Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1909-04-19
WASHINGTONLETTER
A HUGE OIL SNAKE IN The PAYNE
TARIFF BILL,
Thrust In by Cannon and paYne In
the Rush Hour Before It's Passage
in the House, In Belief All prOfeC.
tiOn Was Removed. Trap.BaSket
Joker Does the: Trick.

JOhSC OOSS SuCs uVoNn.
WASHINGTON, d. c., April IA
Standard Oil interests were success
fully and ingeniously taken care of in
the closing moments of the debate on
the Payne tariff bill in the house, as
members discovered to their amaze
ment and indignation when they
came to examine critically just what
was the effect of the complicated
amendments regarding petroleum
that were offered by Chairman Payne
and accepted by the House.
Members who believe that petrO-
leum and all it's products had been
placed on the free list by the Payne
amendments were dumfounded when
they discovered that only crude and
refined petroleum and one by-product,
paraffin, were really on the free list,
and that the other products of the oil
were subjected to a duty of 20 per
cent under provision in what is
known as the "trap-basket" section
of the bill.
When it dawned on the members
of the House that they had been
grossly deceived and tricked, as they
believe, by the floor leader of Re-
pii.'' &c T.. Ic'-~r f the Ways
and Means Committee, aided by 9TH
er leaders and the speaker himself,
they grew hot with indignation, and
it was at once resolved that motion
should be made in the House to re-
call the Payne bill from the Senate
and insist in putting into it what
most of the members of the House
thought had been put into it by the
Payne amendments relating to oil.
There was meeting of members
interested in the oil matter this af-
ternoon in the House office building.
and it was then decided that the mo-
ton to recall the Payne bill and fix
the oil provision at the house intend
ed to fit it yesterday should be made.
Norris was selected to make the mo-
tion because of his previous connec-
tion with the matter, and especial
ly because he was innocently instru-
mental yesterday, through his mis-
taken confidence in the good faith of
Chairman 4dyne ana speaker Can
non, in bringing about the success
of what is now believed in many
quarters in Washington to have been
deliberate plot to fool the House
and safeguard the interests of Stand
ard Oil by keeping tthe by-products
of the octopus from going on the free
list.
How the trick was turned and the
House fooled is complicated story.
1t was evidently the great object of
the friends of Standard Oil to get out
of the bill the Norris amendment
placed there on Thursday. Under
this amendment petroleum, crude
and refined, and all the products of
petroleum were made dutiable at 1
per cent. ad valorem. This duty was
so low that it would evidently not
afford any adQuate protection to the
200 and odd by-products Of petrO-
leum which the Standard Oil and it's
subsidiary companies manufacture
and sell in this country and abroad. If
the duty on petroleum products could
be taken off altogether and no men
tion of them made in the free list or
elsewhere in the bill, then they
would be subject to 20 per cent ad
valorem duty under the "trap-bas-
ket" section of the bill. This trap
basket" section is one of the many
jokes dy NC AAeaSure, and is
known as Section 9, and is as fol-
lows:
The "Trap-Basket" Joker.
Section 8. That there shall be
levied, collected and paid on the impo-
rtation of all raw manufactured
articles, not enumerated or provided
for in this act, duty of 10 per GEN.
tum ad valorem, and on all articles
manufactured in whole or in part,
not provided for in this act, a duty
of 20 per centum ad valorem.
1t will at once be seen that If the
Norris amendment could be eliminat-
ed without making special mention
Of the products of petroleum else
where in the bill, such products as
manufactured articles would become
subject to the above "trap-basket
section. This is what was done by
the juggling incident to the adoption
CONTINUED on page four.)