New-York tribune., 1910-12-17
From The Tribune Bs;reau.l

Washington, December 16
LONCWoRTH TAKING LEAD.-Repre-
sentative Nicholas Longworth, close friend
of President Taft and son-in-law of ex-
President Roosevelt, has responded TO
President Tafts urgent recommendation or
permanent tariff commission, and is
drafting a bill which it is hoped will COM
mand the support of both regulars and
Progressives, with the exception, of course,
CT certain ''hardshelI'' regulars who are not
to he won over to anything that even looks
like progress. More than ordinary i'm
portance attaches TO the fact that Mr..
Longworth has undertaken this work be-
cause he is a member of the Ways and
Means Committee and because his personal
popularity will go far to pave the way for
the favorable consideration of any measure
he draws and urges. AS member of the
Ways and Means Committee he wiz, of
course, be in position to press his bill ef-
fectively before that committee. The
measure on which he is engaged will pro-
vide for a permanent commission to deter
mine the facts, but not to suggest the rates
of duty. 1t is believed that those Of the
''stand-patters'' will regard the oppor-
tunity to support measure which bears
Mr.. Longworth's name, rather than that Of
one of the Prosressives, somewhat in the
nature of sugar coating.
TARIFF TINKERING-The business
world is to receive its fill of tariff tinker
ing from the Democrats. This was made
plain to-day when Representative Champ
Clark. having surrendered, at least so far
as publicly to pledge himself not to op-
pose a committee on committees, and hav-
ing learned definitely that he is to be the
next Speaker, announced that caucus Of
Democrats-elect would be held on January
l9, at which an effort will be made to Sc
lect the Democratic members of the next
Ways and Means Committee. This is that
they may begin at once the preparation of
tariff bill. Mr.. Clark says he favors re-
vision schedule by schedule, but it is
doubtful if anything like a majority OF his
colleagues in the House will be of the same
mind, and it is obvious that his party COL
leagues in the Senate are practically United
against such a plan. Moreover. If it was
the purpose Of the Democrats TO conduct
a schedule-by-schedule revision there would
be no object in having the Democratic
members Of the Ways and Means Com
mittee meet now, as they could easily deal
with the comparatively few schedules
that session had begun. Of course. the
fact is that the Democrats have no
unanimity of opinion on the tariff They
have an idea that in some manner which
they cannot themselves define they are
going 10 create political capital out Of an
attack on the tariff schedules but 1t IS
noteworthy that there are many disciples
of the famous horizontal Bill Morrison
among the Democrats, and there are, too,
especially among the Southerners, as high
protectionists as John Dalzell or Eugene
Hale.
CONFIRMATIONS DELAYED.-Thec con-
frmation OF the judges Of the Commerce
Court will have TO be deferred until after
The holiday recess according to members
of the judiciary Committee, who worked on
them until the small hours of this morning
and then did not complete their task. These
nominations are in the hands Of sub
committee. composed Of Senators Dilling-
ham, Sutherland and Clarke. of Arkansas.
and they are engaged in examining the
various decisions handed down by the noni-
nees from their benches in the lower courts.
They say that nothing has been presented
which inpresses them as an obstacle to
confirmation, but they are determined TO
DO their work thoroughly. and to that =
Wiz require more time. Having been un-
able to complete the examinations in time
to make report TO the full committee at
its regular meeting. they expect that it VIII
not come up until the first regular meeting
after the Christmas recess
VALUABLE CONTRIBUTION.-A val
uable contribution 10 the literary curiosi-
&=.S of ss-Tbe CoDrreSSianal Record was
made to-day by Senator Coe l. Crawford,
Of South Dakota There are many curiosi-
ties in the line of grammatical errors, Pc