St. Paul daily globe., 1894-07-15
LIGHT AGAIN BREaKrNG.

LIGHT AGAIN BREAKING.
The senate bill has met reception in
the house that is cheering. 1t Is the
first ray OF sunlight that breaks through
the clouds which have lowered on Dem
Ocratic hopes since February. when the
bill having in it the germs of free trade
entered the portals of the senate. whose
Intel might be inscribed with notice
TO the free trade bills of the house, all
hope abandon when ye enter here.
Amid the jeers and sneers of Reed
and his imitatorS, and under the STIR
ring appeal of Chairman Wilson for the
redemption of pledges. the keeping of
faith. by sturdy insistence on the
main features of free raw material and
the ad valorem method of taxing, the
house refuses concurrence in the senate
amendments and sends the bill to con-
ference. The membership OF this i'm.
portant committee gives warrant that it
will stand firmly for the cardinal points
stated by the chairman, Wilson will
be ably supported by McMillin, Turner
and Montgomery, all capable men, who
feel that the utmost of concession to
protection was made in the house bill,
and that the flood should be stayed at
the limits therein set.
Aside from all question of right and
weighing merely tactical reasons the
ouse should unwayeringly support its
conference committee in the position
Chairman Wilson takes. There is no
n CT 60 81 a.,
eral opinion in the party, especially in
he w est was one of disappointment
with the concessions of the house bill.
This feeling was intensified into dis
gust verging on rebellion as the senate
proceeded to shape the bill to meet the
wishes of our few protectionist sena-
tors. There was widespread feeling
that relief would have to be found in
some new party if our own should prove
incapable of giving it. The effect of
the ratification by the house of the sen
ate surrender would be to immensely
increase the Populist vote this fall,
partly because of a desire to make some
kind of protest, and partly because of
the fact that tue motive which is the
nucleus of that party. was opposition
10 protection. If representatives, es-
pecially from the Northwest, do not
know this they have lost touch with
their constituents.
1t Is right that the house stand by its
bill. To 1t is committed the right to
originate revenue bills. The senate vir-
tually, in tails case, assumes that right.
1t takes the house bill and makes a new
bill of it. 1t did so in 1883, and again in
1890. and it is time that the house call a
halt on this encr0achment on its preroga-
tive. The house was given this right be-
cause 1t represents the people who must
pay the taxes, while the senators repre-
sent the states. which pay nothing as
such. 1t is right, too, because the house
bill would De accepted by the party as a
temporary move towards freer if not
free trade, and the course of the Repub-
licans, opposing it at every step and in
every schedule, would make the issue
this fall distinct one between ultra
protection and long stcide away from
it, and the elections of go and '92 and
the subsequent congressional elections
leave no doubt of what the verdict
would be.
So far from the refusal of the senate
to yield being a danger the contrary
would be its effect. 1t would sim plify
the issues for the fall congressional
impaigns. 1t would concentrate pub
Tic opinion on tile one question of sus-
tanning the senate OF the house. 1t
would be eq uivalent to disagreement
with the government in parliament fol-
lowed by dissolution and going to the
coLntrY for its verdict. 1t would be a
submission to the voters of one question
relieved of all side issues. and. as in
the English case, speedy decision
capable of being followed by congress
sional action in the ensuing short ses-
sion. In such contest the unpopularity
of the senate would cut no insignificant
figure.
Good tactics and right conduct then
combine to point the house the course
to take. Stand firm as rock for free
raw material. Insist to the end on no
protection to the sugar trust. Make the
duties ad ValOrem Instead of specific, so
that the amount OF tax will rise and
fall with values, and cut out all possible
protection. Do this if it take until next
March. sitting in continuous session,
I'd the people will sustain you. Weakly
yield to the traitors who dominated the
senate, and he will be either very
sanguine man or have rock-buttressed
majority behind him who will care to
ask the suffrages of the voters this fall.