The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-08-03
CAUSE OF THE TROUBLE
Which Nearly Upset the Work of the
Tariff COnferces.

/ Washington. Aug. 3.-What the west
! ern senators insist on calling the joker
! on hides very nearly sent the tariff fat
into the fire. The senate leaders sud-
denly awoke to the fact that they had
a dangerous revolt on their hands and
il was only after the hardest kind of
a days work that they devised a plan
to correct the bill by concurrent reso-
! luton
The trouble came about in this way:
! The Dingley law lays q duty of Is per
/ cent on "hideS' - but admits skins" free
IiFhe law failed to tell now the two arti-
/ cles were to be distinguished from each
ether. So the appraisers held that all
/ green hides weighing less than %
pounds were skins and should be ad-
mitted free. Dried hides weighing less
! than Il pounds were also held to be
skins and on the free list. The effect
or these decisiors was virtually to ad-
init calf hides and the hides of kids,
goats and kangaroos free.
/ When it was proposed to put hides on
the free list the western senators in
sisted in return that their constituents
should have the advantage of boots and
shoes at 10 per cent and harness and
/ saddles at 20 per cent-a reduction or
a little more than half in each case.
4 The cOnferees agreed to this proposal l.
! But there was misunderstanding. The
/ Westerners supposed all boots and shoes
were to be dutiable at 10 per cent and
/ all harness was to be at 20. But the
: OOIIItItCS ullQeISLOOu IlldI ltllS ICu4OIlOlA
1 in the finished product was to fall
merely on articles made from the hides
/ which We're to go on the free list. AS
/ calfskins were not affected by the hides
reduction. the COnferees did not under
stand hat Calfskir shoes were to be
I further reduced
When the western men discovered
that only brogans and some of the heav-
lest varieties of harness were to get
the heavy decreases, they kicked the
table over. A poll showed eight hide
\ Insurgents, who with the ten downward
trevisionists would be sufficient to beat
the bill. Senator Aldrich at once hur-
ried to the White House and laid the
situation before the president. Mr.. Taft
/ had understood that only the boots and
sEOes and harness made from heavy
/ hides were to be cut below the house
rate, and he did not know that the west
/ ern senator's had understood something
/ else. So he laughed at the idea of a
/ joker and took his pen in hand to help
out the organization. He wrote to Sen
| ator Borah of Idaho and to Senator
! Brown Of Nebraska explaining the rea-
son for the action of the conferees on
| the leather schedule and urging that as
| there had been no bad faith the bill
| should not be allowed to fail
! Senator Aldrich and Representative
! Payne stated unequiVocally that the Ian
guage employed in adjusting the hide
/ controversy was not Joker. An ef-
/ fort was made to reach an understand
/ ing with the men from the cattle rails
| ing states. They said that the word
/ had gone out over the west that free
hides had been given for cheaper shoes
and harness and that their constituents
would not be satisfied with any other
/ bargain Senators Brown and BOrah
| both had letters from the president
/ bearing upon the alleged Joker " The
| senator's read these letters to the con-
/ ferees. The letter to Senator BOrah
Y as in response to one he had written.
/ The president asserted in this letter
that the leather and hide schedule as
adopted IL the conferees was just as
understanding was that the reduction
| on leather goods should be made on
| those manufactures Of the hitherto
dTtiable hides and should not include
| manufactures of hitherto free hides.
Continuing the president argued that
| farmers wear shoes made of the kind
of hides that would pay the low duty
and that practically all harness is made
from dutiable leather and therefore
would be reduced to the 20 per cent
| advaloreul.
/ In the Brown letter the president is
said to have added a rather sharp crit
icism Of legislators constantly finding
jokers.''
After the letters had been sent. Aid
rich returned 20 the senate and had fur
v.ere Obdurate. They insisted that their
understanding must be carried out
Warren and Clark of Wyoming Hey
burn and Borah of Idaho. Carter and
Dixon of Montana. McCumber of North
CONTINUED on Page Eighth