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Show RAILROAD BILL ' TAKES UP TIME OF LAWMAKERS Washhlngton, Feb. 20. Congress bent itself almost exclusively toward expediting the administration bill to govern federal operation of railroads. Debate on the measure was, begun in the House and continued in th? Senate. The Senate agreed to begin voting on amendments Thursday afternoon, af-ternoon, expecting passage of the bill late that night or Friday. In the House, it U, planned to close general debate Thursday and pass the measure meas-ure before adjournment Saturday. Considerable 'amendment of both the Sonate and House committee drafts before final action was forecast fore-cast by today's discussion. The principal addresses in the Senate Sen-ate were by Senators Johnson, .of California and Townsend of Michigan, Michi-gan, Republicans, both of whom opposed op-posed the measure as now drawn. Representatives Sims of Tennessee and Stephens of Nebraska, Democrats, Demo-crats, championed the draft of tho House committee. 'Government ownership own-ership of railroads was advocated by the California senator and by Representative Repre-sentative Stephens. Senator Townsend pointed out several sev-eral alleged defects in the bill, asserting as-serting that It waa not understood by many committee members and that the railroads are supporting the measure In expectation of rate Increases. In-creases. He said he doubted whether wheth-er the government could enforce the provision prohibiting railroads from paying dividends higher than their regular rates. |