Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-05-19
COMPROMISE FORCED
Tariff Action OF Present Con-
gress Looked Upon as a
Compromise
SMALL coNcEss'oN is MADE
SMALL coNcEssloN is MADE
Not Satisfactory to Manufacturers and
Others Fsverns Revision, But Ae-
sssep.ed as : start-Payne ad AID
rich to Dominate Committee = Re.
port on Investigation Ordered.

Especial Washington Correspondence
Washington, May 19.-Like most of
the legislation of this session, the ac-
ton which has been taken looking to
tariff revision is in the nature of a
compromise.
The National Manufacturers asso-
citation is probably more responsible
than any other one influence for fore
ing action in congress-. The action
taken was by no means satisfactory TO
the officers of that organization, who
have no idea that the kind of revision
they want will come from the policy
that has been adopted. But they are
disposed to put the best possible face
on things and to be glad of what they
have secured.
1t is curious fact that a big and
powerful organization of manufactur-
ers should be taking the lead In the
demand for radical revision, and that
they should be unable to get from con-
gress SO much as they want Yet
this is the situation. The tariff seems
to have become more a political fetch
than an economic policy. The very
people whose interests We're supposed
to be dependent on it only few years
ago. are now clamoring for revision;
revision downward; radical, effective
revision. The politicians object to Civ
ing it to them, and it is insisted that
in this refusal the politicians are
backed by certain few powerful pro-
tected trusts, and the body Of the agri-
cultural population. Only few years
ago, the farmers had to be urged and
pleaded with, to get them to stand by
the republican tariff policy, and the
today, the situation is squarely re-
versed; the farmers are in the main
stay of the protective sentiment. and
the National Manufacturers associa-
ton wants revision
The officers of the Manufacturers
association wanted congress to pass a
tariff commission bill. under which the
president would name commissioners,
or at any rate part of them, to inves-
tigate the whole tariff question. This
they regarded as the only plan which
would assure anything like the fair.
consideration they want.
The house committee on ways and
means. and the senate committee on
finance. stand poorly with revisionists.
The latter believe that the dominating
purpose in those two committees is to
pervert all testimony and every stu
~. ,f t1a int oct
which opposes any revision, and which
if it must have revision, wants just as
little as possible.
Therefore the action taken by SEN
ate and house, in directing these two
to look into schedules.
does not meet the wish of the manu-
facturers at ALL 1t simply was all
they could get, and they would not
have got so mnch-certainly not In the
senate-but for the insistence of Sen
ator Beverage. The senator would
have been better suited with meas
ure giving the president authority to
a commission, or to select the
experts who should work with the
but this was not to be
had, and the fact of getting so much
as mas Deen SGCuI0u loOkSd, III liz ie1s'S
analysis, to both him and the manu-
factnrers' officers. like a good deal OF
a victory.
The essential fact now is that Sc
reno Payne, chairman of the ways and
means committee, and Senator AID
rich, chairman of finance, will domi-
nate the inquiry and the legislation;
they will select the experts who will
gather facts and advise the commit
tees. They will keep in their own
hands not only the management of the
legislation, but the preliminaries to its
preparation They have announced
that they don't propose to do any
thing calculated greatly to disturb con-
fdence in business circles; and every
body believes them.