The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-13


 as the United states. and to this com
 mittee falls the task of devising wayi | and means for raising that money. Int l Constitution provides that all revenue legislation must originate in tht
 House of Representatives and the Rules | of the House in turn say that 1t
 must originate in the Ways and Means | Commtttee. Just now that committed
 finds 1t diijicult to carry its new burden
 between the Scylia and Charybdts oi
 the opinion of the people and the need | of the government. On the one hand | are the people who want lower tartns and on the other stands the fact that
 there never was a time when 1t was up to tariff law to raise as much
 money as right now: They may have | to lower some of the schedules, but l at the same time, the aggregate col I elections will have to be greater than
 ever If the government is to pay It's way
 as 1t goes.
 The average individual does not I realize how rapidly the expenditures of the United States government have increased It now costs more each year to maintain the national es- tablishment than was required for the
 first !afty years of the last century During those fifty years the nation fought two wars. one with England
 and one with Mexico. and was the
 victor in each; It's territory increased
 from s37,000 square miles to S,026.000
 square. miles. The exact figures for
 the cost of maintaining the nation
 from the signing of the Declaration of
 Independence to the beginning of the
 last century are not at hand, but 1t
 was less than four billion dollars. Ac-
 cepting that amount as representing
 the expenditures during the first
 twenty-four year of the national exis-
 tence, ana adding thereto the known
 expenses ID to 1e7S 1t is found that
 during the nrst I02 years of the
 nation's life it spent less than eleven
 billion dollars. During the past thirty
 years 1t has raised and spent nearly
 thirteen billion dollara
 During the first 109 years of national existence we supported four wars.
 Twice England bit the rust, once Mexico was defeated and one of
 the greatest civil wars of ancient or
 modern times was fought. The pur-
 chase of Alaska was made, and the
 national domain was thereafter four
 and a half times as large as It was
 when Jefferson became the first great
 territorial expansionist. Yet in the
 past thirty years the nation has spent more. by one-slth, than 1t required to accomplish all these wonderful achieve.
 ment. This greatly increased cost of matntaing the government cannot be
 laid at the door of the wonderful ex- pansion of the Postoffice Department,
 since nothing but the dencit in it's operations is included in these figures At the present rate of expenditure the people will in the next ten years, have to part with Ra much money for the maintenaee of the national government taking no account of state and local governments--as their ancestors had to .H..- |. with the foundation of the govern ment Little indeed is the wonder that Congress Is put to in it's effort to find system of taxation that will be silent in it's operation.
 , The Constitution leaves but two principle ways open for securing governmental funds-the levying Of Import or tariR duties and the col lection of internal revenue taxes. Out of these two pieces of r9veune timber the Ways and Means Committee must erect it's billipn-doll lar-a-year fund providing edihce. As 1t approached the task this year peculiar difIlculties be- set 1t, The prohibition craze has served to lessen internal revenue re- eeipts and a tarin must be devised l that will raise more funds than | ever, and yet allow the paople to feel 1t less. It Is the hope of the dominant | party that the ymay frame a iawd which will stand for at least ten years, If they secceed in doing SO it will | coll forth from the pockets of thu | people some four billion dollars With that fact In mind one can begin to appreciate the tmmensity of the work In hand.
 The Ways and Means Committee is unlike the Appropriations. Political lines are more tautly drawn here than | Rules. There has long been a hope that the tariff question might be made a on-partisan question like the mat ter of internal revenue but as long as men differ about the theory of pro- tection. that Is too much to hope for. !! So political warfare Is as ever present in Ways and Means as it is ever absent in Appropriations. The political tides of the nation have surged around this committee during the past seventy year. and by its actions more presi- dents have been made and unmade than by any other agency. Two of its postbellum chaiemen have became presidents of the United States.
 The political history of the country | might be read by scanning the lists of the Committees of thet House, One may look at the list fof chairmen of the Ways and Means Committee and read therefrom whether the PhiIistIne of Free Trade or the Israelite of Pro- lection had sway in the American Canaan. He can tell by looking at the list of chairmen of Coinage, Weights and Measures whether free silver or Iound money lS the prevailing senti. neRt of a given period. Likewise. he nay read alright the paramount issues 'f the various Congresses by studtng he committee lists of the House. Dur ng the Civil War he vii see a Mill ary Affairs Committee framed up with he strongest men in the House; im- nediately after that period, Ways and ,. deans gets its ablest men, and the ssue changes from the waging of war O the paying of the resultant debt.
 Perhaps the most striking illustra- ion of this Is the person nel of the nsular Affairs Committee in 1899. looking at the lineup on the majority ide one sees Cooper of Wisconsin as ts chairman. The next in line Is the resent Speaker, Mir. Cannon. After i'm comes R. E. Hit. chairman of 'oreign Relations; then Payne, chair nan of Ways and Means today; then Hepburn, chairman of Interstate and 'oreign Commerce; the Loud, chair 1an of Postof1ces and Post-roads at hat time; then Tawney, present chair nan of Appropriations; Babcock, Ormer chairman of the Republican Committee; Moody, at resent Justice of the Supreme Court; nd Crumpacher, also a prominent lember of the House. At the close Of he Spanish American War the ques- ion of what should be done with he Philippines became the paramount ssue and ths Republicans massed, all