The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1909-04-20
THE WAYS AND
MEANS PEOPLE


WASHINGTON. Mhrch IA. - The psor
old WAYS aud Means Committee II the
House % Representatives b. having
iis troubles. OF course there are a lot
~ dissatisfied ones, since the tara
revision BIZ was reported They are
coming down 30 Washington nowadays
in great numbers, la greater numbers
than when the Ways and Means Com.
miitee Vas granting hearings. Aud they
are telling their complaints both TO
Representative IN the House aud to
Senators, because the Finance Commit
tee Is already a. work upon the Payne
Till and getting information upon which
10 base a report 10 the Senate.
80 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 .he town telling
what a 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 il, 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 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.
MduN VI IHeSe tIIOIS-duu lHtN arc
many-will 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
ly one of revising the schedules as made
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-
leans 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 weeks 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 il
not attractive. But Mr.. Payne had the
information with which to answer thu
multitude of questions that were free
at him for two days from every par
of the hall of the House. 1t might
have looked easy to the spectators il
the galleries. In fact it was a trying
ordeal for any man.
So well did he aquit himself that the
Republicans of the House stood ant
cheered at length, when he had conclud
ed. 1t was an exceptional ovation. The
New Yorker gained in the esteem Of
every member of the House by his TIVE
days speech. He has done little els'
but study tariff and schedules during
the last year. He sat mp long into thu
night for months to read the brief
presented to the Ways and Means Com
mittee. He worked diligently and dit
not spare himself. The House appre
ciates that kind of attention to dut,
quite as much as silver tongues anc
oratorical periods. Mr.. Payne had t.
wait about eight years for his op
portunity. but he was ready for it, an,
now the House will honor him the nor'