The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-08-25
By Ernest G. Walker.


closing, will pass into history as one
of the most important and significant
of all extra sessions It has made very
few, if any, new regulations, although
some careers have been brought out
into the Emelight more distinctly, and
a few regulations have been put to the
test in the fiery furnace of public
critisim. 1t has been by far the most
tempestuous and most prolific of fac
tional contests Of any session and
especially of any extra session since
that which met August z, 1898, at the
call of President Cleveland to repeal
the Sherman silver purchase clause.
That Cleveland extra session was
made prominent by the strife of in
surgents. The Senate Democrats did
not follow Cleveland any more than the
Senate Republicans have all followed
Taft and there were storm and stress
during nearly all the days of that ex-
ira session as there have during the
extra or first session of the Sixty first
Congress. But President Cleveland in
the end got about all he wanted, as
President Taft is getting pretty much
what he wants of Congress in the way
of tariff revision.
No man on the Ways and Means
Committee has particularly enhanced
his record before the country, because
of the tariff revision, unless it be Rep
resentative Serene Payne. He has
been gradually growing into popularity
with his Republican colleagues, who re-
gard him as veteran and statwart
figure on their side of the House. He
framed a tariff bill for free raw
materials and gained the approval of
quite section of the country because
he fought for that program very
stiffly in conference. The President
was on his side and so warmly have
the low revisionists approved of Mr..
PAYNE that enthusiasts have mentioned
him for numerous high Offices, such as
Speaker of the House and Governor of
New York Mr.. Payne, however, is
content to remain as Chairman of
Ways and Means and as the floor
leader of the Republican majority
No speech was made during the con-
sideration of tariff in the House that
brought its maker any special notice.
No eminently noticeable tariff plan
wac launched then. As a matter of
fact a tariff mill is dry as dust sub
iect. when it comes down to details
and the history of tariff bills shows
that few men have gained fame by
any clever coup in connection with
such measures Therefore it is no re-
Election upon the House of Representa-
tives to relate that the proceedings
with reference to tariff there were in
the main decidedly commonplace and,
except for an occasional hour, very dull
and tedious.
The session. as far as the House is
concerned, will be notable for the firm
upper hand that "Uncle Joe" Can
non has maintained as Speaker. He
entered upon his fourth term as the
presiding officer of the House with the
beginning of this Congress, an honor no
other Speaker has enjoyed since the
time of Henry Clay. 1t had become
almost automatic that a Speaker should
not serve more than three terms be-
cause the animosities which his rule
must inevitably provoke would event
ually become so numerous as to over
throw him. Speaker Cannon has had to
keep in line a party majority, when his
party is represented by two factions
and in achieving that has had some
yery strenuous work. But he has not
failed in any particular and lays down
the gavel at the end of this session,
stronger, than he ever was before. To
be sure he came so close to losing the
tariff bill on a motion to recommit that
a change of three or four votes would
have meant an adverse majority, but
that was attributed to the hostility to
the amendments made in conference
and the Speaker s friends claim it was
in no way attributable to him.
The country has been made familiar
more than ever with a few Senators of
national reputation by reason of the
tariff deliberations at the north end of
the Capitol No fercer fighting by
Republicans has been seen there in a
quarter of century than has occurred
in the last three months with La Fol
lette of Wisconsin,: Cummins and Dol
liver of Iowa: Bristow of Kansas; and
Beveridge of Indiana in the role of cap
tains. But all these men were well
known before the tariff bill was report
ed to the Senate and it can hardly be
utations. because Of their opposition in
the name of tariff reform. Three of
them-La Toilette, Cummins and Bev-
eridge have presidential aspirations
and probably one or more of them will
loom up large with presidential ambi
tons when President Taft has served
out his allotted time and is ready to
retire to private life. Dolliver once
barely escaped a vice presidential
nomination that would have borne
him into the presidency and his i'm
passioned oratory had admirers in
every state of the union before a line
of the tariff bin was written. Bristow,
as fourth Assistant Postmaster Gen
eral. conducted the investigation of the
Postoffice Department which made his
name a household word between the
two oceans.
All these men have gained some adj
d;tional prestige among the low tariff
followers of the country by their ag-
gressive campaign for a reduction of
rates Bristow signaled his advent
into the Senate by taking up the low
tariff fight and not letting go till
the last vote upon the bin and upon
the conference report had been taken.
Senator Aldrich had a nation wide