The Washington times., 1911-03-05
REPUBLICANS LET
TARIFF BOARD DIE
Leaders Blamed for Elev-
enth-Hour Defeat of Taft
Measure.
DEFICIENCY BILL
USED BY TAWNEY
Precedent Established When Roll
Call Is Interrupted to Con-
slider Supply Bill.

Behind the eleventI-hour defeat ot
the tariff board bill in the House. As
the Sixty first Congress died, there is
a story not told by the Tol! calls nor
the indisputabIe fact that the Demo-
Gratis flihustered against the measure.
II became known today that tine bill
was defeated. not by the Democrats,
who did their best in that direction,
but by the Republican leaders
themselves. This explains the dra-
matte manner in which Represen-
tative Payne of New York threw up
the sponge fifteen minutes before the
House adjourned and declared that a
further fight was useless.
The excuse offered by NJ. Payne
was that the postoffice appropriation
!ilI had to he cngrossed and read
during these fifteen minutes and that
IT would be impossible to nave an
other impending roll call on the tar
iff hoard bill.
Inside Facts.
Here is the inside story OF the de-
feat of the bill creating a permanent
tariff board. as told by one who
knows of legislative maneuverIng that
did not show upon the surface:
Friday afternoon. nearly twenty
four hours before the hour set for the
final adjournment of the Sixty tirst
Congress, Representative Jayne in
troduced his resolution providing that
as soon as the tariff board Till came
from the Senate Saturday morning it
SHOULD take precedence over all othcr
legislation and that the previous Gucs .
ti"n should then be ordered.
The Rules Committee might have
brought in rule favoring this resolu-
tion Friday night, but il did not. In
stead, ii waited until 2 o'clock Saturday
morning, while the clock hands were
fast creeping toward the hour of noon.
Representative Fitzgerald OF New York
Immediately started a Democratic fill
buster because nearly hundred Demo-
Gratis were opposed to a tariff board.
Successive roll calls were had on mo-
tions to have a call of the House. to
refuse gag rule, to recommit the bill,
and on like parliamentary moves.
Thought They Had Time.
Finally the House got down TO the
next to the last roll call. Those who
really favored the legislation had fig
ured that, allowing for every roll call,
the tariff board bill must come to a
vote twenty minutes before adjourn
ment. But one roll call was barely pos
sible after the Payne resolution was
itself put up for adoption. The bill it
self would have been passed next.
Enter at this juncture Chairman Taw-
ney, of the House Appropriations Com
ToittnR demanding INN
Grafton 10 the general deficiency bill
conference report. Mr.. Tawney inter-
rupted a roll calI on the tariff board in
order 10 make this motiOn-one which is
declared to he unprecedented, in that
roll call must not be broken even for a
motion to adjourn.
The Speaker, strangely enough, rec
ognized MI Tawney. There ensued
scenes of riotous confusion, and the
mace had to be called into play in order
TO subdue the indiGant Democrats, who,
at that time, did not know that behind
the movement lay the very object for
which they themselves were fShting-
the defeat of the bill.
Beginning of End.
A roll call was obtained on Mr. Taw-
ney's Unprecedented motion to side
track the tariff board measure, which
the rule had expressly provided should
not be done under any circumstances
This intervening roll calI-was the begin
ming of the end. 1t was then impossible
to finish out the interrupted roll call
and to have another on the passage OF
the tariff board legislation itself before
the hour of noon
Thus the House found itself With
roll call upon roll caII, So crhing
unique in legislative iuSg'ery.
The Tawncy roll 'aIl wa LII The
general deficiency bill ..arried 'nr 'h,re
was no opposition to the Senate amend
ments, and then Mr.. Payne arose md
sOlemnly observed that he would have
10 withdraw his resolution in that it
was then impossible to consider the ia +
iff board TO the detcriment of the post
office appropriation bill.
Had Mr.. Tawney waited until the final
vote on tn" Payne resolution had been
taken, he would then have had. accord
ing to members of the House who pro-
fess to have studied the situation, TWEEN
~ minutes in which to gain approval
Of the general deficiency conference re
port, 10 which no one objected.
Speakers Hand Seen.
Within few minutes after Mr.. Payne
threw up the sponge rumors were rife
on the floor that orders had come from
the Speakers desk itself to kill the
tariff bill, and that Mr.. Tawney. acting
upon the suggestion, and in conjunction
with some of the standpat tiers who were
on to all such parliamentary tricks, did
the rest.
To the Republicans, therefore. rather
than the Democrats, seems to belong
the credit or discredit of Chloroforming
hn that everyone thought Friday
night would he passed under gag
rule.