The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-06-08
By Ernest G.. Walker. r
(Mail special to the Advertiser.)

tariff pronhetS who are preparing 10
sizzle through a hot, tropical summer.
Somebody advanced the date to De-
tober l the other morning. He was
the most lugubrious prophet Of them
all. Otl crs have talked about lock-
ing up the press galleries, excluding
the public from the sessions, and
then going ahead in star chamber.
No tariff builder then could get fame
from the country by talking or OPP
posing. Within the chamber it would
be grim and silent, except for mo-
notonous haste to get through to the
end of the big, thick bill.
The country probably does not real
ize how idle all that kind of CONVEX
sation is. 1t takes time, and ought
to take time, to enact a tariff bill into
law-not SO much time as the Senate
is occupying probably. All the rest of
Washington, except those 81 Senators,
is sitting around and waiting. 1t reads
the papers in the morning TO see how
many test votes were taken and to
note the weary progress toward the
last controverted paragraph. Most
of the rest of Washington, it might
also be said, has made up Its mind
about what the tariff ought to be,
has taken sides one way or the other
and is ready to settle the terms of the
bill on a moments notice.
Under ordinary circumstances there
he a. IN
the brains and the faculties of this
big company of idle Washington peo-
pie. They are drifting now, however,
waiting upon the bill. The House
wants the bill. How the hotel expens-
es are piling up! How inpatient the
statesmen at that end of the Capitol
are with their old foe-the Senate! And
the Representatives headed by Uncle
Joe Cannon, are rapping away every
day in confident conversational tones
about the dilatory old Senate. There
are 200 or 300 Representatives in town
and they are all talking as industr-
ously as the members of sewing
circle about theA dilatory old Senate.
There gossip infects the air, it gets
into the newspapers, it reaches to the
Irksome as residence in Washington
at this time of year may be, and eager
as the business world may be for the
terms of the tariff. the Senate is not
doing SO very badly. The present
tariff bill is quite as far advanced as
was the Dingley DILL at a similar date
twelve years ago. The extra session
that framed the Dingley law met in
the middle of March, just as did the
present extra session. But the Senate
in the summer of 1897 did not get
through with the tariff bill till the
very first days of July. 1t is a fairly
safe wager that the Senate will be
through with the present tariff bill by
the middle of June-possibly before
| that time-and it is altogether prob
able that by early July-the date
when the Dingley bill was getting out
| of the Senate in 1897, the Payne bill
will be upon the Presidents desk and
that he will sign it promptly so that
| Congress can hasten home nearly a
| month in advance of the time when
Congress fastened home in 1897.
| And when one analyses the situa
| ton. Washington hotel bills are at the
| bottom of the heated talk which pro-
1 ceeds from Washington. In recent
] years the sessions of Congress have
been growing shorter and shorter, al
! though the business of Congress has
been growing larger and larger in vol
| ume 1t used to be that Congress al
! it's long sessions, occupying every two
| years, stayed in Washington till July
or August and even later. For the
last ten years the long sessions have
been adJourning in May and June, anc
even at the end of April This mean:
that the legislators of Senate an(
House are certainly not putting in any
more time at Washington than theil
predecessors were doing. The session
of Congress that framed the German
Wilson law did not adjourn till Octo
Der, just a short while before the Con
gressional elections.
Probably nothing short of wa
would keep Congress in Washington
in these modern days through Angus
and the prophecy of statesmen wit
wiltej collars in late May about Con
gress being here till October 1 is no
credited by anyone with a level hea
who knows anything about Washing
ton affairs.
A number of voyages to Europe wi
be interfered with, however, and tina
fact has something to do with the bi
cutlery Since it has become the praC
tice with a large portion of the coul
try to increase the tenure of Senator
and Representatives and, in fac
often to allow them to serve almo4
continuously if only they are fair
efficient, these same Senator'S and r,
personalities, who used to spend the
summers at home looking after polit
cal fences now journey far and wiz
during vacation time. Many of the
go away to Europe, as soon as Il
weather becomes "a all hot. They e
gage their passages a considerab
time ahead aEd whenever there is
prospect of Congress staying in Was
ington few w 9nlIs later than usu;
a great howl goes up from Mr.. Sen
tor or Mr.. Representative, who h
been picturing himself and family RI
ing the bounding waves and enjoyi
the pleasure resorts of the tran
atlantic region. OF course he does Il
express his disappointment about l
trip. But, my, my, how he does gro
when he is outside the han of t
House or the chamber of the Sena
| n ba