The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-05-21
COMPROMISE AS IT FIGURES
IN TARIFF DISCUSSION
How the Interests of Localities Are Being Rec
oncied---No One Can Tell What Changed
Schedules Will Mean.

publicans were not so divergent that
there was much elashing. The Senate, 4
however, had more tempestuous time. Il
The late Senator Morrill, of Vermont 4
was chairman of finance, but was too 4
old and in too feeble health TO perform
active service. Senator Allison was !,
acting chairman, and Senator Aldrich, t
now head of the committee, presided /
over the important subcommittee that /
did most of the rewriting of the bill. I
He rewrote much Of the sugar and the I
wooden schedules. The Senate acceded /
after big row. The sugar schedule |
became the great bone of contention. /
Senator Aldrieh and Representative !
Payne joined issues over the sugar |
schedule. The conference room was
filed with talk about differentials, |!
polariscope tests, and Dutch standards.
1t was all SO complicated that only a
few men were ever able to understand
what it meant, except that the Senate
stood for a higher duty on refined
sugar than the House. The late
Speaker Reed stood like stone wall
| behind Mr.. Payne for several days at
| ter the eonferees had agreed upon the
81 other points of difference, which
included many such little matters as
! punctuation and phrasing. In the end,
| however, the Senate won. The coun-
/ try had tired Of the delay. 1t was then
/ along in July. Business men wanted
/ to lay their plans for fall trade. The
demand for prosperity then, as now,
was in full cry.
The Wilson bill, which the Demo
cratic House passed in 1894, was some
/ thing of a compromise between the in
/ terests of Congressional districts as
represented in that body, although on
! the whole it followed Democratic prin-
/ ciples, as then enunciated, pretty close
/ ly. The German bill. as fashioned by
the Senate, under the astute domination
/ Of such men as Senators German of
Maryland, Smith of Jersey, and Muir
! ply Of New York, was compromise
between conflicting interests in the
/ Senate But the German Wilson law,
( socalled, was hardly a compromise be-
tween Senate and House After more
than a month of attempts at a confer
1 ence the House accepted the Senate
bin, the conferees having reported that
they could not agree
The dickering in the Senate now is
and for some weeks has been a great
game of compromise, by which Senator
Aldrich can adjust the demands of
many Republican Senators so as to Sc
cure a majority, numbering al least
forty-six votes, for the entire Finance
Committee program Senators, who
want 81 a thousand duty on lumber and
seeking a majority for higher rate
/ than 81, which the House voted, in the
expectation that the conferees wiz
/ split the difference and thereby some
/ thing additional viii be gained by the
/ high protection advocates The same
kind of a scheme has already been well
advanced over the duty on lemons. 1t
is now one cent pound. The House
Ways and Means Committee fixed it at
one and one-fourth cents as eompro-
mise with the growers of citrus fruits
in California and Florida, who demand
ed one and one-half cents pound. The
Finance Committee voted one and one
half cents a pound with the expeeta-
ton that the result In conference would
be at least / and three-eighths cents a
+ pound.
The politicians of the Senate are
playing with very dissimilar PROPOSE
tons in their eager efforts as eompro-
| misers and log-rollers. Barbed wire has
been helping do the income tax to
death. Some of the Western Senators,
/ very insistent that the tariff burdens
upon fencing materials shall be lifted,
have agreed to yield their votes for a
tax upon incomes In consideration of
lower rates on nails and wire.
Compromises are quite as old as tariff
bills in Congress. They used to be
along sectional lines. The South, before
/ the war, sent very compact body of
lawmakers to Congress in opposition to
duties on manufactured goods. They
had always to be reckoned with in tariff
making. The high rates on such arti-
H eles spurred South Carolina TO nuIiif-
cation. and Henry Clay was the author
| Of a tariff compromise which subse-
quently plaeated the nullifers in some
measure. That Southern opposition
| disappeared in Congress during the
war, but reappeared again. and has
been more or less formidable during the
last forty years, in conjunction with
certain northern interests whenever