The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1910-11-18

members of the Sixty-second congress
who were elected Tuesday can not as
sumo Office until March 4, but in all
likelihood they will not be called upon
to take their seats before the opening
of the regular session of that congress
in December of next year. Yet the
democratic congressional leaders are
already discussing the party policy for
1911 and 1912 in view of the heavy
responsibility which the voters laid
on the democratic party when they put
that party in control of the next house
by a substantial majority.
The voters of the country outlined
the character of legislation expected
of the next congress by results of
their ballots Tuesday as surely as if it
were written into a platform, and that
work is an honest revision of the tar
iff. Such, at least, is the view of the
prominent democrats now in Wash
ington, who include leading members
of both the house and the senate. In
a statement here today in which he
acknowledges the responsibility which
the election has put on the democratic
party and which he says must be met
frankly and conservatively by the
democrats of the house, Representa-
tive Burleson of Texas, possibly the
next chairman of the house committee
on appropriations, said: "The Sixty
second congress must revise the
Payne-Aldrich tariff. The vote of the
country Tuesday was a command
from the people to the next congress
to make that revision along honest
lines, and we can not shirk that re-
sponsibility That revision should be
made fearlessly in the interest of the
whole people. There need be no un-
settling Of business, for we can revise
the tariff schedule by schedule. The
best opinion inelines to the view that
this is the safest and most satisfac-
tory way from business standpoint
to reform the tariff, and it has the in
dorsement not only of the leading dem
ocrats, but President Taft and former
President Roosevelt have gone on rec
ord as favoring such a plan.
Il think we should begin with sched-
ule K, and first of all give the people
tolls which it exacts This revision
should be made with view to reliev-
ing the burden on the people, yet, also,
with view to raising the necessary
revenue. Then, with the wool sched-
ule out of the way, we can take up the
cotton, steel and other schedules, one
after another The order that their
respective iniquities and inequalities
were shown up by the democrats and
the insurgent republicans in the course
of the recent tariff debate That is
what the country has commissioned
the democratic party to do, and that
| is the responsibility that this mag
nificent victory has brought to our
party"
While Representative Burleson was
understood to be speaking solely for
himself, his views are known to be
entertained by several of the party
leaders. In fact, the speeches of these
men in the campaign were all along
the same line, as if there had been a
general understanding among the dem
ocrats on the subject of a gradual, but
sure and effective, scaling down to a
revenue basis of the Payne-Aldrich
tariff.
1t is understood that the leaders in
the new house, in which all tariff leg
islation must originate, propose to
send one "popgun" tariff bill after an
other to the senate, scaling down one
schedule and then the next, where it
will be up to the republican progress
sives to vote with the democrats and
enact the tariff revision or unite with
the standpatters and precipitate such
a condidition as the senate republi-
cans in 1892 brought upon their party
by choking off these tariff bills which
the mouse had adopted. That action
on the part of the senate brought up
on the party the same kind of disaster
that befell it yesterday because of
failure to revise the Dingley tariff.
The democrats hardly expect such
a course on the part of the senate re-
publicans, for there will be enough re-
publican progressives in the next con-
gress who, by voting with the demo-
Gratis, can effect the passage of gen.
uine tariff revision.
The position of the democratic ma
jority in the next house will be much
better in every respect than it was in
the early '90s, when its every act was
blocked by firm old-guard organiza-