The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1894-02-14
Action which Needs no Defense.

OF course, that peculiar class of
creatures who suffer from political
posorasis and are known as Repub-
lican editors, have begun to froth at
the mouth because the Senate
finance committee has refused to al
low the pampered pets of protec-
tion to take up the time of that
body by packed delegations of ter
rorized opponents of the Wilson
tariff reform bill. This decision of
the Democratic majority of the SEN
ate requires no defense or discus
sion, but inasmuch as Senator Voor-
hees, chairman of the committee,
has seen fit to make statement in
the premises, we give it herewith.
Says the Senator.
"Prompt and speedy action on
pending tarifflegislation is required
at this time by every patriotic and
business consideration. The ma
jority of the finance committee.
charged with the responsibility of
the pending measure, intend that
no delay shall occur which is i'm
possible to avoid. We are deter
mined that the business men of the
country of all classes shall at very
early day have a full and clear in
sight to the laws of tariff taxation
which shall hereafter prevail.
"A claim, however, is now made
that whoever may wish to do so
must be allowed to come before the
finance committee and make speech
es to us in regard to each and every
particular interest affected by the
tariff. This claim is without our
limit as to numbers, and if granted
to one person it must be granted to
all. One Senator alone asks 500 to
be heard from his State. 1t is also
unlimited as to time, and becomes,
therefore, in the hands of the oppo-
nents of tariff reform, an instrument
of delay, indefinite in duration and
far more efficient than the worst
form of flibustering on the floor of
the Senate.
"But, if these hearings, as they
are called, are a matter of right and
cannot be denied by the committee,
they should be merely ex-parte in
their character? If we are to listen
for the next four or five months, as
it is boosted in certain quarters we
will be compelled to do, why should
the manufacturers, those who plead
for protection, for gains and profits
by legislation, alone be heard2 1t
seems to us that the consumers of
tariff taxed goods, the farmers, the
toiling millions throughout the
whole land have the highest right
of all to be heard in their necessary
Observation-Disclosures againstin-
justice and oppression.
If the cause of privilege, protec-
ton and financial greed are to in
wade our committee room to be
heard during the coming spring
and summer, then by every princi-
pie of justice and right the cause of
the victim, the toiling consumer,
must be heard. The truth is that
legislation was never accomplished
by such methods and never will be
under our form of government.
"The people are heard through
their representatives in Congress,
and a moments reflection will show
how ample and sufficient such hear
ings have been and will always con-
tinue to be. For instance, why
should the business of the country
be left in doubt for weeks and
months while the manufacturers of
a certain State are talking to the
committee, when in point of fact,
a Senator from the same State, a
manufacturer himself, could be dis
cussing the same questions far more
intelligentIy and ably on the floor
of the Senate? 1t is all idle pre-
tense that any right is denied to
anybody by the course the commit
tee has determined to take. We
will report our bill to the Senate
without delay and then full hear
ings will take place"
Pass The Bill.
In snenkinnr of the dntv of Senn-