The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-08

|
sylvanians, however, wanted "free
COAL" to encourage the development of
their iron ore. During many years, the
| line was drawn, in the case of tariff, as
over the slavery issue, in sectional
way that could easily be traced
There have been tariffs and tariffs
but it is modern improvement to at
| tach to these the names of the con-
gressmen who, at the time of the en-
actment, happened to be chairmen of
the house ways and means committee.
We hear of the tariff of 1889, of the war
tariff of 1912, of the tariff of 1916, of
the tariff of 1928, and so on. The
change came when, in 1861, a tariff bill
was passed to meet the demands of the
civil war. Since that time we have
had, for instance. the Morrill, tariff, the
Mckinley tariff, the Wilson tariff, the
Dingley tariff.
AS house member, Mr. Dingley had
served in one session or another on
committees that had dealt with some of
the modern-day tariffs. When the Nc
Kinley administration came into power,
a cabinet portfolio was offered to Mr..
Dingley. He thought he could see
through the stone wall of future poll
tics--the event proved that he was
right; he wanted to be at the head of
the tariff tnkering in the house; he got
what he wanted.
When, under President McKinley's
call, the congress met, in the spring of
1897 the prevailing opinion among re-
publicans was that New York ought to
have the chairman of the ways and
means committee, and thus hold the
leadership on the foor-it was pointed
out that the little state of Maine surely
ought not to ask the speakership and
the floor management, too. The New
York house republican delegation was
not particularly strong, but its men,
bership included one up-country mem
Der, Serene Payne, whose successive
terms had equipped him with valuable
experience. Payne was the man for
whom the ways and-means chairman
ship was asked, and the newspaper re-
porters at Washington assumed that
Payne was going to be the man for the
place. But that wasn't Speaker Reeds
way. He had plans of his own; he paid
no attention to what was said about
Names share or New York's; he gave
the chief craftsmanship in his gift to
Dingey.
You never hear of Payne now; you
would not have heard much of Dingley
but for the fact that the tariff bill
enacted in the summer of 1897 carries
his name, by virtue of the fact that he
was made chairman of the committee on
ways and means. In point of ability
these two men ranked somewhat alike.
The influence either of them might have
in the house comes not from native
ability of superior grade but from the
all-important fact of the experience
gained in successive terms in congress.
Mr.. Dingley gave some attention to
shipping interests during his earlier
years in congress. What he knew
about tariff he gradually picked up;
he was in no sense master of econom-
mental gifts above the ordinary. He
was reckoned to be a thoroughly up
right man, a good, everyday working
member, attending regularly to bust
ness but in no sense brilliant. He was
hardly up to the mark as the Trainer of
tariff legislation; his revenue scheme
would have proved to be an inglorious
failure but for the extraordinary events
and the extraordinary appropriations
incident to the war with Spain. He was
plodding, steady-going house mem
Der; he knew how to get on pleasantly
with his associates; as house leader he
was from first to last the absolute and
unerring echo of Mr.. Reed, who bossed
from the chair and, at the same time.
controlled the house proceedings per-
plicitly.
Thus, it will be seen that MI Dngley
became a man whose name was con-
stantly before the public simply because
things so shaped themselves as to let
him be ways-and-means chairman in
ldi -ilidhIiiS SeSSlOll. olleTWlSe, MS
rank rested entirely on the fact of his
long experience as a house member.
Names habit is to keep its members of
congress continuously in service, and
the result is that Maine is a power in
both houses. Senator Hale has lust
been elected to his fourth senate term.
If he lives he will have added twenty
four years in the senate to ten years in
the house. Senator Frye had twelve
years in the house before he succeeded
Blaine in the senate, eighteen years
ago. Speaker Reed will have had
twenty-four years in the house when
his present term ends; Mr. Boutelle has
been in the house since 1880; when he
died, in 1897, Seth Milliken was serving
his eighth consecutive term. Names
plan is a good thing for Names infiu-
ence in congress.