, 1890-10-15
THE CASE CONCISELY STATED

The New York World publishes a
~three-c0lnmn interview with Senator Car.
Isle, which furnishes entertaining reading
as well as iood for reflection. On the
subject Of the arbitrary action Of the ma
jority in the last House he says: "The
tariff bill, which contained 73s paragraphs
in the schedules Of durable aud free aui-
cles and forty-eiEht or forty nine pages
of important legislation, was taken out Of
the committee of the whole and the pre-
vious question ordered upon 1t when only
IA paragraphs had been read and when
about 200 amendments that had been pre-
scented and we're TO be offered had not
been considered. There were a great
many instances in which substantially the
same proceeding occurred, notably in the
case of the bill to %reorganize the Judiciary
system of the United States by abolishing
the circuit courts as courts Of original
jurisdiction, providing for the ap
pointment of cts hteen additional cir
cult Judges and creating courts
of Appeals in the circuits. This bill was
passed under a resolution which allowed
but AZ hour and a half for debate. Tie
result of this disregard for the rules of the
house and of haste in legislation has been
that in a great many instances bills lett
the house in a very Grade and imperfect
form, and the records will show that the
senate, instead of amending house bills
in various parts, as usual. has been SON
PEELED to prepare entire substitutes for
them. The Election bill and the Land
Forfeiture bill we're instances Of that kind.
| could name a dozen very important bills
where the senate instead Of amending
them. had to pass substitutes for them.
/ do not remember a single instance in
which the resolution reported from the
committee on rules was rejected, The
house did always what the committee
determined. 1t was, in fact, n govern
ment by committees, instead of a govern
ment by the representatives, OF the people
in accordance with their own deliberate
Judgment. The effect of all this was to
destroy the house utterly as a dcllbentive
body. and to convert it into q more
machine to register the DEGREES Of the
committee on rules.
The closing paragraph is a most re-
markable exposition of the effect which
tho tariff will have on the working peo-
pie. ut is the natural disposition Of
every man in trade" he says, ito take
advantage of a general rise in the price of
commodities, aud in the mex place he is
compelled to do so TO a certain extent, be
cause the prices of a great many things
which he is compelled to buy and to use
for himself aud his family will be actually
increased by the new tariff law; and he
must also increase if he can the prices cf
the articles he has to sell in order to ON
pensate himself for his additional ex-
penditures. In other words. what |
mean to say is that when you in
crease the prices of the commodities
which the people are compelled to have,
the almost inevitable effect Is to
raise to some extent the prices OF
all other articles. All the products Of
labor except such as we produce in greater
quantities than we need for domestic con-
sumption, as is the case with agricultural
products generally. will thus rise in price,
but the wages OF laborers and the com
pensation OF persons with fixed salaries
will not rise. They are always the last to
feel the effect of a general increase of