The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-04-19
TARIFF, STORY Of
UPS AND DOWNS
Continued From Page One

| The procession thither is endless, an
it has just gotten we'll under way t
a number of corners and committee
| rooms. both in the Senate wing an
! in the Senate Office building.
Many hundreds of thousands of dol
| lars have been paid out in railroa,
fare to Washington, by representa-
| tives of manufacturers, and even b,
| the manufacturers themselves, "A VIII
come down to Washington to see tina
what they want is written correctl,
into the bill. Many hundred THOUSAND
dollars more are jingling into thu
pockets of Washington hotelkeepers
The harvest this year is richer thar
the customary harvest from the
Northern visitors who fit South to the
pleasure resorts and fit North@ agair
when the sun climbs a little higher in
the sky. And this harvest from the
interested manufacturers will yield fol-
monitor two mQnths-possibly for
three months yet. For the manufae-
turers and their representatives must
be IN Washington off and on till the
bill is done, till the Speaker attaches
Senate attaches his, and till the Pres
ident of the United States attaches his
and makes the tariff bill a law.
1t is the prospect of continued Re
publican rule, which assures the en-
forcement of the new tariff law with
out change for number of years,
that contributes materially to the bit
terness of the fight for and against
schedules. Men know that when the
law is written and put into operation,
it will remain the law for a consider
able time. The Republicans are as
sured of control of the White House
for four years. If the Democrats win
the House of Representatives two
years from now, it would not shorten
the life of the law necessarily. The
President would be against them for
two years more. Then, if the Demo-
Gratis should win the presidency in
1912, they would still have little oppor-
tunity of revising the tariff. They
have been making some gains in the
Senate, but so small that the Senate
is still overwhelmingly Republican. In
fact, the Senate is sure to remain Re-
publican for quite six years. what
ever happens to the House and the
presidency. So it is fair to assume
that the life of the new tariff law
will be at least six years, perhaps
eight or ten years.
Some of the pessimists think the
fight is demoralizing the party in the
House. It is trying the souls of lead
ers over there. Just think sof it! There
are now two insurgent Republican
forces operating separately but vigor-
ously against the Payne bill. But
probably it is not as serious as some
folks think. The old insurgent Repub-
lican crowd that held the eye Of the
country for a while at the beginning
of the session-insurgents who wanted
the rules changed and were led by
Representatives Gardner of Massaehu-
sets and Victor Murdoch of Kansas
have sort of petered out. They have
lost their identity in the scramble for
schedules that suit constituents.
Another band of Republican insur-
gents sprung up, however. Many of
them came from the S5ates-prairie
States-of the Mississippi valley and
the States of the nearer Northwest
whose timber has been cut away Their
leader has been Representative Taw-
ney of Minnesota, who was attacked
by President Roosevelt and put into
the Ananias Club. He is chairman of
Appropriations and has his eye upon
the Speakership, should 9sUncle Joe''
Cannon be elected to the Senate from
Illinois. Those insurgents generally
wanted a duty oil hides also, but some
of them were from the East, where free
hides are popular. In the main, how
ever, this second crop of insurgents
rallied around the free lumber idea.
Then followed the third crop of Re
publican insurgents-making the sec
ond group that is now at all active,
They want duty ~on lumber, duty on
hides, a duty ON coal, and the like. In
their ranks are Republicans from West
Virginia, North Carolina, and the far
Northwest, where there are still large
areas of virgin timber. Representative
Tawney's group of insurgents forced
the framing Of a special rule by which
there should be a record vote in the
House on the lumber duty and that was
what sent the second insurgent group
into activity. For the indications have
grown that special vote on the lumber
schedules may result in free lumber,
which would further aggravate the own
ers of stumpage and the operators in
the States where there is lumber left.
The situation has numerous ramifca-
lions, extending to a considerable num-
Der of schedules. Enough has been ex-
planned to show something of "UncIe
Joe' Cannon s troubles. The wran-
CLING has censered upon the language
of special rule, by which there shall
be an agreement to vote upon the tariff
bill speedily, so that the Senate can
take it in charge and enter upon the
long and analytical debate which is in
prospect there.
The wiser heads do nos question that
eventually ''Unele Joe' Cannon will
be able to rein all the recalcitrants in.
His troubles have been largely with
the Westerners, upon whom party ties
rest lightly. The Representatives east
of the Allegheny Mountains have given
him hstle cause for worry. They have
fought earnestly for what they wanted,
but have not threatened to desert the
party organization if they could not
have what they demanded. Some
Mississippi Valley States, however, have
become suspicious of the administration
IN the brief time since Inauguration
and think fhe raviSioo &c J,a;ncx x,-oxf-,G