The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-05-02

Washington, D. c., May 1-(SpeciaD
The Democratic policy concerning the
tariff is now pretty well defined, and the
promises made that the Democrats and
silver Republicans would not obstruct
tariff legislation will be fulfilled There
will be no distractions and no unneces-
sary delays. The Democrats and Fusion.
lists are willing that the currency cues
ton should be postponed SO far as consd-
Grafton is concerned until the regular SEES
sion next winter They are willing that
the present session should be largely, if
not altogether, confined to the purpose
for which is WAS called, for the consider.
alton OLA tariff measure. They are will
ing that the Republicans should. pass n
protective bill, taking the responsibility
OF its success or failure upon themselves.
But they are not willing that the bill
should be passed imposing onerous bur-
dens upon the agricultural classes for the
sole benefit of the trusts While they
will not insist that the bill should con-
form to their own political views they
will insist that the burdens should he as
equally borne as possible and the sbene-
fits, If any such there are, shall be
equally distributed.
That is the position of the Democrats
in the Senate ON the tariff law. They
would not allow the retroactive feature
to remain as it passed the House, and
that has already been stricken ont.
There must be some kind of II provision
prohibiting the formation of trusts and
combinations, and it is now certain that
such an amendment will be- passed.
With these safeguards now already as-
sured the Democrats, they will not place
any factious amendments before the Sem
ate nor attempt to obstruct the passage
of protective bill. The measure could
have been reported yesterday had Senator
Jones. of Nevada, been in Washington.
About a week ago, Senator Aldrich
of the Republican finance subcommittee
asked Senator White, of the financ. com
'nittee, whether or not he would oppose
renorting the bill directly to the Senate
Senator Whites answer was: eff YOU
Will let me see the bill will tell you in
very few minutes whether or not will
object to its being go reported"
This very reasonable proposition was
declined, and Senator White did not get
to see the bill. About the same time the
Republican members of the finance COM
mittee went to Senator Jones, of Nevada,
and asked him just what --he wanted in
serted in the bill. He told them that he
did not know at that time, as he had not
given the matter sufficient consideration:
but he would let them know later
Yesterday, the Republican committee
met, supposing that Senator Jones would
be present;but he had gone TO New York,
and had telegraphed Senator White a
proxy to vote against reporting the bill
directly to the Senate until he had a
chance to examine it. In the absence of
Senator Jones nothing could be done, as
he holds the balance of rowei in the
committee The consideration was there
fore postponed until next Monday. when
Senator Jones will be present.
a great many conflicting statements
have been made as to the position of Sen.
ator Jones on this tnriff There have
been many surmises as to what he will
do, which are not ut all justified. There
is no real secret rs to Senator Jones'
position on the tariff. There is no man
IN the Senate more willing to talk, or
whose statements can be better relied
upon.
Senator Jones is one of the most ar.
dent protectionists in the United States
Senate, and he is not in line with his
brother Drotectionists in .the Republican
party when they seek to limit the doctrine
OF protection to manufacturers Senator
Jones Is thoroughly WesIcrn; he believes
that the mining and agricultural indus
much protection as the manufacturing
interests. The Dingley bill will only be
kept IN committee n sufficient length of
time to enable the Democrats to deter
mine whether or not the principle has
been equally applied to 'thc mapufactur-
ing, mining and agricultural interests.
How long this will be depends entirely
! upon Senator Jones.
| The most prominent characteristic of
the Nevada Senator is the absolute com
fort in existence which he insists upon.
Official responsibility is never allowed to
weigh heavily upon Senator Jones. If he
can be Induced TO work, it will not take
him very long to thoroughly digest the
Dill, ms he is II very rapid worker and is
| possessed of an unusually clear com pre-
hension. AS an ILLUSTRATION of the
methods of Senator Jones' the experiences
OF the lobbyists here in behalf of the
citrus fruits industry are strikingly in
| point. Besides the State of Nevada.
which he holds In partnership with Sena-
tor Stewart, Senator Jones owns his resi-
dence mt Santa Monica, Cal and few
thousand acres of land in southern Cali
fornia. His sor, Roy Jones, is in the
banking business at Santa Monica. The
son is largely interested in citrus fruits,
consequently one of the points that Sena-
tor Jones will absolutely insist upon is Z,
one cent pound tariff on citrus fruits
The lobbyist called upon him. and they
were treated royalty, Senator Jones say
ing that the bill should not pass until their
interests were fully protected He in
sisted upon their stating over again, sew
cral times just wha: they wanted, so that
he would Tot forget and the words "cant
pound 'were spoken by each of the five
lobbyists, ut least "a dozen times
The next day, when they called again,
Sepntor Jones again received them very
cordially, and told them that he was pre-.
pairing an argument in support of the
two Genus II pound that they waited on