New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-06-20
NOT 4 DEBA7ING CLUE.

The Presidents selection Of Tariff Commits
soners has been very unreasOnably criticised.
On some grounds it was quite open to criticism.
But it has seemed good to many Democratic
and TO some Republican journals that 1t was
the duty of the President to organize species
of small debating club, in which the most
zealous or windy champions and opponents OF
the system Of protection should be set face to
face to fight it out" The common complaint
is that "bOth sides should have had a fair rep
resentation," OF else that persons strongly COM
mitted to either side" should have been cX
Guided. A more puerie notion never was con-
ceived. The debating club stage OF intellectual
development renders Congress nearly useless,
and has spoiled many other organizations in
tended for practical usefulness, and there is
cause for much cOngratulation that 1t has not
been permitted to strangle the Tariff Commits
sion in its very birth. The business OF Con-
gress is to get practical legislation accom-
plished not to chop logic Constituents ought
to know the convictions Of the members they
elect When they have elected majority OF
protectonsts it must be assumed that they
want practical legislation shaped with due re-
gard to the protection of American industry.
A Congress thus selected, and having such Il
majority, instructs the President to form a
! Commission for the purpose of recommending
| a Tariff bill. A President thus instructed is
| bound to know that the Commission ought to
he composed of men who will endeavOr in good
faith to carry out the known wishes of the
majority, by framing as GOOd protective tariff
| as possible.
Hence, as we observed weeks ago. it was the
duty of the President to exclude from the Com
mission men who could not consistently and
conscientiously take. part in an earnest and
honest endeavOr to frame as good protective
tariff as possible. Any man who believes that
each and every protective feature is pernicious,
and ought as far as practicable to be rooted out,
would have been in such body a mere OBJ
struction and nuisance; it would have been
impossible for him to do anything except to
| oppose and hinder the very work for which the
| Commission was created.
1t is worth while to observe, too, that the
formation of n Commission for the opposite
purpose has been for years within the power
of the opponents of the tariff. While the
Democrats had majority in both houses of
Congress, it was urged upon them by free
traders that they ought to frame a tariff for
revenue only. The party repeatedly pledged
itself to do so. Several times it tried, and on
every occasion abandoned its work because it
did not dare to directly assail the system of
protection Now that party has played dog
in the manager" long enough If it will not at
tempt to give the country a tariff of any other
sort, it has no business to find fault when Re-
publcans try to frame better and more useful
tariff of the kind we now have. Neither has it
any business to obstruct that effort, nor to de-
mand the selection of Commissioners whose
sole aim. from first to last, must have been to
obstruct and defeat it. The country has a
right to have good legislation, of one sort or
the other If the Democrats will not or dare
not offer good legislation according to their
theories, in decency let them stand aside and
leave Republicans free to improve and perfect
the existing tariff if they can.
Thus the criticisms so commonly uttered APP
pear to be childish, or worse. The sound OBJ
jections to the Presidents selection are of
very different sort. Among the men selected
there are some of very high qualifications but
there are also two or three who are not known
to possess any especial fitness for the work in
hand. 1t seems a pity that after choosing
men SO peculiarly qualified in different direc-
tons as at least five of the Commissioners are,
the President did not find men of correspond
ing thoroughness of knowledge in regard to
other departments Of industry. 1t is assumed
that a desire to have both political parties
represented is the cause. But, if represented
at all both parties should have had upon the
Commission men of considerable positive in
fuence in their ranks. The gentlemen selected
as Democrats will not have much weight with
that party as its representatives, and it may be
questioned whether one or two of them have
other special qualifications. The President
might have done better. But he has named
very excellent Commission on the whole, and
one Of its especial merits is that it viii not go