The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1893-12-27
IIHH SBNA7H'S ACTION,
What Win 1t Do About the
Wilson Tariff Blll2
IS HARD QUESTION TO ANSWER.

lEepEe8G11E
Gus Parts of the Country.
wAsHrNaroS. Dec. e6.-what the sem
ate will do with the tariff is coming to be
question of some moment now that
ii is realized that probably only lit
tie more than month viii elapse before
the bill providing for its change shall
reach the body The Democratic mem
Lers of the finance committee will ap-
preciate that they viii not be relieved of
responsibility by the action of the house,
and are looking forward to the time
when the house Will have to take it up
and go to work upon it as line issue,
and with a complete sense of their duty
to the country and their party, regard
less of the action of the house. They
have already gone bar enough to know
that it is
Going to Be Very DihicuIt
for them TO harmonic views which are
in some respects widely conflicting.
The meetings which they held few weeks
ago are believed to have developed more
in this respect than was given to the
country.
There will necessarily be vast diff
ferences as to details, and it seems prob
! able now that each.member of the COM
mittee will have many changes to sug
gest il the bill is allowed to stand as a
whole, but
The Principal Contest
will be over proposition to report a
complete substitute for the Wilson bill in
the senate. The only thing which Will
probably prevent this radical treatment
will be the impossibility of agreement
not accept with favor the present bill.
The Democratic membership of the
senate committee on finance, composed
as it is of senators from all sections of
the country as far as New Jersey and as
far west as Missouri and including
representatives from Indiana, Tennessee,
North Carolina and Arkansas, naturally
presents all the
Varying Shades of Sentiment
on this subject held in the party from
belief in protection to American labor
and American industries to an advocacy
of as near an approach to free trade as
the collection of revenue to pay the ex-
penses of the government will permit.
Senator Mcpherson, representing an
eastern manufacturing constituency. has
been known for years as a Randall Dem
| ocrat, and his friends intimate that he
| finds
So Many Objectionable Features
In the bill in the direction of a reduction
of duties on manufactured goods that he
would prefer to amend it by the substi-
tuition of complete new measure.
On the other hand, Senator Jones of
Arkansas believes absolutely in a tariff
for revenue and for no other purpose,
and does not consider that protection is
constitutional. He does not like the re-
tention of
The Sugar Bounty,
and is inclined to the opinion that small
duty on his articles for revenue purposes
would be far more strictly in accord
with Democratic doctrine, and would
serve the purposes of the treasury better
at this time. He finds many traces of
| the protective theory left in the Wilson
bill, and would doubtless, if he had his
way about the matter, report sutsti-
tute for the entire bill which would look
absolutely to
Tho Revenue Feature
and knock out all semblance of protec-
ton, to whatever interest.
Senators Harris, Vest and Vance
would be more inclined to coincide with
Mr.. Jones than with Mr.. Mcpherson.
Senator voorhees,, who, as chairman of
the committee, will have more than other
members to do in shaping its course, may
tween these
Conflicting Theories,
and it is safe to say that he will advocate
the retention of the Wilson bill. He
holds the opinion that the Democratic
members of the ways and means commit
tee have done great deal of hard work
in preparing the bill and finds in it so
many features that commend themselves
TO him, that he thinks it ought to stand,
with some changes. He accepts with
favor
The Adj YaIorem System,
and also the transfer of a large. number
| of items on the raw material list from
the protected to the free column.
| With the administration holding the
anne view as the chairman of the COM
.ittee, it would seem probable at this
time that the Wilson bill will hold its
place as such when reported to thesenate
from the finance committee. Unques-
honably there
Will BE Many Changes,
but if the international revenue bill
should provide a fairly satisfactory means
of providing for the treasury deficit, the
| Wilson bill, after being tossed about,
criticized and altered to a greater or less
degree, will be reported to the senate by
its committee early in the spring months
Such thing might happen as Senate
Mcpherson joining with the Republicans
and thus taking the question out of the
hands of the Democratic majority of the
committee, but that
Is Not Probable
under all the circumstances. Strong
pressure may be brought upon him from
his own state to pursue this course, but
the wishes of the president will be a
strong factor with the New Jersey sena-
tor. Furthermore he is a man who al
ways prefers to make his fight within the
lines of his own party.
The prospects are that those persons
who are
Opposed to Free Raw Materials
in the Wilson bill-coal, iron and lead
ore, lumber, etc.-will concentrate their
efforts TO secure changes in the bill in the
senate. Delegations representing these
various interests will be here soon to be-
| gin their work. Democrats, as far as
possible. are being delegated to make these
protests.
John NJ. Burke of Idaho, the advance
guard of the lead men, is here and will
be joined in n few days by others repre-
senting the states of Montana, Wyoming,
Nevada and the territory of Utah. MI.
Burke says that free lead ore will ALSO
lutely
ParaIyze the Mining Industry
of the states and territories named. Mr..
| Burke was the Democratic candidate for