The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1894-08-10
THE LAST KICK.


at loggerheads over the coal and iron
ore schedules at the date OF this writ
ing. The Senate representing the coal
and iron combine and the House rep
resenting the people at large are See
saving Just as they have been from the
very start Of attempted tariff reforma-
ton.
The only encouragement the Senate
now gives the House conferees is that
they are endeavoring to get the con-
sent of the rich men comprising the
coal and iron combines (along with
their own reluctant consenD to an easy
sliding scale which they have proposed.
Its a kind Of FIVE years grace scale
that is not given other industries. If
our Senatorial statesmen cannot beg
the combine to accept the easy terms
of this proposed scale, agreement is OF
course impossible. Whyf Why be-
cause, forsooth, the combines own the
Senators, brains, body and boots-as
for their souls, it is quite possible that
the devil has them safely corraled.
Senatorial fear of popular oppro'
brium likely to result in jeopardizine
their own return to Office makes oul
proud Senators poor, miserable beg
gars from the combines upon the one
hand and from the mass of people
upon the other. But they are more tc
be condemned than pitied for the sac
political fix they have got themselves
into.
Now. while the House still insists
that the combines coal and iron shal
be as free as the farmers wool is, thu
Senate insists on FIVE years grace ant
a sliding scale for our coal and irol
magnates. This is the difference anC
the only difference now between tn,
House and Senate, between the repre-
sentatives of the masses and the rep
resentatives of the classes.
If the combine back of the Senat
will consent to the easy sliding seal
their generous and sympathetic sena
torial servants have found it policy t.
fix up for them, all will yet be well,
may be; but otherwise the seesaw ma
continue indefinitely.
The easy sliding scale referred to i
neither a radical nor a rapid slide to
ward free trade, and it seems to bea
no concession whatever upon the pal
of the Senate and the coal and iro
combines. The terms of the CON
promising slide is as follows
"Under this scale the duty or pre-
lection on coal and iron is to be fort
cents per ton for three years and twer
ty-fve cents ton for two years, an
after that free"
This, you see, gives the coal an
iron combines five years grace; an
yet they are not happy. They seem
be somewhat indisposed. The grac
thus granted is four years and sos day
more than other industries get and ais
more grace than the poor farmer gel
on free wool at the jump. To sue
length Of grace the House, OF course
somewhat demurs, as in duty bounc
and hence the delay of important leg
islation.
| The demand of the House is b
| no means radical or ruinous upon tn
coal and iron combine. 1t kindl
suggests sliding scale also in the ii
terest of the combines. The Hous
demands that the duty shall b
lreduced five cents each yea
for five years, and after the laps
| of this time both coal an6 iron to b
free of duty. Accepting either hor
| of the dilemma the combines will hav
| FIVE years in which to think about fire.
trade before it fully settles down upo
| them. We call that victory enoug
| for one session for the combines. A
all other points of difference hav
been practically settled, the passag
of a tariff reform bill this session
seems now to rest upon the shoulder
of our coal and iron combines, rathe
than upon our statesmen in Congress
assembled, and consequently it is ye
to be hoped that the tariff bill will b
be permitted to pass somehow and il
some shape very soon. All it will re
quire then will be the Presidents sic
nature to make it kind of a slidin
law.