The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-06-10

Washington, June 9.-For the first
time in the history of the country raw
cotton, the great product Of the South.
has been placed upon the dutiable LIST at
~ per cent. ad valorcm. This result
marked the close of one of the most sig
nificant and interesting days in the SEN
ate since the. tariff bill has been nnfler
consideration.
The proposition to place duty mon
COTTON came from n Southern man and n
Democrat, Senator Bacon, Of Georgia Tn
the final vote he brought no less than Ave
OF his Democratic colleagues to his SIM
port, viz: Clay, of Georgia; McEnery. az
louisiana; Tillman and -.McI.aurin, of
South Carolina, and Rawlins, of Utah.
Aithough IN suggesting the amendment
Mr.. Bacon had not the support of the
finance committee, hitherto a prereoui-
site TO success for any proposed change.
yet the Republicans were naturally any
lous to.vote for it, so that the figures by
which the amendment was adopted. 40 tn
| ID, were overwhelming.
The debate which preceded THE voting
was full of interest, while no little con-
Germ was manifested by many of the DEM
ocrats rs TO the ultimate result of the
breaking of party lines. In fact, it has
been very hard to hold the Democratic
side together since the tariff has been be-
lore the Senate. Senators White, OF CAL
lfornia, sind Rawlings, of Utah. broke
early from their party on account of -
duty on boraX, while the duty ON lumber
carried Off Mr.. Bacon and Mr.. CLAY. both
of Georgia
The detection yesterday, however, .was
50 general as TO excite widespread COM
ment, 1t was noticeable that the Demo-
Gratis who voted for the cotton ducy were
All new Senator's, while one OF them, Mr..
Mcl!aurin, Will soon go before the people
of his State for re election.
whether these Senators by their votes
Indicate new sentiment in the South.
and whether in the near future the Repub.
Leans will be able to make inroads in, n
hitherto exclusively Democratic section,
were Iuestions thar were asked yesterday
by politicians in. both parties. AT any
rate, there seemed to be n general fmnres-
sion that the duty on cotton, thus placed
upon tariff bill for the first time. and nv
the votes Of Southern Democrats, marked
new era in politics.
When Mr.. Bacon offered his amend.
ment for the cotton duty, which he did
early In the day, he said that the omis.
sion of the article from the dutiable list
was violation of the Democratic plat.
form that tari( q taxation should be i'm
posed so as not to discriminate against
any section The tariff, as q whole he
said, fell like dead weight on the pro-
Queer Of cotton, raising the price on altar
ticles that he used, but leaving his own
production in the lurch. The arrivals of
foreign cotton, he asserted, were con-
stantly increasing and if other agricultu-
ra! products were to be benefited by rev.
enue duties, the rule of consistency would
not exclude cotton.
1t can easily be understood that Senator
Bacon's proposition excited tho .iveliest
opposition from the Democratic side.
Senator Vest in par ticular argued against
Eit In most vigorous fashion. "If I
thought, " he said. "that the Democratic
platform meant what the Senator from
Georgia says it does would not have
touched it any more than I would have
touched At rattlesnake, knowing that
there was no whiskey within hundred
miles. God help us if this evangel is to
prevail" And Senator Jones, Of Arkan-
sas,w equally emphatic. s'This duty
said he, means nothing and will amount
to nothing but higher prices on cotton
goods. TO these statements Mr. Bacon
replied with much EMPHASIS, saying that
the Objectionable feature of the tariff in
the past had been it's sectionalism, which
he now proposed to obliterate. AN it was