The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-25
All Are Anxious to Avoid Delay and
None VIII Oppose Rushing the
Bill to the Voting Stage.
SUGAR MAY CAUSE TROUBLE
But DIFFERENCES WILL PROBABLY
BE ADJUSTED IN CAUCUS.
Lager Beer Brewers Not Likely to
Gain Their End by Threats of
Political Vengeance.
Special TO tie indianapolis Journal

Special to tie indianapolis Journal.
WASHINGTON, May 24-Harmony was
the song everybody sang this afternoon at
the Republican senatorial caucus and the
programme, as outlined in last nights dis
patch to the Journal, was informally agreed
to. There was no dissent to the chorus,
no discordant notes, no gnarly, knobby in
ctdents, 10 symptoms of rebellion or re-
volt. The universal desire expressed was
to get together and rush the tariff bill
through without waste of time. Whatever
there may be of differences between Repub-
licans over points in the bill will be heard
by the finance committee, which will hold
nightly sessions for the purpose, and if
matters cannot be settled there, an appeal
to caucus can be had. Mr.. Aldrich made
some general remarks and incidentally
gave the caucus an exposition of the beau
ties of the sugar schedule reported by
the finance committee. Upon that one
proposition the caucus scheme is likely to
fail, for the reason that while the COM
mittee may get majority to back up it's
report, there are enough hopeless irrecon-
cilables to defeat the schedule in the SEN
ate. Senator Fairbanks made an effective
speech for party harmony and for con-
tinuance of the spirit of concession and
Cancellation in the long and important de-
bate before them.
The Republicans in the Senate are becom-
ing decidedly restive under the threats of
the brewers and their agencies and say
they will treat the beer makers as they
propose to treat the Sugar Trust-ignore
their plans and bear down on them all the
harder for employing offensive bulldozing
methods The brewers are invoking the
of ha
man-American vote"-and threaten to beat
any party with it which dares to assume
the responsibility of taxing the poor mans
beverage" 1t is proposed by some of the
most fearless among the Republicans to
make short work of the pretense of the
brewers that they control the German
American vote or that the German-Ameri-
cans are as a class interested in terrifying
Congress into exempting the brewing inter-
est from its fair proportion of the burden
of taxation 1t will be demonstrated that
there is no shadow of foundation for the
brewing claim of an association of SYM
pathy between the German-Americans and
the beer makers on the question of taxa
ton, and that no party need have the
slightest fear of the avenging blows of
this great fOreign-born class on account of
vote to put a tax on beer. 1t will be
shown that relatively, beer pays a ridicu-
lously light tax as compared with whisky
and that justice demands a readjustment
The rough estimate has been made and is
now undergoing verification, that while
whisky, with a capital of $50,000,000 en-
pIoyed in it's production, pays $50, 600 900
year towards the revenues of the govern
ment, breweries, with an aggregate api-
talization of approximately $3.50, ,000, 900, os-
capes with S33,O0O000. The danger the
brewers are mourning by threatening Con-
gress with the bogy of German-American
vengeance is that the additional tax pro-
posed will be made a permanent instead of
a temporary provision in the bill.
Senator Aldrich is not alone in his pre-
diction that the internal revenue features
of the Senate measure will go through
both branches of Congress and become
law. There is going to be a pretty fight
however, over the beer tax in the Senate
led by Senator Vest, representing the ST.
Louis brewers and their business associates
in the great beer-producing centers. The
Republicans propose to call attention also
to the alleged fact that a large proportion
of the brewing capitalization m this coun-
try is held, not by Germans, as claimed,
but by English and Americans, who con-
troll the many powerful Anglo American
brewing syndicates with an aggregate capi-
tai Of hundreds of millions.