The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-11-03
NEW ENGLAND AND TARIFFS.

Some sketches of Interesting Pco,
! pie - arc appearing in the American
Magazine. The November nunrbor has
as one of these sketches concise ref.
crcncc 10 Senator Aldrich of Rhode Is
land, with An attractive full length
portrait of the man, ii tells how Sen.
ator Aldrich acquired his influence in
the Senate. chiefly by reason of long
service and precedence. and in the
course of it we find illustrated very
we'll the way that tariff hiIls are usually
! framed.
II has been abuudanily shown thai;
the new tariGl law was written chiefly
in the interests Of tho New England
manufacturers, that 1t is u sectional
bill throughout: and the readers of The
Tribune arc fully aware Of the fact
that the sectional workers who got mp
this bill have tried 10 fix the stigma
Of scctionalism upon any ono who oh
| .icctcd 10 that sectional way Of doing
things, They resent holly the idea Of
being called scctionalists themselves,
and they bitterly accused the late Coy
crnor johnson of Minnesota Of section.
alism, because bo objected to their see
tlonal work And here is the way that
sectional work is performed as cx
| planned in the sketch referred to;
The veteran Senators. who arc mostly
! New England Senators. control the com
mitioc assignments. Whom IL comes 10
Legislation, tariff bill. for Instance inns
| rn 11l sriNH % = i
! rcction or II They decide on what New
! England must have. and they count ~"
rumner nf votes they will need. added 10
! th"ir own. 10 form a majority OF tho ls"-
| publican ma iorIty. These votes arc sc
cured by giving enough Senators what
! they want out OF the bill Republican
along or be guilty OF party hisloNaIty
! Aldrlch is the greatest expert At this sys-
tern that Congress has ever seen.
This system was worked TO pcrfcc.
tion in the framing and the final stages
of fixing The new tariff law. There
were enough Democratic Senators that
came TO the relief of the New England
clique to obviatc the danger threat.
| ened by thc detection Of a number of
| Mississippi Valley Senators who op.
posed the bill And so il went through,
|
It's friends having the impudent audac.
itv TO claim that the opponents Of the
bill were sectional. and not those who
framed it.
II is not apparent what Smoot got
for his hard and fast support of Aldrich
in this bill. He seemed to take the
most interest in cotton and razors of
any of the schedules And yet. although
this cotton schedule is distinctly the
anxiety of the New England clique OF
Senators. IT did not yield Smoot any.
thing AS. to razors, no got nothing
but confusion and a clean shave. lie
was made ridiculous altogether by the
! plain statement of the facts. He didn Z
even stipulate for a duty on hides. lie
did stipula1c for a reduction of the
wood pulp tariff and he left the wool
schedule where il was before, only FIX
ing the wool market so that the WOO
manufacturers would have a. more com.
plcic control over, IL than before. As
to lead, the day was saved, Just as il
! had been saved by The lead men long
before Smoot was ever heard Of IN
the Senate. So it appears that SmooI
got nothing for his interest in this tarifi
law to help New England, He simply
paid his debt TO Adricb, who swung
TO him the vote of the New England
Senators when his seat was in peril
He paid his personal debt, and that wa!