Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1910-02-16


Mann, to whom the president natural
ly would look for first aid, should pre-
| fer to stand aloof because he has pre-
| pared an interstate commerce meas
ure Of his own which differs in good
many respects from that which Mr..
Taft has caused to be introduced. Mr..
Mann's bill, for instance, does not
provide for a commerce court for
speedy Judgment on cases that may
come to it through the interstate COM
MERGE commission by the process of
appeal.
1t is believed that the committee
which has the administration bill in
| it's keeping will report it favorably
and will fail to report the Mann bill.
| This means that the committee must
override it's chairman which is most
unusual and not altogether COM
Portable proceeding. Mr.. Townsend
will champion the presidents bill on
the floor, but who will be his lieuten-
ant it is hard to tell, for no one Of the
chief men of the party thus far has
done any volunteering.
In the senate, Mr. ElkinS has intro
| duced the presidents interstate COM
merce amendment measure. The West
| Virginia senator is the chairman of
the senate committee on interstate
commerce and he is the proper per-
son to introduce the bill and to guide
| it's destinies, but not even Mr.. Elkins'
| friends will claim that he is In any
sense a debater or a skilIful hand In
| plotting legislation through the shoal
waters and the rocks of trouble which
! frequently are found in the senatorial
sea.
Postal Savings Bank Bill.
In the house the postal savings bank
bill has no great company of friends
among the leaders The bill is in the
] postofice committee, and naturally
Representative Weeks, who is the
| committees chairman, should be it's
sponsor on the floor of the house, but
the chances are that Representative
! Foss of Illinois will undertake to do
the work that the president wishes to
| have done. Mr.. Foss for years has
been the chairman of the house COM
mittee on naval affairs, and when he
undertakes the pilotage of the postal
savings bank bill he will be somewhat
| out of his element.
The presidents conservation rec
concentrations are likely to lack out
| and-out champions in both house and
| senate. The bills, when prepared and
introduced, probably will go through
because they seem to be immensely
popular with the country, but for
some reason or other they do not
seem to be at all popular with the Re-
| publican leaders. The Republican
members of the committee on public
| lands do not seem to care to stand
sponsor for Mr. Taft's measures for
conservation. Who it is that will take
up the work no one can say, but the
| Democrats say that a good many Re-
publicans are losing a fine chance for
popularity with the country and to Sc
cure reelection for themselves, by this
holding back at time when the presi-
dent needs strong friends willing to
stand in the open and to fight for him,
| and not to be content merely to ex-
press willingness that the Iegisla-
ton should go through.
Tariff Very Much to the Front.
After a long, hard, hot wealth
er session of congress which end
ed in the passage of the Payne
Aldrich tariff bill, it is likely that most
persons thought the tariff would be
practically a dead issue. Very like
ly the majority of the Republicans il
the house and senate thought that it
would be, but it now seems certain
that the tariff is to raise it's warlike
front again in the campaign preceding
next November's election, and that it
may be formidable enough to brighten
most of the other issues out of the
field.
The leaders in congress recognize
the power of the tariff as a continued
trouble maker. Representatives of the
two schools of tariff thought are pre-
pairing for the fight that they know is
to come. The Democrats are going
to present the action of the Repub-
lican congress as high protection"
act which was unjustifiable, and the
Republicans are going to defend it as
''the best tariff bill ever passed"
Some few of the Republicans, how
ever, those who belong in what is
known as the insurgent camp, have
spoken their minds so freely in oppo
sition to some of the tariff schedules
that they probably will be contented
to forego any attempt at a defense of
that which previously they in part
| have denounced.
Both houses of congress have. the
| privilege of printing pretty much
anything that they choose as a public
document, go that it can be franked
through the mails. One Of the re-
suits of this privilege is that both
Democrat and Republican campaign
documents are sent out at the peo-
pies expense. In connection with the