The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-15
SENATE CLIQUE ID SCOTCH TARIFF BILL Will Be DingIeyiSm Re-enacted
 When Completed TAFT HAS HARD PROBLEM House Proposes But Senate Disposes in This Matter-Few Harm
 less Changes Will Be
 Permitted.
TAFT HAS HARD PROBLEM

Chicago. March 14.-(Sp l.)-wal-
 Record Herald from Washington says:
 That serious trouble is coming to the
 Taft administration over tariff revision ] is believed by the best informed men
 in Congress.
 It may be necessary for President | Taft to veto the bill which finally passes or to permit it to become law
 without his signature, as President 1 Cleveland did with the Wilson bill,
 which he denounced as "perfidy and dis ] honor"
 l More "perfidy," or what may seem
 such in the eyes of the President, is in
 the programme.
 Already a combination has been ] formed in the Senate to prevent the
 lowering of any duties which any im-
 portant interest wants kept virtually | at the present level.
 Unless the combination breaks down the act which finally comes out of the | Senate hopper will be high protection measure pure and simple. And the com i bination is not likely to fall to pieces. 1 It is bound together by the most per
 sistent and enduring cement, human
 selfshness.
 Every one is trying to find out what
 the committee on ways and means has
 done about the various schedules. Such 1 information as can be obtained Is in | teresting, but not highly important. 1 The committee on ways and means is
 not making a tariff bill; it is only sug-
 gesting a bill. The House is not to
 make tariff bill; it will only propose | one The Senate is the final arbiter
 The House proposes and the Senate dis
 poses.
 And the combination that has been
 formed in the Senate already feels sure 1 that 1t will have It's way on every dis
 puted point. What this means is that | the high protectionists are in the sad i dle and intend to stay there.
 Mark my prediction" said a leading
 senator, member of the combination; i;
 when a bill finally gets out of the | Senate it will be the Dingley law over | dsd1H-i l4eT6 may De a IeW reductiOnS
 here and there. cuts to which nobody
 seriously objects. But that Is all We 1 do not care a rap what the ways and means committee or the House may | do-we know what we are going to | do."
 How will President Taft like that?"
 I asked
 Well" was the reply MT Taft will have to take his medicine"
 
 But will MT. Taft take his medicine? :? | That is the question. Will he tamely submit to "perndy and dishonor" in or 1 der to get some sort of a revenue law | or will he interpose veto? To more than one of his intimate friends the l President has declared that he intends i to have "a reasonable and honest tar
 if revision" or use the veto power
 which the constitution has vested in | him.
 l What he will do when the critical mo- I ment arises remains to be seen. It is as l certain as anything in the future can be | that the measure which the Senate com l bine permits to go through will not be l such measure as Mir. Taft had in mind
 during the campaign, nor such measure 1 as he has in mind now. To what eX-
 tent he will temper his opinions to tho | stern necessities of the case the next few l months will determine. To interpose veto would mean political chaos, party | defeat at the next congressional cleo | tions, and more or less financial disturb 1 ance. To bow the knee in submission, to
 accept misft rather than have no coat | at all, and to break the promises made in l the campaign-that will indeed be dose
 of bitter medicine for MT. Taft if be has | to swallow it.
 Senators who are in the high protection 1 combine believe MT. Taft will yield They l express the opinion that he will find
 enough of good in the bill partly to coun- l teract the bad and permit him to affix
 reluctant signature. They argue that
 he cannot afford to wreck his party and l his administration and that he Is by na- | ture and training compromiser. l But among the Presidents close friends | are men who say he never compromises on a matter of principle, and is as | strong and stubborn of will when aroused | as he is big of body and amiable in tenn l per. They add that he has made too many promises and declarations to take l the back track now, no matter what the 1 cost. In their opinion he has marched so far up the hill toward genuine tariff
 reform that he can't now even permit ] himself to be pushed down again l The old high tariff game Is being played
 very much in the old way, with a few | small variations. According to the orig | inal programme, the ways and means committee was to prepare, the House to pass and accept. purely perfunctory
 tariff act. in other words a virtual
 enactment of the Dingley law | MT. Taft upset that plan By threaten 1 ing to destroy the Cannon regime in the House of Representatives, he forced Uncle | Joe to surrender and to order the ways | and means committee to give Taft what he wants. as far as may be necessary | The ways and means republicans, at first ] very sore and ugly, have gradually be- ] come reconciled, and with approximate 1 sincerity are trying to meet the Taft 1 ideas. But they are doing so with two | highly important mental reservations | The first of these is to make revision | which shall seem to be a general reduc- l ton of duties without actually hurting 1 any protected industry very much. And the second is to throw upon the l Senate the responsibility of cutting out
 what little low tariff heresy the House | feels it necessary to put In under Taft i pressure.
 The Senate is ready to accept this re- l sponsibiity In turn the leaders of that l body have a little game of their own to l play, if they can, and their game is to | grant few unimportant reductions here | and there, as in the iron and steel sched- l ues, to which no one objects, and which 1 cut no figure industrially, and to make the l most of these, heralding the measure to | the country as a victory for tariff re- lraxr harrr