The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1909-04-01

Shortly after the passage of the Wilson
treated the country 70 a unique perform
ance-an attempt TO revise the tariff that
had been enacted by their votes. They
put sugar on the free list in one bin they
passed and did the same with many other
items william n. Springer as Demo
cratic chairman or the ways ana Means
Committee. had resorted to the same
sort of tactics the session following the
enactment Of the Mckinley law, and with
great effect Now the Democrats were
using this same method. II they had
sought 90 bring reproach upon a bill Of
their own making, they could not have
pursued n course more conducive TO that
end Ex-Speaker Reed called them the
'porgun" tariff bills. They passed the
House, bur landed in a Senate pigeon-hole
Of course
The next Congress was Republican. and
the situation was almost the reverse OF
that when Morrison offered his horizon
tai bin Speaker Reed had selected Mel
son Dingley as chairman Of Ways and
Means-onother very unusual perform
aace since It has never been customary
10 have the Speaker and the Ways and
Means chairman from the same STATE
bngley brought In another horizontal
oll, only IL provided for horizontal in
cieases Instead Of reductions Il imposed
duty on wool GO per cent as great as
that OF the Mckinley law. and a duty
e ~ per cent more than the rates OF the
Nlison-Gofman tarin on most manufac-
lures The similarity TO the Morrison
horizontal bin goes further. Morrison
provided that no duty imposed hereunder
snat be less than those of the Morrill,
t-trin- Dingley provided that no duty
hereunder shall be higher than those OF
Tia Mckinley law"
The bin passed the House by a vote OF
~ 20 So When the measure went TO the
Senate. which was now n0minally Repub-
hcan. but strongly for free coinage. II
had Tie misfortune to get its wires cross
al With those OF -he white metal The
Senate Committee on Finance amended
The tariff bin 10y substituting a bin for
tie free coinage of silver. and instructed
tie venerable NORTH 20 report il. There
tie matter ended. except for the few
times lJ was taken up by the Senate TO
allow free silver Senator % air his
ticUs on bis favorte topic
The Republicans wanted TO make tho
tarn tie paramount issue En- 1896 ON
that issue William Mckinley was The
logical canR late. and with -BnI AcKin-
iey and the Mckinley BlI' as the rally
Ing cry, Le easily outdistanced Speaker
Reed en- the race for the nomination u
is said tlat 90 The Republicans had
thought tac free coinage of silver would
be the issue Reed might have been the
successful candidate. since Mr.. Mckinley
hau not been as orthodox as Reed OH
TIE money question. The wish Of Mr..
Bryan was that the tariff question
should play second fiddle .l the fight
ana DE made it so. After the campaign
was won and Mckinley inaUgurated. the
question arose ass 20 which should lie
considered FIRST tariff revision or hnan-
cial legislation. The doubt was finally
resolved in favor Of tariff which was 70
De considered 10 a special session Of
Congress. II met twelve years TO the day
before the present extra session.
When the DiuEley bin was introduced
# Was pointed out by the Democrats
that there was no occasion for any
change of the tariff They offered figures
showing that the Wilson-Gorman law
was ar that very moment producing "a
surplus, and indicating that it would con-
time % DO so. But tie Republicans had
formulated their programme and they
proceeded % carry it out Tn Introducing
The bin Mr Dingley stated that the duties
levied were compromise between those
OF the pending law and those OF the Nc
hinley law. The Democrats cortroverted
this point and declared that the rates
would average higher than those OF the
Mckinley law. AS a matter OF fact. the
actual operation Of the law proved the
Democrats 20 be more nearly right IN that
contention than the Republicans The
average rate on free and dutiable goods
during the first four years or the DingLey
tariff was approximately ~ per cent. Dur
Ing the forty-seven months under the Nc
kiuiey tarid the average WAS approx
mately - per cent Taking dutiabIe goods
alone, she average under the two laws
was substantially the same-approximate-
Is 20 per cent
Alr. Dmsley was also mistaken as to
the amount the new tariff law would add
TO the customs receipts He stated that.
based Oh the Expectations of The fiscal
year ending june 30, 1897, Il would be
9i2HeiN@ more than what DO was under
the NHsrn-tiorman law. but in order 10
he conservative. DE would place the added
revenue from the first years opera ton of
the bin at $4,000 000 What actually did
happen was that the importers, seeing the
prospect Of a very high tariff. flooded the
american ports with their goods before