New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-03-12
proropE THE LARs.

II sounds like sarcasm, but is simply trutn
Congress having adjourned lawmaRlng VIII
now begin. Only a Republican Administration
will now make the laws For four years past
Democratic Administration has been repeai'
ing laws which were enacted by Congress De-
fore Do-Nothing Democracy came INTO pos
session of the House. Incapable OF enacOnS
laws, the House left MFR. Cleveland to perform
duty for which Representatives are chosen
and he has actually made more laws several
times over, BY rules of the Civil Service OF
the Land Office, the Pensions Office, the POST
Office. the Internal. Revenue service, ana
especially by rulings Of the Treasury, thah
Congress has enacted during the same years
But his most important enactments have been
acts repeating part of the protective tariff Aow
greatly the tariff has been changed by Elk
ecutiye decisions alone, without single act OF
Congress for more than four years. very lew
persons are aware. The first and most urgens
duty which is pressed upon the new Admins
tration by memorials from the people Is 10
give them back the law which their Repre-
Sentatives and Senators enacted; to sweep away
a host of Executive acts by which the obvious
meaning of that law has been defeated and
nulliied. In repeating such acts OF Q Demo-
cratic Administration President Harrison will
in effect make laws himself, and yet he will be
only restoring the law originally enacted by
the peoples representatives in 1888.
For instance, the wool and woollens interest
has already appealed to the Treasury Depart
ment for a reversal of the ruling by which
many kinds of "waste'' have been admitted at
l,,I., ~ orf,, I a oartc non nnund fhnTQh thny
are in fact fine wool perfectly secured or partly
manufactured. In the last two years about
5000, 600 pounds of such waste" have been
admitted, nearly the whole OF it contrary to
the plain intent of the law, as Is proved be-
yond question by the fact that, while the
average cost of all frstAclass clothing wool i'm
ported during the last fiscal year was only
81 1-2 cents per pound, the average cost Of the
"waste'' was 80 cents per pound, or 80 per
cent more. The same interest asks that the
important ruling by which worsted goods have
been admitted as not manufactures Of wool
shall be reversed. 1t is shown that one OF the
greatest industries, by such usupation Of law
making power, has been seriously Frustrated.
President Harrison has full power to revoke
any law which his predecessor had power to
6udCb. lU pun ~ ihofV SoflrSVJJ NO nus oD-
solute power to restore the acts Of Congress,
and to enforce them instead Of the acts Of
Mr.. Cleveland.
Similar appeals have come, or viii speedily
come, from the iron interest, which has been
deprived of part Of the home market by
Treasury rulings, and from other interests in
greater number than anybody supposes, which
have similar reasons to long for restoration
of the laws enacted by Congress. 1t Is hardly
too much to say that the tariff has been radi-
cally altered by President Cleveland since Con-
gress ceased to do anything with it, for his
acts have been directly contrary to the avowed,
well-known and deliberately expressed inten-
tons of the acts of Congress, and have been
meant TO nullify their protective purpose as far
as possible. 1t should be remembered, also.
that it does not take hole as big as ships
bottom to nullify that ship as a carrying and
supporting apparatus. The holes which Dem
ocratc Administration has bored in the tariff
were expressly intended to scuttle it and make
it go to the bottom, and it is not Mr.. Cleve-
lands fault If the act of Congress has not en-
tirely failed 70 accomplish the protective pur-
pose of those who enacted it.
The new President and the new Secretary Of
the Treasury will not be ambitious to nu1ify
laws but they may be expected to restore and
honestly enforce the act for the protection Of
American industry. Where Treasury rulings
have plainly defeated its intention. the duty Of
the Secretary will be to reverse those rulings.
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