The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-08-18
TRICK OF sTANDPATTERs.
Will Attempt 10 Head Off Tariff Re-
visions Press Other NJ alters.


the following story to his paper, The
Minneapolis Journal:
Washington, Aug. 9.-The American
Protective Tariff league, that vigilant
organization which heads the stand
pat" movement in the republican party,
has issued a circular which indicates
that, to its mind, there is no danger of
tariff revision in the next session of con-
gress. The league is very strongly OPP
posed to revision, and, according to the
| circular referred to, it is getting ready
for the congressional campaign of next
year, desiring to have the sixtieth
congress, if republican, as strong against
revision as the fifty ninth
Standpatters generally take the view
! that there is to be no revision in the
present congress, basing it upon the
number of important questions to come
| up next winter. At the head of the list
| is railroadrate making, on which the
president has set his heart. This ques
ton will occupy very considerable
amount of time in each house, and is
itself sufficiently big to crowd out any
question of the Importance of the tariff.
The general insurance question will
also occupy time. The president will
probably renew his former recommends
ton for a national insurance law, and
in the light of the Equitable situation,
it will now command good deal of SER
ious attention. The isthmian canal ques-
ton will also come up, and its consid
Grafton may take much time. The fed
eral deficit is another question of the
first Importance and interest, and minor
questions relate to the Philippines, re-
garding which Secretary Taft is likely
to make recommendations as the result
of his visit; Chinese exclusion and Am
erican trade in Asia; the peace terms
between Russia and Japan, which may
lead to a protracted debate on our for
eign policy and naval program, and reel
procity, as Illustrated by the new Ger
man tariff.
Here, as the standpatters believe, is
enough business to keep congress going
without reference to the tariff. And
The standpatters are probably right. The
tariff question will probably come up,
and it would not be surprising if the
president should alMde to it in his mes
sage. But tn esession will probably not
last longer than six months, in which
time only limited number of subjects
can be discussed to a finality, and In
tariff would stand no show of getting
serious consideration.
At the same time, however, the re-
visionists never have had stronger
case than they have at present. Both
at home and abroad the situation points
to the necessity for action. The fed
eral deficit; the trade outlook with Ger
many and the nations which form with
her the new European trade pool; the
unfavorable outlook for larger trade
with Canada, whose wonderful develop
ment at present is attracting the at
tention of the entire world, and is one
of the wonderful era; the threatened
boycott of American goods in Asia-all
these are questions which, normal condl-
tions, ought to bring the tariff to the
| front as a leading issue But with
, speaker of the house who, with the
ways and means committee behind him,
| is unfavorable to action, and with the
senate leaders joining hands with him,
revision seems to be entirely out of the
question
| 1t now looks as if the tariff question
would 90 under until the next presi-
Dental campaign, in which it will form
| one of the chief issues-the chief one,
| if the conservatives can control the
democratic organization = and that
| meanwhile there will be a preliminary
tariff skirmish in the off-year campaign
of 1906 The standpatters are in abb
solute control of the republican organi-
cation in congress, and they will not
yield save under compulsion. A panic
| would save them, and so would slump
in the 1906 elections; but neither of
these bridges will be crossed in advance.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil
thereof, say the standpatters, and in the
plentitude of their present power they
can well afford feel temporarily Sc
cure.