The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-25
CLARK WARNS
 THE REPUBS They Must Answer For
 Depression. CLEARS DEMOCRATIC SKIRTS Picks Flaws in the Payne Tariff
 Bill. Minority Leader Declares Things Would Have Been Different Had Democrats Been Invited Into
 The Conference.

Washington, March 24.-The new tariff bill was discussed today from tn e Democratic viewpoint by MT. Clark. of Missouri, the Democratic minority leader It was not anticipated that he would occupy nearly so much time as did Mir. Payne.
 Following his usual custom. Mir. Clark delivered his speech in front of the speakers desk. and there was full attendance to hear him. The Senate was not in session today.
 Mir. Clark at times injected humor into what he had to say and frequently was interrupted by applause
 AS preliminary. he provoked the House to great laughter and Mir. Olm- stead. of Pennsylvania. the chairman, to no little embarrassment, by congrat- ulating him upon the advent yesterday of a son.
 For Mir. Payne, the minority leader. had only words of praise and his re- marks in that connection elicited ap- plause on both sides.
 MT. Payne's powers of endurance, he declared. were a marvel and his nine
 
 him a great historical person, in' com pany with Henry Clay. Robert J. Walk CT. Senator Morrill,, of Vermont, Will liam Mckinley. William L. Wilson and Nelson Dingley.
 Indeed" said Mir. Clark, .he has knocked higher than a kite the idiotic theory of Dr. Osler."
 The speech of the majority leader, he characterized as superb vindica- tion of 'his physical and mental strength.
 MT. Clark also had a kind word for every member of the committee on ways and means. We worked like galley slaves in trying to ascertain the truth" he said. He denied that the committee had bully-ragsed any witness, as he said had been charged, and declared that if any witness had received an uncivil word In the com mittee room, he had provoked it by his own acts.
 Rooseyelt started Rcyision.
 Mir. Clark good naturediy remarked that the Demeersts had scared Mir. Payne at the last session into admit ting that there would be tariff revision. But at the bottof of the movement for tariff revision. he said, was President Roosevelt. a
 T never had any deiusions about that man." he said. amid shouts of laughter. He is fgone." he said, in mock tones of sorrow. Addressing the Republicans he said:
 Some of you hope he will never come back. But my regret Is that he left at all. because if he had stayed here you would have been in such a row within ninety days that you would not know whether you were fsepubli- cans or Democrats"
 Some further observations regarding Mir. Payne moved the House to a storm of laughter. Mir. Clark said he sat in the House yesterday and heard Mir. Payne say he had been in the House twenty years preparing tariff bilis
 My God!" he exclaimed. What a set of lies he must have heard in that time"
 If he said, Mir. Payne would make up an Ananias Club from the witnesses he had heard on the tariff, no building in the United States would hold 1t.
 Calling attention to the colloquy yes- terday between Mir. Payne and Mfr. Garrett (Tenn.) which grew out of an inquiry by the latter whether the Payne bill was not revision upward, Mir. Clark read some comparisons between the Dingley and Payne bills prepared by a Government expert in the committee.
 These. he raid. showed that the av- craze rate of the Dingley bill was 44.16 per cent, while under the Payne bill 1t was 45.72 per cent. Showing 1.56 per cent. worse than the Dingley bill" He declared no man of bad temper of buster could conceal that fact from auctions of the bill. he maintained, were more apparent than real.
 Discussing the reduction on refined sugar, MT. Clark said that 1t was held out as a great boon to the consumer. "When the sugar trust received that tremendous blow between the eyes," he said, "instead of seeing stars it saw a stream of gold flowing into its cof- fers every year of the continuance of the Payne tariff bill"
 He declared that man must eat sugar at top speed for fifteen months in order to find nickel in his pocket at the end of that time as the result of any benefit that might accrue to him from the bill and If he missed a day he would not get the nickel.
 He could not understand. he said, why trust, which he characterized as crim- inal.
 As to petroleum, Mir. Clark said the bill contains the same old joker. [" While ostensibly on the free list, he in- sisted that petroleum was given pro- lection of from 150 to 250 per cent If any opportunity were given to amend that schedule, he declared. he would risk his head that the countermanding duty on petroleum would go out
 If, Mir. Clark added. the Standard oil Company was not, as he believed. the sole beneficiary under the bill. he would not object to the crude oil pro- ducers getting e revenue tarifr.
 Ask ed by MT. Scott, of Kansas. to give his reasons for believing as he did regarding the Standard oil Company. MT. Clark asserted that the Standard compelled the Crude oil producer to take its price and the consumer of oil to pay Its price.
 Greatest Aurora Ever.
 q assert without any fear what ever" he exclaimed, that the Standard oil Company is the greatest aurora that sun ever looked down on during its six thousand years of journeying through the heavens"
 Would that condition be changed by eliminating this countervaling duty?" inquired Mir. Scott.
 MT Clark replied in the affirmative. explaining that if the Standard put up the price of refined oil too high. some body else would ship refined oil to the United States.
 Answering Mir. Sims. of Tennessee, the minority leader declared that as a choice between evils it would be i'm fnitely better to repeal the counter vailing duty on petroleum and put a