Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-05-24
The Tariff Prophets Are
SiI| Prophssying
As 10 the Earliest Date Of
I adjournment Of Congress.
Dinslsy Bill In 1897 Was Not
Passed Until First Of July.

Washington, D. c.. May 23.-(Spec-
iaD. --"Autumn days" is now the wall
of the tariff prophets. who are prepar-
irg to sizzle through q hot. tropical
summer. Somebody advanced the date
TO October / the other morning. He
was the most lugubrious prophet OF
them ALL Others have talked about
locking up the press galleries. eX-
Guiding the public from the sessions.
ard then going ahead in star cham
Der. No tariff builder then could get
fame from the country by talking or
opposing. Within the chamber 1t
would be grim and silent except for
monotonous haste to get through t"
the end of the big. thick bill.
The country probably does not real
i've how idle all that kind of conversa-
ton is 1t takes time. and ought 10
take time, to enact a tariff bill into
law-not so much time as the senate
is occupying probably. All the rest or
Washington. except those 81 Senators.
Is sitting around and waiting. 1t
reads the papers in the morning 10
see how many test votes were taken.
and 20 note the weary progress toward
the last controverted paragraph. Most
Of the rest of Washington. 1t might
aisO be said. has made up its nina
about what the tariff ought to be. has
taken sides one way or the other
and is ready to settle the terms of the
blli on a moments notice.
Under ordinary circumstances there
would be much else doing to occupy
the brains and the faculties Of this big
company OF idle Washington people.
Trey are drifting now. however. wait
ing upon the bill The House wants
the bill. How the hotel expenses are
piling up! How impatient the states
men at the end of the Capitol are with
heir old foe--thc Senate! Ana the
Representatives. headed by Uncle Joe
Cannon are rapping away every Gay
in confident conversational tones about
the Gilatory old Senate. There are 200
or 300 Representatives in town and
they are all talking as industriously
as the members of sewing circle
about the dilatory old Senate. Their
gossip infects the air. it gets into the
newspapers, it reaches to the uttermost
parts of the country.
Irksome as residence in WASHINGTON
al this time of year may be. and eager
as the business world may be for the
terms of the tariff, the Senate is not
doing so very badly. The present tar
in bill is quite as far advanced as was
the :)ingley bill at similar date
twelve wears ago. The extra session
that framed the Dingley law met lin
the mid1le of March. just as did the
present extra session. But the Senate
IN the summer of 1897 did not get
through with the tariff bill till the very
first days of July. 1t is A fairly safe
wager that the Senate will be through
with the present tariff bill by the mid
die of June-possibly before that time
and it is altogether proba BILE that by
early July--the date when the Dingley
bill was getting out of the Senate IN
1897. the Payne bill will be upon the
Presidents desk and that he will sign
it promptly so that Congress can has
ten home nearly a month in advance
o. the time when Congress nastcned
hcme in 1897
And when one analyses the situation,
Washington hotel bills are at the bot
tom of the heated talk which proceeds
from Washington. In recent years the
sessions Of Congress have been grow
ing shorter and shorter. although the
business of Congress has been growing
larger and larger in volume. 1t used
to be that Congress at its long sessions.
occurring every two years. stayed In
Washington till July or August and
ever later. For the last ten years the
long sessions have been adjourring In
May and June. and even at the end
of April This means that the legis
lators of Senate and House are GER
tainly not putting in any more tim" at
Washington than their predecessors
were doing. The session of Congress
that framed the Germany Wilson law.
did not adjourn till October. just a
short while before the Congressional
elections.
Probably nothing short Of war
would feep Congressman in Washing
ton in those modern days through Au-
gust ard the prophesy of statesmen