The Portland daily press., 1897-07-20
THE pINGLEY TARIrr.

The tariff bill is now in the form in
which it will become law, for though
there are threats of the Senate's trying to
recommit it to the conference commit
tee for certain changes, there is very lit
tie probability that they will be executed.
1t will be recalled that after the bill had
left the House it was remodelled by the
Senate committee with Senator Aldrich
as its guiding spirit, and made into
very different measure from that passed
by the House. But when it got before the
Senate the pendulum began to swing
back again, and almost all the amend
ments made there were in the direction
of bringing 1t back to conformity with
the House bill. The most notable excep-
ton was the sugar schedule. The Sugar
Trust was potent enough in the Senate
the Senate committee, with a fifth Of q
cent protection on refined sugar instea
of an eighth of a cent, as 1t had been
fixed by the House. With this excessive
protection to the Trust it went into the
hands of the conference committee, and
the Trust was sanguine that the House
conferees would give way and accept it,
as they had done in 1894 in the case of the
Wilson bill. But the House was very
differently led from what it was In 1894,
and the Senate conferees ran up against
House conferees as obstinate as they were.
The Senate conferees argued that
change in the sugar schedule would jeop-
ardize the bill in the Senate. The
House replied that the Senate schedule
would jeopardize the bill in the House
and discredit it with the country.
Thanks to the f1rmness of Speaker Reed
and the House conferees, the Senate was
finally compelled to give way, and the
Republican party was saved from the ev-
erlasting obloquy Of having assented
through it's representatives to a sugar
schedule dictated by the Sugar Trust.
/ The other changes made in the bill in
conference have for the most part been
in the direction of the House bill The
| the same as originally fixed by the
House, and several articles placed on
the free list by the Senate have been re-
stored to the dutiable list, while Senator
Lodges proposition for stamp tax on
stocks and bonds has apparently been
eliminated altogether. The most notable
Senate change which has been allowed to
remain in the placing of hides on the du-
table list, though the duty has been
somewhat reduced from the Senate fig
ure.
| Of course the bill as 1t now is contains
| features which the East would like to see
eliminated from it, and features which
the West is not entirely satisfied with.
Conflicting interests have necessitated
compromises in many cases, with results
not wholly satisfactory to either of the
contending parties. But the idea of pro-
lection to American Industries has been
| kept prominent throughout tho bill, and
| the protection has been made as equal
and fair as the circumstances admitted
| of. Unfortunately the bill has been
somewhat handicapped as q revenue pro-
Queer by the long time which it has been
under discussion, which has been taken
advantage of by importers to stock up,
and for year at least its quality as "a
revenue measure cannot be fairly judged.
| The weak point in the measure, If there
| be any, is that it contains no provision
for tiding over this time in which our
| importations are likely to be light.