The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-04-14
WOOL SCHEDULE TO
Be CAUCUS TOPIC
Protection Democrats and Republicans
Have Majority Over Democrats
Favoring Revenue Tariff.

Washington, d. c., April 10..-When
the democrats meet in caucus tomor.
row night an order of legislation will
be put up to the members, approval of
which will enable the house leaders
to Immediately start upon their work
of enacting legislation. The question
of binding all democrats to support
Canadian reciprocity and determining
which of the tariff schedules shall be
first presented will be brought before
the caucus.
Reciprocity, the wooden schedule
and a miscellaneous tariff bill, putting
on the free list certain necessities and
certain articles which are of prime
Importance to the farmer, are the three
measures which the house leaders
would like to offer first of all. For
this reason it is expected that the eau
Gus will authorize the immediate re-
porting out of three bills covering the
subjects me-, Toned. These three bills
are to be e It out simultaneously by
the committee on ways and means.
When the reciprocity measure came
before the sixty-first congress, Repre-
sentative Dalzell of Pennsylvania, an
arch-stand-patter, expressed most ten
der solicitation for the welfare of the
farmers and proposed that in order
that the farmer may get some benefit
out of the canadian reciprocity agree
ment, certain farming implements and
necessities be let in duty free.
The ways and means committee now
proposes to give Mr.. Dalzell an oppor-
tunitysto vote for those reductions of
the tariff that will benefit the farmer,
not as fatal rider to the reciprocity
bill but as separate bill that will pass
both houses of congress If Represent
ative Dalzell ano rhe other stand-pat-
ters continue eager to help the farmer.
In the matter of bill on the woolen
schedule, however, things are not so
rosy for the ways and means commit
tee. There are fourteen democrats on
this committee, nine of whom are for
purely revenue tariff on the whole
schedule, carrying perhaps Is per cent
duty on raw wool and a maximum of
not exceeding 40 to so per cent on the
manufactured articles. Opposed to
these nine are five democrats, who are
standing out for a perfunctory scaling
of the tariff schedule so as to enable
the party to claim credit for scaling
down the tariff without seriously dis
turbing the protection given in the
Payne-Aldrich bill.
Herein lies what is troubling the
democratic leaders. The republicans
are entitled to add seven stand-pat re-
publicans to that committee who, with
the five obstructing democrats, would
constitute majority II to in favor
of protection for schedule X. 1t is true
that every democrat who went on the
ways and means committee is party
to gentlemen's agreement to abide
by the will of the majority of demo
Gratis Of that committee, but whether
this agreement will be lived up to is
not certain
There is way to get out the kind of
a tariff bill on schedule K that the ma
jority of the democrats want and that
is by throwing the proposed bill into
caucus; that is what the leaders have
determined to do, in the event that
the five obstructing democrats refuse
to yield to the majority vote of the
democratic members of the commit !
tee.
1t is not certain, however, that this
trouble will be thrashed out in the eau
Gus Tuesday night, as the leaders are
still hopeful that the minority of the
democrats will yield on the wool sched-
ule Wednesday or Thursday if Tues
day nights caucus votes to have bills
on reciprocity, wool and miscellaneous
tariff articles reported to the house at
once.