Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-04-03
The President and the Tariff.

Commenting on the report that the Sem
ate will make the tariff bill, the New
York Evening Post says:
1T is doubtless this ominous prospect
which is troubling President Taft. He
knows what the verdict of the country
will be if the House adopts a reasonably
good bill. and then the Senate fills it
full of the old tariff iniquities. Such d
result would lend new and damning force
to the charge that the Senate. removed
from the popular vote. has become the
place where corporations and men with
sinister interest in politics intrench
themselves and bid defiance to the will of
the people. One thing is certain: if such a
deadlock between the popular assembly
and the chamber of privilege does arise,
President Taft will leave it in no doubt
where he stands. He is not now meddling
with any details of the tariff. and he will
not use the offices to bride the way of the
bill he favOrs. but. when the time comes,
he will surely let the people, whose direct
.ly elect he is. know what he thinks. IT is
not impossible that he will soon be face
TO face with a tariff crisis comparable
to that which fronted Cleveland in 1894:
and we have doubt that he will meet
it with all of Cleveand's courage and
force
1t would be well for the President to
take inspiration from a very different
source than the Cleveland record of 1894.
There are features of the present battle
resembling those of the battle of fifteen
years ago. There are conferences at the
White House. Both republican senators
and representatives are consulting with
the President about the details of tariff
revision. giving their views as to what
should be done and the difficulties in the
way. The President. it is understood, is
doing more listening than talking. 1t is
up to Congress to prepare and pass a
bill. and its chart is not his message. but
the Chicago platform, and he wants the
partys promise made at that time full
filled.
Now let us suppose a case. Suppose
as the debate in the Senate nears its
close some criticism of the Senate's work
on the Payne bill appears in leading re-
publican newspapers. and sentiment be-
comes infiamed against the Senate on the
subject. Suppose the President falls in
with that sentiment. and addresses some
friend in the House denouncing the SEN
ate's action and those senators who in
the popular belief are responsible for it.
Suppose those senators, rising in their
places one after another. repel the Pres
idents charges. and in return make
charges against him. Suppose they de-
clare upon their honor as men that every
by the Senate was first submitted by
them TO the President and he approved.
Suppose they accuse him OF playing to
the galleries. and of running before an
outcry founded upon Misrepresentation
of them and the Senate.
Suppose after denouncing the Senate
and certain senators as having betrayed
the party and covering themselves with
''perfidy and dishonor'' in passing tariff
bill unworthy to become a law, the Pres
ident, with the veto power in his hands
permits the measure to become a law
without his signature, although urged to
kill 1t by some Of his nearest friends and
strongest supporters.
The result? Well. it is anybodys guess.
But is anything likelier than in such
circumstances the republican party would
receive most damaging jolt? Would
there be any hope of concord between
the President and Congress at the regular
session next winter? And, without con-
cord then. what of next years congress
most inevitably follow in 1912 a demo-
cratic House elected in 1910 as the result
of republican divisions?
II q crisis arises and the President
meets IL in the Cleveland fashion, in the
language of the poet, Goodbye, John!
The republicans will then find themselves
at last OH the tobOggan