Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1882-05-17

THE tariff commission bill, measure
outlined by the American Iron and
Steel association three years ago, passed
the Senate yesterday as it came back
from the House, and will become n low
in a very few days by the signature OF
the President. 1t provides for the ap'
pointrnent of nine commissioners, who
shall be paid $40 per day and expenses,
and who shall visit such parts of the
country as they deem necessary to col
lcct information regarding the tariff.
They shall print such testimony as they
take from time 10 time for the informa-
ton of Congress, and on or before the
fret Monday Of next December they
shall report to Congress the result OF
their investigation with the testimony
taken. The bill was designed by the
projectors, the iron and steel monopo.
lists, not to facilitate a revision Of the
tariff, but to secure an indefinite post
ponement of such revision, and thereby
maintain the tariff as it 10 with all its
monstrous exactions, incongruities and
embarrassment to commerce and in.
dustry, and it is admirably adapted to
this end. The commission will probably
be composed Of majority ofthe friends
of the monopolists who will control its
actions. It will spend the summer and
fall in q pleasure trip over the CONT
nent, and at various points it will 90
through the ceremony Of listening to
just such speeches from volunteer sour
ces on the advantages and disadvanta-
ges of protection as have been delivered
by the mile every day for two months
past in Congress- The commission,
stenographers will take all these down,
and they will make up printed volume
or several printed volumes of mountain.
ious proportions, which nobody will
read, and which will in due time be
dumped into the old paper waste of the
capital and sold to the paper manu-.
facturers. All this stuff will be laid
before the present Congress next De-
cember, after the November elections
are over, and just before the holidays.
or course the work will be too great to
take up before Christmas, and the holt
days will send it over into the middle of
January. The present Congress will
then have but a month and a half Of
life left, and it will be all it can posi-
bly, do to get the appropriation bills
passed before it gives up the ghost on
March 4. 1t is therefore perfectly APP
parent that nothing can be done with
the report next winter. That throws
the report into the next Congress, which
the people will elect in November, but
which by supremely idiotis provision
Of our law does not meet in the ordinary
course until December 1883, over a
year after it, election. That Congress
will be chiefly engaged in President
making, and of course both parties will
be afraid to do anything but make faces
AT each other They may tackle the
mountain Of rubbish their predecessors
will have bequeathed them, but besides
playing battledore and shuttlecock with
the few bits Of it the leading members
may pick out of the mass for party pur-
poses, with view to the coming cam.
paign, will not dare to do any practical
work. If the house should be Republi-
can the Republicans will take good
care to keep the subject closed. IF it
be Democratic, nothing which may pass
the House can possibly pass the Senate.
Whatever the complexion Of the body,
it will in all probability spend its time
in Presidential attitudinizing, and ad.
journ in the midst of the Presidential
campaign to meet again after the next
President shall have been elected.
Courtesy to the new President will, Of
course, then require that so important
subject shall be postponed until he
shall be inaugurated in March 1885,
and declares his policy, after which, un.
less he call special session, there will
be no Congress to act until the winter
Of 1856. Protection has thus secured
a long respite, during which the mon.
opolists will grow richer, the poor will
grow poorer, and in all probability
another panic will be brought about by
the over production and speculation
that tariff stimulation periodically in.
duces.--Detroit Evening News.