The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-02-05
BUSINESS MEN ARE
TURNED DOWN HARD
Congress viii Not Appoint a
Tariff Commission
DELEGATION IS RECEIVED
Speaker Cannon and Chairman Payne
FIatly Tell the Delegates That
Tariff Commission Is Out of
Question at Present.

Washington, February 4-The present
Congress will not appoint a tariff COM
mission. Revision of the tariff will be
undertaken next winter, in the short
term.
These announcements, in substance,
were made today by Chairman Payne of
the House committee on ways and means,
in the presence and with the tacit ap-
proyal of Speaker Cannon, the occasion
being a call upon those leaders by a
tariff revision delegation from various
parts of the country comprising repre-
sentatives of many of the largest manu-
featuring and industrial concerns in the
United States and headed by James W.
Van Cleave of st. Louis, president of
the National Association of Manufac-
turers
The delegation arrived in Washington
yesterday and last night organized at
the New Willard hotel. Today they called
at the White house. Later they went to
the capitol and were received in the ways
and means committee room by Speaker
Cannon and Chairman Payne There they
spent more than an hour, presenting their
case and listening to replies by the two
foremost republican leaders in the House,
which were practically a refusal of all
that the delegation had journeyed to
Washington to plead for.
Plea For Commission.
Introducing the subject of the appoint
ment of a tariff commission in line with
the Beveridge bill recently offered in the
Senate Mr.. Van Cleave said the delega-
titon were unanimous in the belief that
"the matter of the tariff can be best
handled by the application of hard
headed business BILL which would so
amend the tariff schedules as to encour-
age the development of foreign commerce
by the producers of the United States
without at the same time exposing their
goods to the reactionary effects of free
trade.
He said it was the firm belief of the
vast interests represented by the members
of the delegation that a wholesome re-
vision of the tariff could be best got at
by commission appointed to ascertain
the costs of domestic production, the rela-
tive profits oerivable from home and for
eign sales and all the mutitudinous facts
appertaining to so complex and important
a subject.
Many Speakers on Hand.
Other sps ise:s ''I' these inca. each
of whom branched into concrete illustra-
ton of his points by citing the conditions
existing in his particular business, were
A. II. Saunders, representing the Reci-
procity League of Chicago and former
commissioner to the Paris exposition:
IL. e. Miles, chairman of the tariff com
mittee of the National Association of
Manufacturers; n. j. Batcheldor of New
HAMPSHIRE master of the National
Grange; S. H. Cowan, representing the
National Live Stock association and the
Cattle Raisers association of Texas; G..
A. stephens of Moline, H.. representing
the National Association of Agricultural
Implement and Vehicle Manufacturers;
Mr. Metcalf, representing manufacturers y
of agricultural implements and j. e.
Wilder. representing the Illinois Manu-
facturers' association and speaking for
the sole leather manufactures Of the
country
Speaker Cannon, interrupting Mr.. Met
calf. asked: do | understand that you
favor on the part of the United States
an even tariff with every other country
i'm the world except that we shall en-
force our maximum tariff against such
countries as discriminate against our ex-
ports? That you favor minimum and
maximum tariff with that application
The answer was strongly affirmative.
"Then," said the speaker, II am glad
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