The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-06-11
TARIFF MAKERsBUsY
ABOUT HALF THROUGH WITH THE
REVISION BILL.
Hope to Complete by July 40; Work
Proceeds Slowly; The Pioneer
Press Correspondent Gives Some
Interesting Facts; Revision Not
as Easy as First Thought.
From Pioneer Press.)

Washington. June S.-lf the buSl-
ness interests of the country are los
ing Sl0,000,0O0 per day, as the tariff
leaders assert they are, on account OF
DELAY of the tariff bill, some of them
are likely to become bankrupts be-
fore the president signs the bill. Be-
cause the closest observers of the
progress of tariff making now fix the
date of completing the law some
where between the 18th and goth OF
July-forty- five days and at $4,000
coo per day means $450OO0,OO0 in loss
of business.
Finance Committee Distrusted.
The senate finance committee OF
which Senator Aldrich is chairman.
cannot Justly lay the responsibility
for this delay upon the 'progressives"
or the democrats, as they have shown
disposition to do. For there is con-
siderable irritation and i'll feeling
manifested because the finance commit
tee has not yet reported the bill in
full. And most of the senators out
side of the finance committee have
come to have a feeling of distrust that
the finance committee proposes bring
ing out some features in the bill at
the last moment, which if they were
known and fully understood now would
cause several senators to change front
in supporting or opposing good many
of the schedules. One senator said:
Il do not propose spending much
time discussing the features of the
bill. In fact, / do not know but that
l would be justified in refusing to
discuss the bill at all until the finance
committee has furnished a complete
draft of the measure"
Stone Applies Burrs.
Senator Stone of Missouri put sew
eral burrs under the harness of the
members of the finance committee, in
speech made the other day, in which
he demanded thoroughly iustifying
reason given by the trainers of the
bill for those parts of the measure
which guarantees more than treason
able profits" to the protected manu-
facturers.
1t was the prediction of the repub-
lican leaders that the tariff bill would
be completed by June l, when the
special session convened March Is.
This prediction was based upon the
time it took to make the Dingley law.
That special session was convened on
March Is also sand the bill was signed
by the president July "a. 1t was sup
III @l,o
present one because the tariff makers
then had to take democratic bill
and remake it complete. 1t was sup
posed that simple revision of a re-
publican tariff bill by republicans
would not take so long But since the
Aldrich crowd decided to revise the
tariff upwards instead of downwards,
and at the same time try to make the
public believe otherwise, it has been
found more trying task than was at
first expected.
Progress Really Slow.
While on the face of the record it
would appear that considerable prog
ress is being made, yet the fact is that
in practically every schedule that has
been passed there are items that
went over for further discussion. This
is true of the sugar, iron and steel,
lumber glass and scores of other
items
These items that have gone over
are the ones that cause trouble and
debate. The cotton and wooden sched-
ules have not vet been toucned, and
it is known that there will be spir-
tied debate over these. The glass
schedule is not completed, and there
are various differences to settle upon
the duties of pig iron, scrap iron and
other metals in that schedule. There
is also the nigh schedule, oil, wood
pulp and the income tax The income
tax is to be taken up June 10, but it
will probably be postponed, which
means that it will 90 over to the next
regular session.
Too Much Power in Executive.
Then will come the administrative
features of the bill. The maximum
and minimum clause has been intro
duced and will be bitterly attacked,
especially by the downward revision
lists, and by others who oppose the