The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-05-04
Hawkeye States Ideas on Re-
vision of the Tariff
Are SetForth in aNotable Speech
by Senator Dolliver.
LAID BARE
He Reveals the Methods EN-
ployed in the Past
In the Framing of Scedules to
Suit the Interests.

Washington, May 4.-Attacking the
wool and cotton schedules of the pend
ling tariff bill as containing deceptive
provisions increasing rates of duty on
many articles containing but a trifiing
quantity of wool, Senator Dolliver of
Iowa, today delivered one of the most
notable speeches presented to the SEN
ate since the revision of the tariff has
been under consideration. A consider
able portion of his remarks was ad-
dressed directly to Senator Aldrich,
chairman of the committee on finance.
If 1 speak the truth said Mr.. Dol
liver, "if / deal with things as they are,
suggest to the senator from Rhode
Island that it will not be an adequate
answer to reproach me with the errors
of my youth or to disparage me be-
cause in other years, l followed with
out question in the footsteps of our
party leaders,
Referring to recent exchange of
words in the senate between himself
and Senator Aldrich. Mr. Dolliver said:
IF the senator from Rhode Island in
tended to humiliate me by the intima-
ton that my course in these matters
lis dictated by political conditions at
home, he unintentionally pays me
compliment which l sincerely appre-
cIate, because this nation has entered
upon a new era of direct responsibility
on the part of presidents and congresses
alike to that enlightened public opinion
which ought to be the real government
OF the United States"
Referring to the several tariff acts
that have been passed the senator said:
Recalls History.
"Is it possible that d man, because
he voted for the Allison tinplate rate
of 1889. and heard poor Mckinley dedi-
cate the first tinplate mill in America.
can be convicted in this chamber of
ltreachery to the protective tariff Sys-
TEN, if 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 corpor-,
atiOns, over capitalized into Specu-
lative trust. and at length unloaded
1 or the United States Steel. company,
with a rakeoff to the promoters suffi-
cient to buy the Rock Island system?
If a transaction like that has made no
! impression upon the mind of congress.
expose no secret in saying that it has
made very profound impression on
the thought and PURPOSES of the Amer
| lean people,.
| Senator Dolliver stated that he had
| in his possession a letter of the late
| Governor Dingley, in which Mr.. Ding.
| ley deprecated any increase in the
cotton chedule because in his judg-
ment, the tendency of the rates ought
to have been down instead of up. and
| because the. cotton manufacturers
were in no position to complain of the
rates established by the rates of the
Wilson law Gin view of the fact that
| they had written the schedule them
| selves
Referring to the senator from
Rhode Island who had stated upon
this floor that the amendments to the
| cotton schedule offered to the senate
! by the committee were not the work
| of the committee but that every
| one of them was made by persons
| connected with the treasury depart
ment," Mr.. Dolliver said:
A Cruel Revelation.
at was, L have no doubt, a cruel
revelation to some of his langufd dis
ciples to learn from the lips OF the
senator himself. that in this cotton
| schedule the changes that were made
| do not represent the genius of the
man who enjoys in the mythology or
our public life the reputation OF be
| ing the greatest living expert upon
/ the technicalities Of cotton manufac-
| ture. but that the senator from
/ Rhode Island, mystified by the task
| set before him by his constituents OF
| raising the table of rates without
touching them, turned the job over, to
| the appraisers Office at New York
! saving the origin of the woolen was
| not more mysterious than that OF the
cotton schedule. MI, MT, Doiiivsr soia tr.t M ..
/ was evidently handed to him by others
| lust as it was and the only. difference
| between us is that have grown a ht-
tie more curious than he has been to
| see what was in the package
| Mr.. Dolliver referred to the method
| by which the cotton and woolen
schedules were framed. He said II
those rates were high enough twenty
years ago. they were too high IN the
nresent wear "unless we admit that
the weayer's craft is at a standstill In
| America-a thing which nobody be-
| Iieyes for moment"
| ssWhat ask today of party lead
ers.'' said Mr. Dolliver, "is to take US
| hack not to 1890. when Mckinley IN
despair turned the making of the wool
tariff over to a mass meeting OF its
benefciaries; not to 1897, when
Governor Dingley's avowed purpose TO
| reduce the Mckinley rates was
| vetoed by the threats and clamor or
outside interests: but to 1888, when
the senator from Rhode Island lab
4 ored month after month. day ana
night. with William B. Allison IN the
nreparation of the only schedule or
wool and woo1ens' in forty years In
which either the public interest or the
welfare of the Republican party was
made paramount over sordid private
! considerations