Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-12-03
Reduction Would AnnihiIate
Industry, Witness Is Sure.
ISAD STORY ABOUT SHEEP
Hard to Raise, Eat Up Grass, Die
Then and Fleece Blows Away.
MORE PROTECTION FAVORED
Champ Clark Wants Authority to
Subpoena and Swear Witnesses.
Crumpacker Sure of Results.

A man named Erickson talked about
sheep before the ways and means COM
mittee at the tariff hearing today.
| Ericksen's ancestors used to be in the
Viking business. He lives in Salt Lake
City himself and sells wool for a living.
or course, it isn't SO grand and free and
glorious-but it's heaps safer and civ
ilized.
Anyhow. Erickson seems satisfied. Any
| way he would be if the duty on wool is
left where it is. But ne wouldn't kick
much if it was boosted some. He's will
ling to compromise in that way.
Erickson seems to know his business.
He told the committee all about sheep
| raising. and how perilous it was, and the
money it cost, and how all the blamed
animals curled up and died just about the
time dividends were due. and heaven
knows or 10 per cent was as much as
anybody could expect on an investment.
And he told how the sheep ate up all the
| grass in their eXtravagant way, and had
to be moved elsewhere. and how the
fierce winds bowled across the ranges and
blew all the loose wool into the middle of
| next week.
Could Hear a Pin Drop.
Erickson proved to be grand pastor
alist. He laid the color on thick. And
when he had the room all quiet-so that
| anybody in the back could hear Chair
man Payne breathing just as plain. and
| Nick Longworth had put down his news
paper and was shining the top of his
head with a silk Observation-Disclosures
dropped his voice and told them it al
ways showed for days just when the
lamb brthrate was highest, and how
| they used to go out after it had stopped
and find the poor little things frozen
stiff. with their mammas standing over
them bleating pitiful like
| 1t was doggoned pathetic. It's ten-to-
one-shot that If the committee could have
taken a vote on the wool schedules then
and there they'd have boosted the blamed
| thing so high the Goddess OF Liberty
| couldn't have reached it with a clothes
| prop.
But it wasn't the time for taking a vote.
After the crisis had been passed. Mr..
Longworth picked up his paper again, and
Chairman Payne got growly and hard of
| hearing, and Champ Clark resumed his
assault and battery tactics. He did most
| of the questioning.
Several other sheep men talked. Gen.
Grosvenor, who used to be the ways
| and means committee when he was In
Congress and knows how it is done,
| prompted several of them when they ap-
| peared haZy in the head.
The ways and means committee is find
| ing out so many interesting things about
sheep and steel rails and gypsum and
other stuff that there seems to be de-
| sire on the part of most members TO con-
| tinuo the hearings. They feel that there
| must be a lot of other folks anxious TO
! step up and pour out the inmost secrets
Of their souls before the bar of tariff
| justice.
Clark Wants More Power.
| Champ Clark, who is always belligerant
and looking for trouble. wants the COM
| mittee authorized to subpoena witnesses
and swear 'em TO tell the truth. If there
is one thing that appeals to Mr. Clark
| more than going hotfoot after willing
| witness, is tearing the mask off an I'M
willing one. In that job he is right at
home.
Chairman Payne hasn't denied as Yet
that it is proposed to ask the House for
this subpoena and swearing authority.
But Representative Crumpacker, author
of the reduced representation bill. which
is so popular down south, doesn't think
'twould be a good thing to subpoena folks
who'd rather not appear. He's gentle
soul and he just hates this -ragging,
we'll send you to-iail- you don t-tell
game.
MIR. Crumpacker recently returned from
visit to Mr.. Taft at Hot Springs. So
some people think he's talking by the
book Others don't.
Anyhow. Mr.. Crumpac ker is certain the
committee will embody in the tariff bill
which it will offer for the consideration
of the special session of Congress a gen
eral. all-along-the-line revision. This he
and other House lights think, would be
the wise thing from a political viewpoint,
even if 1t never amounts to ShuckS as a
practical proposition