The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-04

speeches you will be reading soon.
There Is no way Of shutting off any one
In the senate. Every senator can get
the floor and talk as long as he pleases
on any subject under discussion. The
tariff debate in the senate, then, Is
going to be full, free and interesting.
THE TARIFF IN THE SENATE.
Aldrich, Of Rhode Island, will have
charge of the bill no doubt. He knows
every schedule of every tariff act that
ever passed. He knows the condition
Of every business interest which can
be affected by a tariff law. At his ell
bow will sit Ben Durfee, the tariff ex
pert of the finance committee, who
knows almost as much as Aldrich does
And under Durfee's hand will be a
stack of reference books with places
marked for each days debate. Aldrich
will do the rapid croSS-fire work for the
Republicans. Allison will back him up
with longer arguments on schedules Of
Importance. On the Democratic side
German and Vest will carry on the run
ming debate. The Democratic side IS
not so strong in debate as the Repub-
lican side Of the senate, whatever are
the merits of matter under discussion.
German is so strongly tinged with
protectionism that he cannot be ex-
pected to show much heart in oppOs-
ing Republican tariff and Vests
knowledge of the tariff question is not
deep.
The Republican side has been
strengthened by the addition Of Mason,
Of Illinois. His breezy style does not
accord with the traditional dignity of
the senate, but he will help to enliven
the short range discussion. Plat, CT
New York, is another feature Of
strength. New York, with her big man
ufacturing interests and her keen COM
Wy 10 oil hn hn1. 1nr
has been represented in the senate for
four years by Democrats. Now she
has Republican senator to look after
her interests. Mr.. Plat, by the way.
is one of the side door statesmen at
the White house There are few of
them-only a few-and Abou Mark
Hanna's name leads all the rest. While
Mason and Cullom and other members
Of the senate are dangling their feet
or tying their legs into a1ots in Secre-
tary PorterS room, awaiting their turn
to be received, Mr.. Plat is shown i'm
mediately into the conference room, ad-
Joining the presidents office, and If
he wants private talk Mr.. Mckinley
comes out Of his Office into the confer
ence room and talks with him while
the other visitors wait.
Platts return to the senate has re-
lieved Senator o. H. Plat. of Con-
necticut Of nuisance. For many
responding to calls from strangers who
sent their cards to him under the i'm
preston that he must be Plat, Of New
York. You have no idea how many
people come to the senate cha 1ber
every day to see men who have been
out Of public life, perhaps dead, for ten
or twenty years. But then the people
at the White house tell me mail comes
there now addressed to Grant and
Hayes and almost every president from
George Washington down.
The Republicans on the finance COM
mittee have been working over the tar
iff bill for more than two weeks pre-
pairing amendments, and they tell me
the amendments will be many. The
senate has a way Of taking a house
tariff bill and knocking 1t into cooked
hat. The Mckinley bill was unrecog-
niZable when Mr.. Aldrich and his as
sociates got through with 1t. The Will
son bill was not the Wilson bill at all
when Mr.. German had fixed the sched-
ules to suit him. Mr.. Dingley won't
know the Dingley bill when it comes
back to the house.
George Grantham Balm.