The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1909-06-25
SIGNING TARIFF BILLS
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

ment. AS soon as Congress recovered
from its wrath It passed q tariff bill
without the repeal of the distribution
act proviso in 1t. Tyler signed It
That was the ''Whig tariff of 1S42"
pointed to by proteetionists as model
tartn law,
Perhaps the most anxious moments
United States tarin makers have ever
seen were in 1857, on March 4, just be-
fore the hands of the Senate clock
reached the hour. of twelve. Andrew
Johnson was President. A general BILL
reyiAng the tariff had been lost at the
preceding session. owing to a lack Of
parliamentary strategy on the part Of
Its managers. AT this session II was
decided to take Np wool and woollens
alone. The bill had q stormy time in
the two Houses.s and was finally passed
in the very last halfrday of the. ses-
| sion, No tone was sure Whist Johnson
that he wess likely to veto the bin. II
was rurnorsd sthata powerful interests
had been at work 10, secure A veto, and
Is the moments passed without news
from the Presidents room off the Sem
ate corridor the situation was tense.
At last. within less than a single min
| ute OF the tme when the bill would die
by, constitutional Limitation, Johnson
| attached his signature and the meas
ure became q law. Only once, since
then has a bill enacted BY Congress
| had such a narrow margin Of time In
which to become a law. ...
That was in the case OF the tariff
act of 1883. The passage of, that bill
| was secured under the most remark
able rule that any Legislative body has
/ ever seen, and which came from the
fertile brain of Thomas B. Reed, then
| a member of the House. The rule
provided that all rules affecting nom
tsconcurrence could be suspended by a
majority vote and. further, that q mo-
ton to disagree to the Senate amend
ments could be put under conditions
that II 1t carried the disagreement
| would be ordered; II 1t failed such fall
| ure should In nowise affect the bill
ThiA rule was, roundly denounced. but
1t saved the day. Congress had COM
pleted the bill by the morning OF
| March 4. If President Arthur did not
sign 1t that morning 1t WAS lost, and
the hope OF any change would be
struck IL. the Republicans. would have
to surrender control of the House. to
/ the Democrats. Arthur attached the
presidential approval to the bill just
in time to prevent Sits9 retirement
/ through constitutional Limitation to
the limbo of unsuccessful measures.
| 1t is a strange coincidence that one
|
| BILE for this law, who voted against Its
! passage, should be. the author Of the
next tariff law to be enacted. Thai
member was WiI1iam Mckinley. he
voted against the act Of 1883 because
| he thought it not sufficiently protec-
tive. Yet the act which he was des-
tined to father was. entitled "a :bifl"to
on imports and for other purposes.'
When the Mckinley bill. with which
| Nelson w. Aldrich had even more to
do than the man whose name 1t bears
was passed, 1t was Benjamin Harrison
who signed it. Aldrich has had much
to do with three bills7-the Mckinley
bill, the Dingley bill and the present
measure. Yet his name was never APP
piled to either of the hrst two. 1t Is
Interesting to speculate as to whether
1t will be connected with the present
measure. German played the same
role toward the Wilson bill that Aid
rich has played toward the three meas.
ures mentioned, ana his name lives in
the hyphenated Wilson German law
The measure now pending is no more
like the Payne bill than the Wilson.
), German law was like the Wilson bill
viii the present measure, If signed
follow Republican precedent and bear
the name of the Ways and Means
Chairman?
Harrison approved the mckinley Dill
on October /. 1890. to go into effect
\, Just six days hence, except the sugar
schedules. There was little ceremony
when he signed the measure. 1t wa:
not until 1897 that the White House
witnessed the signing of another tariff
law, when Mckinley signed the Ding
ley bill, thus completing his remark
able record Of voting against one tariff
, law of his party. fathering another
and as President attaching his ap
/ prevail signature to a third.
i. Clevelands refusal to sign the VII
son-Gorman law and the my deal
n Catchings" letter In which he set forth
his reasons, given to the public stimuli
| taneously with the return OF the meas
ure to Congress, is familiar history
II His branding of the course of the Sen
J. ate Democrats as one involving per
hdy and dishonor," stands as the mos
: remarkable curtain lecture ever deliv
! cred to his party by a President of tn
/ United States.
( II william H. Taft should veto tn
] present measure 1t would be the hrs
I time in the history of the nation tina
r a President has vetoed a tariff law be
$ cause OF the scheuales themselves
I'll Tyler vetoed his two bills for matter
: entirely apart from the tariff Itself