Evening star., 1909-06-30
INTEREST BUT SCANT HE ACCUSES CCR|TCSES TAFT PLAN
Opens At
tack Corporation Tax
HARD TO KEEP QUORUM COST OF MAKING PAPER
Corporate Give Reports Compact"
His abota OF Dis Represent of Consumers
a | t. | 1omeTa Proposition and
Has Left Hearing Before Committee
Repeaed Roll Calls Required
in the. Senate.
HARD TO KEEP A. QUORUM
Cummins Resumes Discussion of Tax
on Corporations.
CHAIRMAN ALDRICH ABSENT
His Whereabouts a Matter Of Dis
cussion at the Capitol-Denied
That He Has Left the City.


With Senator Aidrich chairman of the
finance committee. absent and Senator
Flint of California in charge of the tariff
bill. the real debate on the amendnl ant
for per cent tax on the net incomes OF
corporations began in the Senate this
morning. Senator Root of New York,
who Is to be the committees legal ad-
wiser during the debate, moved from his
seat. away over I'm the Cherokee strip,
and took mp position on the right hand
of Mr.. Flint.
The debate got lame start. When the
Vice Presidents cavel fell at 10 o clock
only about dozen senators were pres
ent. When the prayer of the chaplain
was over and the journal had been read,
consuming about two minutes, the alb
sence of A quorum was suggested, and
the roll had to be called. 1t disclosed the
fact that a quorum was not present, al
though the secretary went through the
list with measured slowness.
Now and then a senator would Straggle
in, walking listlessly and tanning himself
steadily, looking as If he would much
rather be away with Senator Aldr1ch on
that reported sea voyage than In the hot
Senate cndmDer. AL twenty minutes past
10 o'clock Ii was still impossible for. the
chair to announce the presence of a quo
rum Then Senator Gailinger of New
Hampshire asked that the secretary call
,he roll of the absentees. which was done
for the first time this session.
Very slowly the secretary went through
the list and still there were not enough
present. although the number was being
gradually augmented. Senator stone OF
Missouri made forty-five. and then Sen
.t1 -, Of Tav 40 no r.
ty-siXth. One more was needed to give a
ma jority of the membership of ninety
two. 1t fell to the lot Of Senator Piles OF
Washington to enable the Senate TO pro-
strolled in about twenty-five minutes past
TO- clock, and answered Present"
Proposed Division of the Bill.
After a few preliminaries. such as the
introducing of unimportant bills and res
olutions, Senator Gore of Oklahoma Gre
ated a very mild stir by presenting a res
olution for the purpose of dividing the tar
iff bill into separate schedules in order
that President Taft might have an oppor-
tunity to approve or disapprove of one
without respect to the others. At once
Mr. Gallinger demanded that the resolu-
tion go over until tomorrow, under the
rules.
Mr. Gore replied that it was his inten-
I1On To make the same request. dS lie
wanted time to confer with his democratic
colleagues in regard to its course. He
said he might move its adoption later, or
might ask that it be referred to the ju-
dietary committee for a report upon the
question of whether or not the Senate had
the constitutional right to divide a tariff
bill
He then delivered a short TRADE against
the bill and declared that the republican
party had broken its promise made to
N a Ia CT oil N q
made worse bill than the present law.
President Taft. he declared, ought to
veto 1t without any hesitation. He said
the republicans were making the same
sort of a mistake that the democrats
made in the Wilson-Gorman tariff bill,
which President Cleveland refused to
sign but allowed to become a law under
the ten days limitation. The democratic
party deserved defeat for that act, he
said. and the republicans deserved de-
feat for their present action and would
get 1t.
Cummins Resumes His Speech.
This matter out of the way, Senator
Cumnins of Iowa resumed his speech
against the corporation tax. which he be-
gan yesterday. He had not proceeded
for more than two minutes when Senator
Clapp of Minnesota. noticing that most
of the senator's present had run for the
cloakrooms. suggested the absence of a
quorum. The roll had to be called again
and the quorum again turned up, this
time slightly increased in size.
The first thing that Mr.. Cummins did
was to take a dig at Mr.. Aldrich
Il learn from the morning papers.
said the Iowan, that the senator from
Rhode Island the chairman of the finance
committee. has gone away on little sea
voyage. / am glad he has gone. He
has earned a rest. After the remarkable
statements made by him yesterday he
needs recuperation and inspiration for
about a thousand years.
Mr.. Cummins by this statement referred
to Mr.. Aldrich's frank admission on the
floor yesterday that he proposed to vote
for the corporation tax i'm order to defeat
the income tax. and not because he ia
rored il as an original proposition: and
that he expected to see it repealed at the
end of two years. or at least all OF it
except the publicity features affecting
corporations.
Speculation Regarding Aldrich.
The whereabouts of the chairman of the
finance committee caused much discus
sion at the Capitol this morning. His alb
sence from the Senate chamber was taken
by almost everybody 10 mean that he had
left the city. as il had been announced he
intended to do. But the clerk of the
finance committee. MIR. Aldrichs right
hand man. denied that he had gone yet.
rooms of the committee. and a disposition
10 refrain altogether from discussing the
chairmans present location. 1t was even
intimated very strongly that no one ex-
cept a favored few would know when Mr..
Aldrich did go, nor where. Everybody in
the Senate however. went upon the as
sumption this morning that he had gone.
and for all practical purposes he was
gone. for he did not show himself.
Charged With Inconsistency.
Senator Cummins told In very frank
language what he thought of the present
corporation tax proposals. He charged
MIR Taft with being very Inconsistent In
first recommending the income tax then
switching to the inheritance tax. and
hnally dropping both in favor of the cor
poration tax He didn't agree with the
Presidents final conclusions, he declared
and didn't propose 10 follow them.
He charged also that the movement for
economy in the government departments,
"A part of which has been to threaten the
discharge of large number of employees
Is nothing more than part of a general
effort to discredit all efforts to raise addi-
tional revenue by making il appear that
il will not be needed. He held that moth
ing could explain away the national def
cit and the imperative ned OF raising
money by a new form OF taxation.
Recess Is Taken
as the afternoon grew older. and Mr.
Cummins soon began to show the ef-
fects of the heat. He spoke more
himself with drink of lemonade a,
m, he . Mt n ~