The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1906-03-04
DEMOCRATS HOPE
FOR NEXT HOUSE
Agreement May BE to Make
Williams Speaker.
GRIGGS MAY WIN COUNTRY
Tanff Will Come in for Changes, and
Champ Clark Wants to Frame
the Bill.
GRlGGS MAY WIN COUNTRY

The coming campaign for control OF
the House will be a very important one
The Democrats strongly hope to elect
the next Speaker. and one Of the incl
dents TO the probable selection of Griggs
as leader is intimated to be an under
standing that there shall be no opposi-
ton to Williams for Speaker in such
event. Talk has brought the names OF
De Almond and Clark of Missouri into
this consideration. but there is the best
authority for saying neither will oppose
MIR. Williams.
Champ Clark wants TO be chairman
of the Committee on Ways and Means
when a Democratic tariff bill is to be
made He thinks this is the field of
real opportunity" explained a Demo
cratic friend of the Missourian.
"A bill that he would frame. it is
needless to say. would be pretty radical
IN its leanings toward freer trade rela-
tons; it would especially aim at looping
OF the tariff benefits that serve as the
breastworks of SO many monopolies"
Tariff Once Again.
That the tariff issue has been kept
very much in the shadow this session of
Congress is not at all discouraging to
the managing politicians among the
else had a chance of getting attention
so long as the rate issue was pending.
But that viii soon be out OF the way,
and It will be disposed Of without ap-
parently very much improving the stat
US of the Republicans
The reason is that the credit will be
given to the President The public
doesn't trust anybody except the Presi-
dent, where corporate interests are con-
cerned; the House fell in line behind his
banner first. and the Senate will drift
in later
Such men as Champ Clark and other
far-Sighted politicians, it is explained.
feel that The credit of heading the com
mittee that makes the next tariff bill
Is likely TO he worth as much, for politi-
cal capital, as was the same position
when Mckinley held fl. and made him
self President by il. The Clark tariff
bill, drawn with a view 70 looping off
the shelters TO monopoly, would be de-
feated in a Republican Senate That
would come right on the eve Of a Presi-
Dental contest
Presidential Chance.
Naturally. the country would turn to
the man who had made this measure.
and he would suddenly loom up as the
1liDiiS l-'all lOI q compromise. WITHIN
his part, between the Hearst Bryan
and the conservative elements. Here
would al last be presented an issue on
which they could ali get together; and
the man, in Champ Clark, would be big
enough for the emergency.
This is the process of reasoning by
which Democratic prophets forecast
their political future. With Roosevelt
out of it, they are not able to see any
other man who gives promise of strength
enough TO hold the Republican masses
together There will be representatives
of the extreme Eastern wing, like Root
and of the Western wing. like Cum
Minis and La Toilette: and compromise
between them seems difficult to contem-
The tariff revision issue will bring
back to the Democratic fold many who
since 1896 have seldom voted the party
ticket; and Republicans as well as Dem
ocrats admit the seriousness of the out
look.
Republicans View.
Against this situation there is pre-
scented the fact that some powerful
Republican interests insist that the
tariff must be revised by its friends,
and that, too, at the next session OF
Congress. So strong a man as Senator
Allison. with the wisdom of two gem
erations' experience, is said to feel that
this IS necessary; and with him are the
Republican progTessIves IN general.
a tariff bill doubtless would be passed
through the House, under the whip
and spur OF Administration influence.
Perhaps, also, the same forces would
put it through the Senate If so. it
would leave the Democratic program
wrecked.
But 1t requires powerful stretch of
lmaginatl9n 10 anticipate the present
Senate, which has just refused to take
so Insignificant d step toward tariff |
liberalization as was represented in the
Philippine bill, passing q real genera |
revision of schedules