The Savannah morning news., 1902-12-02

would be the hight of folly to disturb
it. No tariff revision can take place
except at the end of a long session,
after a bitter and protracted fight.
which in itself would disturb nearly
all and destroy some of our industries.
Generally speaking. if you scratch a
reVisor Won find underneath reform
tariff Unless the Republican party
has lost heart and faith in its funda-
mental policies there will be no med
ding with the present tariff. whether
under the guise of reciprocity or re-
FORM"
What Senator Hale says here. un-
questionably reflects the sentiment of
the men who really control Republic
can legislation in Congress. The two
maine senators can count upon such
allies as Senators Lodge of Massachu-
sets, Proctor and Dillingham; OF Yer
mont, Gallinger and Burnham Of New
Hampshire, Aldrich of Rhode Island.
Platt and Hawley of Connecticut, Plat
and Depew of New York, Dryden and
Kearne of New Jersey, Quay and Pen
rose of Pennsylvania, Elldns and Scott
of West Virginia. Hanna. of Ohio,
Fairbanks of Indiana. Burroughs of
Michigan, Allison of Iowa. Hasbrook
and Macomber of North Dakota, Jones
of Nevada, Perkins of California, Eos
ACA VI w stSIlllb 1ullOUA VI llllllOlS,
Nelson of Minnesota and Warren of
Wyoming. Almost all of these have
declared themselves within the last
week or two as being opposed to any
agitation of the tariff question.
1t is inconceivable that in the face
of this sort of opposition there Will be
any serious attempt on the part of
the Republicans to put tariff revision
legislation through Congress, either at
this session or at any time in the near
future
politicians recognize that the popular
unrest must be met in some way, and
to that end they are having a good
deal to say about the probability of
antitrust legislation. They are all of
them, so far as talk goes, favorab BILE
to antitrust Legislation, but at the
same time they will confess that they
do not see their way clear to anything
very practical on this line However,
they are willing to talk about any
thing, so long as there is a possibility
that by this talk they can head off
the demand for tariff revision. The
present indications are that there will
be a lot of antitrust bills of various
kinds introduced by Republicans as
well as Democrats, and that there will
be much talk of the Republicans pur-
pose to curb the trusts, but that in
the end this will amount to nothing.
The most significant feature of this
trust talk is the complete abandon
ment of President Roosevelt's idea of
an amendment to the Constitution of
the United States. 1t will be recalled
that the Republicans of the House, for
political purposes only, adopted a res
olution in the F'ifty-sixth Congress
looking to a constitutional amendment,
taking from the state the power to
regulate all corporations doing an In
terstate business. Later President
Roosevelt was an avowed advocate OF
this same measure of procedure up
to the time that the boil on his leg
brought an end to his political
speeches. The folly of such a pro-
cedure was so clearly shown by lead
ing Republican organs at the time that
| the President and everybody ELSE seem
to have abandoned that scheme. with
! the exception of Representative jenkins
1 of Wisconsin, who expects to be at the
head of the House Judiciary Commit
tee. Mr.. Jenkins has advocated a
number of amendments to the Consti-
tuition. That, indeed, is a little hobby
of his, and he is still talking of an
antitrust amendment But so, far as
has been discovered, he is the only
man who stands for that for which
ISSluCill IeOOoCNGlt lOl NCly lOilS dBO
was advocating so strongly.
The probability is that some sort of
antitrust play will be made by the
Republicans at this session. Just what
this will be has not yet been determin-
ed. The best opinion Is that some bill
strengthening the hands of the Inter
state Commerce Commission will be
passed The one thing certain about
the Republican brand of anti trust
legislation is, however, that 1t will be
harmless. The trusts have no reason
to tremble at any of the threats made
by Republicans, and they know it,
AS for the tariff, the one thing that
will be done is the adoption of a res
olution empowering the Committee on
Finance of the Senate and Ways and
Means of the House to meet during
the recess and have lot of tariff hear
ings, at which the protected interests
will be given all the opportunity they
desire to demonstrate that there should
be no revision of the tariff.
While the President has expressed
himself as strongly favoring an extra
session of the new Congress for the
purpose of tariff revision, IT is practi-
cally certain that any view of the op-
position to such revision, which has
manifested itself among the Republi-
can leaders of the Senate, will change
his opinion on the extra session propo-
fti0n