New-York tribune., 1910-11-10
WHAT WILL HE DO WITH 1T?

WHAT WIN HE DO WITH IT!
The Hon. Champ Clark has at last his
IOnged-fOr Democratic House Of Repre-
sentatives. What will he do with it?
The Senate remaining safely Republl-
can. the country will look TO the lower
branch Of Congress for the formulation
and application of Democratic policies.
Mr.. Clark cannot afford to remain mae
five and nOn-committal when he takes
the reins of leadership in his hands in
December 1911, for a Presidential cam
naign will then he upon us. He and
his followers have argued that the high
cost OF living is due to the tariff, and
they will naturally assume that the
country has accepted their assurance.
They must make an effort to reduce the
cost of living by reducing tariff duties
or stand convicted Of having obtained
office under false pretences.
What course will Mr. Clark follow
under these circumstances? lie has two
Democratic precedentS to choose from.
In the days of Morrison and Mills, when
the Democrats controlled the House. but
lacked maiOrity in the Senate. those
free trade leaders regularly prepared
general tariff bills for the purpose Of
influencing public opinion. Some of the
bills were defeated in the House itself
through the secession Of Samuel i. Ran
dali and his semi-protectionist asso-
ciates. and some were passed and side
tracked in the Senate. But Messrs.
Morrison. Carlisle and Mills never
shrank from prOclaiming their faith and
emhOdvinC II in measures intended To
show Just how far toward absolute free
trade the Democratic party was willing
10 go at any given iuncture. Under the
CriSp-SpriDger regime from 1891 TO 1898.
while the House was also Democratic
and the Senate Republican. the alterna-
tive pIau of passing pop gun bills was
tried. the Democratic majority voting
to remove the duties on certain selected
articles. like wool and coal. It rests
with Mr.. Clark. therefore. to determine
whether tbP tariff shall he TemOdPlled
as a whole for the purposes of a cam
paign exhibit. or whether it shall he
remodelled piecemeal.
The Democrats in the House voted
almost solidly at the last session against
charging the powers of the present
Tariff Board, and most Of them took the
position that such a board was supernu-
Gus and should be abolished. They eX-
hibited little sympathy with President
Tafts programme of revision in detail Ill
the light Of accurate information regard
ing the differential in cost Of production
here and abroad The average Demo
crat has little use for such information.
because he doesn't care much what the
differences in cost of production may ne
and wants 10 have revenue duties levied
on articles Of general consumption. The
Taft administration will probably ne
prepared BY December, 1911, TO recon-
mend changes in several schedules
hasad on scientific investigation of
production values. Mr.. Clark Will have
to meet that challenge and show the
countrv where he stands. either by at
tcmntipC 10 modify tie Administrations
suggestions or 10 oppose them with Il
general hil! Of the Morrison and Mills
pattern. It i fortunate that the pros
pectivp Speaker Is 4 statesman OF pro-
nouncpd convictions ana direct methods.
We are confident that il will not be his
fauIt if the voters do not know before
the Presidential election Of 1912 what 4
Democratic revision of the tariff would
mean. They can then vote with full
appreciation OF the consequences or
turning over the Senate and the PreSi-
dency to the Democracy.