The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-05-13

sentative exclaimed at the Capitol the
other day: q can vote for anything
in this bill. 1t will be eighteen months
before there is an election. The people
will forget all about it before then. -
| The Republicans have never forgot
ten their experience with the Mckinley
| law. They enacted that measure at a
regular session, which came to an end
just as the congressional campaign was
beginning. The Republican majority
was decimated. Now, if the reeraet
ment of the Dingley schedules is to be-
come a burning issue, the leaders are
wondering whether it could remain
dominant subject of controversy, which
would live twelve months, and overtop
in Importance the legislative questions
which will be forced to the front at
the session that begins next December.
! As the situation stands now, the Sen
ate leaders can be expected to grant
some concessions That is the favorite
method of the Senate leaders when re-
volt stalks forth in the chamber. No
one can tell, however, how much any
concessions by the leaders will mean
ultimately, for every concession the
Senate leaders make must be tested in
the crucible of the conference commit.
tee. That committee will be manned
by standpatters and some Western Sen
ators who have been conciliated may
eventually find themselves simply hold
ing the bag.
Constituents Not Busy.
These days there is great TODD
about how the Senate is going to vote
On this schedule and that schedule o.
the tariff bill. Men are using lot of
time and energy in working up CAM
paigns and demonstrating the senti-
ment for the increases of duty that
they desire, and, in few instances, in
very few instances, as matter or
fact, for decreases they or their con-
stituents may desire. For the constit-
uents who want the duties lowered are
not making themselves known at
Washington anything like as fercibly
as are the manufacturers who want
big, safe margin of protection.
Such campaigns may be all very
WELL 1t is worth while, of course, for
Senator Dolliver of Iowa and Senator
Nelson of Minnesota, and dozen
other Western Republicans, to thunder
III Tie SGildLS AtI iONCE uuIlCS, "
try to batter down some of the high
tariff barbados which the House and
the Senate have been erecting. In
the long run even the most arch stand
patter has respect for public senti-
ment, especially for public sentiment
that is emphatic and militant.
Nevertheless, it is we'll to bear in
mind that some of these campaigns,
even if they appear to succeed, may
come to naught. There is third body
with all the weight of third legis-
lative house-that will go over these
schedules, when the Senate at last has
thrashed out the questions of low
tariff and high tariff involved in the
AIdrich-Payne bill. A conference COM
mittee sounds to the average citizen
like something very uninteresting and
possibly unimportant In this case its
work will be decidedly interesting and
especially important to lot of people
The Senate Committee on Finance
made literally hundreds of amend
ments to the tariff bill as it was pass
ed by the House. The Senate will
make more amendments. AS soon as
the Senate reaches a final vote there
will be new print of the bill, and it
will come forth marred on almost
every page by sentences and para
graphs printed in italics and with sem
fences and paragraphs on almost
every page stricken out.
Then the Senate will ask the House
of Representatives for a conference
and it viii be granted. The House will
name seven men from its Ways and
Means Committee to serve in that ca
pacity. They will be the four senior
Republicans and the three senior DEM
ocrats of Ways and Means in point of
service. Barring sickness or some ac-
cident that keeps them away from
congressional work, these seven House
men will he Representatives Payne of
New York, DalzeH of Pennsylvania,
Mccall of Massachusetts, and Hill of
Connecticut, Republicans; and Champ
Clark of Missouri, Underwood of Ala.
hama, and Griggs of Georgia, Demo-
Gratis. The Senate will also designate
seven of its members, all from the
Finance Committee. These will, in all
probability. be Senators Aldrich of
Rhode Island, Burrows of Michigan,
Penrose of Pennsylvania, and Hale of
Maine, Republicans: and Daniel of
Virginia, Money of Mississippi, and
Bailey of Texas, Democrats All of
them, or nearly all, are men of expe-
rience in tariff-making. Every one of
them has had to do with other tariff
bills, and all of them were in Con-
gress when the Dingley Law was
enacted twelve years ago. The four
teen include the best-posted men in
Senate ami House on tariff matters, Tt
is said that very few men in Senate
or House are experts on anything like
q majority of the schedules, but the
members of the conference committee
are the wisest in those affairs of any
legislators under the shadow of the
Capitol dome
They constitute a sort of court, which
is virtually tribunal of last resort.
The tariff bill, with its hundreds of
conflicting provisions, will be turned
over to them, but after a formal ses-
sion or two, which will be held in one
of the big committee rooms in the