Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-13

| fact. controlled by the free silverites. The
committee adopted as a substitute for the
| House tariff bill a measure providing for
| the free coinage of silver and instructed
| its chairman, the venerable Senator Nor
| ril. to report 1t to the House, duty
| which he performed with reluctance and
| sadness. Thus ended the career of the
| first Dingley bill. and thus began the two
years struggle between the gold and sill
yer forces, which resulted in 1896 in the
election Of William Mckinley to be Presi-
dent.
President Mckinley called an extra ses-
| sion of the Fifty-fifth Congress to meet
March 10, 1897. Inc
mckinley Calls ways and means
c,c committee had held
0Pcclal oesSlon. hearings during the
life of the preceding Congress and on the
first day Of the session Mr.. Dingley intro
duced tariff bill ito provide revenue for
| the government and to encourage the in
dustries of the United States which was
referred to the committee on ways and
means. Speaker Reed, who had been re-
elected, then announced the appointment
of the new ways and means committee
with Mr. Dingley as it's chairman. Four
days later Mr.. Dingley reported the bill
back to the House, and a special rule
was adopted which provided for a. vote
March 81, and which prevented the Of
fering of amendments by democrats or
any members opposed to the bill. Under
this stringent rule the bill was passed by
the House as recommended by the COM
mittee without change, and was sent to
the Senate.
| uneventful career In Congress as the
Dingley act. But, as always has been the
case, the Senate was not prepared to
accept the House bill, and the Senate
chinery to enforce immediate action I'M
der special rule, even if it had so de-
sired.
In the Senate the bill was taken up by
Mr.: Aldrich. and in the s72 amendments
| which the Senate passed Mr.. Aldrich
was the moving power. AS matter of
fact, Mr.. Aldrich had more to do with
the Mckinley bill than did Mckinley,
more to do with the Dingley bill than
did Dingley and more to do with the
Payne-Aldrich bill than did Payne, al
though it was not until the last bill
was passed in 1909 that his name was
hyphenated with that of the chairman
OF the ways and means committee of the
House as the joint author of the measure
-.
The Dingley bill was taken up in the
Senate May 25. 1897, Mr.. Aldrich ex-
planning at
Concessions Made length the char
to Silver Element. ehans " n a".
posed. The committee amendments were
mostly reductions of the duties assessed
in the House bill, a fact that resulted
from the peculiar constitution of the
finance committee. which was composed
of six republicans, six democrats and
Senator Jones of Nevada, who classed
himself as silver republican, but
who had supported Bryan for President.
Mr.. Jones held the balance of power
in the committee, and the republican ma
jority in the Senate was so narrow that
1t was necessary to make concessions to
the silver element.
But after June Mr.. Aldrich frequently
withdrew committee amendments propOs-
ing reduction of duties from the House
rates and often offered amendments
actually increasing the House duties
The result was that when the Senate got
through with its work the general scale
of duties was higher than that of the
House bill instead of lower. as Mr.. AL
would be. So strenuous was the work
done by Mr.. Aldrich that his health was
impaired, and early in June he had to go
away, leaving the bill in charge of Sena-
tor Allison OF Iowa. The bill was passed
July and the conference committee of
the two houses at once took up the con-
sideration of the 81 Senate amendments.
Four-fifths Of these were accepted by
the House, and July ~ the conference re-
port was adopted. the bill was passed
il received the signature OF President
Mckinley and became law. 1t remained
on the. statute books for thirteen years.
the longest time any tariff act ever ex-
listed without amendment of any kind
The passage of the three preceding
tariff bills, that of 1883, the Mckinley bill
and the Wilson
portUsS M InrIfV hill had bnen