Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1910-04-11
OUR HOUSE OF LORDS
The Senate Dominated by Big
Business interests.
CAUSE OF HIGH PRICES.

The Beneficiaries Of the Tariff Tax
Prescribe Its Amount, While the Sen.
ate Looks on and Puts It Through.
Beneficiaries Fix Bounty.
From the Congressional Record of
Feb. IA we clip the following extract
from speech delivered by Congress-
man Henry Of Texas in reply to Mr..
Boutell Of Illinois. Every man and
woman who complains Of high prices
should read it:
1t is interesting to know how the
tariff act was framed and brought into
existence. | will call high Repub-
lican authority and permit him to give
expert testimony. He is lifelong
member Of that party. His indictment
and narrative run:
Our house of lords is not made up
Of landlords. but Of steel lords. wooden
lords. cotton lords. lumber lords and
as the latest creation zinc lords. The
amount of taxes and bOunties on steel,
wooden and cotton goods. lumber and
zinc Is determined for us not by q re-
sponsible ministry. as in England. but
by these lords. through the influence
they can exert on individual members
OF congress; still more through the
pressure they bring to bear on senate
and house committees and most of all
by their power to dictate terms to the
committee of conference which. sub
ject to the votes of their colleagues
do, tio1
determine what the tariff shall be-"
Again. with startling interest, this
same author asserts:
For instance. when the president
sent his demand for a reduction on
lumber to the recent committee Of
conference Mr.. Aldrich announced
that If that was an ultimatum the
whole bill was at an end. The confer
ence did nothing for six hours until
one of the conferees on the part Of the
house. himself a lumberman. went out
and labored with the representatives
of the lumber interests, induced them
to withdraw their claims and reported
their concession to the conference COM
mittee. whereupon Mr. Aldrich said
OF course if they yield. we yield and
so by grace Of these lumber lords we
pay the Aldrich-Payne rather than
the Dingley rates Of tax and bounty on
all sorts of things. A protective tar
iff is bounty hid behind i tax, a tax
concealed within bounty. and this.
its dual nature. Is not altered by the
fact that bounty and tax are paid to-
gether over the same retail counter as
often as we buy wooden coat. or cot
ton shirt, or steel hammer. or a gal
vanized iron kitchen utensil. What
am Directing to is not either the tax.
or the bounty, or the mixture Of the
two. or the amount Of both. but hav-
ing these things assessed upon me by
the very persons who are to draw the
bounty. This is utterly inconsistent
with the traditions of Anglo Saxon
liberty on both sides Of the water and
is disguised form Of essentially the
same tyranny as that against which
when attempted by the British house
of lords the English nation is protest
ing"
And here is the way he frames and
joins the issue for the campaign, and
we promise you now it shall be
'battle royal
"In some form or other the tariff is
bound to be the issue Of the campaign
of 1910. The tariff is with us, and
prices are rising upon us. To be sure.
the tariff is only one of three causes
of the alarming rise in prices. monop-
olistic tendencies of both capital and
labor being the second and the intla-
ton of the currency Of the World
through the increased production Of
gold being the third. But on the Dem
ocratic stump the tariff will figure as
the sole or chief cause, and on that
issue pure and simple the Democrats
are sure to win. The Republicans can
hardly expect to create diversion like
the Spanish war. and this not being a
presidential year the Democrats are
not under the necessity Of putting up
a candidate for whom independents
refuse to vote.
1.-THE only chance for the Republic
ans is to shift the issue from the
merely economic aspect Of the tariff
to the political issue outlined above"
This is from the pen Of DR.. w. De
Witt Hyde. president of Bowdoin col
lege, in the Outlook.