Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-07-15
DEMOCRATIC DELAY.
rome Plain Facts About the Progress
of the Tariff Biii-Had Republicans
Controlled the Senate IL Would
Have Passed Long Ago.
unscrupu'on. ob.sructionists.


MISCONCEPTIONS Obstructionists.
/ Washington correspondence: rHt
Now that the tariff bill is about to
become law, and now that many feel
that there was more time consumed in
1t than there should have been, 1t ia
well enough that the people should un-
derstand just where the delay occurred
and what party is responsible for 1t.
The fact Is, first, that the Republi-
cans do not control the Senate, and
are not, therefore, responsible for the
delay there. While they have desired
to discuss certain features OF 1t, they
have omitted to do so whenever possi-
bic, In order to prevent. delay. 1t Is
the Democrats who hayes spent the
time since 1t was taken up in the Sen.
ate, and spent II In talk. The pressure
on the part of the people for early &C
ton was so very great that the Re-
publicans were willing to f6rego, for
the present, any attempt to answer the
false and unjust charges (which are
being put upon record and spread be-
fore the public by those Democrats
who are attacking the bill, and for po-
lhical purposes.
The pressure from the people for ac-
ton on the bill is unusually great,
more so than has even been seen on
any occasion of this kind, 1t is not
surprising, of course, that people who
have suffered as ours have, under the
depressing and blighting influences of
the present tariff law, should be anx-
iOus, very anxious, for its instant re-
peal and the substitution of the prOtec-
tive system under which the country
was so prosperous for so many years.
But 1t seems that they do not realize
the embarrassment under which the
Republicans in the Senate have becl
laboring. If they were to stop mo-
ment and consider the fact that the
Republicans are in an absolute minor
ityin the Senate, that their hands lave
been tied, and that it is with the great
est difficulty and diplomacy that we
were able to cOmamnd or obtain suffi-
cient number of votes for the protective
theory, they would not have been i'm
patient, even under the distressing cir
cumstances with which they are sur
rounded. 1t has seldom, IL ever, hap
pened within the history Of the cOun-
try that a tariff was enacted when the
two branches of Congress were not
controlled by one party. Yet the Re-
publican party, with only a minority
in the Senate, has undertaken to pass
protective tariff bill. No administra-
ton, since Washington, ever saw a
tariff bin make such progress or as
near completion at this date in its his
tory as is the case at the present mo-
ment, even under the most favorable
circumstances, and now that this has
been accomplished, with the Republi-
can party in minority in the Senate,
unable to control that body with its
own votes, absolutely unable to hasten
action by any of the rules by which
debate is controlled in other parliament
tary bodies, and simply dependent up
on the whims and political wishes of
those who are opposed to it for permits
sion to proceed at all, it seems that the
people should realize that the Repub-
licans are doing all that is possible to
hasten action, and should place the
blame for the delay where it belongs
upon the Democrats.
1t is the Democratic party and its
leaders who are responsible for delay
in action upon the tariff bill in the Sen
ate. Had not the hands Of the Re-
publicans in the Senate been tied alb
solutely, the bill would have been upon
the statute books long before now. The
Republicans have worked in season
and out Of season to hasten action on
this bill. They have laid aside every
other consideration. They considered
the various items in the bill, schedule
by schedule, and paragraph by para
graph, in conference and caucus, and
before the Finance Committee day by
day, outside of the regular hours Of the
session, and during hours Of the ses-
sion, depriving themselves Of the OPP
portunity to answer the criticisms
made upon the bill and upon tie party,
simply for the purpose Of gaining time
and Fastening final action. They sat
in their seats, quietly, in response to
the demand of the people that nothing
should interfere with prompt action by
the Senate, knowing that there was no
other way by which they could hasten
the final vote. The Democratic men,
bers, recognizing the fact that the Re-
publicans. in their anxiety to hasten
the passage of the bill, were emitting
to answer the false charges made
against the bill and the party, proceed
ed to pile up groundlss attacks and
charges, setting up straw men and
fighting them for the purpose of max
ing cheap political capital and the Re-
publicans listened silently to these
false charges made simply because of
loyalty to those who were demanding
prompt action. The fault of delay Is
not with the Republican party, which
does not, and can not, control the Sen
ate. but Is with the Democratic leaders
and party, who are persistently and
unnecessarily and maliciously delaying
this beneficent measure, in order to
permit their allies, the importers. to
fill the country with foreign goods, and
at the same time to embarrass and pile
up false charges against the Republi-
can party, and reduce the prospects of
revenue during the first five months
of the operations Of the new law.
A. b. CARSON.
Business and Wheat.
The KEYNOTE of the business situation