The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1909-11-11
PACKARD SIZED
Up BY BLOOM
EDITOR or DEVILS LAKE JOUR-
NAL SAYS PEWEE HAS WON
DERFUL CONSTRUCTIVE
IMAGINATION.

| Devils Lake Journal: We have a
kindly feeling for Packard, the editor
OF The Valley City Times Record. He
| Is young, beautiruI and bright. He has
fairly good English education, Is a
prolific and somewhat entertaining
writer and has a constructive magma
tive Imagination. We don't always like
his way but we entertain high per-
sonal regard for him and he Is welcome
to slide down our cellar door. He per-
sists, however, In being offish. In q
recent issue OF The Times Record he
says:
Bloom, the democratic mouthpiece
Of the Mckenzie machine In North Da-
kota, who runs a matchmaking sheet
at Devils Lack, is having q great deal
Of sport because Congressman Gronna
is reported to have said that he would
have voted for the Payne-Aldrich bill
If 1t had provided a tariff commission.
Bloom says that Gronna is so ignorant
that he did not know that there was
a provision for a tariff commission in
the bill Bloom, as usual, writes with
but faint knowledge Of that which he
discusses. The Payne Aldrich tariff
mission as that term is generally ac-
cepted. The German tariff commission
is a board Of experts who study the
tariff schedules and present recommen-
dations for changes to the governing
body--they are a body Of experts for
the scientific revision of the tariff. The
new law provides that President Taft
shall have a board Of three to assist
him In the administration Of the tariff.
They have absolutely nothing to do
with the revision Of the tariff and are
not a tariff commission as the term
is understood by informed men, and
what is more Gronna is not the only
member Of congress who baked, IL he
did balk, because the law failed to pro-
vide for a tariff commission.
His first sentence is a sample of his
constructive imagination. The second
sentence is another sample product Of
Mr.. Packards imagination. Mr.. Bloom
didn't say anything about Gronna's ig-
norance. He merely published a let
ter from the late ex-senator Johnson |
which contained the following:
What Senator johnson Said.
what l did say was that had read |
an interview purporting to come from |
Mr.. Gronna where he was represented |
to have said that If the tariff commits
sion paragraph had not been knocked |
out he would have voted for the bill. |
That paragraph was not knocked out |
and my commentary on the situation
was that if Mr.. Gronna had known
what was in the bill, he, too, would |
have voted for it."
Mr.. Packard admits, farther along, |
that there is a provision in the Payne |
Aldrich bill for a tariff commission, |
but he calls 1t board of three to |
assist the president in the administra-
ton OF the tariff" A rose is just as
sweet by any other name and 1T is
to The Journal what Broth |
er Packard calls the commission or
what duties he ascribes to 1t. Perhaps |
he is right in saying that they have
nothing to do with the re-
vision OF the tariff and are not a tariff |
as the term is understood |
by informed men," II so, 1t will be
another great disappointment to the
tariff reformers who had faith in the |
promises Of the last national republic
can platform.
The only feature Of Packard's criti-
cism Of MIR. Bloom that worries us is
that Packard impeaches Packard. If /
his statement that there is no tariff
commission is correct then his admis-
sion that there Is q tariff commission
Is not correct and vice versa. The fact !
that the letter of the late Senator
Johnson also impeaches Packard wor-
ries us. We mention the matter purely