The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-01

board for the inspection of Congress And then unless the democratic House at the next regular session sees fit to con l tinue the board in office and appropriate money for it's support there will no longer | he a tariff commission. The present board 1 has been at work for IS months and ad- mits that 1t has not yet been able to pre- | pare a report on one schedule Of the en- | tire IA.
 | As the debate on the reciprocity meas
 ure advances slowly the main question I before the Senate is being more and more | complicated. The fact Is being brought
 out and very strongly that reciprocity in the form presented by the President IS d. rectly in opposition to the sacred promise 1 of the party in that it seeks to admit free of charge farm products from Canada I without eivIns the American farmer the l reciprocity advantage of free manufac- tured articles that he is forced to buy In other words, the reciprocity agreement Isvill bring Canadian farm products into | the United States in direct competition | with home producers. For this reason a strong republican opposition is develop l Ing. It is political proposition that can | not be ignored and leaders In both par
 ties are treadlng lightly.
 l That the American consumer may be | benefited does not receive the. considera-
 tlon that the more material result is 1 claiming by such men as Cummins 1 Bailey, Borah and others.
 | Mir Cumnins in discussing the measure | and this feature of the legislation Wednesday called attention to the prom ise of the shoe manufacturers of New Englsnd when the tariff was taken from raw hides. They promised that shoes would be cheaper. The tariff was taken 1 off, but no man in America can say that l shoes are cheaper than before the tariff relief, he declared.
 He argued that the same result would follow the admission of Canadian farm I products free. The packers of meats cereals and other farm products would
 buy the stuff cheaper from the American I producer. but the consumer would con tinue 10 pay the same price.
 l Just at this point in MT. Cummins' ar- gumept Senate Knute Nelson, one of the 1 humorists of the Senate, rose 10 & point l of order. He said that the facts being 1 Eroug,'t cut by the senator from Iowa were so important that he wahted more | of the members present to hear them. There were not a dozen ses..ors in the o'lar1Ler at the time and Iiost of them were indifferent.
 l MT. Nelson made the point of no qtloi um and the roll was called. The II bell was I sounded and few mere than 49 members came rasgiing in in time to answer t1 | their names on the second cali of the io'l 1 Most of them again retired as soon as | they had answered.
 | By the way, I may find time to tel you abo.t that senatorial call bell some Of these days.)
 l After it was found that q Gaornin ,laf l answered. MT. Nelson suggested that al | s,s very lew sena 'ors seem Il inter s,ed | ic the que stions before the body that -lie | Senate take a recess unit! NDveialccr oi l'ecelni CT
 Sanator Gallinger of New Hampshire 1 happened to be present and remarked l that he would accept such proposition willingly; that he did not care to II; around ii' the hot, swelterins chamber al! sun.mer listening to- useless orations Here te suddenly turning 70 Mr Cum mins, who still had the f1O,r to apoIoc': z or explaif that he did not mean 10 reilett
 on his oratory or the subject matter oi
 tie a,gLnlent that he may have been
 making.
 MT. Nelson's suggestion was not put in any tangible form or even with any seri-
 ousne ss. and MT. Cummns continued his s~eech withs the announcement that he was not embarrassed, though speaking to empty benches, and that the other mem- bers were at liberty to go where they pleased while he was talking. Tie incident serves to show the utter lack of interest in the discussion It is not expected that votes will be changed | The taree overlapping factions on the diff feren propositions are already decided as to what they will do In case the proposi- tions ever come to a vote, and they will some time.