The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-05-06
Cummins Addresses the Senate
on the Tariff Bill.
Declares That Pending Measure
Will Not Be Accepted.
A MISTAKE is MADE
BY Those Who Mistrust judge
ment of the People
And Is Always AtOned for i'm
SackclOth and Ashes.

CdChClOtn ana AS1eS.
| Washington, May 6-Predicting that
a failure to pass a tariff bill providing
lower duties on imports would pro-
woke political contest for another re-
vision of the tariff. Senator Cummins
OF Iowa delivered notable speech in
the senate today
| The bill now before u.s." said Mr..
Cummins, will not be accepted by
those who have favored q revision of
the tariff as either a fulfillment of the
party pledge or as a settlement of the
controversy If this BILL or anything
substantially like it becomes a law.
ipredict that campaign for lower du-
tiles will begin the moent the ex-
traordinay session of congress ad-
jaurns and will continue with increas-
ing zeal until the Judgment entered i'm
the court of the public conscience is
also entered in the journals of con-
gress.
1t gives me no pleasure to utter this
prophecy for 1 have earnestly hoped
1.-THE revision now in progress would end
the dispute for years to come and
that the business of the country would
enjoy the peace and tranquility which
lis impossible during the existence of
la movement to materially change du-
ties upon imports.
who insisted upon tariff revision?
1t is not the manufacturers: it was
not the lumbermen; 1t was not the
|. coal man; 1T was not the iron and
steel man; it was not the glass man:
II was not the cotton or the woolen
man; 1T was not the oil man.. During
. the Whole agitation, 1 never heard
you never heard-a demand from those
people that the tariff must be revised
Where 1t Came From.
The demand came from those who
believed that the duties upon many ar
ticles and commodities We're too high
from those who believed they were nav
ing too much for the things they had
Ito buy, and that excessive import d,,-
ties. coupled with other conditions were
enabling favored few to reap inordin-
ate profits, and therefore they wanted.
as one of the steps leading to the
: remedy which they sought, a suhstan-
tisl reduction of these duties. 1t is
not necessary at this moment to in
: quire how many people so believed. or
5 in what part of the country they lived
1 81 have heard it said over and over
; since we began this discussion not
only in public debate, but in private
4 conversation, that there are but few
: people comparatively who were inter
ested in reduction of duties. L do
know that the voices of those who are
clamor1ng for an. increase of custom
house taxation are more distinctly
heard in the corridors and committee
e rooms, but there will come a time
t presently when the clamor of the mil
lions who want relief will sound like
the roar of a thousand Niagaras from
one ocean to the other. / have heard
it said many times that those people
who were insisting tariff revision
were not familiar with the subject.
and had no opportunity to know
whether duties were too high or too
, low.
$ A Mistake Often Made.
| "This distrust or skepticfsm of the
fYxs1e nf t.
fundamental mistake often made and
: always atoned for in saczcloth and
: ashes. The people, it is true, have not
the advantage of hearing the specific
statements of the administration. OF
Interested beneficiarieS and witnesses
: who filled and overfilled the capital
during these months in which the sub
! ject has been under consideration.
I The people, me said, have seen the
: forces of competition gradually weak
ened in the larger fields of industry
: Through concentration combinations.
agreements and IAN the other modern
mechanism which an Ingenious age
has discovered
:. Continuing, he said:
They have seen competition shut
out of some of these fields by the in
: tervention of successive import duties
> ''They have felt the injustice of the
Determinations which the vast power
of our transportation systems can in
u fiict. They knew that these things
4, were wrong; and after bearing the
= burden till it became intoIerable, they
: | began 90 move with irresistible
strength along the pathway of reform
! | They have made some progress toward
. the regulation of transportation and
. the oppression of corporate evils The
= last administration will be remember
: ed, as long as the history of our
? countrv is preserved. for its victories
. in the struggle for rate regulation and
for corporate fair dealing.
/. Work Has just Begun.
: THE work has Just begun and 1 sim
I cerely hope the present administration
; will be no less distinguished than the
3 last one for it's energy in dealing with
: these perplexing problems One part.
!, however, of the programme was as
signed by common consent to this ad-
| ministration and it's conspicuous lead
er assumed without hesitation the task
: of tariff revision. The people know
n vision just well as they knew what
| they wanted with respect to railways
and to Industrial combinations: and
l. their intelligent, educated, patriotic in
n sinct is just as certain with respect to
the tariff as it was with respect to the
: transportation or the monopolies. IL
y we fail now to substantially reduce the
e duties upon the important schedules,
n we but postpone the Justice due to the
: people a justice which, thanks to the
& genius of our institutions, they have
e the power TO enforce and which in the
Y fullness of time they will enforce"
Z. Passing to the consideration of the
: lumber schedule he said II made little
e difference whether there was a duty or
d not so far as the preservation of the
8 forests are concerned. With respect to
s the cost of production, in the greater
part of the United States at least. he
!" said the American had the advantage
t-H * IT, ar4A 1rsf -1r~