Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1909-08-06
WASHINGTON LETTER.

WASHINGTON LETTER.
From Our Regular Correspondent
Washington, d. c., July 31.-The
| conference report on the tariff bill has
finally been adopted and under the
lash of the organization and the infiu-
ence of the White House the tariff bill
will doubtless become law. The
measure came out of conference only af-
ter President Taft had made 1T perfect
ly clear that he would veto the measure
unless the conferrees yielded in some
small degree the eXtortionate duties
they were determined to impose. The
President did not, it is true, use the
| word "veto' in his letter but he did say
that he would be compelled to "reject"
the measure if the conferrees imposed
a duty on rough lumber higher than
$1.25 thousand feet and on gloves
higher than is imposed by the Dingley
law. The House, it will be called, had,
at the instance of Speaker Cannon,
| adopted prohibitive duty on women's
gloves. This was the result of trade
between Mr.. Cannon and ex-Represen-
tative Littauer whereby the latter Sc
cured the defeat of the Democrats and
the Republican insurgents when they
tried to reform the House rules and
thus curtail the despotic power of the
| Speaker, and Mr.. Cannon had promiS-
4 ed to compensate Littauer with duty
on mems gloves which would relieve
him Of all danger of competition from
abroad, the cost of the deal to be paid
by the women of the United States.
This constituencies deal, which would
do discredit of broad of alderman,
was openly avowed by Speaker Cannon
who could see nothing Objectionable in
it, but the President felt it would dis
grace his party to have it contaminated
and so made stand against it which
comprised it's defeat.
The session now drawing to a close
must have accomplished at least one
thing. 1t must have taught President
Taft how utterly unsafe it is for him to
accept the promises of Speaker Cannon
and Senator Aldrich. By precious
promises that the tariff bill would be
so modified in conference as to render
it acceptable to the President, he was
lulled into fancied security and did not
undertake his contest against the high
er duties until it was too late for him
TO accomplish a great deal. The bill is
far from being the genuine revision of
the tariff which the President had
hoped for, but he is, of course, COM
PEELED to set the stamp of his approval
on the measure to prevent its entire
failure, termination which would
demonstrate too clearly to the public
the total inability of the Republican
party to give to the country an honest
revision of the tariff
The final effort of the leaders to Cir
cumvent the President was made in the
closing hours of the conference when
| they ought so to circumscribe the ope-
rations of the tariff experts which the
President is empowered to employ to
assist him i'll the enforcement of the
maximum and minimum provision of
the law as to prevent their use for the
purpose of ascertaining the costs of
production here and abroad. The Re-
publican national platform declared
for an adjustment of the tariff to the
difference between the cost of produc-
ton at home and abroad, plus reason
able profit to the manufacturer. Presi-
dent Taft assumed in his guilelessness
that the party leaders would welcome
provision for the machinery which
would make possible the requirement
of accurate information regarding such
| COSTS AS matter of fact quite the re-
verse is true. They were wholly I'M
willing that such machinery should be
provided. Exact knowledge of the
costs of production would reduce tariff
legislation to a business basis, would
furnish the precise measure of the pro-
per duty and remove the opportunity
now enjoyed by Republican members
of Congress of getting for their more
influential constituents as much pro-
lection as possible, in other words of
swelling their profits at the expense of
the consuming public. To that end
the conferrees, acting largely at the be-
hest of Speaker Cannon, cut out the
authority conferred by the Senate bill
on the tariff experts to investigate con-
ditions generally and sought to confine
their investigation to conditions affect
ing the maximum and minimum pro-
visions Fortunately, however, the
President and his cabinet are more eX-
pert lawyers than the leaders of Con-
gress and they have found that there
still remains ample power to do all
that they desire. The law reads that
the President must inform himself as
to whether ''undue discrimination" is
being practised by any country against
the experts of the United States The
lawyers of the administration hold
that in order to determine whether dis
elimination is or is not sundue" it will
be necessary to ascertain the cost of
production at home and abroad, which
was the original purpose of the Presi-
dent when he asked that the provision
was made.