A less exasperating, but no less effective fight was carried on in the
Senate.

On the Senate side, the amendment introduced by Black went to the
Judiciary Committee. This committee was made up of the nineteen lawyers
in the Senate, every lawyer going on the committee. But Warren Porter
named the order of their rank, and the chairman and the four ranking
members of the committee voted eternally with the Wolfe-Leavitt faction.
On a straight vote the majority of the committee was against the
machine, as was shown in the fight for an effective railroad regulation
bill. But when it came to getting results in the Senate Judiciary
Committee, craft and leadership, as has been shown in previous chapters,
not infrequently overcame numbers.

On February 16, the reform element of the committee insisted that action
be taken on the amendment. Chairman Willis was reluctant to put the
question. Few machine members of the committee were in attendance. The
anti-machine members were insistent. Willis was finally forced to put
the question, and the amendment, after the percentage of voters required
to sign a petition for the initiation of a law had been raised from
eight to twelve per cent, was favorably reported back to the Senate.

But Senator Willis was able to do on the floor of the Senate what he had
been unable to do in the committee, namely, secure further delay. He
protested to the Senate at the "snap judgment" of his committee, with
the result that it was re-referred to that body. The committee, however,
for the second time sent it back to the Senate with the recommendation
that it be adopted.

Then followed a series of delays in the Senate, so that the measure was