The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1894-08-15
Public Patience Exhausted.

From the New York Tribune.
Senator Hin, with his usual kesnness
Of Judgment, has accurately Interpreted
public opinion respecting the deadlock al
Washington. Congress has been in ses-
sion over year; the Tariff bill has been
in conference over a month; there has
been deliberation enough; the country
needs rest. Either pass bill at once,"
he says, or adjourn and go home. These
" are my sentiments, and believe that
"they are the sentiments Of nine-tenths
'of the people of both parties" Every
business man from Maine 10 Oregon not
connected with Democratic syndicates or
trusts is in full accord with the Senator.
Further inaction is absolutely without
justification OF excuse.
Every business interest in the country
is now hanging upon the issue at Wash
ington. Home manufactures are para
lyzed by prevailing uncertainties; inn
Porters having large stocks in bond can
not set prices upon their goods nor dis
pose of them 10 retail merchants; every
industry i at a standstill; nobody can
take a long look ahead and get his bear
ings. The country has had the worst
shaking up since 1857, and the Democrat
ic Legislators will not get out of the way
and allow business men 10 adjust them
selves either TO the old tariff or a new
one The Tariff bill ought to be disposed
of in one way or another. Rest and re-
cuperation are indispensable conditions
for resumption Of prosperity. Every
day spent in dickering and wrangling in
Washington entails enormous losses upon
every branch Of industry. Further delay
is intolerable. Positive action Of some
kind, either in enacting or dropping the
Tariff bill, is demanded with one voice
10y the American people.
Senator Hill remarks i'm his sententious
way that any legislator who does not
know exactly what he wants 10 do on the
tariff question after all this time spent in
useless deliberatiOn i unfit to represent
any constituency. That is also the judg-
ment of all practical business men, and II
will be brought % bear in the autumn
not only against individual dawdlers and
meddlers, hut against the party in power
a. a whole. The country has had all the
experience il wants with incompetent
Legislators unable TO makeup their minds
and 20 agree upon any course Of action.
Il has learned to its cost that in order to
have well-ordered conditions of business
and resi- from unsettling tariff oontrover-
sies it must inrn out Of power the party
which has been on trial and been found
utterly wanting in practical capacity.
Americans have also discovered during
the last thirty days that the evils of tariff
agitation are aggrieved when there i a
dictatorial nfeddler in the Executive Of
fee. who uSurps legislative functions in
violation Of constitutional usage and the
traditions and presages OF century Of
National history. Tariff controversy is
unsettliDg enough even when there are
two legislative houses 10 be brought into
harmonious relations; but confusion be-
comes worse eonfounded when the Presi-
dent, instead Of remaining in the hack
ground, interpOses his vanity, obstinacy
aud self-Opinionated policy between the
warning chambers and seeks to force both
20 surrender ahjectly 10 him before ar
ranging compromise with each other.
The interference OF the President with
Congress in its constitutional functions
has been unwaTTantable. His action j.
indefensible. The situation has been
needlessly complicated by his arrogant
assumption OF an authority with which
he Is not armed by the Constitution, and
which be is employing with all the self
viii Of an imperiOus nature and with all
the resources and prestige Of his great
office.