The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-04-22
TUESDAY, APRIL %, 1902.
AN INsURGENT VICTORY.

The lusty manner in which the Gin
surgents", showed their contempt fol
the house leaders and their disregard
for tradition and policy by voting
with the minority on the question OF
removing the differential on refined
sugar, must be taken as testimony
that there are men in the house, mem.
bers of the controlling party, who
repudiate the charge SO often made of
late that the house of representatives
is nc longer entitled to be considered
as a deliberative body. They we'll
earned the appelation Of insurgents
for they acted in open defiance of the
wishes of the leaders.
AS was to be expected in the event
Of such an occurrence as that of last
Friday, the men who voted with the
democrats were mostly from western
states. They represent the sections
where beet sugar culture is possible
and where antagonism to the sugar
VI 10 sSAO 6lO0lC0ts IL ~ 10 duNlS.
able to grant a reduction of duty on
raw sugar imported from Cuba they
believe it is also proper that a pro-
portionate reduction be made in the
duty on the refined article and there
by removing the objection which has
been urged against permitting the ex-
icfino diffororfio1 RI ,,oynosp tho oh
jectors holding that with the reduction
of duty on the raw material and main
tenance of the d%ifferential in favor of
the finished article the trust would be
the one benefited and not the Cubans,
for whose special benefit the bill in it's
original form it is claimed was intro
duced.
From the very start much opposi-
ton has been manifested against the
proposition to give the Cuban sugar
planters the benefit of a reduced duty.
The opposition has come from differ
ent sources. One of these has been
the beet sugar men, who contend that
to reduce the duty, ven only on raw
sugars imported from Cuba would be
to seriously cripple the beet sugar
industry, which they claim needs all
the protection the government is able
to give it. Another element of oppo-
sition has been the extreme protec-
tionists, who are antagonistic to any
proposition looking to the reduction
of existing duties on any article that
can be manufactured in this country.
Then a third element has been repre-
sented in the men who claimed to see
in the entire matter only a shrewd
move on the part of the sugar trust
to secure a cheaper raw product in
order that the profits on the finished
article might be all the greater.
1t is possible that Payne was right
when he said the amendment to re-
move the differential on refined sugar
was in the nature of a move to reduce
the duty on sugar imported from beet
sugar countries, but the insurgents"
could not see matters in that light and
for the first time in the history of the
party a considerable number of re-
publicans voted with democrats to
overrule a speaker of their own choos-
ing. Whatever we may owe to Cuba
in the way of a sentimental debt, it is
very evident that the recalcitrarts
looked upon the proposition to grant
the island special concessions in the
way of a reduction of duty on one of
its chief exports, without making a
commensurate reduction in another
direction and where it would affect
some one else, as an effort to make
the beet sugar men pay the sum tot;l
Of the debt.