The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-04-20
Tariff Issue Has Received a
Good Deal of Momentum.
PEOPLE CAN DECIDE MATTER
This Important Question Is Bound to
Cut Considera bile Figure in the
Ensuing Campaign.
IJERMANE IN MINNEAPOLIS JOURNAL

n
Washington, April l3.-The tariff is
sue has received good deal of momcn-
tum through the happenings of the past
couple of weeks, some of which were
outlined in this correspondence Il few
DAYS ago. Because of this momentum,
it is the opinion of leading members of
the house, republicans as well as demo-
Gratis, that it will be quite impossible
to keep the tariff from coming to the
front the moment a satisfactory rate
bill has been passed and approved at the
White House.
Realizing that this is likely to be the
situation, and that the longer congress
remains in session following rate legis-
lation, the more formidable the tariff
issue will become, through democratic
pressure, it is the plan of the leading
republicans of both houses of congress
to adjourn the session just as soon as
the big appropriation bills can be put out
of the way.
Already the leaders are beginning to
inquire whether it will be possible to
adjourn by the middle of May or the
first of June, instead of having the ses-
sion run along into middle July, as it
will do unless some effectual check can
be applied. In seeking an early vote
on the rate bill, Senator Tillman is I'M
Willingly playing into the hands of the
republicans for early adjournment.
There remains much work to be done
in both houses. The house of represcn-
tatives, which originates all appropria-
ton bills, has only passed two or three
of these, and half dozen others are
now ready to be reported from commit
tee as soon as business on the floor is
ready for them. The postoffice bill is
now before the house and will perhaps
be disposed of this week. BY careful
management the adjournment can be
reached by the latter part of May, it is
believed, and every effort of the leaders
from now on will be made to this end.
1t is said to be the purpose of the
republican party, acting on the theory
of Speaker Cannon's letter to the Ohio
pottery people, not to attempt to dodge
the tariff issue in the campaign. They
will say frankly on the stump that the
country has it in its power to decide
at the polls whether revision should be
attempted or not. Then they will point
out that no such prosperity as that en-
joyed by the country since 1897 has ever
come to any nation in the world, and
that that prosperity is still at its
height.
They will not attempt to deny that
certain tariff schedules should be chang
ed, but it will be made apparent that no
half dozen schedules can ever be chang
ed without bringing on a general tariff
revision. 1t is for the country to deter
mine, these republican leaders will say,
whether revision should be made the i'm
mediate business of congress.
Then, after all the arguments have
been made, the party will await the re-
suit of the election. 1t is hardly likely
that the republicans will lose the house,
and were they to do so, of course reyis-
ion would be out of the question until
after the presidential election, and it
might not some even then. So, it will be
argued, the only hope for early revision
or for any revision that is not in the
direction of a tariff for revenue, lies
with the republicans, and can only be re-
allied by them while they have control
of both houses of congress and the White
House.
1t is of course conceded that the re-
publican majority in the next house will