The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-04-17
THE WAYS AND
MEANS PEOPLE
They Are Having Plenty of
Trouble With Tariff
kiCkers.
By Ernest G.. Walker.


WASHINGTON, March 2S.-The poor
old Ways and Means Committee of the
House of Representatives is having
| its troubles. Of course there are a lot
of dissatisfied ones, since the tariff
revision bill was reported. They are
coming down to Washington nowadays
! in great numbers, in greater numbers
! than when the Ways and Means Com
mlttee was granting hearings. And they
are telling their complaints both to
| Representatives in the House and to
| Senators, because the Finance Commit
| tee is already at work upon the Payne
| bill and getting information upon which
! to base a report to the Senate.
! So many of these grumblers about
| tariff have come to Washington that the
favorable impression the bill made at
| the start has been largely dissipated.
That may be because the people, who
| are pleased with the schedules have
| gone home and settled down to their
work in contentment, whereas the peo-
pie who were not satisfied have been
| buying tickets to the federal Capitol
and going up and down the town telling
what bad bill the Payne revision
measure really is.
Whatever the good features of the
present bill may eventually prove to
| be, there was undoubtedly more or less
bungling with it, when one considers
the long time that the Ways and Means
! Republicans took to draw it. Here is
an example. The Ways and Means
Republicans thought they had raised
the duty on cigarettes without raising
| the duty on any other form of tobacco.
In considering the internal revenue
features, however, they had proceeded
with a copy of the thermal revenue
features of the Dingley tariff law be-
/ fore them. 1t seemed to have escaped
| the memory of all these Ways and
Means Republicans that the internal
revenue laws had been modified during
| the Spanish War AS the result of this
slip of memory and because they figured
on the internal revenue provisions of
| the Dingley law, instead of the present
law, the Committee majority really
raised the duty on cigars. They did
not become aware of it, however, till
after some people had fastened to
Washington to complain about the in
/ creased duties on cigars.
| Many of these errors-and they are
many-wilI be corrected by committee
amendments as the House proceeds to
vote upon the bill In so big bill,
covering so many schedules, it should
be no surprise, perhaps, if there are
some palpable errors, because the com
| mittee has to make up the bill anew,
where the Senate will have the ground
work all prepared and its task is chief
i w Of ha cahpdulaS OoaHp
up by the Houses.
But the business men and merchants
who got what they wanted have little to
say about the work of the Ways and
| Means Republicans, while those who
| did not get the schedules they thought
| they ought to have, are giving every
| Republican member of the committee
| language fit only for the old boy. That
! will pass, in few weeks. however, the
| deeds of the Ways and Means Repub-
licans will be forgotten, while the
praise and the blame will be for the
Republicans of the Senate Finance
| Committee.
Then it is to be remembered that
| ultimately the tariff bill will be made
| in the conference committee and the
praise and the blame will be bestowed
upon the two Republican Senators and
the two Republican Representatives.
who lock themselves in behind mahog-
any doors and adjust the great diff
ferences between the Senate and the
House over tariff taxation. Few will
know just who is responsible for this
change and that change in the final
make up of the measure which the
signature of President Taft will make
| law.
| Chairman Payne of New York has
come off well in the week. debate.
His opening of the discussion of the
bill gave him an opportunity to show
what he could do. Only rarely does
such an opportunity come to chair
man of Ways and Means. Mr.. Payne
did not fall short of what might have
been expected of him. He is not an
| orator. His voice is not altogether
pleasant to the ear. His delivery IS
| not attractive But Mr.. Payne had the
| information with which to answer the
multitude of questions that were tired
at him for two days from every part
of the hall of the House. 1t might
have looked easy to the spectators IN
| the galleries. In fact it was trying
ordeal for any man.
30 Wen u1d ne aqult HlhioeAI eii.N0
Republicans of the House stood ana
cheered at length, when he had coneIud-
ed. 1t was an exceptional ovation. Inc
New Yorker gained in the esteem OF
every member of the House by his two
DAYS speech. He has done little else
but study tariff and schedules during
the last year. He sat up long INTO the
night for months to read the DrieIs
presented to the Ways and Means Com,
mittee. He worked diligently and ala
not spare himself. The House appre-
ciates that kind of attention to duty
quite as much as silver tongues anu
oratorical periods. Mr.. Payne had 10
wait about eight years for his op,
portunity. but he was ready for 1t, ana