Charlevoix county herald., 1907-01-26
IDEAL TARIFF BILL
CRITICS OF THE PRESENT LAW
HAVE A DUTY TO PERFORM.
Those Who Find SO Much Fault With
the Tariff as 1t Is Should be Able
=. to Formulate Improvements
N That Will Meet All Re-
quirements.


In all sincereity and good faith, we
call for a tariff revision bill at the
hands of the progressive" gentlemen
who are so strenuously insisting upon
immediate action by the dominant
party. lest through neglect thereof the
party that is in should be displaced by
is so pressing as all that, and If, as is
claimed. there is involved in the exist
ing tariff more of extortion and graft
than have been practiced in life in
surance since life insurance. was in
nted, then it is up to the progress
Ives" to come forward forthwith with
the draft of measure for the COM
plete reform of this terrible tariff. In
all conscience they ought not to stand
back and wait for somebody else to
undertake the work. They, being the
ones who pick the flaws and find the
faults with the tariff as it is, are the
very ones to come promptly to the
foreground with plan of rectification.
They are the onSS, who know how bad
things now are; ergo, they are the
ones to remedy the condition.
Governor Cummins should by all
means step to the front. He knows,
no man better, what fearful instru-
ment of wrong and oppression the
Dingley tariff is. Naturally he should
be the head of volunteer tariff COM
mission. Governor Guild would, of
course, be the vice chairman. Who
can speak so authoritatively regard
ing the sufferings Of the boot and shoe
millionaires of Massachusetts because
of the atrocious tariff on hides? Mr..
Foss will naturally have a controlling
voice in determining what to do in
the matters of free raw materials and
Canadian reciprocity. Congressman
Mccall and Ames could help greatly,
for they are tremendously alive to the
pressing necessity for tariff reform.
There are others so numerous that
space is too short for mention in de-
tail who would be of signal usefulness.
We do not include John Sharp Will
liams. Champ Clark and Bourke Coch-
ran in the category because of the fear
that their presence and cooperation
might prove somewhat embarrassing.
Still. they might be consulted on the
quiet. for their help will be needed on
70 calls later on. The president of
the Sugar trust, a high authority on
reduced sugar tariff rates, and the
president of the Tobacco trust, always
interested in lower tobacco duties,
would make excellent members of the
commission.
These suggestions are purely tenta-
tive Far be it from assuming to die
tate. But we do feel certain that we
offer q valuable hint when we urge
that the volunteer tariff commission
should take shape and activity at the
earliest possible moment. The coun-
try is looking to the reformers and
progressives for the ideal tariff bill.
OF course, they can draft such a bill
without the slightest difficulty. Know
ing, as they do, how utterly abomina-
bic the present tariff is, it follows
,neceSsarily that they know just how to
Improve it. All they have to do is to
utilize their proficiency as tariff max
ers and agree upon the bill to be sub
mitted to the house committee on
ways and means. No need to wait
for an extraordinary session of con-
gress to be called next spring. Less
need to wait until 1909. The time to
act is now. The volunteer commission
can be called together inside Of three
days. and, once together, We don't
suppose it would take more than three
hours for the experts to agree upon a
detailed list of the reductions to be
made in the Dingley schedules. So
easy il is for those who have mastered
the tariff in all it's intricacies to de-
eide as to what should be done.
Let the volunteer tariff commission
get together and get to work The
country wants this question of altered
tariff rates settled. 1t wants a bill of
particulars, bill that it can read, un-
derstand and admire. Delay is repre-
hensible under existing conditions
We might almost say ineXcusable
Bring on the ideal tariff reform bill
Possibly it would strike congress so
favorably that, instead of ten months
ordinarily devoted to such matters, ii
would pass both houses in ten min
utes, Who can tell? At all events
let us have the thll right away.