The Washington times., 1909-05-04
DOLLNER DECLARES
WAR ON TARIFF BILL
Most Vitriolic Attack Yet
Made Against Aldrich
Measure.
SAYS EARS CLOSED
TO PEOPLES VOICE
Declares Leaders Overlook Fact of
Changed Conditions in Pre-
pairing Schedules.

pairing Schedules.
Senator Jonathan p. Dolliver of Iowa,
for years known as one OF the most
eloquent speakers in Congress, turned
his oratorical batteries on the Aldrich
tariff bin in the Senate this afternoon.
IN many respects Senator Delivers
speech was the most caustic arrsign-
ment of the measure yet heard In the
upper house. He practically accused
the Senate leaders Of utterly falling 70
understand the economic conditions
that prevail today when they practically
sought 10 re-ensct the Dingley sched-
uies.
Aside from making general attack
on the policy of Senator Aldrich and
his lieutenants In framing the bill. Dol
liver made an onslaught on the woolen
manufactures schedule and the cotton
manufactures schedule. He pointed out
an amazing series OF "jokers' In these.
Heed the People.
He warned the Senate against over
looking the voice of the great upper
Mississippi Valley in the making of a
measure and said the protective system
had nothing to fear from Iowa or from
the Valley. but AIDED that he could not
TlsI, thinking sthat there is a radical de-
feet IN that party leadership which dis
misses the voice of that great coInmun-
ity, fearlessly expressed IN both houses
OF Congress, with a cynical sneer about
the weakness of public men who are
governed by temporary political exi-
gencies.''
The Iowa Senator reminded the lead
ers that this patton has entered upon
a new era OF direct responsibility on the
part OF Presidents and Congresses alike
to that enlightened public opinion which
ought 20 be the real government OF the
United States"
Conditions of 1897.
Discussing the conditions Of 1897 and
now, he asserted that in that year the
consolidation OF our industrial concerns
into great corporations had not fairly
begun. The business men who appeared
before the Ways and Means Committee
spoke for silent factories and the dead
ashes Of furnaces without fire and chin
neys without smoke. They belonged to
the old Industrial regime, now almost
obsolete in nearly all great departments
OF production, ana they received the
treatment they would receive now freely
at my hands IL had the power to give
II to them"
cit is a grim failure TO comprehend
what old DIR. Johnson used to call
the sad vicissitudes of things when
the leacsrs Of a political party summon
their followers to practically reenact
the tariff OF 1897 under the conditions
which prevail today, and when men
are derided because. having helped to
frame that law. they seek TO have il
reexamined In the light Of present-day
experience.
Reviews Old Times.
us II possible that a man, because
he voted for the Allison tin plate rate
IN 1889. and heard poor Mckinley ,dedi-
cate the first tin plate mill In America.
can be convicted in this chamber of
treachery 10 the protective tariff sys-
tenn II he desires that schedule re-
examined after seeing the feeble en-
terprise of 1890 grown within a single
decade to the full measure OF this mar
ket place. organized into great cor
porstIons, overcapitalized into a
speculative trust. and at length unload
ed on the United States Steel Company
with a rakeon TO the promoters suf-
hcient TO buy the Rock Island system
transaction like that has made no
Impression upon the mind OF Congress
] expose no secret In saying that II has
made a very profound impression -.
the thought and purposes Of the Amei-
can people"
Cotton Schedules.
Senator Dolliver paid his respects 70
the cotton schedule by saying that
Aldrich himself had admitted the fran
ing OF the amendments offered to the
Senate by the Finance Committee was
not the work Of the committee but OF
persons connected with the Treasury
Department The Job had been turned
over TO the appraisers office in New
York This. he said. was no doubt a
''cruel revelation 70 some Of his languid
disciples 10 learn from the lips OF the
Senator himself that In this cotton
schedule the changes that were made
do not re"resent the genius of the man
who enjoys In the mythology OF our
public life the reputation of being the
sre@is,est hving expert upon the tech
nicaliues OF cotton manufacture. but
that the Senator from Rhode Island
mystiffed by the task set before him
by his constituents Of raising the table
of these rates without touching them
turned the job over 10 the appraiser
a&6ce at New York"
Attacks Wool Duty.
"A curious proceeding this" continued
Dolliver. "and unless we can look inte
II without fear and trembling we mus
ultimately rewrite our Constitution 3,
as 10 legalize this power of experts from
The customhouse to regulate commerc,
with foreign nations"
Senator Dolliver then attacked tn,
woolen schedules. He sketched brief,
what he termed "the origin and grad
ual Justification OF the tariff on v9oIer
goods" He pointed out the excesse-
into which Congress has been Ted b
fixing these rates" and the ''trickerfc
that In the course OF half century hav
found hiding place throughout tn