I take some blame to myself for not insisting
more strenuously upon modifying Mr. Torrey's measure. But
he constantly visited different Senators and Representatives
and came back to me with glowing accounts of the prospects
of the Bill, and of their promises to support the Bill. He
was also the agent of the business organizations of the country
who had passed resolutions in favor of the measure as he had
drawn it. It seemed to me therefore that if I should get
the Bill amended and then it got lost, I should incur the
great reproach of having obstinately set up my judgment against
that of this large number of the ablest men in the country,
who were so deeply interested in the matter. So the Bill,
though brought up and pressed Congress after Congress, failed
until Mr. Torrey enlisted in the Spanish War.
I then introduced a Bill in a softened and modified form.
It was attacked in that form by Senator Nelson of Minnesota,
a very excellent lawyer and gentleman of great influence,
in the Senate. He succeeded in having the Bill modified
and softened still more. The Bill then passed and went to
the House which, under the leadership of the Judiciary Committee,
substituted the original Bill.
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