The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-11-29
Appearances Indicate Heavy
Lime of Work Is Ahead
Of the SoIonS.
PERPLEXING PROBLEMS.
THE TARIFF WILL BE ONE OF
THE MOST COMPLICATED TO
CONSIDER OF THE MANY MEAS
UREs OFFERED.


~ among those who secured reelection
this month at the hands of admiring
constituencies. They see before them
two years of the hardest kind of work
and the necessity of spending the
greater part of two summers in Wash
lngton. If there is anything calcu-
lated to make a statesman unhappy,
1t is the prospect of being detained at
the capital after the first of June.
There is brave talk that the tariff
bill will be passed and the extra ses-
sion ended by the Both of May, but no
one really believes it, The 4th of Ju-
ly is much more likely to find the
measure far from completion. The
extra session is scheduled to begin
about the middle of March, and the
house will have to be organized and
get down to work, 1t hardly can be
hoped that the bill will be reported
out of the ways and means committee
before the fist of April OF course, if
the house organization sees fit, it can
limit debate to one day or one week
or whatever length of time it agrees
upon, but any such attempt would be
exceedingly dangerous to the measure.
The republican majority in the next
house will not be sufficiently large to
justify high-handed methods, for there
will be a considerable number of re-
publican members who will not like
the bill as it will come out of COM
mittee and who will want to offer
amendments and make speeches.
Should they be denied they might join
with the democrats and do things to
the bill that the republican managers
would not like. 49,. -..
If the house passes the bill and sends
it to the senate by the first of May it
will be doing exceedingly well. - Then
it will be referred to the senate finance
committee to be remade to the liking
of Senator Aldrich and his colleagues.
This may not take much time for, de-
spite the constitutional provision that
tariff legislation must originate in the
house. the senate committee, probably
will have about agreed upon the form
of substitute bill by the time the
house has passed it's measure. The
senate committees substitute could be
tackled on to the enacting clause of the
house bill as an amendment and de-
bate begun in the senate within few
days. tgNlN
1t is when the Senate begins to de-
bate the bill that time will be con-
sumed, for the Senate has not yet
reached the point of cloture. There
is going to be very radical differences
in the views Of Republican senators,
to say nothing of the fact that the
Democrats will have ideas OF their
onw and will be free to express them.
No one believes that bill such as
Senator Aldrich will report out OF the
finance committee can command the
support Of senators like Lafollette of
Wisconsin, Cummins of Iowa and
Bristow, of Kansas, and unless these
senators are allowed to have their say
they will keep Congress in session I'M
til frost comes again.
In the end. however. the Senate
will pass a bill very nearly conforming
to the ideas Of Aldrich and the other
Republican senate leaders. But what
will the House do with such a meas
ure when it gets back to the starting
point? In the passage of such
measure a good many Republican
members of the House will be able to
see nothing but their own political
death warrants, and they are not 60
ing to be led tamely to the slaughter.
They can't go back to their constitu-
ents and lay the blame on Uncle Joe"
Cannon and the House machine, for
after the agitation of the campaign
just closed their constituents will de-
mand to know why the machine was
not smashed
Interviews given out by some of the
Ser<te and House leaders do not indi-
cate that they are willing to concede
such a readjustment of the schedules
as the country expects. If these in
terviews are indicative of the measure
for which members will be asked to
cast their final votes, there will be one
OF the biggest rows Congress ever
knew and it may require as much time
to get the measure ready for the Pres
lueHl signature as IL old TO pass 1t
originally through the House and Sen
ate. The next tariff bill is much more
likely to be known in history as the act
Of July 30 than 1t is as the act of Nav
80
There will be good deal of curiosi-
ty to learn just how much President
Taft will influence Congress in its de-
alterations on the tariff In his mes
sage. of course, he will strongly urge
genuine revision of the schedules,
but whether he will attempt to go
farther than this remains TO be seen.
Judging by the tenor of the interviews
he has been holding with party lead
ers at Hot Springs, he would not hest
tate to take hold of things with a Wig
orous hand if he believed there was
danger the platform pledges would
not be kept
There always is a great deal the
man in the White House can do to-
ward shaping legislation without vio-
lating any of the proprieties or i'm