Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-06-15
Purpose for Which Tariff
Bill Was Written,
Says Owen.
SCORES REPUBLICANS
Senate Leaders Denounced for
Refusal to Answer Cues
tiOnS.

Washington, June 10. Charging
United States were IN control; that.
the tariff bill was written to serve
their purpose to make the rich richer
and the poor poorer, and to benefit
the few at thc expense of the many,
Senator Owen today held the atten-
tion of the senate for several hours
with speech replete with denunci7,
alton of the republican protective
tariff policy and of the majority
members of the finance committee.
Responsibility for the unrest of the
country he laid at the door of ''The
recent giant monopolies, engendered
and sheltered by the prohibitive
tariff
Against Peoples VIII.
Senator Owen opposed the bill in
its entirety because he said it was
contrary to the will of the American
people. Then l point out the un-
avoidable effect of extreme poverty
as the necessary complement of I'M
limited wealth in the hands of the
few accumulated under the shelter
of the law" he declared. Il wish
it distinctly understood that the dark
picture of human misery which the
truth compels me to portray breathes
from me no spirit of pessimism, be-
cause | am an optimist. | recognize
the immediate dawn of better things
and an early remedy
Looks to Future.
Among the reasons assigned by
him for being an optimist, Senator
Owen Safd that he belieyed that the
American people, who loved liberty,
who believed in self-government,
who believed in mercy and charity
as well as in industry and providence
will see to it that this government
is so conducted by their representa-
tives that in the future there shall
be more equitable distribution of
the proceeds of human labor; that
we shall change the present policy,
whose inevitable tendency is the use
less, the vulgar, and insane enrich
ment of the few at the expense of
the misery and sorrow and of the
of millions of men, women and chill
dren who are now submerged by the
commercial devices of mammon." In
his opinion, he asserted, the bill
should not pass because it violated
the pledge of the republican party
and of the republican leader during
the last campaign. The republican
,In4 L L 4
equivocal." and its reasonable and
natural Interpretation was plain.
Declared Absurd.
Senator Owen, reverting to the
debates in the senate on the tariff
said that when he had sought to as
certain why the difference in the
cost of production at home and
abroad had not been compiled as a
basis for the drafting of the bill,
Senator Gallinger rises in his place
and solemnly advises me that my
in quiry is absurd. He would not,
he said, question the intelligence of
Mr.. Aldrich nor would he reply to
him in kind, but, he said, 81 appeal
from him to the American people
who will not hold him guiltless for
his callous and reprehensible con-
duct in this matter" The failure OF
Mr.. Aldrich and his colleagues to
furnish the senate with the difference
in cost of production at home and
abroad, he bitterly denounced, re-
marking that the request had beer
met with 'supercilious Indifference.
He charged that Mr.. Aldrich hat
withheld information upon tha
point, and that he had refused tc
Senator Daniel and to other demo
cratic members of the finance com