The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-04-19

hop up. Hence the trouble the Speake
has been having in Congress with hi
| Western Representatives. It has nc
been evident to people who have az
peared in the galleries of the Hous
from day to day to watch the proceed
ings in debate. From that vantag
point it has looked calm and common
place enough. But while the orator
have ben talking the generals and tn
captains have been running from ten
| to tent, putting their heads togethe
and trying to work out ambition
schemes in tactics and in forwar,
movements which would put the othe
parties in the contest to rout An,
| Speaker Cannon and his lieutenant
have been constantly seeking to subdu,
these active plotters and to compose tn,
situation in the interest of quick dis
| position of the entire tariff question. T,
this end he has had the best managing
talent of the house at his command
ever since the battle of tariff schedule.
opened with the booming of big guns
The gentle art of speech making fol-
the benefit of the folks at home and
without any special reference to the
splendid demonstration in the House
of Representatives. The members are
squaring themselves. Having done
that, some are ready to go as far as
the leaders may require and vote for
almost any old thing. They are the
men outside the insurgent group. The
excuse for the vote becomes easy. The
party leaders REQUIRED it
That is chiefly why no one is pay
ing any particular attention to the
House debate. Hundreds of broad col
umns of the Congressional Record are
being filed with words There are ex-
plantations why John Smith thinks
there should be no duty on lumber,
for instance. But when he has once
explained why, in his Judgment, there
should be no duty on lumber, he goes
along with the advocates of the dol
lar duty and votes merrily, once or
twice or thrice-as often as there hap
lpens to be a rollcall on any particu-
lar phase of the lumber duty Repub
lican discipline justifies the inconsist-
ency. A half dozen excuses are at
hand. The country wants prompt
work with tariff revision. Business
halts on the enactment of the tariff
law, a chorus of statesmen are ex-
Probably. But business may
halt after the tariff law is enacted
1t was going to jump forward with
leaps and bounds the moment the
country could be assured that Taft
was elected. On the contrary, bust
tn ta1t Ia.
cause Taft was elected or because
Bryan was not elected, but because of
industrial, financial and economical
conditions. But hope springs eternal
and that very desirable condition of
the revival of industry and the re-
turn of prosperity is doing business
the country over just now for the
benefit of the gullible.
But the progress of speaking in the
House. even for the enlightenment of
the folks at home, is going far to-
wards speeding the ultimate passage
of the bill there. For as soon as a
lection to a clause or schedu1e-or,
rather. the objection of any considera-
BILE body of his constituents-he often
ceases to hold out against the adop-
ton of a special rule. And for more
than week, now, Speaker Cannon
and his lieutenants have been sitting
up late nights trying to convince Re-
publicans it was their duty to vote for
a rule and thus assure the enactment
of the bill.
The standard of the House tariff de-
very few debaters of any ability left
in the House, either among Republi-
cans or Democrats. When half a
dozen speeches have been excepted,
the many days of discussion. often
lasting from 10 o'clock in the morning
till late at night, has been cheap talk
and nothing else. There has been lit
tie comprehensive grasp of tariff ques-
tons Not a half dozen men in the
House have any particular knowledge
of tariff, except for a schedule or two
that bears upon industry in their own
districts. The days when members of
Congress devoted much of their time
in Washington studying earnestly pub
lie questions that come up in legisla-
ton have passed. The city has be-
come so gay socially and otherwise,
and the tenure of office has become SO
that men do not care to
burn the midnight oil. The result is
that debates. not alone on ting tariff,
but upon other big questions, are gen
orally superficial.
Then House members are aware that
the President is anxious to see it pass
almost any kind of a tariff bill. Mr..
Taft does not hope to have the measure
framed in the House as he wants it.
He depends upon the Senate to whip
the bill into shape and to make it up
in form that will be acceptable to him.
The President, therefore, regards the
consideration of the tariff measure by
the House as largely superficial and the
squabbles of Representatives over
divers schedules as comparatively I'M
He refuses to have any
part in those controversies, but is CO.
operating with the Senate leaders that
they may be able to gather promptly a
vast amount of important information
bearing upon the significance of various
rates of duty upon certain large pro-
dueers of revenue. Hardly a day goes
by that the President does not have a
with Senator Aldrich or
Senator Hale of the Finance Commit
tee. They are keeping him informed