused toe to e concur 0 in the amendment and following this the other amendments were disposed of in even a more summary manner the twenty three republicans who voted for free coinage were bartine carter connell de haven featherstone featherstone funston gifford hermann kelley laur morrow perkins peters post smith of illinois townsend of colorado turner of kansas williams of ohio dorsey anderson of kansas owen of indiana wade and merrill the following democrats voted with the republicans to non concur andrew buckley campbell clancy covert dunphy dorgan flower Geissen hainer mason mcadoo oneil of massachusetts quinn spinola tracy turner of new york vaux wilcox rusk busk and stump some surprise was expressed upon the conclusion of the roll call that mr payson of illinois who is one of the he extreme silver republicans of the house had voted with his party against free coinage it was subsequently learned that mr payson had received assurance that if he be and other republic republicans aS would remain inside the party lines that when the bill went into conference a compromise should be agreed upon fixing the purchases at oo ounces a month the notes to be legal tender redeemable in coin the bullion redemption demp tion tiou feature eliminated and absolute free coinage when silver reaches a parity with gold I 1 have already shown that twenty three republicans refused to be influenced by this prospective active compromise but insisted upon voting for free coinage with the democrats notwithstanding the efforts of the party whips to keep them in line an analysis of the votes shows that all the bolting republicans represent constituents that are clamorous for the unlimited coinage of silver and that no matter what their personal convictions might bethey be they dared not run counter to public opinion at home As one of these gentlemen aptly put it today 1 I know that the president will veto a free coinage bill and as a sensible man I 1 should prefer preer supporting a measure that he will sign even if it is not all we desire but I 1 am coming up for reelection and if I 1 dont vote for free CO inage coinage my opponents will bring my record up against me it will take all my time to explain these an ani I 1 meanwhile the other fellows will be making an aggressive campaign for this reason I 1 have decided to vote as my people wish no matter what the result may he be there are but two eastern democrats kunimi cummings and wagner of new york who gave their support to the free freb coinage movement all the others from the middle and new england states either voted with the republicans or were paired against it there was a curious story going the rounds coundi at the capital today which showed how one determined man prevented the silver bill being pigeonholed pigeon holed in the committee on coinage weights and measures and possibly kept there for an indefinite derild last monday evening speaker reed and representatives kckinley and cannon the three republican members of the committee on rules together with representative conger of iowa the chairman of the coinage committee lodge of massachusetts and of maryland met in the appropriation committee room and after a short consultation decided to put aside the silver bill for the present and report a special order taking up the federal election bill before doing this however it was decided to consult with some of the free silver republicans and discover how far the proposition met with their approval accordingly payson and post of illinois carter of montana morrow of california bard bartine ne of nevada and peters of kansas were sent for and consulted as to their wishes payson who is one of ef the brainiest brai niest and most forcible speakers on the republican side at once uttered a vigorous protest my constituents constituent sat at home he said are insisting that the reference or of this bill to the coinage committee means that you intend to stifle it there if possible what my people and the western people geng generally rally want is immediate consideration of the bill and we we will agree to no delay let us have a vote upon it if you can beat us we shall have nothing nc more to say but give us a chance to test our strength P at this point pot nt speaker reed interposed with the remark that several of the southern democrats notably crisp blount and hemphill were expecting the elections hill to come up and had already prepared their speeches spee ebes in opposition to it mr payson sarcastically replied that the southern men were not dying to discuss the elections bill and volunteered the information that they would willingly forego the pleasure of addressing the house upon the subject if it could be kept in the background and not brought forward this session he informed the speaker that twenty five republicans had already decided to vote against their party on the silver proposition and he assured the gentleman that nearly as many more would join them if the overt attempt were made to delay the measure this brought the speaker to terms and the conference was closed with a general understanding that the bill should be brought up on wednesday an and that mr payson and his bis friends would stand with their party against the senate amendments anti and that the compromise outlined above should be insisted ius isted upon by the house conference |
