Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-08-17
SIGNING TARIFF BILLS
By Frederic J. Haskin.

Of the session. No one was sure what
Johnson would do. In fact it was re-
ported that he was likely to veto the
bill 1t was rumored that powerful inter-
ests had been at work to secure a veto,
and as the moments passed without news
from the presidents room of the senate
corridor the situation was tense. At last
within less than a single minute Of the
time when the bill would die by consri-
tutional limitation, Johnson attached his
signature and the measure became a law.
Only once since then has a bill enacted
by congress had such narrow margin
of time in which to become law.
That was in the case of the tariff act
of 1888 The passage of that bill was So
cured under the most remarkable rule
any legislative body has ever seen, and
which came from the fertile brain OK
Thomas B. Reed, then a member Of the
house. The rule provided that all rules
affecting non-concurrence could be sus-
pended by a majority vote, and, further,
that a motion to disagree to the senate
amendments could be put under conditions
that If II carried the disagreement would
be ordered; if it failed such failure should
in nowise affect the bill. This rule was
roundly denounced, but it saved the day.
Congress had completed the bill by the
morning of March l. If President Arthur
did not sign it that morning 1t was lost,
and the hope of any change would be
gone, since on the hour when the clock
struck twelve the Republicans would
have to surrender control of the house
to the Democrats. Arthur attached the
presidential approval to the bill just In
time to prevent it's retirement through
constitutional Limitation to the limbo Of
unsuccessful measures.
IT is a strange coincidence that one Of
the members Of the party responsible for
should be the author of the next tariff
law to be enacted. That member was
William Mckinley. He voted against the
act of 1888 because he thought 1t not suf-
fiCiently protective Yet the act which he
was destined TO father was entitled "a
DILL to reduce the revenue, to equalize
duties on imports, and for other pur-
poses" When the Mckinley bill. with
which Nelson w. Aldrich had even more
to do than the man whose name 1t bears
was passed, 1t was Benjamin Harrison
who signed ii. Aldrich has had much to
do with three bills-the Mckinley bill, the
Dingley bill, and the present measure.
Yet his name was never applied to either
of the first two. 1t is interesting to
speculate as to whether 1t will be con-
nected with the present measure. German
played the same role toward the VIII
son bill that Aldrich has played toward
the three measures mentioned, and his
name lives in the hyphenated Wilson-Gor-
man law The measure now pending Is
no more like the Payne bill than the
Wilson, German law was like the Wilson
bill. Will the present measure, II signed,
follow Republican precedent and bear the
name of the ways and means chairman
Harrison approved the Mckinley bill
on October l, 1890. to go into effect Just
six days hence, except the sugar scneo-
ules. There was little ceremony when ne
signed the measure. It was not until 1897
that the white house witnessed the sign
ing of another tariff law, when Mckinley
signed the Dingley bill, thus completing
his remarkable record of voting against
one tariff law of his party. fathering an
other, and as president attaching MS APP
prevail signature to third.
CIeveland's refusal to sign the wilson
German law and the "My dear Catch
ings'' letter in which he set forth his rea-
sons, given to the public simultaneously
with the return of the measure to con-
gress, Is familiar history. His branding
Of the course of the senate Democrats as
one involving 'perfidy and dishonor."
stands as the most remarkable curtain
lecture ever delivered 10 his party by
president of the United States.
If William H. Taft should veto the pres
ent measure ii would be the first time in
the history Of the nation that president
has vetoed a tariff law because of the
schedules themselves. Tyler vetoed HIS
two bills for matters entirely apart from
the tariff itself. Both would have been
signed but for extraneous matters. Cleve-
land did not veto his measure. Prior to
the Jacksonian regime the president never
vetoed any act except on the grounds OF
unconstitutionality. If Taft should veto
the pending measure probably 1t will be
many a year before party in congress
will risk another such veto.-(Copyright.
1903, by Frederic ]. Haskin.)