Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-12-28
TARIFF BOARD WINS
PRESIDENTS ADVICE TO BE FOL-
LOWED AND APPROPRIATION
MADE.
INSTALLATION OF BUREAU
MAY END TARIFF STRIFE
Canvass of Senate Indicates Board Will
Be Established-House Certain to
Pass Bill and Senate May Be
Forced to Do so-WiII 1t End
"Insursency7"

"insureeney?"
Washington, Dec. 28.-Despite oppo-
sition on the part of Senator Hale,
chairman of the senate committee on
appropriations, and of members of the
senate who follow him, it may now be
said with certainty that the senate will
agree to the item which the house ap-
preparations committee will carry in
the sundry civil bill, at the request of
President Taft, making liberal provi-
sions for the work the president has
mapped out for the tariff board.
The presidents ideas concerning the
work which he may legally ask this
board to do were outlined in his annual
message to congress. In brief, it is his
purpose, should the desired appropria-
ton be made, to have the board take
up the work that would naturally fall
to tariff commission, such as Senator
Beveridge and certain other members
from the central west states have been
contending for in vain for long time.
The president believes that it will be
proper for him to have this board in
quire into the differences in the cost of
production at home and abroad, and to
obtain certain other information neces-
sary to true understanding of the tar
if situation. This information, which
in his message he said it would take
~ Sc. H.;
pose to submit to congress on proper
schedules revised scientifically and with
more regard than heretofore to the
rights of all classes of the people
Standpatters Scurrying.
But before any work of this kind can
be done, of course it is necessary that
congress provide the funds necessary
for the use of the tariff board. 1t is
at this point that the standpat mem
bers of the senate have hoped to stop
the president. They had tried in the
Payne law to make it impossible for the
president or anybody else to put con-
s.ruction on the tariff board provision
that would open the way to investiga-
tions such as the friends of tariff
commission have had in mind. The Ian
guage of the provision was worked over
several times, the last time in the COM
mittee on conference, and finally Sen
ator Hale and his standpat friends said
that it was satisfactory.
Senator Aldrich, it will be remem-
bered, did not agree with them, but
said in open senate that the tariff
board provision would enable the pres
ident to make precisely such inquiries
as he says in his annual message 1t is
his purpose to make Senator Hale
replying to Senator Aldrich, took the
opposite ground. and quoted the Ian
guage of the act creating the tariff
board by way of proof that such action
by the president would be clearly out
stood his ground, and there the matter
ended, for the time being.
Now that the president, in his mes
sage, confirms all that Senator Aldrich
said to the senate about the scope of
the tariff board provision, there has
been a hurrying and scurrying on the
part of the standpatters in both houses
of congress, with view to making
sure that the appropriations asked for
by the president for the work of the
tariff board are withheld. This ac-
complished, of course, it would be i'm
possible for the president to set the
tariff board to work along the lines he
has indicated. On the other hand, the
appropriations once made, the tariff
board would become in fact tariff
commission clothed, under the execu-
| tive Interpretation of the intent of the
provision, with the most ample author
ity to inquire into all matters affecting
| duties, both at home and abroad
Senator Hale VS.. Tawney.
At the beginning of this session of
congress, Senator Hale announced, with
more force than elegance, that congress
would not make the appropriations de-
sired by the president, and he has re-
peated that statement on divers occa-
sions since. To say that he is angry is
| to state it mildly. He holds that the
president is without authority to con-
strue the tariff board provision in the
way he has, and that congress may in
sist upon having the work Of that
board confined to the simple question
of inquiries to assist the president in
determining what countries will be en-
! llIlSu " tHe UGIltllS Ol lu6 minimum
rates of the new law after next April.
While Senator Hale has been saying
unpleasant things at the north end of
the capitol Chairman Tawney of the
appropriations committee of the house
has been organizing his forces at the
south end of the capitol, and it be-
came known last week that his commit
tee would carry an item in the sundry
civil bill, giving the president what he
thinks is necessary for the work of the
tariff board for the coming fiscal year,
and that item would be accepted by
the house.
This means that the house will pass
the bill with the tariff board item in It,
and thus put up to the senate the work
of making fight to have the item
stricken out, on the floor Of that body,
nr in oonferepca