The National tribune., 1883-02-15
TARIFF TINKERING.
The River and Harbor Bill..-Probing the Polygamy
Problem.

The question as to whether tariff bill will
be passed this session or not, can not be much
longer in doubt. The middle of February has
arrived with half the appropriation bills still
pending, both branches of Congress still strug-
Cling with the tariff question. In the House,
there is yet to be passed the two great appro-
priation bills, the legislative, executive and
judicial, and the sundry civil. There are also
the deficiency and river and harbOr bills to be
considered. The Senate has done hardly any
thing upon the appropriation bills and has yet
to fight over the army and navy appropria-
tions, which have been very much altered i'll
committee from the form in which they came
from the House. Still, with all the legislative
difficulties of the situation, there is much more
prospect of the tariff bill being passed now
than there was week ago. At that time it
was conceded on all sides that it would be i'm
possible for the House to finish consideration of
the measure brought forward by the Ways and
Means Committee. The same may be said now.
But at that time the Senate had warped and
twisted its bill into such an incongruous meas
ure that no one believed the House would pay
any attention to it when it was sent over, and
thus the Senators were believed to be losing
their time by devoting weeks to its considera-
tion. Now, however, the Senate has so far cor
rected the discrepancies in its bill, that it is
considered highly probable that the House will
take it up and manage in some way to put it
through
The leaders of the House on the Republican
side, while they were ready last week to vote
against the Senate bill, are now i'll favor OF its
adoption, and new rule is being made the OBJ
ject of which it is to provide way for taking
it up. The rule is proposed by Mr.. kassOn, of
Iowa, and provides that majority of the House
may take up any bill it sees fit and put it on
its passage. The rules were changed last ses-
sion after desperate struggle in order to stop
filibustering by the Democrats against consid-
Grafton of the election cases. At that time
Speaker keifer made decision which nearly
caused a riot in the House, to the effect that
diatory motions could not be allowed to pre-
vent the House from altering its own rules,
following a precedent set by Speaker Randall in
1876, when he prevented the bringing about OF
confusion with reference 30 the Presidential
succession, by putting an arbitrary stop to the
filibustering of his Democratic colleagues.
Should the Senate bill be found as it is believed
now it will be, to have gone through the cruci-
BILE of Six weeks discussion and hourly change
and still suit the leaders, the new rule will be
put through the House, and under it the SEN
ate bill be taken up. Its consideration under
the circumstances that surround it may be re-
garded as tantamount to its adoption.
For the most part all this tariff legislation
which is being attempted in Compress is simply
a game of euchre between The politicians.
Congressman have become possessed of the idea
that there should be reduction Of taxation.
The question is how to do it. and at the same
time leave the burden Of the effect upon the
other side. Politicians among themselves un-
dcrstand each other, and they understand that
it is species of national CANNON. There is
10 cry from tax-burdened people for tariff
tinkering, and beyond the correction of few
discrepancies in the list it should not be touched.
The country has prospered under the tariff
during the last twenty years as it never did
before. Then, according to all human reason,
if these conditions are changed by sweeping re-
ductions and destruction of all relevancy in
values, the result will be bad. The demagogues
who are now posing as tariff reformer5 know
this perfectly well, and the problem of their
political existence at this time is how now to
figure as reducers of taxation and, at the same
time, so arrange it as to have good excuse
ready for the disqualification which win hap
ptfi after it is done
The situation, however. while complex, seems
80 Indicate the passage of tariff bill of some
sort. RI
TIE PoLYGAMY PROBLEM.
The members of the Utah Commission have
been in the city for some days in consultation
with committees of Congress with reference
to the polygamy problem. Elk Secretary
Ramsey, of Minnesota, president of the conf
mission, was asked how the new law at
fected the practice of polygamy, and whether
in his opinion, the result would be bene-
fetal His reply was characteristic of the
man who through all his public life, has been
noted for conservative action and cautious
speech Said he: u" It depends upon 'how you
look at it. The Mormon thinks the law is all
outrage, while the Geutile thinks it is a dead
letter. The law deprives the polygamist of the
right to sit on jury, to vote. or 10 hold Office
Now, this is a good deal, isn't it! | should
think so. Well, the law does so much. Yetit does
not suit the Gentle population of Utah, because
they want the institution cut out by the roots
They would take knife and pare it away lit
orally. They are only one-ftth of the people,
but they want to override the other four-tifths
to go in and possess the land as it were
This is all very natural and if Congress should
see fit to pass law depriying the Mormons OF
all political power, creating a legislative COM
mission, l suppose it could be carried out This
is what the ultra Gentiles want. They want
the Legislature abolished and the law making
functions Of the people wiped out OF existence.
They want every yestige of power removed
from Mormon influence within the Territory,
and their affairs administered by officials ap
pointed by the President Very well. Con-
gress will probably enact such laws as seem
best in view Of the constitutional rights of a
citizen who, of course, cannot be alienated
Here is a difficulty which the Gentle in Utah
cannot appreciate He is so ultra in opposition
Now, Congress cannot pass law forbidding a
man to be Mormon any more than it can pro-
hibit Catholicism or Professionalism. IL is only
when the Mormon commits an overt act and
takes more than one wife that he is guilty of a
crime and becomes subject to the penalties
provided in the statutes. President Arthur,
some time ago, asked me to mako any sugges-
tions which / thought necessary IN order to
help carry out the object of the act creating the
Utah Commission, which was, of course, the
suppression Of polygamy. gave him my views
on the subject, and they are embodied in the
bill recently introduced by Senator Edmunds
to amend the previous act. This bill provides
marriage law. Under it marriages must be
performed in public instead of in secret in the
Endowment House. record must be kept.
Again, female suffrage is abolished, and first
wife is made a legal witness against her hus-
band in trial for polygamy. Should this act
pass, think that we shall have progressed at
least so far as to have secured competent ma
chihcry for the punishment of polygamy"
Ex-senator Paddock, Of Nebraska, another
member of the commission, was asked what he
thought of the prospects for the suppression of
polygamy in Utah. Said he: l think all
power should be taken from the people of the
Territory, and the right of suffrage and repre-
sentatlon in Legislature of their own. The
polygamists now dominate the Legislature and
control the affairs of the Territory just the
same as they ever did The Legislature is
composed of Mormons who, while not pOlyga-
mists, believe in the institution and are COM
plete tools of the church. We shall never be
able to reach them until all this is wiped out.
Let polygamy be stamped out by the most
stru gent laws admin istered by officers an