Smyrna times., 1909-08-11

Congress last Thursday passed the
new tariff bill which was promptly
igned by President Taft. Much is
being said and comments all over the
country are many and various. A
tariff bill seldom satisfies all the
elements in the party which enact it.
II must contain many compromises.
But the main question to be faced
when the time comes for a final de-
cisiOn is whether or not, on the whole.
the measure can be accepted as a
reasonable fulfillment of the party's
promises and policies We do not
doubt that majority of the Republi-
can voters would have been pleased to
see larger reductions made in some of
the tariff schedules. The President,
had he had his own way completely,
would probably have put many rates
lower. But allowances must be made
for the enormous obstacles in the
way Of downward revision. The in
terests opposing revision of any sort
were intrenched in both houses of
Congress. In the Senate especially
they controlled the organization of
each of the great parties, and through
a bipartisan alliance, scarcely con-
cealed, were able to checkmate the
efforts of the House to modernize the
Dingley schedules. They could have
gone further if they had wished to
and dared to, for only public opinion
and the veto power of the President
restrained them from changing the
House bill into thoroughgoing mea-
sure of upward revision. Leading
Democratic newspapers have testified
to the fact that the only effective op-
position inside the Senate to the FL
nance Committees programme came
from the Republican insurgents. "
That under such circumstances a prac-
tical return to the provisions of the
House bill was secured in conference
must be considered a material tri-
umph for the cause of rational revi-
sion. In political sense the new
law represents a victory for the
forces of progress over the forces of
reaction. If it fails to accomplish
all that might have been desired in
the way of abating overprotection, it
is nevertheless a decisive step for
ward. 1t clears tae way for a sound
er application of the principal of
protection, and that in itself is
gain worth all the turmoil and fric-
tion of the extraordinary session.
Criticism of the new law is already
moderating. The people are disposed
to give it fair chance. The Dem
ocratic party is in no position to at
tack it for the Democratic party in
Congress refused to cooperate when
the chance was offered to secure a
lower average of duties. The law,
fortunately, will have trial of
fifteen months before a new Congress
is chosen. The wisdom Of calling an
extraordinary session to deal with
the tariff is thus vindicated. The
Mckinley law went into effect in 1890
only a month before the elections Of
Congress. The Wilson-Gorman law
had only two months in 1894 in
which to try to justify itself. The
Republicans were defeated disastrous
ly in 1890, and 'he Democrats were
in 1894. 1t is instructive to compare
the viAence Of partisan criticism in
these two campaigns with the far
soberer state Of public feeling now.
We think that the better the new law
is understood and the clearer becomes
the results, material and moral, Of
the victory achieved over the re-
dictionary forces in Congress the more