Show BEFORE THE VOTE BOTH SIDES MARSHALED THEIR FULL VOTE washington april 11 intense interest was manifested la the house of representatives today in the final contest over the porto alcan till at 11 the on rules assembled in speaker hendersons private ot fice and settled the days pro gramme fixing the final vote for 5 p m today the speaker and dalzell and grosvenor voted tor the special rule and sir richardson the democratic member ot the against it early in the day the party managers were exerting their utmost endeavors ende avora to assemble a full vote the measure adopted were almost unprecedented in their thoroughness on the republican side there were twenty five or thirty absentees aut representative long the republican whip was in telegraphic communication with every one of cheso and knew on what train each would arrive sir long summed up his work by saying that every republican representative would be present or paired with a single exception boutelle ot maine and 11 was hoped to pair bilm later it is impossible to guard against sickness or flood or disaster said mr long but barring un forseen mishaps I 1 look for the passage ot the bill as it came from the senate by a majority ot from three to nine mr richardson the democratic floor leader would not venture a prediction saying that with such a narrow margin one unexpected mishap might turn the tide mr underwood the democratic whip counted on not more than five democratic absentees three of them being sick but the republican estimate of democrats unpaired ran up to nine viz bailey of texas stallings of alabama fox of mississippi cochran of missouri crowley of illinois ridgeley of kansas and robertson davey and meyer of louisiana the sick list includes robertson crowley and ridgeley it was expected however that mr ridgeley might venture out for the vote and mr fox was expected by train the democratic members also claimed that a pair had been arranged tor mr bailey which would have to be accepted the halt score ot republican members who oppose the bill held a conference at the capitol shortly before noon eleven members were present and tha reports presented show that a total of nine republican votes against the bill could be relied upon mr mccall summed up the situation from that standpoint as follows we have nine republican votes beyond that all depends upon the presence of democratic members and that is an unknown quantity to us but the vote will be close washington april 11 the rule on the puerto rican bill was adopted yeas nays present and not voting 11 |